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build diary August 6, 2004: I have guests visiting for the next few days so there won't be any real work done on the Seven. Yesterday was a most entertaining day. I took the car around to show to all the various folks who helped me with the build - the paint shop, the fabrication shop that supplied me with the materials for the hood, the muffler shop that helped me so much with the header. Everyone seems quite impressed. I became more and more comfortable with the car as the day went on. The combination of high compression, light vehicle weight and a very light flywheel does make the car difficult to drive smoothly at very light throttle positions. Some of this can be overcome with better tuning but I suspect it will never be completely eradicated. I probably should wait until I have the car idling at under 1500 rpm before making any final judgements though. The suspension is nicely compliant and the car rides much better than most people would expect. For those in the Miata world, it's better than most of the track-oriented suspensions out there! I am extremely happy about the steering as well. The Mountney wheel feels great (thanks, Eric) and the weighting is light. The Miata steering ratio probably has much to do with my comfort level with the car and there is lots of information coming through the wheel. There's no slop at all and the car seems to turn in almost as soon as I think about it. The view over the hood is quite entertaining as well. Now that the car has run perhaps 15 miles on the road I'll pop it back up on the stands and check all the bolts. I'm particularly interested in the bolts holding the front of the diff in place! entry 566 of 1439 |