The car is in the driveway.

I'd like to say I'm thrilled through the roof and gazing with swoon eyes out the window at the little car, but I'm just kinda ... still in limbo.

First, the good:
The car looks great.
There is gobs of power. I think there is approximately 1 lightning bolt worth of power in there.
The interior is dope. The seats are sick, the dash is very cool; it's so clean and roomy and comfortable and I feel very in control. I love the gear shift.
The car feels like a race car. It is raw, and it is beautiful.

So there is a lot of amazing stuff going on; it's great, but there are still bits that aren't working. Now, none of these things are real show-stoppers, but they make me wonder why I didn't just leave it till it's done. I guess I was a little excited.

There's an "unfixable" vacuum leak so the idle sounds like a roller-coaster ride.
The radiator fan doesn't work so it overheated all the way home.
It was raining so the front windscreen fogged up and I couldn't see anything at all because we never installed fans for the windscreen vents. Couldn't drive it until it stopped raining. If there's a rainy or cold track day or hillclimb, I won't be able to compete.
The alignment is totally screwed and the car goes all over the place when you apply any gas. I have no idea how much power the car has because I can't apply any. And yes, I am expecting the car to have torque steer and bump steer, but the alignment is BAD. Think of the wheels as those googlie eyes on puppets. Yeah; they face all different directions regardless of which way I point the wheel. And the local alignment shop couldn't do the alignment because the wheels are too small for their fancy ass machine. Balls.

Basically, I know we can fix this stuff, but I don't want to get in the car and drive it. I just want to leave it alone till it works right, because I have no fucking clue how to fix what's wrong. So I don't know why it's sitting right over there ->

Damn I can't wait till the quirks are ironed out because the car frigg'n rules.

Hmph.

Holy Shit!

The Mini is running!!
I just got a call from Nick at DSG and behind him I could hear the sweet sound of the B16. It sounded a lot like digital compression noise but that's okay. I am so pumped I'm having difficulty remaining in my seat at work. AAAAAAA!

Still needs a bit of work before it's roadworthy; none of the guages are connected, it's missing the oil pressure sender, and it needs an alignment worse than your momma, but other than that it's so frickin' close I can taste it!

Yargh!

More news as it progresses...

Side note

I was running out to the Asgard to get some Nachos for dinner because I'm on a healthy streak, and saw a bunch of kids standing around a parking lot testing what looked like a go kart on crack:



I couldn't help myself, so I stopped and got out to talk to the nearest guy, who turned out to be an MIT student. Turns out it was a project for a school competition where they have to build a car and make it fanancially viable as well as competitive on the track. They chose to build this space frame thing with the motor from a Honda CBR600RR (the rules are such that they have to use a motor under 600cc).

The thing sounded fierce, and weighed 450 pounds so it went like hell. The driver kept squiggling around and nodding his head with an "awwwww yeah" motion.

My nachos were cold by the time I picked them up.

Circles

Those shiny round things are the new wheels for the car! Hoorays! Plus some kick ass Yokohama A048 tires. I'm very excited about these things. Wheels are 13x7, and will be my racing wheels since they have such nice rubber around them.

I think they look pretty awesome, but would be way sweeter if I got them powdercoated black. Haw.

Also the exhaust bits arrived! 2.25" stainless; a resonator and a silencer; I want this thing to be quiet. We looked under the car and decided that I don't need those 90 degree bends; it'll just be straight out the back. Oh well. I heart wasting money. Anybody need some stainless steel mandrel bent tubing?

Some progress, some pics...

Fuel system is being fitted - here's a shot of the cell in the boot. A thing of beauty:



It was all custom fitted to plop right into the boot space, but we still need to modify the space a bit to hold it more securely. Kinda funny. Maybe I should have just gotten a square. Oh wellz!

Anyway, here's a shot of the dash, the remote reservoirs will be going in the passenger's lap, next to the fuses, next to the switches. Easy access is the name of the game.



Still needing work ( that I can think of ):
Finish fitting the fuel lines and mounting the cell
Clutch and brake lines
Complete dash and switches
Create Shifter and modify shift linkage
Get some wheels

There's probably more, but I can't think of it right now...

Fuel Cell Arrived!

The fuel cell finally arrived on Monday - it is bananas! Behold:

Sway bar arrived!

And here's a pic!



It has actually been here for a while, but was missing the end links. We just got the end links and installed that shit yo.

Still waiting for the Fuel Cell. Thumbs twiddling.