Estoril Experience Day 2017-04-08 - The 4th Track Day

The weather was glorious! It was almost a summer day and I regretted not wearing shorts and not having sunscreen. My regular tow truck driver from S. Bica e Almeida picked me up punctually and drove us to the track. The kid rides in the back!

We arrived pretty early. Mr. Almeida had two other cars to pick up and bring to the track.

As before, had RaceChrono Pro running on the phone to capture speed and GPS positioning and the SJ4000 cam on my rollbar. When, as usual, I got home and was going to mix the video and track data I noticed the data was really bad. Seems that storing the phone on my trousers' pocket, that go under the dash, broke the GPS precision. The data was unusable. The videos will have no data this time and next time I'll have a different solution to ensure this does not happen again.

1st leg - 9h00 to 9h20
Opening the track, I felt really well. I had been practising at home with my wheel and peddles on the rFactor2 simulator. Tried to apply a bit of that on the real thing. Did 5 full laps plus the warm-up and the coold-down (incomplete) laps. The most important thing is that the car now revs correctly and goes to the limit!!! So I was able to go to the 174km/h (phone GPS metrics, Digidash says 168km/h)! And on the first leg I was able to beat my best lap time! It was previously 2m52s and I did 2m39s! This was wonderful!

After the leg I met friends on the paddock and hanged out with them the rest of the day. They had a box and invited me over. They were running on a different group so we were not on the track simultaneously. Their first leg was red-flagged and shortened because of an accident where a Caterham collided with a spun Porsche.

2nd leg - 11h05 to 11h25
Another great session! I was feeling really well! Sometimes I would over-do it and make a mistake (failed brake, mostly) but after a couple of cooling corners I was going at it again! Made my best lap of the day on this leg: 2m36s! Unfortunately, when I was looking for my best lap I missed that one and considered this one the best lap, at 2m37s, making the video for it. I don't feel like redoing it all now.

Besides doing the best lap, this leg allowed me to do 6 full laps. The best lap is the first full one, from 2m59s to 5m35s on the full leg video.

Comes lunch break, I put my SJ4000 cam charging to be sure I had enough juice for the rest of the day.

3rd leg - 14h00 to 14h20
During lunch a friend asked me if I minded taking him along for the ride. Sure, hop in! First time I had someone with me on the car! It felt a bit different on the corners, can't say it was slower. This leg netted 5 more full laps.

My wife came for a bit between 3rd and 4th sessions. She brought with her the jerrycan. Digidash was saying my deposit was at 0%!!! So we dumped in 10 more litres... It seems the car spent a bit over 20 litres per 100Km... I'll be more precise with the numbers when I dump the tank again, check the odometer and do the math... Two good photos to represent the day below.

4th leg - 16h55 to 17h15
There was a huge crash with a Ferrari on the end of the straight having the brakes fail and hitting the tire barrier at 200Km/h. Seems the car is trash now. People were not hurt, fortunately.
This meant that that session was red-flagged and the following one started a bit later. It was a special leg just for a club and they gave them near full time. So people from our leg went later to the track and knowing it would be 15m instead of 20m and there was a yellow flag for the last third of the straight until after 1st corner. The organisation was taking 5m from each remaining leg of the day to compensate the time it took to rebuild the barrier and clean after the crash.

The problem was that I staid on a queue, with the engine idling, for over 10m. When I got to the track, the car felt a bit odd. After doing my first full lap, the leg was red-flagged because of a car spinning and throwing lots of gravel on the track. As I was on the queue, still not knowing if we would be allowed back in or not, started thinking about all the crashes of the day. About the Mercedes that almost crashed on my rear on this last leg. That my day had been great, why keep pushing? So I waved, went out and onto the tow truck heading home. Don't know if the leg was still allowed back in or not. I did what felt right and I'm happy with the decision.

The video for the last session

All in all, it was a wonderful day for me. Its a pity I didn't have the RaceChrono software running perfectly. Next time it will be different! Yes, next time! I bought insurance at DuoSeg for the 3 scheduled sessions (8 April, 2 July and 10 September) and now I can't miss them! The organisation opened up for registrations on the 12th and I signed up straight away! So...
Objective:

Estoril Experience Day 2017-02-12 - The 3rd Track Day

And there we went! Raining a lot when I left the garage waiting for the tow truck. Funny to see the rain evaporating when it touched the exhaust pipe. The trip to the track was uneventful, the credentials office almost empty and, after unloading, off I went for the briefing (without which I wouldn't be allowed on track). As we got to the track the rain stopped. And that was wonderful!

As before, had RaceChrono Pro running on the phone to capture speed and GPS positioning and the SJ4000 cam on my rollbar. At home I then copied the videos to the phone, tried to synch them with the data and produced the videos below.

