Well, this is a post I thought I would never be doing.......The J15 has been sold to make room for a new project. More about that in another blog.

But, it was a genuinely sad day watching it drive away. Shes gone to a good home in Birmingham.

Reality was, the J15 was not getting used, and quite honestly I really missed the building and tinkering.

So, I'll close here......bring on the new project which has 8 cylinders.

This is Paul............................signing out!!!

800 miles and counting

Not a massive amount to report....car now has 800 miles on the clock, and so far no real issues. It's been reliable, even through a particularly big downpour!.


The screen is now working well with it's new additional Perspex clear add-ons, but I'm not overly happy with the way it looks. I asked JP if he could do one of his screens for the J15 with a tint, but alas, no can do. I'm not in a rush to change it, but will park it in the 'things to think' about bucket.

Also, you may have noticed the vent in the bonnet. This is to try to minimise some of the parachute effect you get with these designs. It allows air to escape a little quicker...does it work?........

................who knows, but it's carbon and looks good, so that will do for now.


I'm trying a smattering of lipstick on the very front of the car. Again, something I did with previous westfield and does add to the look. It's done with peel off rubber spray which is great for when I inevitably get board and decide to change the look of the car again.

500 miles update

Having now done 0.5k miles in the little Sylva I thought it time to update the blog. most of the miles have been a sneeky trip into work on a Friday (1/2 day which means I can take the 'long' way home). So, rush hour traffic and the J15....Not as bad as you may think, the hydraulic (and standard) clutch is a welcome bonus in comparison to the fast road clutch I had in the westfield. Lets see how it copes on track but with a car weighing less than half its original intended application, my guess is it will be fine.

I mentioned in the last post that the screen needs some additional height, this has now been sorted with two small perspex screens, thats really helped, and on  a private road I took the J15 upto 105mph with not too much in the way buffeting.

I also popped over a fellow J15 builders house on the weekend. His car has a duratec 2.0ltr engine that I'm sure is going to be a beast, but has built the car with a period look, really good to see the same car with 2 different build briefs. Anyway, looking good Chris, I'll be cheering you on for an IVA in 2015 :-)

I'm still saving my pennies to get the suspension set up. I keep toying with the idea of 4 ebay 180kg scales, some string and some luck.....but I just know I'll always wonder if its' right, so no, no, no...naughty boy for even thinking it!.

The driving

Before I had really driven the car, I had a number of modifications already figured out. However, having now put a few hundred miles on the car I'm going to ease back on what I had initially thought.

First off.........Power!

A standard engine was never really going to cut it, the old westfield was camm'ed, tuned, and torquey, it was chucking out around 175bhp of 2ltr loveliness...no way was standard 1.7 going to do it for me. Well, I'm pleased to say thus far I've been wrong. The shear revviness of the little puma engine is a delight, and currently full throttle acceleration runs are scaring me far more than they should. So, engine upgrades are on the back burner for now which is a nice surprise. It sounds good too.

Suspension and the mystery of the jumpy throttle
Sounds like the title of a Harry Potter book, but I assure you, the jumpy throttle and suspension are firmly linked and form a rather funny story...read on.
One of the gripes of the driving experience was that the transition from off throttle to 'a tiny, weenie' bit of throttle was to put it mildly, a bloody nightmare. The car would basically kangaroo down the road if you were trying to take it easy. A few emails to Northampton regarding the mapping, and there were a few thing to try. That was on hold while I tried in vein to solve another problem...that of a ridiculously stiff front end. I went down to 175lb springs, but that still didn't seem to make much difference. It was only when cussing about my wasted £30 on new springs I tried coming a further 2 clicks of the shocks. Now, in my defence, the Gaz shocks have in excess of 20 clicks from full soft to full hard, so I assumed (yes I know, assumption is the mother of all.............well, you know the rest) that going in at around 8 would be a good starting point. Turns out that on the J15, anything over 4 is rock solid!!!!!!!...opps.
Shocks now set with three clicks on the front, and my mysterious throttle jumpy problem disappeared, because it's now possible to keep your foot on the throttle pedal without it getting knock around from the stiff car. Now, having worked on a few cars in the past I consider myself to mildly knowledgeable of the problem solving process on car faults, but I never would of thought that changing my shock settings could solve a self diagnosed 'mapping issue'......you live and learn as they say.



ARB's
Still undecided about this one...The car currently seems stiff even though I've gone down to 175lb springs on the front. It's really a track day that will decide if ARB's make sense or not. There is so much grip available that I've not come close to exploring the cornering ability, and thus can't really tell what the roll angle is on the limit......roll on suspension set up and a track day.

Aero
The aero screen is good, but I need to install a small clear screen atop of the aeroscreen (ever seen the tiny postage stamp size ones on the ariel atom?) just to brake up the air flow as it smacks you in the face, this will make the driving experience a little less 'frantic' all being well. On the same subject, I still like the idea of a front splitter of some sort, but nothing has jumped out at me thus far that would do the job...the search continues.

