build diary

March 3, 2007:
Yet another track day - with a difference.
Grassroots Motorsports was testing an Ariel Atom, and they asked me if I knew of any Locosts that could come along to provide a different perspective. So of course, I happily jumped up and down and volunteered to drive to Texas to bring my car. I'm a sucker that way.

The track was the brand new Eagle Canyon raceway, just north of Dallas. It's not finished yet, with no paved parking, no final coat of asphalt and no finished runoff areas. Obviously not a place for really pushing the limits of cars, but we could still run pretty hard and stay safe. We had a group of professionals so everyone behaved. Unfortunately the Westfield XI didn't make it due to a mismatch of clutch components.

I drove out with Bill Cardell from Flyin' Miata. This made a long trip much more enjoyable, especially since it was an even longer trip thanks to me not paying attention. It wasn't until we saw the signs for Santa Fe that we realized my mistake. Whoops. Have a look at a map sometime and draw a line from Grand Junction to Dallas. Then look at where Santa Fe is. The good thing is that I did get to see Las Vegas, New Mexico.

We were the first ones at the track. I wanted to make sure the car was running well after the massive change in altitude as well as the new Texas gas. I also needed to clean the remnants of a snowstorm in Colorado off the car. The car ran pretty well (didn't even foul the plugs!) and we got it scrubbed up...and then a duallie towing a giant trailer rolled up. The door opened and two Atoms were hidden inside. One was a UK car with a UK-market 220 hp Honda Civic Type R engine inside and a 1300 lb wet weight. The other was a US-built example with a supercharged GM Ecotec motor good for a claimed 300 hp and 1500 lbs. Five guys swarmed out and started cleaning and detailing the clean cars. Gulp. Even when it's been detailed - and this was far from it - my car has a lot of patina. Stone chips, scuff marks, little bits of dirt hiding in joints. The car's been used hard for over two years and has spent a lot of time on an uncovered trailer. It looks it.

The Atom is a really cool car. Designing the "modern Lotus Seven" is a rite of passage for UK car designers, and the Atom is the most impressive version I've seen. The design is clever in a lot of ways and the detailing is gorgeous. One thing that doesn't show up in pictures is how wide the car is - the body is fairly fat and the control arms are long. It almost looks square and with the low height, is really spectacular when seen from the front. It's also beautifully made, which is a good thing when all the components are on constant display. But they're not cheap. The price of the supercharged car was $70,000. Yikes. That's why GRM had invited me along, to see how a homebuilt car might compare. Last year for Car and Driver, I had the expensive "ringer". This year I was exactly the opposite.

I took the Seven out to warm it up. The track is initially quite daunting, with a large number of off-camber corners, usually with a double apex and a blind crest leading up to it. We had cold temperatures so I was just tiptoeing around, leaving ludicrous amounts of room when braking and generally just being a wuss. The car felt good though, its usual rabid self and with about 20% more horsepower than usual. It's been too long since I was on a track, so I was super-cautious. I did enjoy this track once I got comfortable, and it's one that you could easily drive on for a long time and keep learning things. Loads of elevation changes, just the way I like it.

I also got the chance to drive an Atom, thanks to a really generous gesture from Jim Sharp, the owner. It was the 220 hp Honda powered car. From the first corner, it was obvious just how different the car was. It was designed nearly 50 years later than the Lotus Seven, and it feels like it. The biggest difference is that you sit right at the pointy end. On a Seven, your butt is pretty much in line with the rear wheels. This is one reason why it's so easy to drive sideways, it just talks to you all the time. The Atom, however, puts your feet in line with the front wheels. The passenger actually has their feet on the steering rack! This changes the feel dramatically. It's very eager to change directions and you go with it right away. It feels as if it's a much shorter wheelbase than my car although they're within an inch of each other. I didn't get comfortable with the gearshift and I was just pussyfooting around in someone else's very expensive car on a cold unknown track so I certainly didn't set any lap records, but I did get a feel as to the dynamics. The one thing I found is that it was hard to get the car to take a set - it would either understeer or oversteer. The most entertaining thing came from the open body. On my car, I can place the wheels pretty accurately because I can see them. But on the Atom, you can look right through the body and see the tread of the passenger's side wheel to place it perfectly. The Honda-engined car I drove had a heroic motor as Honda likes to do - it never seemed to stop accelerating. With the intake mere inches from your head, it also had a very vocal soundtrack. The switch on to the second cam was obvious!

