Owning a Seven

[alga]

It's been about two weeks that my Roadster is on the road. I've learned several things about driving the Roadster without a windshield it that surprised me, or at least no-one talks about.

• Less used, quieter streets are covered in loose fine gravel that gets lifted by the front wheels, bounces off the rear arches and ends up on the floor. Sand is also directed to rear arches in a constant stream, but mostly does not reach the interior.
• 4 mm drain holes in the floor get clogged by said gravel PDQ. I'll drill bigger ones.
• Even if it's not raining but the road is wet, the mirrors and the rear arches are covered in mud interspersed with plant matter, and the driver gets a wet/dirty shoulder. The passenger headrest gets plenty of dirt too. I wonder why is the driver side headrest pretty clean?
• 350 lbs/in front/250 rear springs are quite stiff indeed. There's hardly more than 5-10 mm of suspension travel in the front even on the roughest roads. Even with the dampers on the softest setting, the car is super stiff. I'll try getting a 200 or 175 set and moving the 250's to the front.

In other news, I took part in a fast slalom competition this weekend (race track with lots of extra chicanes). About 30 minutes before the start I found that my alternator bracket is broken. Luckily a friend had a mechanic friend living nearby, so we sorted out the bracket in time. I had lots of fun, blagged a traffic cone I dragged for half the circuit stuck in my tranny tunnel as a souvenir about my first competition. Unmounted a tyre during an excursion into the grass. Got a spray of sand in my face, and found about 3 kg of sand and grass on the passenger seat. Got absolutely soaked by two storms on the way back home. Because race car!