Fuel, Gearbox, Handbrake, LED Lights

FUEL CAP
A Caterham fuel filler purchased, installed and then cursed at as I realised that the filler tube was (1) in the wrong place and (2) a different diameter to the intake on the main tank. Bollocks. Another issue to think about.

GEAR LEVER / HAND BRAKE
Cut out the tunnel to allow the W58’s tallish selector to fit. Went back to Rodney’s shop and used the press to reshape the gear stick to clear the dash cross-member. Thinking about the position of the hydraulic hand brake. Probably stick it inside the ‘glove box’ above the tunnel. Thinking, thinking.

LED LIGHTING
Car Builder Solutions in the UK took some of my folding in exchange for some pretty trick looking clear LED front indicator and rear clusters. LED number plate bolts will eliminate the need for a big stupid rear number plate light. Elegant solution, must say. I will be fitting 6000K HID kits to both low and high beams in the Hawk headlights. Stirred the pot (again) by mounting the rear clusters on the ali rather than the carbon guards. Just didn't look right on the guards ~ ruined the beautiful weave pattern. Also looked a bit too 'street'. Bare guards a a little more 'race'. Hard to put into words. Don't give me shit about this until you have seen the look in the flesh. :-)

Aero and Carbon

AERO
After much Interwebbing Research I concluded that the El Cheapo Hong Kong sourced wings were so badly designed that they would add less downforce than sparrow’s bum fluff. Chord dimensions, chord lines, camber lines, angles of attack, main elements, flaps, slot gaps, stalling, dirty air (no, not curry-induced), blah, blah, blah. Off to the local chop shop and used Rodney’s drop saw to trim the elements down. Then ended up swopping the mid-sized rear wing element into the front dual-plane wing and moving the large element to the rear of the car. I reducing the slot gap and reset the combined angle of attack of both pieces. New end plates fabbed out of 6mm alloy plate (Certifier advised that a rounded 3mm radius for all leading edges was required for compliance). Very satisfied with the front assembly now, I just have to work out how to mount the thing. Not so happy with the rear. Just too big. May cut the width down and reduced the size of the end plates. My understanding is that the standard Se7en’s have lots of positive lift at the front and only moderate lift at the back, so will probably get away with a smaller element. Car geared for 300kmph and will have the power to get there, so I am paying special attention to aero issues. I will be filling in the under-tray completely (flat panels to be installed under the rads and the engine) and also installing a diffuser under the tank. Tricky one this as the de-Dion trailing arms and bar ‘triangle’ move up and down, so the diffuser may have to be a 2-piece design. Thinking, thinking. Brain. Hurts.

CARBON
Fitted the carbon seat bulkhead so that the only piece of ‘glass left on the car now is the ‘glove-box’ above the tunnel. Scott is pricing up a CF version of this as we speak. Cut down the front guards (after the standard 3 beers for ‘dutch courage when cutting into carbon fibre’, never attempt this sober...) to achieve a “Caterham RST Levante” look. Pleased with the outcome. The angle matches the rear guard cut at 22 degrees (from memory). Looks more severe in the pics, but really works well in the flesh.

Colour

COLOUR SCHEME
After tossing around the whole JPS black/gold classic Lotus livery idea for a long time, I decided that it looked too ‘needy’ ('nerdy') Spotted a glorious C63 AMG Black in town a month back and got a wee chubby looking at the matt black/carbon fibre look. Grabbed a sample of 3M vinyl from JBX and laid it down on the car. Perfect. Saw a pic of a black/red/white Nolan helmet which got me thinking about the whole black/red thing to pull in the red belts and black seats (which also got me going towards the new red dash switches on black carbon). Bought a pair of Shoei Tangent TC1s for track days and events and will be mirroring the red and carbon stripes over the matt black vinyl wrap. Sorted. Finally.