Of course, the cars are super-adjustable mechanically and this means it can take some time to get the setup sorted. The supercharged car was brand new, and over the course of the day it was improved quite a bit by adjusting shocks and bolting on some new Hankook race rubber instead of the Yokohama A048s it was running. Watching one from the sidelines is entertaining, especially when you're looking at it side-on and you can see right through the car.

B.S. Levy (of The Last Open Road fame, he'll want you to buy his books and you won't regret it) was there to drive the cars and write the article. I was pretty nervous - while Larry Webster drove the car last year, he didn't really get a chance to test it at maximum chat in a track environment. I've set up the Seven in a bit of a vacuum, really - I think it works well, but what would an experienced race driver think, especially when comparing it directly with a high-dollar, world famous car? Bert (the B in B.S.) belted up and headed out.

I wasn't right there when he first came in, but it was pretty obvious he liked the car. He spoke highly of how it was set up, saying it felt like a race car in the way it was so happy on long sweepers. It could be balanced well, and it rotated really nicely in a couple of corners. The second driver there (Tim Webb) had a similar reaction. Both drivers thought the car was fantastic fun to drive. Whew! Both drivers really enjoyed the car, and it was obvious that they were taking more laps in their sessions than was really necessary. It was the setup that really impressed them. It just worked well, and Bert was really enthusiastic about the amount of fun the car offers particularly in light of the cost.

It'll be interesting to see what Bert says about the cars in the article. I know he really enjoyed driving my car and I'm very happy with the results, but I'll let him come out with his verdict on Atom vs Locost.

It wasn't all goodness, though. When Bert came in from a session, the engine dropped a cylinder as he drove into the "pits". Try as we could, Bill and I couldn't get it to come back. Was it a burnt valve? A bad injector? We're not sure, despite a bunch of testing. There are some indications that it might be in the head although there are no nasty noises coming out. So Bill didn't get a chance to drive the track, and neither did Tim Suddard from GRM. That's a bummer. I'll have to do some serious diagnostics when I get home and it did cut our day short by about an hour or so. It's not how I wanted the day to end, that's for sure. Still, nobody at GRM seemed to have a problem with that.

We loaded the Seven on to the trailer and headed for a dinner with a bunch of Locost builders and Miata owners. Chris Fiaccone was there and it was good to see him and his gorgeous black beast again, now with a year of development. Martin Keller brought his Toyota-powered Locost out, and it's probably the closest I've ever seen to a "book" car. It was really interesting to look at it and compare it to the various mutated versions I'm used to. Julian Dziurawiec showed up without his car (he was on a business trip) but again, it was good to meet him. The next morning, we drove 15 hours through desolate, deserted Texas towns and snowy Colorado passes to get home exhausted but safe. A good trip overall, and I can't wait to read what Bert has to say. The focus of the article is the Atom, though.
entry 1337

Welcome to Eagle Canyon Raceway.
It's not quite done.
entry 1338
The track is hidden away in a farming area north of Dallas.
It's pretty flat overall, but the track owners found 70' of elevation change. They're super-friendly people and have built a great track. It's a "country club" style setup like Motorsport Ranch, and this is a track you could spend a lot of time on. It's been designed to allow a lot of passing opportunities in racing, which means there are several ways around every corner.

