Today

After completing my daily duty I fitted the pass door mech and made a little plate to cover the doorhandle hole. Thats 230grams saved. I spied the steel kenlowe pole mounts are ideal for alloy replacement, thats tomorrows task, must be 200grams there....so 2.7 ish kilos lost this week...I added 200 and a bit in the rad shroud...so 2.5ish.

Bled the brakes, roughly, i'll give them another bleed proper with new fluid sometime...I used Castrol SRF last time, dunno why, seemed to give a very tight pedal which is good for heal and toeing, and also the brakes were superb with good action and locked with minimal pedal pressure....Not solely down to fluid though GT6 brakes stop it on a 2p ! Lock up at any speed, lots of camber doesn't help..bit skitish in the wet I predict - so they are braking to the max of available grip, thats all you need!

I hammered the brake pedal towards the accelerator I think (ages ago), bent the arm, added a big alloy plate on the throttle pedal, you can always find the accelerator when braking now...Also added an adjustable clevis on the brake so the pedal. So it can be raised upwards towards you - so when the brakes are used at full power the brake pedal ends up 5mm further towards you than the accelerator pedal. This means you can easily roll the edge of your foot over and blip all downchanges or add power underbraking for stability in certain situations - while staying on the brake at optimum...Basic stuff, for race car. However, Advanced technique 8-)

Drove it ten miles without a windscreen frame, gearbox tunnel and roof! Bit windy, I cried, not with joy but with the wind past my sunglasses sucking the water out of my eyes and it was like being underwater wth your eyes open!....

It feels awesome! No rev's past 3500 for a short while and then 4000 for the next 200, then i'll break it in a bit at a time I don't think from initial feeling that its gonna need much running in it loosened up a bit already had chop the idle by 500rpm. I have noted the engine feels "lighter" in action when you blip a downchange etc, compared old one, also compared to the big crank engine I fitted for a short while its so different, so smooth when you rev it at static...No tapping or noise, rattles, its like a Rolls Royce! Purrs like a kitten, the exhaust has gone queiter and less booming its all different!

Feels great and SUPER balanced...its working nicely and driving it was a pleasure!...Idles like a wet dream, no movement at all, much less of a pulse/heartbeat at idle than the old engine even new?!?! Those wider new core camshaft lobes, less ramp? I question that there must be a marked difference between a grinder and a new cam going on the lobe shape, its much different and the cam is effectively the same thing figure wise...I'll need to feel the difference - better with less wind noise and battering!

It feels better anyway! I have yet to do the final tune too! Carbs need richer jets going on my plugs, cleaned up from sooty pretty quick, sooty from setting up, 52idle I think...Might also get some 115mains and some 117's to try. The roller rockers will require some change, but they are yet to be fitted, they will be tested on a rolling road with a Co2 probe, at my leasuire, against the stock ones...

I can rent the road for a day and I might ask Josh to come 8-) We can tune the MJL Ignition by holding the car on the rollers at set rpm, if it has that function, rent-a road, don't want some average joe playing with my engine thank you...Monkey see, Monkey do , Monkey do better each time, thats me 8-)

The cam comes on at 2500, fine before but gets legs here, you can feel a marked change in running clarity, also does this at static. Still yet to provoke any leaks or weaps or anything at all, my last one was dripping a few blobs overnight from day 1. Its all coming together. I didn't balance the old engine as well as this as it was as it came in unknown quality and just got reground and put back together for the last 2 rebuilds. This one is as good 8-) I noted that Josh's first engine felt smoother than mine in terms of rotating mass...I think this engine is gonna be so much better than my old one!

Also the crank case gas, or lack of must give more power...I can't wait to spin it to 7K+

I will oneday go over the entire car front to back cutting down bolts and screws to bare min for the nut....Winter I think 8-)

Feels like a giant rollerskate, hehe, stuck it round a corner or two, so unfussed just dives through. Alfa has polluted my mind , I will use the Spit on every dry day there is I think...I want one as an everyday car!!

Can't wait to get it done, then buy another engine and start on the next bottom-end over a relaxed period - so I can gun this one into destruction without hassling about breaking it and waiting for a fix, will be cam'ed differently bored to + 60 and further improved, I will go my own way on the cam, like josh, by using the software dyno. I don't want to be rushed into anything thesedays, rush to me a crap job. I want to make another gearbox too.

The next stage is changing my valves for lighter items and reducing the top end mass, ford race valves or something, I want to reduce mass here to the minimum and rev it higher again, need something left to do?!

I might even build something suitable for the odd race or two, maybe that Nurburging thing next year...Maybe I should build another car, a proper- race car 8-) Team Powell.