x-posted from Jock7 :-
Ok, so technically it isn't my first, and it probably doesn't really count as a "blat" but it's my first time out on the road in my car.
So, got to the bottom of the road - bang - brain freeze! Thought to myself this isn't good - I've still got 20 mins drive to go and at faster speeds. Disengage brain and off we go again. I'm being mega cautious as it's an unfamilar car and I'm on my way to the testing station. The rest of the journey there was taken at a sedate pace (for all I know I could have 4 collapsed wheel bearings and 8 broken ball joints.
MOT passes with flying colours - only the lights need adjusting but that's no suprise as they came in a box when I bought the car.
Head home from work confident that what I have underneath (or all around) me is safe I push on a little.
I'm fortunate that the route home takes me on a 30, then a 40, to a 70 dual carraigeway and a 60mph limited roads. I build up the confidence on the 30's pitching it into corners at slow speed just to see what happens - all going well although the lack of body roll takes a bit of getting used to - it's like cornering on rails.
40mph comes and goes and the road opens into dual carriageway. So far I've been short shifting at 3, 3.5k on the dash - and even at a low gear change there has always been power there - never feels laggy or off cam unlike the elise.
National speed limit sign appears and I part bury the throttle in third. Car just lifts it's skirts and sprints - if I was to describe it as breath taking then I really wouldn't be lying. With the screen off and the two little aeros on (clear plastic things) I couldn't catch my breath and had to bring the speed back to under 50.
Unfortunatly the rest of my journey was plagued with traffic which was very disappointing. The car is now road legal and I'm starting on my wish/want list. First on the list is decent sized wing mirrors, second is something that will let me breathe at a decent speed
I can see why you guys love the cars so much - I may have hypothermia - but I'll die with a smile on my face that I didn't think could be topped when I drove an elise.
Mac
First Blat in my Caterham
Andy G wrote:Sounds awesome Mac - you've got me pining for my new wheels to arrive now!
Enjoy it mate - and hats off for chsoing one of the coldest days of the year to take it out screenless
I was very much keeping my hat on
The timing was all down to Dominic so he deserves the credit for me having hypothermia 
At least my car has sides
Mac
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thinfourth
- Posts: 3177
- Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:06 pm
- Location: Playing in the mud near aberdeen
i suppose we should get the classic blatchat post outmac wrote:We'll need to get you fitted for a seat first!
Actually - your heated garage is probably the best place to do that kind of stuff with it be an exo-thermic reaction (or if it's not that they it gets hot
Mac
blatchat post wrote: A friend of mine once built a canoe. He spent a long time on it and it was a work of art.
Almost the final phase was to fill both ends with polyureathane expanding foam.
He duly ordered the bits from Mr Glasplies (an excellent purveyor of all things fibreglass) and it arrived in two packs covered with appropriately dire warnings about expansion ratios and some very good notes on how to use it.
Unfortunately he had a degree, worse still two of them. One was in Chemistry, so the instructions got thrown away and the other in something mathematical because in a few minutes he was merrily calculating the volume of his craft to many decimal places and the guidelines got binned as well.
He propped the canoe up on one end, got a huge tin, carefully measured the calculated amounts of glop, mixed them and quickly poured the mixture in the end of the canoe (The two pack expands very rapidly).
I arrived as he was completing this and I looked in to see the end chamber over half full of something Cawdors Witches would have been proud of. Two thing occurred to me, one was the label which said in big letters "Caution - expansion ratio 50:1" (or something similar) and the other that the now empty tins said "approximately enough for 20 small craft."
Any comment was drowned out by a sea of yellow brown foam suddenly pouring out of the middle of the canoe and the end of the canoe bursting open. My friend screamed and leapt at his pride and joy which was knocked to the ground as he started trying to bale handfuls of this stuff out with his hands.
Knocking the craft over allowed the still liquid and not yet fully expanded foam to flow to the other end of the canoe where it expanded and shattered that end as well.
A few seconds later and we had a canoe with two exploded ends, a mountain of solid foam about 4ft high growing out of the middle, and a chemist firmly embedded up to his armpits in it.
At this stage he discovered the reaction was exothermic and his hands and arms were getting very hot indeed. Running about in small circles in a confined space while glued to the remains of a fairly large canoe proved ineffective so he resorted to screaming a bit instead.
Fortunately a Kukri was to hand so I attacked the foam around his hands with some enthusiasm. The process was hindered by the noise he was making and the fact he was trying to escape while still attached to the canoe.
Eventually I managed to hack out a lump of foam still including most of his arms and hands. Unfortunately my tears of laughter were not helping as they accelerated the foam setting.
Seeking medical help was obviously out of the question, the embarrassment of having to explain his occupation (Chief Research Chemist at a major petrochemical organisation) would simply never have been lived down. Several hours and much acrimony later we had removed sufficient foam (and much hair) to allow him to move again.
However he still looked something like a failed audition for Quasimodo with red burns on his arms and expanded blobs of foam sticking everywhere. My comment that the scalding simple made the hairs the foam was sticking to come out easier was not met with the enthusiasm I felt it deserved.
I forgot to add that in retrospect rather unwisely he had set out to do this deed in the hallway of his house (the only place he later explained with sufficient headroom for the canoe - achieved by poking it up the stairwell.
Having extricated him we now were faced with the problem of a canoe construction kit embedded in a still gurgling block of foam which was now irrevocably bonded to the hall and stairs carpet as well as several banister rails and quite a lot of wallpaper.
At this point his wife and her mother came back from shopping......
Oh yes - and he had been wearing the pullover Mum in law had knitted him for his birthday the week before.
----------------------------------------------------
We tried to make a foam seat at Estoril last year when it was about 35 deg C.........not a good idea, the foam went off straight away, it looked like the car was throwing up out of the cockpit, meanwhile I was sitting in the middle of it all..................with everyone around pissing themselves laughing.
I would advise doing a seat now, at least you'll have time to work with it before it starts to do it's stuff.
Malcolm
I would advise doing a seat now, at least you'll have time to work with it before it starts to do it's stuff.
Malcolm