July 5, 2007 - Bill Cardell stopped by on the July 4th holiday to help me take the car for its first significant run.
We bolted on the hardtop, fixed a small brake leak at one wheel, set the timing and then headed out for a spin. The car did very well overall. The fuel and timing maps, based on a "best guess" by Jeremy at Flyin' Miata, are pretty close and the autotuning abilities of the Hydra Nemesis will take care of the former quite easily.
The car feels good. The engine comes on cam at about 4000 rpm and pulls strongly up to my self-imposed redline of 5500. I'll stretch the engine past that next time I go for a drive. The steering was surprisingly light even without the power steering belt installed, but I'll have that fixed soon. It's too early to say anything about the suspension as it's currently on junkyard parts. Brakes feel strong though. Overall, it's giving the impression of being a very promising, entertaining car.
It wasn't completely free of problems, of course. The temperature gauge on the dash isn't working, but that's an easy fix because it's a very simple system. I wired the fans off the same switch which seemed easier at the time, but having them staged makes more sense and takes a load off the wiring. The front tires rubbed on light corners but I think I have that sorted now by bending some mounting tabs for the inner fender liners. The lack of a windshield made the car fairly drafty as well.
Time for more driving! And then the masking for the new paint job.
tags: testing, tuning |
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