A collection of awkward-to-embarrassing newbie questions

[Angus]

Having just had my R400 (now on RB's) remapped by Steve I can vouch for his work.

[gazsouthgate]

Well team after all the help I felt I owed you an update 

- I've officially lost my v wings on the oil and have got into a good routine of adding 5w 50 after each track day (seems to lose about half the length of the dipstick measuring area per track day). 

- I had the pedal positions adjusted for heal and toe by one of the mechanics from cater ham south...they are now perfectly placed its almost hard not to mash them all at once...practice needed but much better. Now when the brake pedal starts to bite I am in line with the top of the throttle and can just slide over for a blip...but as I say, practice needed!

- speaking of bite...the brakes were bled by caterham and OMG what a difference it made. Really firm now and shows it was needed.

- they replaced the mirror of course...still on (I tried my own fix but it didn't last long)

- and while I was there I couldn't help but get a battery master switch...j didn't know about these but it saves the rigmarole of taking the battery out to charge it every time I want to drive and seems to make sure the charge is held better when the batterY is off 

silverstone on Monday!

[gazsouthgate]

Thanks for the comments on remapping...the lumpy idle is now a constant problem for the first 10 miles of any journey. I dread traffic! Sometimes switching off and restarting solves it...sometimes not. Adds pressure of making sure battery is charged too! Will look into Steve...thank you 

[Delbert]

Rear-view mirror – fallen off already! Oh and finally, has anyone else found their rear-view mirror shakes itself to freedom? Mine came free and I wonder what adhesive people would recommend for me to return it to its natural place.

Aeroscreen sorts that issue !

[martyn]

When re-attaching the rear-view mirror I used methylated sprit to clean both the windscreen and the mirror base.  I then heated the sticky pad and surface with a hair dryer to get it nice and hot before pressing into place.  This has resulted in a rock solid mounting that isn't going to fall off any time soon. It’s been on there 8 months and still solid.

[Robert Cadiz]

About Brake Feel.

I have had a lot of the same issues as you with brake feel and pedal positioning for heel toe.

I have had a lot of help from:

Tim at http://www.sevensandclassics.com/

as well as

Andy at http://www.pgmsussex.com/index.html

I would give either of them a call and discuss your requirements.  Although my car is primarily a road car and my only car, over my first year of ownership I have slowly compromised it more towards track work.  For me this compromise has not reduced its cross country capability and only increased my general driving enjoyment. 

For me it took a long time to get the pads bedded back in after a lot of use through the winter and this helped with the feel but ultimately the pedal travel was too much, while the feel was still wooden.  A full bleed of the system and a change of fluid type also helped a little.

Both Andy and Tim have various pad and compound options to help change the pedal feel.  I am still with the original pads and will change the pads as per Andy’s recommendation after the winter.

For pedal travel / heel toe I found that I had to move to an uprated m/c and reservoir cap.  This worked fine on the road with the brake pedal height adjusted so that with a decent press of the brake, the throttle was easy to blip. 

However on track this does not work so well because a good hard press of the brake left the pedal well below the throttle.  Andy also has a solution for this if your car has a metric chassis.

All the best

Robert

 

[Curly]

For the mirror I use heavy duty Velcro means that when it gets knocked off the adhesive pads stay attached and it's a simple reconnect of the hooks needed.

 

So far it's lasted about 6 years......