It’s getting back to normal service here. especially as I’ve just finished the first final draft (yes, I know that doesn’t make sense) of my thesis. So,I thought to myself, “I’ll update the blog before I go to bed”. See? I really care.
After all the stuff I’ve done recently, a sensible person would get the car to a dyno to set it up properly. However, I just won’t have time for that so I decided to fit the wideband lambda sensor on the car. When I designed the wiring loom I included wiring for this sensor, which I had installed on the Fury, but I never got around to installing the sensor. As I’d put the boss into the exhaust it seemed that now was a decent time to install it.
You can see the sensor sitting in the exhaust just above. Also note the copious quantity of exhaust wrap on the new exhaust. That’s bound to be a bad idea when the thing falls to bits at the first opportunity.
That thing that looks like an elephant’s trunk is the hose from my garage vacuum cleaner which is, or was, a Tesco special that cost me about £30. (See how much money I lavish on this and how carefully I frame the photos?) Of course, I’ve used the vacuum a lot recently to suck up all the gravel that was inside various bits of the car. Unfortunately, something was too much for it and while using it the other evening there was quite an alarming bang and the casing of the machine essentially exploded. Still seemed to mostly work though although the level of sucking had been rather deleteriously modified by the casing being 
even less air tight that it was before. Anthea’s book group were meeting in our house at the time and they were apparently a bit alarmed. Anthea, of course, thought it was perfectly normal and only came to check up on me when the rest of the book groupers insisted.
I went out today and bought a replacement. Cost me £37.97. It does, though, include “cyclone technology” which sounds very exciting…
The new exhaust, inevitably, exits the bodywork in a slightly different position from the previous one. So, I made a new escutcheon plate (I think that’s probably the right word) to make it look a bit neat.
Finally, I put everything back together and stood back and looked. And then — pregnant pause — I tidied up! OK, it’s not exactly pristine but most of the tools are now back in the appointed places.
Note the laptop sitting on top of the engine cover charging up the battery in the camera. I’ve modified the mounting for the camera, hopefully to get rid of the horrible interference that I’ve had on the vision for a while.
So, unless I decide to take it apart again, which from past experience is highly likely, I shall now leave the car alone until I have to drag the car down to Pembrey. This is, of course, a long way. However, I’m not allowed to complain as Bob does essentially the reverse journey for most race meetings.
And, we’ve got our entry in for the Birkett. Please, please, let it be dry. If it’s wet again I think I’ll give up doing it as it’s completely ruined for us. It’s OK when it’s wet for an RGB race as it’s the same for everyone. However, in the Birkett when there’s things like tintops around which are heavy enough to make the tyres work then we just get completely destroyed.