Other issues / observations

• Wing mirrors, with hindsight, I should have gone for something smaller than the current e-tec's. Fact is, the driver side wing mirror vibrates around and is close to useless anyway, so a smaller lighter mirror may be the answer. It's a shame, because the mirrors look good!.
• Wheels - They need to be black!
• General crap flying around under the front clam - I removed the make shift protection I put on last year, but reality is the front wheels really chuck up the grit and mud. The solution really is to construct something like I did on the rear clam...Thats now on the to do list
• Rev counter - the electric speedo is actually rather good (I wasn't expecting that!). But the rev counter at the top is just too small to see - The solution has been to install a shift light that sits on the steering column, and is perfectly placed to shout 'CHANGE UP' when the time comes
• Driving position - Even though I spent many hours on this, I could still do with a tad more rake on the drivers seat, just to support the backs of the knees a little and pull the arms out a tad.

What else has been happening...ahh yes, I was delighted to receive a call from Complete Kit Car (CKC) asking if they could run a 2 part readers car feature on my car...yes, my car...what a genuine surprise. By the time I post this I think the april addition of CKC will be out so I'm going to rush to the shops to get my copy. The first part is build related, and the second instalment is more based around the driving and finished article. But, they seem like a great bunch, and I cant wait to see it.....the front cover is on thier website ( so I hope they dont mind me doing an image cut and paste) and in the bottom left hand corner you may be able to see a little blue car with some 15 inch puma wheels holding it up :-). We also recently did a photo shoot, but don't want to give anything away until it's in print...Needless to say, I hope I can get a few of the prints.

Now, when am I going to get this first track day out of the way?............Until next time!.

Finished.

For some strange reason, the 25th Nov 2014 feels like a bigger milestone than passing the IVA. So, whats happened?......Well, the V5C form arrived today, and when I checked online the car had also been taxed. I had to check as the DVLA no longer issues tax discs, and there was no paperwork.

So, I picked the kit up on the 10th Nov 2012, and completed it on the 25th Nov 2014. Just over two yrs to build...not bad I suppose.

I've had a few moments recently where I've stood back and pondered what I would do differently if I was to build it again, and I guess its good to report that the answer was not a lot. I should have hacked off the steering lock gubbins and fitted an immobiliser (much neater), and also moved the key ignition to the side pod. Apart from that I think it's car I intended on building.

So, I should stop the blog?

Well, as anyone who has built a kit car knows, getting through the IVA is just a start, I'm now looking forward to some track days next year and trying to 'develop' the car into a quick track car.

Things I will ponder over the next year or so:

• Anti Roll Bars
• Side impact protection
• New camshafts / remap
• Brake balance adjustment
• Suspension set up 
• Aeropackage - front splitters / rear diffuser

Watch this space!

Aeroscreen!

 I had a letter from the DVLA on saturday...Dear sir, you enclosed the incorrect amount for the first years tax payment...etc...etc....

Turns out, the first year you tax a car, it must be for a year...DOH!. Oh well, a few more weeks to wait then.

Meanwhile, a job I've been itching to do for a long long time......THE AEROSCREEN :-)

The standard Sylva offering for a windcreen is fairly tall and clear perspex. Point being it's tall enough that you need be able to actually look through it. It's a nice design though, just not exactly what I wanted.

I've always like the lip aeroscreens like you see on Caterhams, but the shape of the J15 does not lend itself to this sort of screen. The plan was to use some flat carbon, wrap it around the lip on the tub and secure it...Job done!..note quite. As there are two curves to contend with my so called simple job turned out to be actually quite difficult. To a point three attempts at a card template, and I gave up. What now?......A call to a fellow builder who has yet to fit his screen was the answer (thanks Chris). I took a template, and few hrs work on the weekend the J15 was sporting it's new aeroscreen. Still needs some further securing, but that can wait until the tub comes off.

Side duct number 1.

I promised I would keep everyone updated on this, so will try my hardest to keep taking photos as I go.

Moving on from the top vents in the engine bay, I've now installed the first of two NACA ducts in the side pod. After some measuring I realised I was able to squeeze in a 75mm duct. The main issue here was the fact that the side pod is not flat over the area of the duct. However, by strategically tightenin the rivets in an order so it pulled the fiberglass out evenly, I was 'JUST' able to get the duct flush to the body work.

The 75mm ducting came from ramair, and is good stuff...feels nice and strong.

The pipe work in the engine bay is pointing towards the air filter. No idea if it will make a real world difference, but as it was getting genuinly warm around this area, I can't see why not. By having a very slight

upwards angle on the duct, I was able to route the 75mm tube between chassis tubes. This holds it nicely.