Let me start this by saying that cars like this are never ending projects. There will always be that 'one more thing' to do, fix, upgrade, etc. Its also worthy to note that different people will prioritize different things. I like to go fast around a turn, so that is more important to me than.... say a parking brake or a radio. I'm in no way being critical of the designer or builder of the prototype, I'm just making it my own. I hope that I can help make the future cars better as well.
That said, let get on with it!
When I picked up the car it had what I consider significant issues for a car I was planning on flogging the everliving crap out of. The three most serious were the push-pull type throttle cable without kickback accelerator pedal to match and it was too low/not sprung stiff enough. The engine was also pinging from bad/low octane fuel or incorrect timing.
I ordered a lokar throttle cable 10' long and fabbed up a little bracket. This was a simple enough job.
Pook had some springs he sent me (THANKS!). went from 225R 200F to 275R 225F. This has mostly addressed the ride height issue. While I was at it, I weighed the car. Half tank of gas, no windshield, no wing.
And corner balanced it...
got that to work with three of the adjusters maxed out. So r1's are an option. I have way more stuff to do before I need those last 2% from the perfect shock, so these will do just fine for now.
While the lid was off i attempted to relocate the blinker to a more comfortable position.
Better, but still in the way a little.
So....1500 lbs. Not bad, but its a bit porky for what it is IMHO. Fortunately, there is some very low hanging fruit.
1. Battery is a neverstart from walmart. Braille anyone?
2. Stereo. Cant hear it at anything other than idle with a helmet on anyway. This will also solve my problem of not having a glove box for license, registration, insurance, and wallet, keys etc.
3. Wheels and tires are 40lbs a piece. DOT-R's should be good for 5-10 lb per corner.
Other stuff I need to do:
Had a brake light go out, must investigate.
Continue to tweak on motor/carbs
parking brake
MSD 6al ignition/revlimiter
fix cv joint grease leak
stiffer throttle pedal/throttle stop (i've bent the pedal twice)
now.... racing pron from me driving how it was intended (or not with all that facing the wrong direction business!)
Car is awesome, and as I refine the setup it will only get faster. Even with it being my first time out, setup being 'eye balled' in, and crap tires I was ~0.1 seconds off FTD. It was freaking AWESOME.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poDi8NxMiww-Brad
Since then I've been to the dyno...77 corrected hp. Got a compression tester, ~80lbs on all 4 cylinders, so the lump has to come out for more diagnostics. Soon...
I broke a CV as well, these are weak t1 parts never meat for these torque levels. I am in process of retro fitting (and getting made by the good folks at valley vw) 100mm flanges on the outputs so i can use high flex, high strength EMPI CV's. I'll need to run a compact (aero) boot on the outer joint.
Here we can see the wild cheery picker in its natural environment preparing to pounce on its next victim. It's spotted mostly around cars that are low on power, have windows where they should not, or have been rendered immobile.
Oddly enough, it usually leaves then better off than when they were when initially spotted, right before it retreats back into storage.
Hope to have all this done before the next payment (that i made today) is due.