DaveStruve Build Log

[StruveD]

Another week and no VIN. Spoke to my contact this week and asked for info on time frame and was told its usually 2-4 weeks. So hopefully I will see it soon. In the mean time I've been trying to find things to do on the car. Started by taking some leftover carbon fiber vinyl from another project and made rock chip guards for the rear fenders. We'll see how well it works, It's pretty durable stuff. Then I got my bronze vinyl and had my racing stripes cut. Nothing like putting some straight lines down the center of the car to see how off center other things are. I had to do the striping twice down the hood, as either the windscreen or rear view mirror cutout on the windscreen is a little off center. So when I centered my stripes off the windscreen, it was visibly moving off center to the drivers side. I also did the stripes down the side of the car, but after living with it for a day, I decided I didn't like it very much so off it came. The goal was to match the wheels color, and when on the same plain as the wheels it does, but when on the body under different lighting the color difference was enough that it was distracting to me.

I also installed a rear view mirror from race mirrors. It was by far the cheapest of the carbon fiber rear view mirrors available, but still way more that what I would have liked to spend. The upside is they will custom make the stem for you, so you can get it in whatever height you need. He also helped verify that it would fit perfectly prior to ordering so that was very helpful.

Finally I installed a halon fire extinguisher for the car.

As you can see I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel here for things to do while I wait.

[StruveD]

Well after 2 months of battling with the state to trying and get antique replica status on the car, having them lose my paperwork, then deny me because the car looks to much like a kit car, I finally gave up on that approach and just registered it as a miata. So as of ten minutes ago I have done my first full on-road test drive. So thats it I'm calling it, this thing is done. Now on to tuning and a proper alignment.

[SeriesLandy]

Well done on finishing. You've completed your car a lot quicker than I done.

[StruveD]

Well you guys have the IVA to deal with. I just said screw it, and put it on the road.

Just took it and weighed it. With a full tank it was 1390lbs or 630 kilos

[SeriesLandy]

Light weight. Mine was 740kg with a full tank fuel and me in it.

[StruveD]

Took the car down the road to Balanced Performance today to get an alignment and tune. Everything went well, the alignment went perfect and actually resolved an issue I was concerned about with one of my rear uprights. So that was good. As for the tune that went great as well and I got the expected numbers... sort off. Peak was 152hp 128lb, but the air temps were pretty high, so they dialed it back to 143hp 124lb. The takeaway was that I could run these number pretty safely but I really need to add an intercooler and cowl off the front radiator. Then we can look at pushing further if this resolves the air temp readings. But I'm fine with this for now and can look into that later.

Here's one of the dyne pulls. Turn up the volume.

http://youtu.be/e7DbKyHTQDg

[StruveD]

Did bit of work this week. While researching the issue of why the gas cap was difficult to remove on my JAZ fuel cell. I realized that my fuel line plumbing was not exactly correct. I never thought to leave any sort of vent on the fuel cell. The cell would puff up with the added gases during a hot day, thus creating the potential for an epic fireball. So I made a trip to Summit Racing on the way back from a trip to Savannah with my wife, to pick up the needed fittings. First I disconnected the return line I had installed on the fitting on top of the tank. Then I added was a anti-spill fitting to the top vent fitting (prevents fuel from spilling in a roll over. Next I stuck the return line into a gas can and turned on the engine till it pumped all the gas from the tank to the gas can. This made life a million times easier when it came time to remove the cap I had installed on the second fitting on the sump. Once that was done I made up another steel braided fuel line attached it to the existing return so that it could reach the correct fitting. Thankfully I mentally worked through this process while on vacation and it was much easier than I had feared when I first realized my mistake. Finally after filling up the tank and driving it around, I realized that the new vent was now letting a bit of gas out under heavy braking, so for a short term I attached a silicone line to it so fuel won't make its way onto me.

Another fun fact I learned while draining the fuel, If you are using a 8 gallon jaz drag cell, and in my case a 6" long sender then a 1/4 tick on the fuel gauge will equal round about 1 gallon of fuel. This means that when my gauge reads empty, there is still almost a 4 gallon reserve. Not really ideal, and may be something I go back and correct later on by finding a 7-8" sender... if they exist.

Lastly, this morning I took the car to the monthly Caffeine and Octane car show hear in Atlanta. Had a great time and got a very positive response. Seemed to always be a crowd checking out the car, and that was pretty impressive when you consider there were probably 500+ cars of packed tight over a 1/4 mile worth of parking lot. Also saw a Westfield and a "Real 7" in the mix.




Check this out some guy did a 360 degree shot of the car when I was out looking around. Pretty cool.
http://100digitalcreativity.com/360d...-106&v=45&f=90