First Outing!
 

Yes, the Marlin has been out and about.
As Vindicator are finishing it for me I got invited to one of their track gatherings at Curborough.
Problem 1 - The mondeo with it's shiny new tow bar has seized brakes so there'll be no towing it.
Solution ? Vindicator drove it there on trade plates!
Problem 2 - Fan belt fell off about 5 miles short of the track
Solution - Tow it behind the wifes focus!!!
Problem 3 - got fan belt back on but then the alternator pulley was loose (see other new thread!)
Solution - bloke at local scrapyard did it up as tight as possible.

And after that - took it gingerly round the track for a few laps each trying not to break anything and oh what fun!!! Forgot to take a camera so sorry no photos but I'm SO looking forward to this summer!!

Andy

Very nice :D I can't wait to take ours on a proper run, the driveway is just not long enough! I could do with a set of those trade plates ;)

Yes it was a very good feeling. It's gonna take a while to get used to the steering and handling but hey that means more practise, right?

Or it just needs more tweaking of the front camber, tyre pressures etc.

Does it have a tendency to oversteer or understeer? I'm guessing it's quite easy to knock the back end out with a bit or power oversteer?

I wasn't trying that hard! I knew it had to be driven home and was taking it easy - it's not quite the most powerful car I've driven but it's the first with that power, that lack of weight and rear wheel drive!

Some of it was the weight of the steering, after all it's not power assisted. I think that once I've got the hang of turning the wheel a bit more it'll be OK... But I think you're right in that a tweaking of the setup would improve it considerably - but how do you figure out the best settings? Might have to find someone to tune the setup for me...

Ah ok I see, I've not driven a car without powersteering before so it should be interesting :) I see what you mean about going home, I think I would be very tempted to just boot it and see what happens on a clear track! :lol:

Most powerful thing I've driven is my dad's 840Ci Sport it's got just under 300bhp and humongous amount of torque but weighs over 2 tonnes! A bit of a boat round the corners! My brothers car is around 1300/1400 kgs and with the engine swap and modification it has around 220bhp, quite a quick one that :) Dunno how much power our M20 engine will be putting out but I hoping for around 190, over 200 after the rebuild/stroke to 2.8 ltrs and a hairy cam so it should be quite fun :D

As for setup, your best bet is to find someone who can corner weight the car for you - with you sat in the driver seat. This should optimally balance the car for when you're driving - what they do (IIRC) is adjust the height of the suspension until there is equal load on each of the 4 corners. I would hope someone who can do that will be able to give advise on geometry setup and tyre pressure. Generally though (If im not getting this wrong!) tighten up the back end and it will over steer, tighten up the front end and it will understeer. So what you want is a balance between the two. Tyre pressures and damper settings are easier to do yourself as you can make adjustments, go for a drive then tweak further.

Congratulations !.


I can't wait till mine is that far.


Thing to test with your car is tyre pressure. I hear lot's of people with only 1 bar pressure, because more is not wanted with such leight cars.

Peter-Jan

Andy - how did vindicator wire your rear lights to get them to work for normal and brakes?

Our rings are a bit bright and dazzling in the dark for normal rear light operation, so I was wonder how yours dim. I assume it just a resistor in series with the lights to drop the voltage a bit?