Build diary for my first kit car: an Aries Locoblade (http://www.ariesmotorsport.com/) that I will be building in Portugal for the next months (or years).
(Although the post is dated Nov 2015, it was written in May 2016. I thought long if I should or not post about the car until it is road legal in Portugal. I've given up waiting... It should make no difference anyway)
The car arrived today from the UK! Late August it got finally registered. With vacations in the middle it ended up taking longer than we anticipated.
I started looking for insurance to bring the car back. Turns out that I was not able to get any, at least looking on the net and with the few phone calls I made. They would either not cover me for not being UK resident, not cover me because the car was a kitcar, not cover me because I wanted to do a trip to the Continent... I believe there would have been a chance but I would have to pay a non-refundable yearly premium and I said "don't bother to quote" after the guy commented "but it will not be cheap".
So, I had to look for a transport back. Who took it to the UK was not available to bring it back and I had already spoke with a colleague at work whose brother lives in the UK and transports cars around (and also moves crates). While I was waiting for that contact to answer I looked online for others and found a guy, also portuguese and also living in the UK. He was coming to Portugal with a car the following week, he could put mine on the trailer and bring it along, price was good... But (stupid me!!!) I said no, too much of a rush. And thought better I should wait for my colleague's brother because she said his prices were killer, and it was someone I could trust more.
Turns out her brother made me waste a month. There was even a scheduled pickup date that he unscheduled last minute! Then price went up ("it's the refugees' crisis blocking the ferry in Calais and all others went up in price", he said) and it was expensive and almost sounding like a favour.
Went back to the guy I found online. He could bring it straight away and would cost just a bit over what the "brother" asked because he would have nothing planed for the trip back. If I could wait about a month and a half, he could make almost the same price promised in August (well below "brother"'s offer) because he would have time to get something for the return. Only reason the price would not be exactly the one told before was the ferries.
And so, Steve was really nice to keep the car stored until late October. By then, Virgil from Transport Virgil showed up at Steve's place, picked up the car and stored it away for a few days. In between he took the car, at my request, to a test station to get a CO2 measure. I was told that could help with the import process. Turned out I forgot to warn him he had to turn on the fan on the car (it is not automatic) and so the car started to overheat and he turned it off. Since this was a Saturday morning, time was up and no reading.
Virgil was actually a great bloke. We kept in touch by Whatsapp and during his trip from the UK to Lisbon he sent a few photos of the car!
Arriving in Portugal he gave me the chance to show up at my doorstep around midnight or just in the next morning. I wanted the car as soon as possible so he came and by 1 a.m. the car was on my garage! I drove it from the street where he unloaded it until the parking space, dried the interior from the rain and left it there.
More to come soon with what was changed while he was away, the import hurdles, etc.
After all the work performed by Steve from Aries to make the car bullet-proof, it went to the test. IVA passed first time! The picture shows Mr VOSA Engineer displaying the IVA pass certificate next to the car.
Next step is to register to get the plates. It's basically bureaucracy that takes its time... I hope not too much!
Very big, huge, enormous thank you to Steve from Aries for getting the car up to the task and taking care of everything for me!
After having the car with me for almost 5 years (although most of the time in pieces), it went away. After lunch it was tucked inside the van that will take it to the UK for the test. The car will arrive there on Sunday.
Steve from Aries will be going over the car to make sure my build has the security quality to pass the exam, fixing whatever he believes is not up to pair.
The IVA test is scheduled for the 29th June but there is a possibility of it happening earlier.
Small note to say that the first step to do the car's legalisation is now under way. I've submitted the paperwork to VOSA (in the UK) to get the car tested late May. Steve, from Aries, will be representing me and handling the bureaucracy.
The car is going to the UK early May and I hope to fetch it early June. I've already defined the trip back, doing 300Km in the UK, sleeping in Portsmouth, taking the ferry to Santander (26h on a boat) and then driving another 830Km to Lisbon. Let's see if I don't chicken out of this adventure all alone.