1st leg - 9h00 to 9h20 a.m.
The track was very wet. I was very afraid of having an accident and even more of having someone crash into me. It was my first time driving a rear-wheel drive car on a wet surface. Drove very carefully and let everyone pass me. Very slow times. Did 4 laps, being the fastest 3:49:32 and getting to 133,8Km/h as top speed. Still had one trip outside the track and a small slide (fortunately was going slow).

Noticed that the electrical gremlins continue. So, I still can't see the gear I'm on, it jumps as crazy. Also, forgot to move the dash from miles to kilometers so was getting "odd" speed readings.

Don't watch the video, it's boring :)

Before 2nd leg went around with friends and gave a small drive to a young boy, son of one of them.

2nd leg - 11h30 to 11h50 a.m.
Track was getting dry, the weather continued to be good and I got a bit more confident. As that happens I accelerate more and notice that the car is not going over around 150km/h. Is starts to stutter and will not go further. This happens as it reaches higher revs, but not yet in the red. I think it happened on all gears but on the lower ones I would up-shift and "problem solved" but nothing I could do in 6th...

Anyway, still afraid, still letting everyone pass. Don't want to ruin anyone's fun and, specially, don't want anyone crashing on me! 5 laps with a best time of 3:12:73 and top speed of 151,7Km/h.

A bit after the 2nd leg my wife, kids and mother-in-law arrived to have lunch with me. After that I gave a drive to each one of the kids.

They staid to see my 3rd leg.

3rd leg - 14h20 to 14h40
Well... As I was about to start I noticed the SJ4000 battery was out of juice. Even with wi-fi turned off, the battery only lasts for 1h. So I left it charging from a USB powerbank and went on track without video. As the family was watching, I have a fly-by on the straight.

I did 3 laps before the session was red-flagged due to a car that got trapped and broke an upright on a sand trap. Best lap was 3:11:35 and max speed was 151,1Km/h.

4th leg - 16h50 to 17h10
Last leg and I felt a lot more confident. Maybe it was because if something broke I wouldn't lose other legs. Maybe it was because of what I had already driven. Although the car was stuck around 150km/h, I was happier.

5 laps with a best time of 2:55:40 and max speed of 155,2Km/h. Even on the best lap I got out of correct trajectory to let others pass.

Aftermatch
Got rain on the way home. Dried the car and disconnected the battery. I have work to do on it. Try to see about the electrical gremlins: besides the gears, my indicators are not working (but the emergency 4-blinking does!). The limit at 150Km/h may be because the fuel I used was bought in the UK in May 2015... Almost 2 years old! Probably also have the carbs a bit clogged with dirt. So I need to drain whatever is left of fuel on the tank (I added 10L of 95 octane fuel) and clean the carbs. I was told to use always 98 octane not only for performance but also because it doesn't decay, so no carbs issues... So, these two things are my objectives to achieve before the next track day. Specially the carbs cleaning.

Talking of next track day... Two days after the track day, on Tuesday, they opened up the enrolment for the next one, on the 8th April. I signed up on Friday for a full-day. They already had some half-day options full!

So... :) Objective:

Estoril Experience Day - The 2nd Track Day

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.

Estoril Experience Day - The 1st Track Day

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)

More driving around!

After pressing the small nipples of the spark plugs on the bench and using a wrench on the plugs, the nipples came off. 5 minutes for 4 sparks. Fit them on the car and went for a ride. Actually, lapped around the garage for a bit over one hour. The wife drove a bit too. Took her around, drove the kid and also the mother-in-law. Great afternoon.

On this photo it is clearly visible that the full lock on the steering makes the tires hit the headlights that, fortunately, are not fully tightened.

Another photo and a video.

Used 2nd gear for the first time. By the end of the hour, the brake peddle was sticking midway and would brake a lot further down. Wonder if it was tired from braking a lot or some other problem.
Water temp rose to 99º. Turned the fan on (minimum) and it went down to a stable 84º. Couldn't use max speed because the rectifier is really broken. With dip beam the battery does not charge. Running lights and fan at max speed and the battery warning light would light up!
When I stopped the car, no liquids dripping on the floor! Great!

Next I have to replace the oil and the oil filter... And take care of the wobbly front wheel!

Finished (?!?) and a Drive

Well... All the parts I had are now fit to the car. It is actually finished. After 4 years and 2 months, what I thought would take less than a year is done!
Of course, I still need to fix the stuff I did wrong, service the engine, fit some needed mods... But... I have nothing more inside boxes. All is fitted to the car...

