IT. RUNS.
today was the inaugural drive, and of course it was the usual comedy of small failures but all's well in RamblerLand. turns out that removing 600, 800, lbs of steel, undercoating, roof, upholstery, rugs, etc adds a lot of noise. WHO COULD HAVE KNOWN.
i've never driven never mind owned a roadster before, the simple act of climbing in utterly changes the gestalt of the car. for the better. ahh, simplicity!
the web page is far behind, but i'll update it in the next few days/week.
the major inherent problem is that weight distribution is lousy; it's extremely light in the rear; most american cars are nose-heavy i suppose but i think a disproportionate amount of rear mass got removed in this car. but damn -- Melon will know what this means i think -- in second gear, foot away from clutch, mashing the pedal spins the tires. 195.6 OHV CANT DO THIS lol. it's a combination of lowered overall weight and almost nothing over the rear tires.
any suggestions on a car-friendly scale in Los Angeles? i really need to attach some numbers to the seat of my pants.
the rear suspension is one leaf and the smallest air springs Goodyear makes. i added a torque link to deal with spring wrap. i added provision for a panhard (or watts, but laziness dictates panhard) "later". it's stupid light. i moved the battey to passenger rear, but what's that, 50 lbs? other than a tank of gas, there's nothing out back but the tiny "AMC 15" Dana axle and i doubt more than 350 lbs of sheet steel (unibody) behind the B pillar. even the trunk lid is just a skin.
i searched and searched, but this appears to be the only unibody true roadster i could find. are there any others?
i had a lot of ambitious plans for a software instrument panel -- i actually made and installed it, all running, software complete -- but did not trust commercial-grade electronics to long distance desert driving, so i pulled it all and put in a fairly traditional panel of SW gauges. it felt a little bit like defeat but my gut tells me it was the right decision.
it really is a hot rod -- even if the "traditional" crowd disagrees -- though it's Nash/Rambler driveline, i made all the pedals (master cyl in the floor) chopped out the entire firewall system, whacked my own sheet metal (ball peen and old stump), caged the deleted doors and B-pillars.
not that i'm looking for approval, i made it for myself as Beater of the Pack says. i did make it with a bit more than one eye on the SoCal TT though -- canyon car. i intend to rally it.