EDIT: I was a bit lazy when I wrote the post above and I think it would be good to add some additional information.
The IVA process is very well organised and easy to perform even from abroad. It can all be done through the web with just an additional phone call.
Then, I selected a few photos from the kit arrival and the build and scanned the detailed invoice for the kit. On the IVA-4 document I also mentioned this blog as a proof of an amateur build.
Since I'm not in the UK, Steve will be my representative taking the car to the exam. From the moment I submitted the application the system started sending him emails. One of them was regarding the payment.
The IVA can be paid in several ways. For me, being abroad, the easiest is by VISA card. That required me to phone VOSA with an Application Reference and give my VISA details to a person there. After 5 minutes on the phone, the payment went on the card and all proceeded naturally.
As the first one, on the 7th February, this post will be split into the 4 legs. This time I found less pictures of the car online but I have on-board video. Car went to the track again on top of a recovery vehicle. All happened as last time. Took with me the jerrycan and the bag of tools. Left the jerrycan hidden away on the track parking lot and was going to take the bag on the passenger seat but a very nice person offered to keep it for me every time I headed to the track.
1st Leg
I was anxious to go so I was the third on the row to enter. Which is not very smart since I usually let everyone that comes pass by so that I have clean rear mirrors.
When on the track, all was going OK. Except for the fact that my fidling with the Digidash did not fix the RPM showing wrong numbers that are too high. And now, instead of erratic gears, it always displays 1st, neutral or clutch...
The wheel alignment and putting my head down made doing speed on the straight a lot easier. Still felt odd trying to shift into 6th on the straight. After a couple of laps, and after sliding a bit exiting a bend and having my first "brown trousers" moment of the day, I lost gears. Meaning, I could not shift down and had trouble shifting up. Went to the pit stop. Then was able to shift again, went back on track just to limp back to the pits. Gave up and went to the parking lot.
I had to fix the issue or would lose the whole day. First hunch was something with the gear linkage. But all seemed tight. Then looked into the clutch cable. It was coming loose... Tightened the bolts that held it in place on the engine block. Tested on the parking lot going up to 3rd and back to 1st and it was great. Decided to tighten a bit more, tested, it was slipping and failing. Undid some again, 3rd test and all is good again. I was ready for the 2nd leg!
2nd Leg
Went on track happy and all went perfectly. Fixing the clutch cable also fixed my issues getting 6th gear. The car was wonderful! I was trying to push for a new best lap but on the other hand I'm always afraid of going to fast on bends (has to do with my only crash while driving on the road) and I'm still building up confidence on the car. Spun going into the chicane once but didn't get trapped on the sand trap, so not much time lost.
3rd Leg
Third leg went great too. Made my best lap as the first full one. I think I could have done a lot better if I was not so worried about being in the way of faster cars and afraid of going around bends. I still have to get my head around how much better this car is cornering than anything else I have driven so far.
Session was red-flagged and we all went to the pits while the stewards removed 3 cars from sand traps. We were then allowed to go back on the track for a couple more laps.
It was a bit crowded by then, providing this nice photo
I cut the leg's video to have one of just the fastest lap, in all it's (lack of) glory
4th Leg
The last leg was not as fun as the previous ones. After a lap my engine would sometimes stop (noticeable by a shudder and lots of blinking on the Digidash while it rebooted) followed by a loud bang on the exhaust. I stopped on the pit lane to see if there was any visibly loose cable. There was none. But the battery is held in place by an aluminium bracer I made and the nut that held it down was missing. Probably the battery was moving and one of the leads was either touching the aluminium or the engine block. Either way, that shorted the circuit and caused the shut-down. I had no nuts with me so I headed back on the track to get the best out of the remaining time. This I could only fix at home.
Conclusion And Next Steps
The wheel alignment and putting less pressure on the tires gave me a better handling. Properly tightening the clutch cable gave me flawless gear changes. The car is going great and I'm holding it back. The cutting issue may make me look into different ways to keep the battery in place while keeping it easy to remove.