Today's session was to fix the tonneau. It was just a slow process of putting masking tape, marking a hole, drill, rivet the button in place, fix the tonneau, mark another hole, repeat. It took me a couple of hours. The buttons are a bit loose because the pop-rivet pliers could not hold the rivet correctly inside the button. Just as I was getting to the end of it (2 rivets to go) I noticed Steve from Aries had packed a bit of tube along with the buttons and rivets for this job. Putting the bit of tube over the rivet shaft allowed the gun to fix the rivet correctly in place and break the rivet cleanly. The last two are fixed as all should. Maybe one day I'll drill the others out and rivet them again properly. Maybe not... But another praise to Steve, he thought of these things and his attention to detail still amazes me.

Once the tonneau was fixed in place I decided I'll not cover the car again. So I took out the remaining bubble-wrap I had on the roll bar to avoid scratching. Vacuum cleaned the interior of the car and the dirt on the fiberglass body (that would not go out with a cloth due to static electricity).

Now I should take care of lights, no? Well... Let's fit the battery. This time I used the proper nuts and bolts that came with the battery instead of the temp ones I was using and were getting rusty. And sanded the terminals on the car loom. I wonder if the problem with the car was bad connections to the battery due to rust and incorrect bolts... Turned the key and... First time!

OK... Lapped the garage over 10 times. Like a kid. With a new toy. :)

After these laps I identified or confirmed a couple of problems to tackle.

With no lights or running lights, the battery gives 13v to 14v, which means the alternator is charging it. On low beam the battery drops to 12v. I'm not sure if it charges at all at 12v (with the engine idling). I'm unsure if this is a problem or not...

Brakes do need bleeding, although not much. For effective braking, I need to pump once to get the peddle hard and then it works correctly.

The front wheel, driver's side, wobbles a bit. It needs tightening...

The headlights are not tightly bolted and so they move. Which probably is good because when I turn the steering completely to one side, the outer wheel hits the headlamp and moves it inside. When I finished my laps seemed the car was looking to something on the tip of its nose. Must find a way to reduce the turning radius of that steering.

I want a spring on the accelerator peddle to give me more feel and help the cable return.

Some 10 minutes after I turned the car off, the radiator leaked a bit. I'm not sure if this was because I didn't leave the fans working a bit after I turned the car off.

Next session will be engine service and tightening the front wheel.

Failed Drive

Today the garage was being washed. I got a borrowed spot on a different floor so that I could move the car there and get my spot washed. Unfortunately I didn't manage to start the car up. The battery gave up before the engine sprung to life. It was almost working but almost was not enough.

I've charged the battery to try again on the weekend. Could be because I tried to get it going with the hood on and it is not getting enough air (never had used it with the hood on). Can also be because I finished all the electrics and something is draining more battery (a bad earth?). And there is also the fact that the engine is really overdue to have a service. It contains oil that is 5 years old, the spark plugs are probably older, the filters are the ones that came with the engine...

Took the chance that had the battery in and tested the lights. Not that bad...

• Emergency lights -Only blinks the lights on the left side;
• Direction lights - When I signal left the right side lights turn on, when I signal right the left side lights go, so I wired the lever the wrong way. Easy fix...;
• Driving/Low beam/High beam lights - OK;
• Rear plate light - OK, turns on when driving lights are lit;
• Brakes - Not sure if right side lit up, left works;
• Rear presence lights - OK on both sides, when Driving or Low Beam (not sure which) turns on;
• Fog light - Did not light up and neither did the dash indicator. Forgot to try if it would work with high beam on, in case I mixed wires. Can also be a dead bulb. Can't be a fuse, I checked them recently.

I need to get back at working on the car. Would like to take it for a track day in late November...

Driving the Car Indoors

With the cooling circuit fixed, I had to stress test the circuit! And confirm that there were no other leaks. So, the wife and kid came to "help".

First drove the kid around the garage, 3 laps, one going up just one floor and the other two going up two floors. This all went a lot better than when I drove the car up to have my spot washed. The following video shows me pulling off, pursuing a neighbour on his BMW, while the kid screams with joy.

These 3 laps had as top speed 22Km/h (if the sensor is correctly set, can't confirm without going to a track), 7500rpm (going up the slope, afraid I would stall) and cooling temperature rose up to 70C. Then the fan light turned on to warn me and I switched on the fan, keeping the temperature around 65C.

Then the kid went home and I drove the wife around, 2 laps, one up one floor and the second up two floors. She filmed so I even have inboard footage. I stall the car a couple of times and the lights are draining my battery, so I end up going for a bit without lights. It's not as dark as it seems on the video.