Dash (A-Friggin-Gain…)

DASH
Third time a charm. First attempt on the OEM aluminum dash was child-like and far, far too busy. Second attempt was on carbon fibre. Still too busy. Bollocks. After being heartily abused by the peer group, re the centralised position of the AIM and the xmas-tree-look, I ordered a new steering column and RaceTech quick release hub from Frasers. This allowed the digital dash to be mounted behind the wheel (yes, yes, yes, where it should be, blah, blah, blah). New Sparco 310 alcantara steering wheel procured and fitted. Momo back into it’s box. Now, dash design #3: The Interweb was hit again with lots of googling and staring at ‘Race Car Dash’ images. Third attempt, again on carbon fibre (with a Fraser-supplied leather dash roll) hit the nail on the head. Pre-loaded on Brave Beers again and started hacking into the carbon fibre with hole saws, dremel and files. I hate cutting CF... Caterham billet alloy ‘street-car’ switches back into their box and replaced with smaller Narva Red LED switches, methanol gauge mounted above a new GFB G-Force II boost controller. Quite a nice piece of kit: 6 programmable boost preset memories, selectable on the fly with steering wheel switch, closed loop correction, scramble boost feature allowing maximum boost for a predetermined time ~ again activated by a steering wheel switch, over-boost protection, peak hold. Niiiiiiice. A Motec electronic rotary dial for Traction Control % bought from MSEL fitted. Tilton brake-bias mounted. Obligatory oil pressure LED fitted. Dymo 160 labeler and ‘white on clear’ cartridges allowed me to create the dash lettering. A lot of messing around with font sizes and positioning to get it all looking acceptable and aligned nicely. Again, a couple of beers assisted in the whole creative process. ;-) No ‘street’ switches are going on the dash, these will be mounted on the front of the tunnel ‘glove box using the same small red LED switches. Lights, indicators, wipers + washers etc tucked down here.

Dragged Smoke outside for some pics.

Coming along. Detailed update of modest progress to follow. 8^)-

Fuel System

Morning, All and Sundry. Fuel system 'before pics':

Low pressure: Duck-bill pickup, 15psi lift pump, 100micron filter, swirl pot.

High pressure: Swirl pot, 100micron filter w/shut off valve, 1000hp Aeromotive pump, 10micron filter, Aeromotive fuel reg, OBX Racing fuel rail, Injector Dynamics 1000cc injectors.

Metanol tank: Pump, High Flow Valve, spray nozzle prior to throttle body.

Planning day today, beer in hand, how to mount everything simply and elegantly. Still undecided if I want to place a cover over the fuel system or just leave it open to view. Maybe a piece of CF with rolled trailing edges and hinged behind the seats? I'll need access to the methanol tank every fuel fill up (uses 15% of the main fuel tank capacity. I have calculated 35 litres main tank capacity (narrowed to allow the oil res to fit down the left side, and the meth tank is 7 litres. Will run 100% water initially then move to 50/50 mix after the shakedown runs are completed.

Stay tuned.

CF

Morning, All.

Smoke has been sitting under a cover as other projects have distracted me. Back into it now due to enormous and unfaltering peer group poking and prodding. ;-)

Focussing on getting all of the CF trimmed and fitted so that I can get it off to the painters for a final clear-coat and clear wrap of exposed surfaces. I hated cutting into the CF but it's actually pretty easy to work with. Just use very fine blades and files and take your time. Apply tape to the cutting line to prevent chipping. The Wurth bonding agent around the seat bulkhead was an absolute mongrel to get off the alloy. The front guards fit super tightly over the 205s so had to embed the nuts on the inside and install these after the tires were bolted on. Positioned the Caterham aero whiskers/canards (?) on the nose. Looks pimping.

The Methanol/Swirl twin tank has arrived (!@#$%^&* finally) so the mounting of the fuel system is next ... stay tuned, same Bat Channel, same Bat Time! Biff, Pow, Zok!

Targa Brace/Trailing Arms

Both installed. Had to support the sagging rear wheels a bit to get the trailing arms to line up with the de Dion. The brace turned out to be a bit more of a mission than anticipated, rads off, longer top bolts, bugger all room to get in and drive the rocker-arm/a-arm bolts out, but really not a biggie, just a good chance for a bitch/moan. I REALLY like the look of the brace. Makes a lot of sense boxing in the rocker arm mounts.