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build diary March 21, 2006: After cutting, sanding and welding all weekend I took the tank home to see how it fit in the car. I did a few happy dances as one did not seem to be enough. I could not be more proud of this tank. I've decided to put a couple of zip-tie anchor points on the outside to make it easier to hold hoses in place. I picked the sealant up yesterday as well. On the Locost mailing list, I was asked why not aluminum? Well, after paying for the Kreem sealant it's not cost. I don't know how to weld aluminum and I'm on a bit of a schedule to be ready for the Car and Driver test. But I do have to say that if I did it again, I'd certainly consider alloy. The finished tank is just under 16 lbs compared to about 8 lbs for the previous plastic one. That weight gain is about the difference between my new battery and the old so there's no real change overall. I won't have to run as much fuel to avoid starvation on the track so that's nice. Plus of course the weight distribution is much better. The preparation for the magazine test continues. I've been told they're going to be doing instrumented testing so I'm nervous about that - what if the car only does a 0-60 run in 10 seconds? Well, a Caterham SV 160 does the sprint in 4.9, but that doesn't reassure me much. I've ordered some new springs, going to 500 lb in the front and 250 in the rear. Heikki thinks the 500 is far too soft but I think I can improve the wheel rate with some shock mount tweaking. He's also driving a pure track car and doesn't have sway bars. I don't feel the front on my car is too soft anyhow, it's the rear that needs beefing up. Will I regret this? Probably. But I'll have to make the mistake first. I can see Heikki shaking his head from here. entry 1159 of 1439 |