R500 HPE

[danwebster]

13 hours ago, @ndy said:

Nice close ratio's based on the rev drop details and with straight cut cogs to, this is going to be one epic car.....

I certainly hope so!

[danwebster]

This mornings job was to remove the pedal box and start the refurb, it’s not in bad condition but I’ll probably shot blast it all and then re anodise it to get it looking spot on.

Someone recently suggested replacing it with an aftermarket pedal box, but they’re such a lovely thing and so light I couldn’t possibly. I will be converting it to dual cylinder with a bias bar on the brake pedal though.

[danwebster]

I've stripped all of the brake pipes out of the car and started to clean the nooks and crannies. Leaving it sat in a barn for 3 years means its very dirty!

There are a few patches of surface corrosion to deal with too.

The interior is starting to clean up but its going to take a lot of elbow grease. 

[jonnyfox]

Lol if people only really knew the amount of elbow grease you refur to 

[danwebster]

Ha I know! It’s probably the part of the build I’m least looking forward to!

[danwebster]

Todays excitement has been the delivery of lots of shiny parts that have got me more excited that a small child at Christmas.

First came the custom large port Clockwise throttle bodies:

Its not the easiest to make out from the picture but they're much bigger than the usual version that i've been fitting to customer cars with great success:

They're absolute works of art, made entirely from billet - the ram pipes, backplate, everything. The details are stunning...

The matching carbon airbox is rather pretty too..

Next came a few more engine bits including these beautiful pistons, which are 2 ring and extremely light and will get me up somewhere near 13:1 compression. 

Rods too...these are super light and very trick. They have a smaller big and little end than standard rods as well as being longer than standard which is facilitated by the height of the pin in the piston.

But the thing thats got me most excited is the clutch and flywheel combo. 

It might look like a normal flywheel and clutch but its not.....here's a couple of standard sized ones for comparison. 

As you can see, two of them now look massive and one looks tiny! The two larger flywheels are both clockwise motion ultralite items, 2.9kilos each, and imbue the engine with throttle response to die for......mine is 1.2kilos

The biggest difference comes about from the clutch though. On the left is a standard clutch cover. In the middle is a twin plate 7.25" race clutch, which transforms the response of the engine because of the mass being moved inwards by quite a distance over the standard clutch which is almost 9" in diameter. 

Mine is a 5.5" twin plate clutch and I haven't got the words to describe what a difference that makes. Its the setup thats in use in many single seater race cars, but as far as I know no one has put one in a car yet

As you can see, its tiny compared to even the 7.25" setup. 

So i'm wetting myself at the thought of getting this thing built as you can imagine!

[jonnyfox]

[Martin R]

Another daft question     How does the starter motor reach the ring gear at that size?

[danwebster]

48 minutes ago, Martin R said:

Another daft question     How does the starter motor reach the ring gear at that size?

Not daft Martin....it uses a trick starter than turns the opposite way with an additional idler gear to bridge the gap and spin the engine the right way!

[danwebster]

My new heater has arrived....

Its very light....

I'm not expecting it to keep me toasty and warm in the winter with the roof off, all I want is enough to keep the windows clear when it rains....it if gets cold i'll put a coat on. 

[DeanB]

What's the heater from Dan?

[danwebster]

Its by a company called T7 Designs, they do a range of them.

[DeanB]

It looks good.  I wouldn't be surprised if it kicks out as much heat as the Lotus one.

[danwebster]

I would to be honest, but I’m quite happy to be proven wrong!! 

[Alex B]

Things starting to take shape Dan.

will be following this.