After Graphics!

Well, here she is!

It is about 95% complete and I will be taking it to Eric Langbein's shop this week to get a complete set-up and a modified shift linkage.  There is actually one graphic missing -- the WWP website.  It will go on the sidepods but the graphics company forgot to give it to me wo I will get it from them this week. 

I again spent an incredibly long time in the garage this weekend though.  The graphics took a while to apply but I also calibrated the shock sensors and I wanted to make sure that they were truly linear so I created a chart comparing the voltage produced by the sensor as the arm moves to the amount that the shock moves.  I was a little concerned that the curve wasn't going to be linear but it turns out that the curve was linear which was good news. 

That was good news but I also ran into an issue.  I was running the engine again and monitoring the sensors with my computer and noticed that the battery voltage really dropped when I reved the engine.  Since this car has an alternator, the voltage should be increasing.  Well, it turns out that I didn't hook up the positive pole on the alternator so that it could charge the battery!  It took a while for me to figure that out and changing the wiring was no small task.  However, I'm really glad that I found that issue before I got to the track because there is no way that the battery would last more than 2 sessions without an alternator charging it. 

I also finished the seat.  I had to trim it some more and I covered it with gaffers tape.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  Here it is with the seat belts installed.

Converting this car from an F2000 to a F1600 car has certainly been a lot of work but has been well worth it.  Frankly, I love the challenge of projects like this.  A lot of people have helped me along the way, really too many to mention.  But that is the good thing about this kind of racing, there is always someone willing to help you if you need it.  Racers are really great people.

The blog isn't done though.  I still need to make a scoop/cold air box and I will be documenting that process.  Plus, I plan on at least posting at least one in car video after next weekend.  I'm sure that I have a lot to get used to in regards to driving it I know that there are many more challenges to come in regards to learning about how to optimize the car's set-up and I look forward to those challenges just as much as the challenge of the build.