Oh, and since it's not finished, we had to deal with the odd truck.
entry 1339
The reason I'm here - the Ariel Atom.
Grassroots Motorsports had a couple to test and they asked me along to provide a contrast. Visually, it's an enormous difference.
entry 1340
The Atoms get their bath before meeting the press.
The "red" one is powered by a supercharged Ecotec and was made in the US. The "black" one has a UK-spec Honda engine and was made in the UK. There are some interesting detail differences, but both cars are gorgeous. From a gearhead's perspective, anyhow.
entry 1341
The level of detail on an Atom is just as good as you would hope it would be.
entry 1342
Note the nicely shaped cycle fenders, with a proper place to attach the solidly mounted brackets.
You won't see an Atom with a cock-eyed fender! I also like the little fairings for the lights, although I'm told they're very thin and fragile.
entry 1343
Bert "B.S." Levy poses with the cars before all the action starts.
entry 1344
Bert downloads after his first session.
Jim Sharp is in the blue shirt - he's the one who supplied the two Atoms on less than a week's notice after the original car suffered a mishap. Very friendly and generous guy. That's me crouched by the side of the Seven, getting some good news.
entry 1345
Two ways of building a lightweight sports car, designed 50 years apart.
entry 1346

March 7, 2007:
So, what was wrong with the engine? A lifter failed and jammed in the head.
This held an exhaust valve open at full lift. That lifter is well and truly stuck and the head is pretty much toast. No problem there, I have a spare (doesn't everyone?) and the cams are fine. There's a greasy fingerprint in the picture that looks like damage to the cam lobe, but that's not the case.

So I could just drop the other head on the car with the new cams, or I could be smart and port it along with some new valve springs. I'll probably do the latter - I decided once before to skip the springs and run the stock ones, and look where it got me. This will keep the Seven off the road for a while as I wait for the head to come back from the machine shop. That's a bit of a shame, but I have lots of other things to keep me occupied right now.

I was running this motor pretty hard and it took the abuse for a long time. So I don't mind this. It's not a terribly expensive fix really - cheaper than a new set of tires!
entry 1347

March 11, 2007:
Another track day - but this one wasn't in the Seven.
Instead, it was the debut for the Flyin' Miata Westfield that I've been working on. The engine fired up last Sunday, the car moved under its own power for the first time on Thursday, so the obvious thing to do was to take it to the track on Saturday. Less than a week from the first noise to full throttle down the front straight? Of course.

The car was amazingly good out of the box. It's very comfortable to sit in. There are no squeaks and rattles when driving around, and the suspension does an excellent job of suspending. Amazing. We did have a few little teething problems such as a clunk in the front suspension and an odd behavior caused by a short in the engine management computer that was fixed by removing the backside of the case, but by the time we'd had lunch it was up and running happily.

So, how does it feel? Not bad at all. The steering (the optional quick rack) is very well done and the car responds pretty well to anything you ask. The front track is narrow relative to the rear and Westfield recommended very little front camber, and the result is that hard cornering is ruled by the need to get the front to stick. This means a more cautious approach to entering a corner to make sure you've got front-end grip, and the balance in fast sweepers is dictated by controlling understeer. With some shock adustments and a slight 10mm bump in front track, it got much better. We're going to dial in a bit more front camber (it's currently at about 0.2-0.3 degrees negative) to see if we can get some bite. Westfields are known for handling like this from what I understand, but it could be improved. It didn't stop me from hanging out the tail in a couple of corners and from obtaining a fairly neutral stance in the fast turn 1 sweeper. It just took a different driving style than in my car.

There's also the matter of the brakes. I don't think the rears are contributing much at all and the right front wheel locks fairly easily. We'll do some cornerweighting to the car and see if I can adjust the proportioning front/rear somehow.

Overall, Bill and I are very happy with the car. The two of us went out to play and found that the car was very closely matched with Janel's little Miata. The 1.6 Miata has a supercharger (about 150-155 at the wheels, I'd estimate), upgraded suspension and my poor abused Toyo RA-1s. The Westfield has a bone stock 1.6 with a Link ECU for engine management (perhaps 95 hp) and my old set of Falken Azenis RT-215, a slipperier tire than the Toyos. The Miata is very well sorted, the Westfield had only just come off the build stand. I think there's good potential there.
entry 1348

The Westfield is alive! It's a great looking car once all the body panels are on, and it works very well right out of the box.
entry 1349
They're so pretty when they haven't even been wet yet.
This is a stock engine that's simply been cleaned up.
entry 1350

March 15, 2007:
At the track in Texas.
Burt "BS" Levy (author of The Last Open Road, I'm sure he'd want you to buy his books) gives his feedback on the Seven. Here's what he had to say in a later email:
REALLY enjoying your book, and now understand why the blessed car works so well. You have a wonderful practical grasp of balance, weight transfer, bump steer, etc., and the car sure shows it.

