[morris]

I'm happy to report the modification to the prop has made a massive improvement. There is still a little vibration there as you pass 55-60. I noticed this while testing still up on stands with the rear wheels off so was worried that it was still going to cause a problem. Having driven the car around 30 miles today, by the time you hit 60 there are plenty of other more intrusive things going on like wind noise, watering eyes and oxygen depletion. I'm going to play around with the jubilee clip trick to see if I can find an imbalance. If I can work out where it is I can weld some metal on.

For a general running report:

- The car pulls very well once you get over 4000rpm but feels a little 'normal' up to that point. I think this may be a point of view thing and the inaccuracy of my backside dyno rather than anything to do with actual performance, I just expected to be a little scared, and wasn't. I think the swap to a 3 litre M50 stroker or something generally more hefty in the engine dept needs to move up the todo list

- my side light fuse has decided to reliably blow every time I turn them on so I need to track that down.

- my oil pressure lamp keeps flicking on at low rpm. I'll change the oil as I have some of that valve lifter cleaning additive in at the moment which may have caused the viscosity to drop too much. The oil pressure gauge generally seems to read low anyway so maybe I do actually have pump or sender issues.

- I had a weird 5 minutes where the electrics died on me. Turned the key and the LP pump started up. Hit the start button, the starter clicked once and then a few seconds later the pump stopped. No electrics at all worked for a minute or two while jump leads and jump starts were considered at which point, I tried again and it fired straight up.

- having the shocks set on 1/2 way stiffness is way to much for my spine. I'm going to set them back to nice and soft and jack up the rear a little. I'm sure for the track having this adjustment is great, but for the road, I'd advise just saving the money and buying standard dampers. I suppose the spring rate on the rear springs supplied by marlin (400lb) could be part of the problem too.

- I need to buy some goggles, sun glasses just don't cut enough of the wind out and at speed you're blinking back the tears. An intercom may also be on the cards. Oxygen masks would also be nice though maybe a scarf over the mouth would help there.

- no need for a heater. I found that although my face was cool my body was more than warm enough even on a cold, damp day like today (though female passengers do seem to disagree with this point). I am used to wandering around on the top of Welsh mountains with 40-70mph winds blowing and rain lashing my face in the name of fun, so this may also be a point of view thing.

- The aux drive belt squeals quite a bit at higher revs - I think this is minor misalignment between the alternator and the other main pulleys plus my totally unscientific tension adjustment method. I'm planning on getting a new smaller alt anyway so can look into this at the same time. I'm hoping to move it back to the nearside where it should be on the original fixing points.

- I need to look a bit harder at tyre pressures and toe angle. Since dropping the pressure to 23 psi and swapping to a few mm toe in, you have to very deliberately straighten up after pulling out at junctions etc and concentrate on keeping it in a straight line normally.

- though nice to look at, my dash layout is rubbish. Nothing is easy to glance at including the speedo meaning that at the moment, especially with concentration required to drive straight, all the instruments are essentially redundant. I'll leave as is for now but there will be a future plan to move things around a bit.

- my front wing stay minor mod seems to have made them rattle much less but I'm still getting way too many general rattles from the car. I don't currently have any spring rubbers on the rear which would help I think. A lot of it is probably just normal noises you are sheltered from in a production car but I'm driving with a nagging doubt in my mind that I've not tightened everything up properly.

- baseball caps and aero screens don't mix as I found out as soon as I hit 60 and had to turn the car around to go back and retrieve mine from the middle of the road. Driving without a hat isn't actually uncomfortable, you just have to remember to de-bouffant your hair at the end of the journey