D-8: Friday Night
Very busy last couple of days, so I haven’t documented it very well. Sorry about that.
I finally got the new seat mounts done and fitted in the car late last night. I wish that they made more of a difference in the headroom, but I don’t think that they really did. I wish there was a way to make that more efficient; there probably is, but it will involve more custom bracketry than I have time for right now, so we’ll just have to live with this. At least these FIA-homologated sliders move a lot more smoothly than the 20+ year old stock Toyota sliders. More after the break…
The scoop for the engine is almost done, just need to finish cutting & riveting the skins to the sides. Maybe I’ll paint it, maybe I won’t. Haven’t decided yet. It does look wicked though.
Got the oil pan in the mail yesterday, so that will go on sometime this weekend. Now that the seat is in, my next biggest priority is getting the door bars in, then trying to do something about fixing the high-speed wiggle that we’re getting out of the alignment. It might be some worn steering rack bushings, in which case I’ll need to remove the steering rack to fix it. Or it might just be that the wheels need a little more toe in. I’m going to try to experiment on that tomorrow, as today is pretty packed with kids’ soccer, then a school carnival, then a birthday party. It’s going to be a late night tonight.
After I got the seat in, I almost finished wiring in the radio setup and the data acquisition. Just need to route the satellite antenna cable, wire the radios to hot power, and finish the PTT button install and both of those will be done. Might get to the camera install tonight too.
I got the panoramic rear view mirror and one of the new cheap JCWhitney side mirrors installed. I put the side mirrors on Ferrari-style high on the a-pillars. Very ricey. One thing that driving at Nelson Ledges a couple weeks ago hammered home for me was how critical rear vision is in this race. The rear view mirror in our NL car kept flapping up in the breeze and it made it impossible to know who was on either side or behind you, who was trying to pass and when it was clear to cut an apex. We won’t have that rear vision problem at MSR-Houston. We will surely have other problems (like our engine blowing up), but that won’t be one of them. Hopefully 
Tomorrow I’ll work out the alignment/wobble issue, install the oil pan, and get the door bars at least tacked in. Figured out a better way to fishmouth the tubes using my chop saw (with cutting wheel attached) and the angle grinder.
More details later or tomorrow. Cheers.
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