October 19, 2003
Day 25 - 'the first drive'TM
So, if everything goes well I should be driving the car for the first time today.
I continued to work on the front wings as the glue had now dried but decided not to fit them yet as wiring the repeaters etc. was going to take a little while and couldn't really be finished until the headlights were on.
The rear wings went on relatively easily. Just a little filing to get the RHS one to sit over the chassis boss at the rear/bottom corner.
I wheeled the car outside and started it up again to check the cooling. This time, the thermostat opened at an indicated 80o and the radiator got warm. Slowly the needle rose to an indicated 85o or so and the fan came on. Sorted! Checked the oil level again and topped it up a bit. I think I've now overfilled it slightly as a fairly small amount of oil pushed it from halfway on the dipstick to the top but I'm sure it will be fine. Time to get in the car then. First job was to remove my right shoe as it's impossible to drive with normal shoes on and I haven't ordered any racing boots yet.
Once in I put it into gear and let the clutch up slowly. It didn't bite until quite high and when it did it was very sudden - didn't stall it though. So, off I went!! A slow lap around the estate ensued and I discovered that at the moment, the brakes are truly terrible but I'm sure they will get better. The only other things I noticed were that the speedo doesn't show a steady speed but oscillates; a question for Caterham, and that the gearbox idle noise is quite loud.
So, it does move under it's own power....
Carried out with the front wings and wired the indicators up. In order to ground them I drilled holes in the wing stays and screwed the earth wire into them with a self tapper. The orange lenses really stand out against the car and need to be changed for clear ones ASAP! Below is a close up of how the wings actually attach to the wingstays - they're a great fit.
5 hours today, 85 hours total.
Posted by charles at October 19, 2003 6:25 PM