Nice to see you Simon!

[biggles]

Nice to meet you at Stoneleigh yesterday Simon, good to put a face to a user name!

Shame about the weather and the very low turnout of both visitors and club exhibitors, with the exception of the WSCC and the Cobra club, probably due to the forecast of a wet drive home.

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be, but I remember going as a fresh faced 16 year old in '86, and it took 2 days to get round that show properly. There was a standing 1/4 mile competition, short course off road racing, and what seemed like fields and fields of club areas... All the halls were full of exhibitors and autojumblers.

Maybe people go to more local events now, with a mix of classics and replicas? Bicester Heritage Sunday scramble was cracking, a couple of weeks back, but I don't think I will bother with Stoneleigh again unless we are all meeting up there

Regards all
Tim

[Daggers-xi]

Would like to go to the Stoneleigh show but it being on a bank holiday weekend makes it impossible, family commitments at Holliday time come first, this is the same for a couple of friends that would like to attend.
Was the Simon you mention "Si", if it was did he get his car through the "ITV"? He has not posted on this site or updated his web since he was just about to apply for the test.

[StephenH]

Yes, good to meet you Simon, and thanks for showing me around your car.

[Simon Marks]

Hi,
I'm Simon Marks and enjoyed a busy couple of days in the WSCC marquee at Stoneleigh with my Eleven in its pre-IVA state. It was good to meet Biggles and Stephen plus former Eleven owners, current Eleven owners, Eleven in build owners, waiting for their kits Eleven owners, thinking of being Eleven owners and a good few people saying "What on earth is this?" So many people had not realised the sheer number of hoops that an Eleven owner must jump through to get the all important IVA pass.

My car was in the marquee in its IVA glory(!). Headlamps in the raised pods, compliant steering wheel and high-backed seats plus my little "bumper bar" at the rear to carry the upright number plate, foglight and reflectors. I've had the car at Track Day Toyz recently for pre-IVA checks and they said encouraging things. However, I took the opportunity to carry out a sound test outside at their premises and now find myself having to engineer 4dB(A) out of the exhaust. I have sound deadened inside the cills by the engine and fitted a sound deadened floor beneath the carburettor which, with extra Dzus fasteners at the rear of and sound deadening inside the bonnet should keep engine caused sound being thrown out of the void below the nearside cill down to an absolute minimum - leaving me with just noise from the exhaust to deal with. I spoke to a most helpful gentleman on the Classic Chrome stand at Stoneleigh and should shortly have a new link pipe between the exhaust manifold and the standard Westfield silencer - this pipe having a small additional silencer inserted. Hopefully that should do the trick and I can apply for my IVA test.

I have only been to this show three times. This year, I thought that Sunday was very busy (looking at the various car parks around our marquee) but Monday probably only had a quarter of the number of kit cars that were present on Sunday. I am sure a lot of this was weather related - my Eleven has only just dried out after having been towed home to Oxford through varying degrees of downpour!

Simon

[erictharg]

I think it is good that folks get to see the ugly duckling they have to build before the swan can emerge! On the positive side they can still (just) get through the IVA! Good luck with your test and hope to see you out there sometime.

[Daggers-xi]

Hi Simon,
Good to see a XI with all IVA bits added, looking good.
You are a couple of months ahead of me, I have rear plate vert bars added, doors & screen removed, approved steering wheeland and am working on headlight pods and rear view mirrors at the moment.
Looking at options regarding head rests now. Can I enquire as to the type of seats you are using?
I did wonder if i could just add a second head faring bolted to the rear clam as I have seen a picture of a car that passed with a head pad bolted to the original faring?
Any other IVA tips ?

[Simon Marks]

Hi,
The seats are a cheap pair of (seconds) fibreglass seats that I picked up from ebay. I had considered doing a second headrest but thought better of it because, I believe, the seat belts may not come over the shoulders high enough from the seat squab to meet IVA requirements - particularly the outer ones that slope down in line with the bodywork. Mark Walker (of Westfield) reckons that there could be an issue with the fibreglass seats I have as they are probably not homologated and may be viewed as not being able to withstand vertical loads from the seat belts at the high point of the belt. He has offered me the loan of some Westfield seats that the factory uses for their IVAs so I will be taking him up on the offer.

I picked up a very useful IVA tip at the show. If you feel the top of the "beehive" orange and red lenses as supplied, you will find the smallest of moulding projections on the summit. This needs filing off (five minute job for all six) as one owner was previously told by the examiner that it would be a fail otherwise.

Other than that, I have fitted the few nut caps in the footwell, I have the handbrake mechanism enclosed with a carpet shroud and fitted all the IVA stuff that came with the kit. At the rear, I have made up a bumper bar to support the number plate and fog light and ensure no sharp edges (see photos). Oh, and rubber edging everywhere I could think of!

As stated before, I am addressing an over-loud sound test (photo of the sound deadening below the carburettor attached) and once this is sorted, I will be applying for the IVA.

Simon

[StephenH]

Hello Simon,
I know you had uprated brakes on your car. Was this the Westfield optional kit, made by Hi-Spec., or was it something which you purchased elsewhere, separately? I ask for 2 reasons, first if it is a Westfield supplied kit, you should have been supplied with 2 spacers, which go between the steering arms and the uprights. I noticed that you have spaced yours with washers. If yours is the Westfield kit you might like to ask for your spacers!
Secondly, I have just been told (today!) that I will need to have my handbrake modified by a welding engineer in order to fit dual brake cables with a compensator off a Ford Ka. Did you have to do this, and if so do you have any details of the mod., such as a drawing? I have no idea what this looks like, as all my brake kit is presently with Mark, to assemble all the components which were missing when I took delivery.

[Simon Marks]

Hi, Stephen,

Mine was the Westfield / Hi-Spec brake kit. I believe the first one that was sold - it having been prototyped on the previous Eleven that the factory had built. Getting the brake parts was a trial - the last pieces arrived some five and a half months after the due delivery date of the kit. Having got the suspension set with the washers, I'll leave them in situ and ask Mark for the correct spacers sometime (I was sent some spacers that would not fit iirc). I'm bound to be fully setting up and corner weighting the car in the future and that would be the best opportunity to fit the spacers (if they materialise).

Regarding the compensator, I had a roughly triangular plate that bolted onto the handbrake lever within the transmission tunnel and the cables run away from this. I don't recall any welding being necessary and Track Day Toyz were able to adjust it all up when they had the car recently carrying out final checks for me. It's all buried deep within the transmission tunnel so I am afraid that I am unlikely to be able to take any pictures as the carpets are all in. I obviously did not regard this exciting enough to take pictures during assembly!

Simon

[StephenH]

Ah, did the triangular plate you refer to form part of the kit? I think the idea is that the plate should be hinged, not bolted solid, so that as you apply the brakes it automatically equalises the pull on the 2 cables, if you see what I mean.
Looking at your 'photos of the front brake kit, what did you do with the 4 long black bolts? I have come to the conclusion that they replace the shorter bolts which secure the steering arms to the uprights on the standard setup, the longer ones being necessary of course to go through the spacers as well as the steering arms.