Motors I'm building my own car... UPDATE - Stoneliegh 2013

It picks up engine speed I believe to reign in the steering assistance if your accelerating hard. i.e if someone was to dump the clutch the steering would be offering full assistance whilst in a stationary position and would continue to supply it until the threshold lower speed limit has been achieved to start reducing the assistance.

It's a double check system.

Those little corsa's did get some very nice engines for the size of car, Corsa C got a 1.8L 125hp lump from the astra, previous to that a 1.6 GSI wasn't to be sniffed at either. (personally I wouldn't own a small vauxhall or ford, the french do small better.)

 

Indeed - had a good encounter with a modded 1.8 C over winter, normally they're not quick enough to keep up, but this one had cams etc. Went well!

 

Updates! Yes, shocking I know, but here it is all the same:

http://www.greatoldone.co.uk/blog/2012/11/11/getting-nowhere-fast.html

 

Santa came early this year, and left this under the tree for vikki:











A new polished header tank, made by the same chap who did my washer bottle. He followed my drawings (well, most of them - he did weld the top plate on back to front, but when I pointed it out he split the top off again, turned it round and welded it back on. You'd never know from looking at it!)

Also, I've been busy polishing:



It probably needs another going over to get it really bright. Then it's onto the air intake manifold!

 

Ooh, nice. Although the welding on the tank could be prettier.

Are you going polish-mad on us now GOO?

 

I'm more Autosol than man, now.

Welding is prettier than anything I could manage.

 

The reflection in that photograph is rather unfortunate, but everything else looks excellent. Is she hibernating for long?

 

LOL! Rep for that PureSilver....

 

Until we have good weather again. I have a long list of jobs to do:

Sort out the high idle
Fit the new header tank
Finish polishing the throttle, and do the air intake manifold
Fit the racelogic traction control system I won on eBay a few days ago.
Start assembling the Hybrid BMW / Corsa PAS column using the parts I've machined at engineering class
Build the arduino based controller for the above, and program it.

It's going to be a busy winter.

 

Can't believe I forgot to post these updates up in here... Senility, obviously.

http://www.greatoldone.co.uk/blog/2013/2/21/a-change-of-direction-aka-gaining-traction.html

http://www.greatoldone.co.uk/blog/2013/3/9/tank-god-no-scratches.html

"I said, You buy one, you get one free! I said you BUY one, you GET ONE FREE!"

 

Some nice progress there!

In some ways it's a shame about the ePAS not fitting, after all that work, but it'll drive better without it.

TCS looks good - I've heard of Racelogic's CS being stellar before, certainly confirmed now!

I would've thought the ECU learning would be something you'd know by now GOO - mine idles and drives noticeably worse for the first few miles, then when it's been warmed and taken up the revs a bit it settles down again. Amazing machines are standard ECU's, with their fancy transient learning etc, makes aftermarket ECU's look like toys!

 

Ah, no. Obviously

In my defense, the old ECU didn't have a learning mode...

 

Out of interest what's the ratio you've got on at the moment? Apparently the quicker Z3 racks are a straight-fit for E30's, so if you fancied something a bit snappier it wouldn't be hard to do.

 

It's not a BMW rack at all - it's a Ford sourced one (Sierra, I think) that Marlin supply with the kit. 2.5 turns lock to lock, IIRC.

 

Ah, I see. 2.5 turns is plenty on 195+ section!

 

'Ello all - Vikki's finally ventured out of the garage again after being shut in there all last year due to the shitty weather. Her first destination? Stoneliegh:

http://www.greatoldone.co.uk/blog/2013/5/5/ooops-she-did-it-again.html

 

Congratulations are in order! Although I've got to say, it turns out that motoring in the period Vikki's styled after was actually a lot more complicated and refined than Marlin want you to believe (DO NOT STOP WATCHING BEFORE 2:30):

 

The French: purveyors of wacky voitures since the dawn of motoring...

It does have a slight wiff of deux cheavaux about it... And I expected to see Mr Burns get out of it at the end.