This must
count as one of the best upgrades/modifications
I've made to my car. I've always liked the look
but never tried them. My opportunity came when
I had a long run up to Cadwell Park with Steve.
I was hooked. It was then a while before I got
the chance to try them out, and I forget the exact
circumstances (probably me nagging him), but it
resulted in Steve and I swapping his Aero's and
my windscreen at the club meeting. The drive home
made up my mind. I wasn't going too fast, but
then coming out of Camberley I was behind an Elise
and we both overtook a couple of cars going up
the hill. I was able to sit behind him with no
trouble where before it would have struggled above,
say 50 or 60mph.
The next task was to get myself a set. I bought
my screens directly from the manufacturer, Kimble
Engineering (01803 835757), and then sourced the
mounting strap from Caterham. The mirrors I bought
from Europa
Spares and ditched the heavy mounting for
a simple length of Aluminium tube, the ends of
which I shaped to suit the curve of the mirror
and the stantion. I bolted from the underside
of the stanchion using countersunk screws and
then nylocs on top of the screens and inside the
mirrors.
I find that I sit low enough that I can use just
sunglasses
during the day, but I always wear a crash helmet
during the evening or at night as any bug will
hurt, and some moths getting quite big!
To
go with the Aero's these are also a must. They
stop your lower back / kidneys from being frozen
from the open side. Again Steve paved the way
of using a tonneau cover for the material. This
makes sense as the shape is right, you just loose
the top half. I managed to get hold of a second
hand tonneau from Mark at Ratrace
, but I think most race teams have been plundered
now as this is a popular mod. I got some small
diameter aluminium tube from B&Q
and Mandy sewed this into the top edge to give
it some strength. The poppers needed moving to
suit my car, but this doesn't really show. The
effect is a nice cozy cockpit and I think it looks
good too.
A
bit of extra ooomph would be nice, I thought.
Thoughts are dangerous, and often expensive. Some
of my reasons, decisions and a description of
my Zetec transplant can be found here
Ventilated
discs and Ali billet 4-pot calipers courtesy of
Hi-Spec Motorsport improved the stopping power
no end, see the details here
While
I had the front suspension apart for the brake
upgrade, I took the opportunity to fit the additional
top link to the upper top link and let the ARB
do it's thing. See the details here
Whilst
doing the Zetec conversion I decided I fancied
a starter button. Having the ignition wiring apart
gave me the perfect opportunity. It is available
from farnell in the following versions:
Blue
Farnell's
code
273120
Green
Farnell's
code
109281
Black
Farnell's
code
109280
Red
Farnell's
code
109282
The wiring
is pretty simple, simply wire it in series with
the starter motor wire, normally white/red, between
the ignition key and the starter, using 27amp
wire.
Something
that I'd been eyeing up for a while this one.
I liked the idea mainly for security reasons,
but it is also a good safety feature, assuming
whoever finds you knows what it is and what it
is for.
The fitting is easy, but it took a few attempts
to get my head around the wiring. Mandy bought
me the kit from Caterham as a Xmas present so
I had everything that I needed. There are some
instructions for fitting it here
but I would suggest that you check out the length
of the power lines carefully. I found that my
battery lead was approximately 3ft longer than
it needed to be and the starter lead was approximately
2ft longer. I cut these down and saved a few kg's
(they don't half weight a lot!).
When
I removed the cam covers on the Zetec I did some
research and found a couple of horror stories
of people having stones break their cam belts.
Of course, you can always find these, and for
everyone, there was another 2 or 3 people saying
they'd never had a problem, but it was a concern.
To combat this I made up a simple front undertray
out of 1mm Aluminium sheet. The shape mimics the
underside of the chassis and it covers the area
from the nosecone back to the sump, with a couple
of ears extending around 50mm either side. The
tray is then held in place with cable ties which
loop around suitable chassis tubes above. I did
try using some household pipe clamps, but these
were far too fiddly and I got fed up trying to
fit them. I also fitted some draft excluder foam
along the main edges so that when it was fitted
tightly, vibrations would be kept to a minimum,
and in fact there are none.
The hole thing took about an evening to make and
I made a cardboard template first to get the sizes
right. The effect is that the whole lower front
area is now protected to within a couple of mm
of the sump so no stone should find its way in
that way, or not that way at least.
A
bit more security in the drivers seat was the
next order. To this end I wanted to fit a 5 &
6th point to my harness. The trouble was with
my seats the new fixing eye can't come up between
your legs, but rather over the front of your seat.
That wasn't acceptable so I had a think about
a solution. It was clear that the strap needed
to come up through the seat, but that would look
very messy and I wasn't keen on that. The next
option was to get hold of a proper seat strap
guide, but these were very expensive considering
they were just moulded ABS plastic. In the end
it was suggested on the Se7en's List to use a
bass port from a speaker as the guide. A quick
look on Maplin's
website and this
was found. At around £1.50 it was a bargain.
The problem was that it still meant I'd have to
cut a hole in my seat, and if it didn't work I'd
have ruined a perfectly good seat base. I remembered
that Jason had a spare, pretty much wrecked, seat
which he has replaced with a Tillet seat so I
asked if he still had the base and if I could
have it. He did and I could. I repaired it a little
where it had come apart at the front, and fed
the leather with loads of feed, before finally
working out where to cut the hole. I left it slightly
smaller than the bass port, so that it gripped
it slightly, but it looks good. The only problem
is that the bucket eyelet doesn't quite fit through
it, so I had to feed it through backwards. This
means the base can't be removed easily, but otherwise
it is perfect. The strap comes forwards from the
thigh bolts and then comes up over the seat cross
member so it won't just rip the seat under load.
The difference a 6pt makes is huge, I feel a lot
more secure and even more part of the car than
before. I seem to be able to tighten them down
much more and therfore hold myself tighter and
so I don't move around so much. I've also discover
I can sing in a whole new higher octave so now,
if I could just work out how to stop it crushing
my tender bits, I'll be really happy.
This
came up for sale on Blatchat
and I took the opportunity to get one. Not much
to say apart from I like the looks, the neck is
easier to fill at the frequent fuel stops and
it was easy to fit to the car. Getting the fuel
pipe to fit it was another story and was a complete
pain in the proverbial as the angle doesn't quite
work that it sits comfortably in place, but it
works.
