STOP PRESS: ZEN to contend 2009 Time Attack Series

Too close for comfort!

It’s Thursday afternoon, Time Attack starts early Saturday morning and I have just found out that there is absolutely no chance of our Rays wheels arriving in time This leaves us wheel-less, as Duncan Graham is running the Hyper Zeros from last year on his car! I have some limited options. The first, is to run a set of Hyper Zeros we have here with not quite the right offset… but we seriously need some spot on wheels for the Superbattle. Fear not, we have 1x Rota Torque Drift in exactly the right size. I just need to find the money to buy 3 more and someone that has them in stock for next day delivery! Erring on the side of caution, I have already chased down a possible source and I am waiting for them to call me back. But I am getting twitchy and having left umpteen message more than a little impatient! (How frustrating it can be to be a customer, I promise I will remember this!!)

In other news, today we have a complete engine to go in the car. On the downside, sometime between me leaving at 9pm last night and 3am this morning when work stopped, it became apparent that there wasn’t time to fit the Cosworth inlet manifold (as it requires some modification of the exisiting set-up due to the constraints of the front mounted turbo.) Ah well, at least we have something to do for Round 2

Paul was mapping a customer car at midnight last night, which he finished off this morning for the customer to collect at lunchtime. Now Paul and Richard are working through the other 3 cars requiring mapping and setting up this afternoon! Together with finishing off an exhaust install on a car that suffered accident damage in the snow in February. Tim and David meanwhile, are working on fitting the engine and modifying the brackets for the rear brake calipers. The latter ground to a halt however when the machine shop drilling the brackets locked up and went home for the day with our brackets inside their shop!

Still, there is an engine in the hole now Tim has sprayed the front wing and bumper with the rattle cans. Good enough colour match and OK finish!

All cars mapped and customers off on their way home come 7:45pm, so work stopped for a quick BBQ again, to recharge the batteries before commissioning the engine…

I think today is the only day where, despite progress, there has been an air of despondency. I hope that the mood will lift tomorrow once we have that engine running!

3 days to go…

It was Tim’s turn to work through the night and kip at ZEN last night, finishing up a couple of bits. Anything that requires modification or fabrication always takes many more hours than anticipated.  The big news for Wednesday, was David Wallis arriving from Leeds complete with wet sump from Steven Darley. As expected, the existing exhaust manifold would not clear the sump and so David set about chopping it up and making new pieces, before refitting it along with the Cosworth inlet manifold.

We left David working on that and Fred working on the front bumper and brakes, whilst we all dealt with normal ZEN work.

Refreshed ourselves with a BBQ and then sent Tim off home to see his kids and sleep in a proper bed. Rich, Paul, David and Andy stayed late…. with luck there will be an engine to go in tomorrow.

4 days to go…

Everything is cracking on at a fair pace but there are a few sticking points… No wheels as yet from Japan and no injectors from the states. Richard slept at ZEN last night after working into the small hours - with full days of customer work ZEN employees can only get going on the car after hours…

But hey ho, let’s focus on the positive

So we had to spend £500 on cam followers as none of the buckets we had in stock were of the correct thickness…

But at least the cylinder heads and hence the long engine are all built up now And the front splitter is absolutely rigidly mounted and can support the weight of our heaviest technician (that’s heavy )

And work is being done by Fred to mate front splitter with bumper….

And the brakes have been mounted on the front and checked for fit on the rear and the plan of bracket modification drawn up!

The last weekend!

Friday 17th April 2009

I was at home with the kids today and so Paul had a very hectic time coping with all the office stuff and all his tech jobs!

I popped in at tea time because the brakes arrived today from Compbrake (well the fronts at least :o)) and I had to check them out and take photos - they look fab. We are very pleased with them, just need to sort some pads… Performance Friction please….

Early night for Paul and the lads tonight.

Saturday 18th April 2009

Paul had a full schedule of customers till 1pm, so the morning shift was left to the fabulous Mr T. Extra afternoon helpers were Fred and Santa’s Little Helper. Jobs tackled included: Filling and sanding drivers door. Re-moulding all polycarbonate windows. Making the definitive choice on how to mount the splitter. Mounting front brakes and adjusting lines to suit. Completion of the short motor. Sustenance was provided by Mr R McDonald.

Sunday 19th April 2009

Paul, Rich and Andy took the £0 time and half Sunday shift today

Richard has been giving some attention to the Cosworth heads - for speed we had to go for un-shimmed, and so we need to build up and check clearances and make sure we have the right cam followers to shim them up correctly. Turns out we need a full set, so a bit of a hold up on that now and more spending

Andy has built up the individual throttle bodies, cleaned and inspected any components that are being re-used and so everything is set heads wise now, just as soon as we get the followers!

Rich and Andy have also put all the basic ancillaries together such as water pump, oil pump and so on.

The drivers door has been sprayed and looks great again and the refitted poly windows look and fit better now too.

Paul has turned up some brackets on the lathe for fitting the front splitter and some interim flexi-MDF inserts have been cut.

By 7pm, there wasn’t much left to do bar eat a huge Sunday roast

The build gains momentum

Just 9 days to go…

Another full day of work work - it’s nearly midnight and I am still here (complete with the 6 and 8 year old kids) trying to get the admin back log cleared!! Tim, Rich and Paul were all working on customer cars till 7pm again too!

So updates…. We sorted the brakes today, yeeeeha! Going back to the weight saving principle of our 2009 upgrades, one of our main concerns when choosing a new brake kit (apart from the obvious stopping power) was opting for something lightweight. So, after much research (and elimination of a lot of kits due to lack of funds) we settled on a front and rear system from Compbrake. With luck they will arrive tomorrow. That makes Compbrake the fifth new supporter for ZEN in 2009 and a new supplier for stock products too.

Andy T made a huge difference to the team effort again today by kindly picking up the block from the machine shop, post- bore and hone. Even better than that, he also delivered our Cosworth cylinder heads and pistons. Andy set to cutting out the frame around the drivers window and then together with Paul they layed up some carbon fibre to re-attach the frame as desired and with extra strength.

Leaving that to go-off, Andy scooted home and Paul has begun to build up the bottom end of the engine - he had hoped to use last year’s crank but as soon as he put it in the lathe for a cleanup it was blindingly obvious it was no longer straight! That’s the budget stretched again! Paul got the new crank out the box at about 10pm and now at midnight the bearings and rods are on. More tomorrow.

Whilst Rich and Tim attacked the aero fitment issues… Starting from the back, the bumper was cut to make way for the rear diffuser and new fixing points were found. Next the main piece of the flat floor was affixed as per last year and then on to deciding how to make the front splitter work (yeah we are still umming and ahhing this one)

Bedtime!