The Digidash display of RPM and current gear is still not working and it seems worse than before I fiddled with it. Since I had no idea on RPM, I did the track day gearing up when I felt the engine cutting, far from optimal.
The software I use on my mobile, RaceChrono Pro, tells me that, although my best lap was 2m52s, my optimal lap, meaning, the sum of the best time in each sector, would be 2m42s. I'm pretty sure I could do even less than that. I'll work towards it. Just a couple of nice words towards RaceChrono Pro for Android and my SJCAM SJ4000 that was used to do the filming.
I'm now going to work towards getting the car road legal, so this blog will be slow (although not completely halted) for a couple of months.
Started by connecting the wife's laptop to the Digidash and see what was there and if I could change anything to make the gears and RPM look more sensible (the speedo was great, so nothing to change there).
On the "Gears" tab, changed the primary ratio from 1,521 to 1,000. I don't know why I had that value as the primary, but since I have the engine connected to the diff with a propshaft, I don't think it makes sense for this to be other than 1,0. It makes sense to be more with a sprocket on a chain-driven transmission, which is not the case. Let's hope and see... Pictures of before and after. Gears are from the Haynes manual.
On the "Calibrate" tab just changed the "Gear Cal Factor" to also 1,000 from prior 1,500. The reasoning is the same as above. Pictures for before and after. The "Speedo Cal Factor" was calculated with the DigiDash tools and should be correct because the car's speedo agrees with the phone's GPS in what regards to speed (as observed on track).
Also changed the display of the 1st screen to have, besides oil pressure, temperature and water temp to also show speed and gear. This can thus become my sole screen for track. Upped a bit the brightness of the gear-changing leds.
After this, went for other small things. Wired and placed some isolation tape on the lighter I bought so that I can connect it to the battery and use the tyre pump. Then tested it, the tire pump and the tyre pressure gauge to see how my tires were and prepare them for track. Have now all tires around 1,4BAR (20,3PSI). This should make the car bump a bit less on the track than the previous 1,7BAR I had. My friend (on track tires) recommended 1,3BAR but I have road tires so...
I then tried to see if the right stop was not working because of the plug I crimped. Pulled the plug out and connected the wire directly to the wire that comes from the pod and nothing. But connecting another (live) wire turns the light on, so... It must be something somewhere else. I'll have to ask Steve at Aries, because looking at the wire diagram it makes no sense to me that the left stop works and the right one doesn't. It should be a fail for both. As a last resort, I may consider pulling a wire from the working stop to the other one, although I don't like that (just because it is a workaround and not a solution).
Finally, I started the engine just because, watched it idle a bit, tested all nuts on the wheels and then closed shop.
During this week I'll pull the battery out to charge it. Next Saturday I'll be going on the track day again and I hope I'll have videos etc.
Today I spent most of my car time opening the vents on the hood. They look awesome open and it should help move hot air out of the engine bay. Lots of work but not much to tell.
After that, went around the car checking levels of coolant, oil and brake oil. All was good and ready for the next track day.
Spent the evening preparing a laptop to configure the Digidash (may try it one of these nights before the next weekend). Yesterday also got me a tire pressure checker and a lighter body. The lighter may end up installed behind the dash to charge mobile phones. But initially it will be used connected directly to the battery to feed the tire-filler pump.
On a side note, the Race Chrono Pro app I have on the Android phone had a new version. This one allows layering more than one gauge over the video (that can be recorded using an external cam and mixed directly on the phone). So, if all goes well, on the next track day I can have footage with the track and my position, speed and G forces and times all on screen. Makes me a bit sad the engine is not ODB2 compliant and, as such, I can't get RPM and gear on the screen too.
Had a very short list of tasks to attempt today. First was to brace the support for an action camera that I bought, in preparation for the next track day. It came with lots of accessories. After some trials, decided which ones to use and held the cam in place. It has a wifi functionality that allows me to control it (start and stop recording) from my mobile phone. The card holds around 4h20 of video. More than enough!
