It's been slow progress over the last couple of weeks, not least because Kate and I went up to Lincolnshire last weekend to watch the RGB racing at Cadwell. We got there on the Saturday just in time for racing to be abandoned for the day due to the torrential rain and standing water on-track. Duncan Horlor had already bumped both ends in his Spire while poor Martyn Turner was in hospital with a back injury following an accident in his MNR. After a few greetings, I was happy to head for our B&B and a curry.
The next morning things were looking slightly brighter and we headed back to the circuit just as a patch of blue sky appeared. We watched some excellent racing from various places on the circuit's edge; it's an outstanding circuit for the spectator. The undoubted highlight was the RGB Class F race where Austen, Paul, Colin and Steve all led at one stage or another. The top-four were nose-to-tail and side-by-side for at least half of the duration before Paul broke clear. Paul also got the fastest lap which drew him level with 3rd placed Austen in terms of Championship Points. Both drivers had won 5-times throughout the year so it took Austen's greater number of second placed to split the pair. As Austen and his Dad, Ken, explained to me, it was the culmination of 5 years' work.
Earlier in the day I'd spent an invaluable 20 minutes chatting to Paul and Tony Gaunt about Paul's Phoenix - his is the only current car running the same 4C8 R1 as is in my car. The good news was that I seemed to be doing most things right in terms of the installation. Ironically, the exception was the clutch cable where I was doing the same as Paul but, in light of issues this year (which I assume arguably must have cost him the Championship) they are changing things over the winter so that the cable runs to the engine as it does on the bike - this means a long cable and Paul also suggested that they'd move to a lighter gauge cable. With this in mind, this became one of my jobs to start yesterday.
The cable needs to turn through 270 degrees so it needs to be long and the bends need to be as gradual as possible. I've also go to raise the cable above the gear-change fulcrum to avoid disastrous consequences.
The cables are spaced-off the chassis using my preferred method of hose and cable-ties. It's light, tidy enough and does mean that things can flex a little if needed.
At the other end, an 8mm cable adjuster will terminate the outer cable. I need to get the pedals powdercoated before I can finish it off and check that it works - I have high hopes however.
Other jobs completed yesterday include relieving the rear dampers where they were just touching their brackets and finishing off the main battery cables.
The bumble-bee finish (made using yellow heat-shrink) is there to show the marshal where to cut the cable to kill the power. Let's hope that its never needed.
What's next? Finishing the clutch cable, taking the propshaft back for a second time for mods, getting the oil-take off modified, cleaning the TBs, replacing a spring on the reverse motor, getting a sub-lever made for the handbrake, fitting the front calipers and pads and much, much more.
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