61 replies to this topic

[Heypacha]

After 7 months of work the car was put together and ready to start the engine for the first time. As feared/expected the car didn't start. There was obviously a problem with the wiring or the ecu. From the state of the ecu and the wires there were at least 3 different "electricians" working on the car. They made a complete mess of everything destroying the ecu in the process. The wiring was repairable, but it took us 3 days to repair it and test it. A new ecu was ordered, the old one was beyond repair.  

Waited for a week to find and get a replacement ecu from Serbia and another week to get everything working. There was still problem with the wiring and the ecu was from an Astra and had to be flashed with the data from the speedster. Someone used silicone glue on the connectors on the ecu, so a new pair had to be sourced, that took two more days.

 

Getting ready to remove the pre-cat.

 

 

I replaced the steering wheel with a slightly smaller Momo wheel I took out from a Triumph Spitfire mk3 and moved it a little bit closer to the driver.

 

 

old ecu

 

 

 

 

[fezzasus]

You should be very proud of the amount of work you've put into restoring it.

 

Are we reading about this as it progresses or has it already been completed?

[fezzasus]

One note. The silver bracket around the boot latch should be under the black plastic bit, not above - you may find the boot is latched too high if it stays where it currently is

[Heypacha]

You should be very proud of the amount of work you've put into restoring it.

 

Are we reading about this as it progresses or has it already been completed?

 

Thanks Fezzasus. I should pick up the car by the end of the day. I'm going to drive it for an hour and take it to get the geometry done. Hopefully I'll finally drive it tomorrow afternoon. 

[smiley]

I like the key mod

[Heypacha]

I like the key mod

I think that was done by the previous owner when he installed central locking (that was removed during the restoration). Didn't ask why it was removed. I'll ask tomorrow. The horn is on a button next to the key. Is that how it's supposed to be?

[JohnTurbo]

- Horn should be on thumb grips of the wheel. Button by key should zero the speedo.

[Heypacha]

One note. The silver bracket around the boot latch should be under the black plastic bit, not above - you may find the boot is latched too high if it stays where it currently is

Thanks. I'll check that tomorrow.

[Heypacha]

- Horn should be on thumb grips of the wheel. Button by key should zero the speedo.

Thanks. One more thing to fix tomorrow.

[smiley]

 

I like the key mod

I think that was done by the previous owner when he installed central locking (that was removed during the restoration). Didn't ask why it was removed. I'll ask tomorrow.

 

 

He seems to have done some more interesting stuff.

There's a bunch of small lights on your dash in various locations which are not oem.

 

Here's an oem:

Edited by smiley, 25 September 2013 - 09:25 PM.

[fezzasus]

 

 

I like the key mod

I think that was done by the previous owner when he installed central locking (that was removed during the restoration). Didn't ask why it was removed. I'll ask tomorrow.

 

 

He seems to have done some more interesting stuff.

There's a bunch of small lights on your dash in various locations which are not oem.

 

Here's an oem:

 

I think they are OEM lights, it's just the stack is missing the black surround.

[Heypacha]

 

 

I like the key mod

I think that was done by the previous owner when he installed central locking (that was removed during the restoration). Didn't ask why it was removed. I'll ask tomorrow.

 

 
He seems to have done some more interesting stuff.
There's a bunch of small lights on your dash in various locations which are not oem.
 
Here's an oem:

 

I think they are OEM lights, it's just the stack is missing the black surround.

I'm waiting for the surround. The lights were replaced with brighter red ones and until I install the surround the car is undrivable at night.

[fezzasus]

But how was the drive today?

[Heypacha]

All the problems with the ecu and wiring were solved couple days ago and I finally got to drive the car this Monday. Firstly I had to setup the height of the car. The car had Gaz gold coilovers installed when I bought it. I got the old leaking bilstein struts that were beyond repair, so I had to go with the Gaz for the time being. It turns out that the difference between bouncy Castle soft and bone crushing hard is 20mm. Thats only by adjusting the height, without touching the strut soft/hard setting. Front height:120mm is very soft, 140mm is very hard. 130/135mm is OK. More on the suspension in another post.

The geometry was finally finished yesterday and I got to drive the car the way Lotus meant it to be driven. The difference between the unadjusted and properly setup geometry was unbelievable, like driving two complete different cars. I drove the car for more than two hours, before it got dark and the left headlight died. 

I even photographed the car 10 minutes before sundown (magic hour). I found a nice location, parked it, and dodged cars while taking photos. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Heypacha]

There is a small imperfection just above the turbo vents. There's also a problem with the paint above the right headlight and the paint cracked on the front hood. I'm having that repainted as soon as I stop driving the car, probably in November.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Heypacha]

I just can't stop driving it, I even got sunburned today. Didn't plan to drive for 3 hours when I got it out of the garage. It just happened, the car is just unbelievable. I still can't grasp how good it is.

 

[G-Bob]

The headlight is probably a dodgy connector. Mine did that and it used to come on and off intermittently. I just swapped them for spade connectors and it sorted it.

[Heypacha]

The mirrors were not painted with the car. I get them painted latter, I doesn't bother me for now.

Edited by Heypacha, 27 September 2013 - 01:06 PM.

[Heypacha]

The headlight is probably a dodgy connector. Mine did that and it used to come on and off intermittently. I just swapped them for spade connectors and it sorted it.

 

You're probably right, but since the headlights were converted to xenons I'm not touching them by myself. I'm planing to convert them back to standard by buying new headlights, since these were destroyed during the conversion.

[Heypacha]

600km latter...

 

The car is incredible. I don't remember the last time I had so much fun in a car. Probably in high school, while parked, with Amy.

Even though the suspension is not sorted and I don't think I can set it up perfectly with the GAZ coilovers, the car handles perfectly. The way it loads and hangs in fast third gear corners is unbelievable. You fell so secure while driving it. The car still bounces over rough surfaces and the back end is to soft for my liking. 

I will probably go with 46mm Nitrons road spec in the near future.

There are a lot of small problems still plaguing the car, but I just don't care. The front tires are new, but wrong dimension 195/40R17 and not very good. Right width, wrong profile. The tire diameter is smaller than the original and the nose is much lower than the back. Adjusting the height makes the front too stiff. I'll check if the previous owner had put lowering brackets instead of the original ones. The back is softer than the front, but I can't get it to the proper height cause it would make the front even lower.

Still waiting for the underwings so I have to be careful and avoid water and rain. I'm a little disappointed that the engine can rev beyond 6500, 7200 would be perfect. Most of the places that I like to drive have nice second and  third gear corners and I find myself very often bumping at the rev limit in second. I know that with the standard engine there's no point in going over 6500, but changing to third gear puts you in the middle of the rev range where the car is less responsive to throttle inputs. Plus the engine likes to rev and the growl above 5500rpm is very addictive. It feels very similar in sound, torque and smoothness to the 2.3 16v Cosworth engine from the Mercedes 190e 2.3-16 and I really didn't expect that. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you don't mind being bombarded with pictures. There a very few pictures of vx220 in petrol blue on the net and most of them are shot in overcast weather or in the dark. They make the car/paint look more menacing and you can't really tell how the car will look in sunlight. Hope this will help someone decide if he want's to paint his vx220/speedster/elise in petrol blue.