Then tried to fix the fog light that would not light up. After some fiddling, turns out it was just a bad contact. Bent one of the contacts the bulb sits in a bit to make more pressure over the bulb and success!
Moved on to the rear right stop that does not light up. The bulb has 2 filaments and the presence one lights up. With the presence lit, unconnected wires and connected the wire that leads to the brake filament to the loom's presence wire. It lit up. So, the problem is neither the bulb nor the terminal I crimped on the light pod wire. I'll have to study the wiring schematics and see where to test next. For now, I'll be on the track with just the left-side stop light.
Tried to inflate the tires with a new pump I got that connects to a car lighter. Since the car has no lighter, I also got an adapter to a 220v socket. Turns out that adapter blew after being in use for 5s. For an euro and a half, shipping included, from China... You get what you pay for. So, tires still need air and I'll have to do it later, when I have the tintop around.
Since when the car last weekend was on the ramp, I checked underneath to see if any propshaft bolt was coming lose. All was tight and nice, so I don't have to do that in preparation for the next track day.
Fired up the car and took it for two laps on the merry-go-round to test the camera. Regarding the wheels, I don't feel any difference in this short drive but the wheels no longer sound like rubber sliding when cornering slow. Must be a good sign!
After this, it was mostly pack up and call it a day. For the next track day I just need to check the tires' pressure, check the oil and water levels and put more gas... Well... Maybe still look again into the brake light. And try to configure the Digidash properly...
On the legalisation front, the contact I got provided me with their partner for that type of work. They guaranteed no issues with importing the car. Steve at Aries already told me when he is available to receive the car. Need to find a company to transport the car to the UK. I'm starting to believe I'll be able to drive my car on the streets to go to the track day that will happen in September...
Today the car got the wheels properly aligned. Called a tow truck to take the car to the shop. Drove from my garage spot to the street again to load the car on the truck.
The time spent on the car shop was mostly talking with the mechanics there, answering their questions, as this is not a common sight. The fact that I built it and I'm not a mechanic and did not study anything mechanic-related made it even more of a sensation.
In the end, these were the final values the car got. The "factory defaults" are for some randomly selected car since the machine HAD to have a brand and model selected to work (and did not know of locosts, caterhams nor the likes):
In English, "Sopé" means "Camber", "Avanço" is "Caster" and "Convergência" is "Toe In". I don't know how good these values really are. My gut feeling would have tried to match camber left and right a bit more and have less toe in on the rear. But the mechanic said the camber difference was almost nothing and this was a good setup. The track will tell!
In the process, received an improvement idea regarding the rear uprights: to replace the rod with a bolt in each end with a rod with a welded of cast bolt on one end. Idea is that, with usage, if the bolt near the toe alignment seizes, it will be a lot easier to loosen it.
Also got a contact of a company that does Porshe 356 replicas here and may know about legalisation and converting painlessly an UK registration into a Portuguese one.
The tow truck took me home and I did not have time to test or mess more with the car.
The first track day allowed me to understand a couple of things that needed fixing or changing. Wheel alignment being a main one but that I can't do on my own. That will be done next week at a shop.
Today I worked on small other things. First I drilled a new hole on the throttle peddle strut and, using one of the holes I drilled long ago on the peddle itself, I had the way to fix a spring. Last week I bought a couple different stiffness springs and fit the one that seemed more adequate. This spring makes the peddle a bit stiffer and helps with the return, that was based only on the carb's spring. Feels a lot nicer now (at least with the car standing still).
Then I dismantled the dash to tighten the high beam switch properly. Also placed some Nural 50 (threadlock fluid) on the nut to help it stay in place.
Since I had the dash out, switched the wires for the indicator stalk so that it works properly instead of blinking the side opposite to the desired one. Could not test because I forgot to take the car keys with me and the indicators don't work with the car completely off...
Enlarged an "O" wire terminal and replaced one end of the oil temp&pressure gauges earth wire with it. Then made that end go through the bolt that holds the spark controllers. This will ensure that earth will not go lose again.
