It's a couple of weeks since I got the car registered and on the road and i've clocked up about 280 miles on the speedo, so i thought i'd start a new thread of my driving experiences.
Driving the Sportster is exhilerating and fun and puts a big grin on my face everytime I get in the car. It handles well and the suspension is surprisingly compliant. Driving without a windscreen, with just goggles, is a thrill at even comparatively low speeds!
I drove the car to work last Thursday, a round trip of 44 miles and haven't arrived at work with such a grin, ever! I have to pick days that has a good weather forecast as it's only open air car park and I don't yet have any hood or tonneau. The car ran with absolutely no issues and the weather was great all day. It caused quite a stir with my colleagues who expected something a bit less impressive
Last Saturday, Pauline and i decided to go out for the day. The target was to get to the sea so we set the satnav to Brighton and roads suitable for 40mph (a comfortable cruising speed with goggles). It was baking hot and we got stuck in traffic only a few miles from home. I kept a close eye on the temp gauge sitting in the traffic but the fan worked fine switching on and off as required. We past Hampton Court and crossed the river with a very quick stop to put on sun tan cream as my head and arms were burning.
Then off down through Leatherhead and down the A24. We stopped at Box Hill and had lunch at the the top of the hill at the National Trust tea shop. After lunch, it was back down the hill and headed of down the A24 crusing at 40-50-60 mph.
After about 45mins I noticed a hesitation in the engine when pulled away from roundabouts. It gradually got worse but luckily we were about 5 miles from my sisters place at Henfield so we headed there for a pit stop. I had a hunch it was fuel stavation and sure enough there was 'crud' in the fuel filter. It only took about half an hour to sort. Then I took my brother-in-law for a quick ride. He has a 'real' Lotus 7 and was most impressed with the ride of the Marlin.
We then headed on to Brighton and topped up with petrol. 20 litres takes my fuel gauge from 1/4 up to full. We then got stuck in a horrendous grid lock traffic jam on Brighton promenade and we crawled for about an hour. It was getting late so we decided to head for home. A few miles outside Brighton, I had to stop and tighten the nearside front mudguard which had twisted and was rubbing on the wheel. This is definately something that i'll need to modify as it happened again about 5 miles from home.
We got home without any other issues at 10.15pm, tired but amazed we had travelled so far (about 170 miles) without any major issues and nothing has fallen off (yet?)
Things to do:
1. I need to raise my seat at the front to tip it back a bit
2. See if I can move the brake pedal across as it's a bit tight fit for my right foot on the throtte pedal
3. Stop the mudgaurds moving!
4. Clean out the fuel filter again
5. Get a windscreen and hood
6. Get it painted................
7. then.........get a bigger engine