Notes from the driving... The "clank" noise I heard two weeks ago is still there, although not always. It only shows when I'm driving really slow and the car is almost stalling, otherwise no noise. It still seems to come from the tunnel and probably is nothing to worry about.
The panels that are just rivnutted (tunnel) vibrate a bit when on low revs and make a bit of a noise. I'll probably have to put some isolation tape under them to make the noise go away.
Comparing with last year, the wheels make a lot less noise while driving, setting up the camber and toe did pay off. One of the front wheels still wobbles slightly, I have to tighten it better. One of those times I wish I had a power tool to do it...
The battery charges if I have the lights off, with the Digidash saying 13,5 to 14v. If I turn the lights on, it drops to around 12v and it effectively drains the battery. With me constantly stalling the car, makes the charger I bought well worth it's cost. I probably have a bad earth or some other connector messing it up. After all, most of my light wiring is still lose around the car. That's what I'm going to work on next, along with panels.

It was wonderful to drive the car and I'll probably be doing it once in a while. Maybe I should service the engine, new oil and spark plugs, since what the engine has is what was on the bike the engine came from, 3 years ago... And I have to properly bleed the brakes!

Driving! (2 in 1)

So, garage washing this time was floor 0 on Monday, floor -1 and -2 on Tuesday. My spot is on -2 and I got a borrowed one on 0.

On Monday went to the car after dinner. Wired the battery in and sat on the driver's seat. On Sunday I had noticed that, now that the tunnel has the aluminium panels in, my right foot would hit the brake when pressing the throttle. I was wearing my large basket boots so this time I took my Brazilian "Havaianas" (olá, Glauco!). Even with them, the foot hit both peddles. So, the front of the side panel was removed (fortunately, at the time I had to cut it to get it in without taking out the peddle box, and fortunately it was rivnuted into place).

With the car on, I drove it off. It was doing an odd "clang" noise from the tunnel, repeatedly, as if something on the transmission was hitting something. My fear was the UJ on the front half of the transmission hitting the prop-catcher. Slowly, did the 50m from my spot to the start of the spiral that goes from floor -2 to floor 0. Stalled the car two or five times just in that bit. Then, going up the slope, some 5 times more. Since the brakes are still not great, relied on the handbrake to hold me each time I stalled. In the beginning had the lights on but turned them off to save battery. On the 2nd section of the spiral, stalled some more and when I was almost at the top, the battery was drained to the point where the car would not start. Had to call the caretaker, that has his watching post at the top of the spiral, to help me push the car into place. After parking it there, had a look around for leaks, took out the battery and went home. The car in his borrowed space:

Tuesday after dinner went down (with the charged battery) again. This time it was easier. After wiring it all up, it was just a matter of reversing out of the spot and then moving away. From 0 to -2 is downhill so no stalling. Still the odd "clang". With the car back on his spot confirmed that there was a leak on the cooling circuit near the "T" that splits header-pump-radiator (where it leaked last year too).

Not as nice as I expected, but it was fun anyway. The best part is that last year, after parking it, I knew I had to undo a lot of things to get them properly done. This time I have it mostly final and from now on is just fixing the noise and the leak and put the bodywork.

1st Drive!

Went to the car in the morning, took the tintop to the street so that I could drive out the kit car. Connected up the battery, sat in and turned the key. Started quickly and now it idles without needing the foot on the throttle peddle. Kept it going for a bit while playing with the gear stick trying to understand where was 1st, 6th and neutral.

Tried to make it move on its own but stalled. Another try, this time very odd! I took the foot off the clutch and the Digidash would still say "clutch down" and the car would not move. Turned it off, slackened a bit the clutch cable and went for another try. The car seemed it was going to move but stalled twice. And suddenly it would not start again! Lost the remaining of the morning trying to get it to go (even put more fuel in) without success. In the end, the battery was too low on juice to keep trying. Packed up and took the battery to charge.

In the evening another attempt with full battery. Conscious that I made a stupid mistake when trying to go with the car... The hand brake was pulled... Oh, boy...
Battery in, car would not start. Starting to feel lost... Went for another round on the car and... The fuel pump cable was disconnected! I usually disconnect it as another safety measure. This morning I forgot to connect it and the fuel the car ran on was that stored in carburators or something, but not coming from the pump!

Pump connected, car starts after some hesitation! Handbrake down, softly taking the foot from the clutch... The car moves a bit! Went up to get the wife and kid.

With them, 1st movie is driving the car for some 50 meters.

2nd movie is using the MNR reverse box to reverse and then moving back to roughly where I started.

3rd movie is the car going up 2 floors on the garage, to a borrowed spot, so that my spot can me washed (it really needs a wash!).

Tires squeal like mad partially because they probably have some break fluid on them, partially because the suspension geometry was setup by Gaudí. Need to work on that later... Also on the breaks... They sssttttoooopppeeedddd the car. Calmly... Taking their time...