Next week, besides the wheel alignment, I must open the tunnel to check the transmission bolts and then put some Nural 50 on the tunnel bolts as I tighten them again. Maybe also take a laptop to try to connect to the Digidash and enhance its configuration.
The big day arrived! This will be the detailed description of what happened on the 1st track day. Lots of pictures, notes and more. The long post is divided into sections:
Going to the Track
1st Leg
2nd Leg
3rd Leg
4th Leg
Conclusion and Next Steps
Going to the Track
A bit before 7a.m. the tow truck arrived. The car was quickly loaded and we headed to a gas station.
The tank was filled to the top, plus a 10L jerrycan. The tires were filled up to 1,7BAR. Then we headed to Estoril. Under the main stand, the club shop was handing out the credentials to enter the track. After that was in my hand, the tow truck left me and the car behind the boxes and I headed to the briefing room. A quick explanation of flags, behaviour rules, penalties and where tires were placed to prevent us from cutting corners.
Estoril's circuit has the following disposition:
The track hosted many competitions throughout the years. Including F1, that set the record best lap in 1993 (Damon Hill) on the 1m14s859 mark.
The time for the 1st leg approached and I asked a person with a box to keep my bag of tools and the jerrycan.
The 1st Leg
I setup RaceChrono Pro on my mobile phone to save video while registering data. As I approached the entrance to the track (for those without a box), I noticed that I placed the phone on the stand in a way that covered the camera lens! Had no time to change that so I just took the phone out and placed it in my jacket's pocket.
As I do my first lap, I'm laughing and cheering inside my helmet. My car works! Four and a half years and it works! It has many quirks I'll need to fix, but it goes, it accelerates quickly and it brakes without drifting to a side! I was really happy! As I was doing the last corner before the main straight, I pressed the throttle a bit too early, the inside was still wet and the car started to slide. I turned the wheel, it shifted into going sideways on his other side. Put my foot on the brakes, the car spun and I ended up trapped in the sand. Yellow flags and a pick-up had to pull me back into the track. Lost a lap there. Nice way to start!
The rest of the 20 minutes went without issues. I was afraid to push the car too much, let everyone that approached pass me and just tried to understand the car, the gearbox and see if I noticed any problems. Did four laps, to a total of 21Km. The best time was 3m58s66.
When I left the track and was parking behind the boxes I saw a friend that also assembled an Aries and parked next to him. He was with another friend on a BMW M3. My friend's car was being used as a warehouse for tools and gas so I fetched my stuff from the box and left it there.
The 2nd Leg
Between legs spent some time looking for any bolts that needed tightening on the wheels, suspension and transmission. Amazingly, it was all perfect! I never expected it to be so resistant to the 1st track day. Also, looking under the car showed no spills of any type! Placed the mobile phone on the stand correctly and was ready to return to the track and have fun. I was talking with my friends when I look back to the car and the mobile phone was not there. I can't believe it (thinking I had been robbed). But no... Spent thousands on a kit car and saved on a chinese stand for the phone that fell with the phone's weight... The stand broke, the phone was well. Forgot about that and made my peace with the fact that this track day would have no inside footage.
On the straight it felt I could not shift into 6th gear because the engine sounded like asking for another gear but I found none. The Digidash is incorrectly configured because it displayed up to 20.000rpm when the engine's limit is around 11.500rpm... And it would erratically display some gear numbers that were not real and would even change just by braking or accelerating hard. The speed readings were almost equal to the GPS from the phone. I need to address the Digidash config...
(Photos by DJImagem - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Djimagem and João Ramalhete - https://www.facebook.com/joao.ramalhete)
The 2nd leg ended up being great. Had a bit more confidence and accelerated more. Made 5 laps to a total of 25Km. The best lap took 3m27s25. Had lunch, got photos taken with the car and didn't touch it in preparation for the 3rd leg. The only things that were not good were the main beam switch that fell off, some bolts from the tunnel panel and the headlights that were coming a bit lose. The car also had lots of sand, gravel and rubber on the floor, thrown by passing cars.