Am I bragging? Sure, why not. Thanks to David at Grassroots Motorsports for the picture.
entry 1351
Racing furiously down the front straight...or a staged picture for a magazine? You decide.
Bert is in the Atom while Tim Webb drives the Seven. What did Tim have to say?
I just wanted to drop you a note of thanks. I appreciate you letting me drive your very well prepared car. It truly was a joy to drive. I drive lots of cars and other than my FF1600, I don't get to drive such well mannered "street" cars....
Again, thanks. If I didn't have a racecar, I would seriously consider a Locost.

Okay, enough of that. Thanks again to David at GRM for the picture.
entry 1352

March 20, 2007:
While I've been patting myself on the back, the Seven has been sitting disassembled in the garage.
I'll take the head to the machine shop tomorrow and see if they can figure out how to get that lifter free - if it's possible. If not, I'll give them a spare head to work up. I might even stick a stock head on the car to make it drivable again.

In the meantime, it's time to get some serious work done on the Targa Miata.
entry 1353

April 6, 2007:
I've decided to install a stock head on the car.
The porting on the previous one was "nothing special", according to Bill. So I just need to pop in some valve springs and swap the cams. I have the head already, it's from a 323 GTX. The way things are going with all the other work I'm trying to get done, it's tempting to simply swap the cams out and deal with the springs later. But I made that decision once before, and look where it got me.
entry 1354

April 12, 2007:
I was driving to work yesterday and I was a bit ahead of schedule.
What the heck, the Seven's damaged head was in the back of the car and I was going right by the machine shop. So I pulled in to see what they had to say about my jammed lifter.

They had good things to say! Joe - the machinist - figured there was a good chance he could get it out. I left the head and went on to work. A couple of hours later, I got a phone call saying the lifter was out and that nothing was damaged other than the lifter and the valve. No worries there, they're littering the place. While installing my new springs, he also found that all my other lifters were showing really odd wear patterns from constant valve float. So he replaced all of them with the set I had pulled aside for the Targa Miata head.

As I might have mentioned, I had the redline set a little high so I could stretch out one of the short chutes at the local track. Down in Texas, I think Burt had been leaning a little harder on the limiter to stretch a longer straight and the abused valvetrain just gave up. Well, I had told him it was safe to work the car hard.

At lunch I stopped by to pick up my repaired head - one new (used) valve, 16 new (used) lifters and a new (new) set of valve springs. The used parts came out of the piles of spares that are sitting around at Flyin' Miata and in my garage. That was faster and easier than I'd expected!
entry 1355

Back in December 2004, I had the head off the car to fix a problem with the pistons and I considered installing new valve springs to handle higher RPM.
At the time, I decided against it. If I hadn't, I probably wouldn't have suffered a failure at the track in Texas. So I'm not making the same mistake twice. Aluminum seats, titanium retainers and a reasonable $366 retail price. Not bad really.
entry 1356
Preparing the block for the head.
I have to start using multi-layer steel head gaskets on this engine. I'm getting sick of cleaning off the remnants of the composite ones! This is at least the fourth head gasket to go on this engine thanks to the various rebuilds. It should be good for years of hard service now though.

If you look carefully at the exhaust valve cutouts, you can see where the valves were hitting the pistons. I didn't see this the last time the head was off, so the float was obviously extreme recently despite the same redline. I cleaned up the pistons with a dremel to take the sharp edges off and some fine Scotchbrite soaked in carb cleaner removed the carbon. Cleaning the headgasket was done with a plastic scraper and a Shop-Vac powerful enough to lift carb cleaner right off the head. No metal shavings in here! At least, I did my best to avoid it.
entry 1357
The Seven and the Targa Miata, in a race to see who gets on the road first.
Given that the Seven now has a head and the Targa car doesn't even have pistons in the block yet (tonight it will!), it's probably best to bet on the Seven. Soon I'll be able to get back to testing those new control arms.
entry 1358
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