back on the ground!

So earlier this week, after precisely 521 days on axle stands since I started stripping the original S1 Elise the car is back on it's own four patches of rubber. 

Looking at how the car has metamorphisied (!) over that time I'm pretty pleased with the outcome and timescale. Especially seeing as I set out stripping the Elise without a clear plan as to what powerplant was going in at the time.

So still outstanding now are mainly just the fitment of the bespoke motorsport spec wiring loom, which isn't quite complete yet, fitment of front brake calipers and bleeding of clutch and brakes, and then set-up and mapping of the engine and all the ancillary systems.

There are quite a few niggly bits and bobs still to address on top of that, but not a lot else that would stop me shaking down the car.

Here's some pictures of the car back where it belongs :)
(ride heights are set pretty high for now in anticipation of loading trailers/ramps/rollers etc during mapping)

Fire Extinguisher

Despite the fact that I am not building this car to any particular set of rules or regulations, it still seems very sensible to fit a decent fire suppression system in the interests of safety given the completely custom nature of the fuel, exhaust and wiring systems on the car.

I decided to mount the bottle in the front compartment, where I could easily site a 2.3Litre bottle. They system is designed for twin nozzles, and I decided to place both into the engine bay (rather than have one in the cockpit), as the engine bay is a more likely place for fire to breakout. If the system can suppress a fire even if just for long enough for me and a passenger to exit the cockpit then it will have done it's job.

A few pics of the install:

 Centrally mounted pull handle where both driver or passenger can get to it in a hurry.

One nozzle pointing at LHS bank, the other at RHS bank and oil tank.

Onwards and...onwards and.. onwards!

Apologies for the lack of blog updates. It's been a bit of a long slog recently. Mostly just plugging away at all the small stuff that seems to always need doing at the end of the build, but adds up to take an inordinate amount of time!

So a few pics:

ECU bracket made for AV mounting the SQ6.

Collected my driveshafts that have been custom made by Dave Mac Props in Coventry. 108 lobro inner CVs and 28spline Astra outer CVs. The shafts are provided with a lifetime warranty including motorsport use! If anything fails/wears out it is likely to be an inner CV bearing cage or outer joint, neither of which are not too expensive/troublesome to replace...

AP Racing high temperature paint for the rather special brakes...