Let the 3rd leg come!
The 3rd Leg
Faster, more fun, more concern on trajectories. Still worried with other cars and always getting out of the way. I could not compete with them. Specially on the straight. Besides the issue with the gear, I also felt the car shake and my helmet seemed to want to jump and take my head with it.
I was told by my friends that the car's wheels were visibly needing alignment and that should be the reason for the shaking under speed. Made 5 more laps, to a total of 25Km with the best lap clocked at 3m17s81.
(Photos by Jessica Santos - https://www.facebook.com/jessy.bolinha)
On the parking, I tightened a couple of bolts on the tunnel, one of the bolts that hold the gear stick and had my friend help me fill in one front tire that was losing pressure.
The 4th Leg
This last leg went as the previous ones, without any major issues and me adapting to the car. Lost oil pressure and temperature readings due to the earth wire disconnecting from where it attached to the chassis.
(Photos by Jessica Santos - https://www.facebook.com/jessy.bolinha)
Made another 5 laps to a total of 26Km with the best lap clocked at 3m11s86. The day ended with the car looking dirty but great!
Conclusion and Next Steps
The car made 100Km, spent around 14L of fuel. The top speed was 150Km/h on the main straight and the best lap was 3m11s86. As a comparison, a Citroen Saxo from the Saxo Cup practicing there made 2m20s and my friend, with a similar car on track tires, had his best lap clocked at 2m05s. I still have a long way to go!
Next steps are to take the car to a garage to align the wheels. Configure the Digidash properly. Re-tighten bolts. Get a good spring for the throttle peddle. Buy a proper action camera to attach to the roll bar. Get new gloves (mine were too hard, besides feeling odd to hold the wheel, had my knuckles all scratched and bleeding).
I don't have much time! Next track day is on the 28th March!
EDIT: The best picture taken:
(Photo by Gonçalo Bispo - https://www.facebook.com/grbispo.photography)
Started another night session by marking the position for the fire extinguisher on the tunnel top. Removed the top, drilled, fitted the holder with a couple of bolts and job done! Put some Dural 50 (threadlock) to be sure the nuts would not fall into the tunnel.
Then I tried holding a spring I had to the throttle peddle to stiffen it a bit. Seemed to work.
Placed the charged battery on the car and it fired up 2nd time. Lapped the garage 3 times. Did some hard (relative, since I'm driving 20Km/h in 1st) stops and the brakes are finally good! No sponginess, no having to pump twice... It just brakes!
In the end, the throttle peddle spring made its work but is already breaking up. I have to see if I can find a nice proper spring before Saturday.
Today went with the wife to the car so that she could help me bleed the brakes. Cutting more than an hour of work in few words... The front brakes are great. The rears had one nut not well tightened on the "T" piece that splits the pipe to the rear wheels. It was dripping. After tightening we bleed it more and seems to be good. Could not test because I failed to get the engine going. It was unused for some two months and the battery died before I could get it to run.
Also placed the Aries symbols on the hood and rear.
And defined where I'll be attaching the newly acquired fire extinguisher. It will be on the tunnel top, behind the handbrake. Handy but not in the way.
I guess this week I'll be working on the car every night until the track day. And it's a go, by the way. Put my name down last Friday.
Track day on the Estoril track (where F1 ran when there was a Portuguese GP). 7th February.
The front left wheel wobbliness had to be solved. It was because two of the stubs had the initial threads broken and thus the wheel nuts wouldn't fit adequately and the wheel was a bit loose.
Bought a tap and die set and, after almost 3 hours, fixed the two stubs. One of the nuts was garbage, the other was fixed with a tap. Good I had an extra nut around! In the end each stub lacks the 2 initial threads. But the four nuts now tighten properly and the issue is solved.
I'm in contact with a recovery truck company to get a confirmation of availability. I have to buy a fire extinguisher. And find a way to strap it to the car on the passenger's seat. I should try to bleed the brakes better. Will this be the 1st time the car sees daylight?
