GBS Run Out

First excuse of the year for a run & back to GBS for their 2015 run out.

Headed north on Saturday, overnight stop in Retford in time to see the last 6 nations Rugby match at the The Galway Arms then met up for approx. 118 mile run on the Sunday. Finishing at a The Plough in Cropwell Butler for (in my case) steak pie and chips.

Tea and biscuits laid on at GBS, time for a chat and to digest the printed route plan:

The map shows only my round trip; the middle part between GBS and The Plough was the run itself - 14 cars and a fantastic convoluted route along A & B roads which certainly tested my driving.

Route on Google Maps

A few pictures en-route courtesy GBS

The Zero behaved itself - cooling not a problem, although the horn stopped working at some point (entirely possible it wasn't working all weekend, I think the only time I use it is to 'toot' goodbye at the end of meets)

Returned home about 9pm on the Sunday evening - best part of 500 miles all in ODO now showing 6,136 miles. Good shakedown for Scotland at the end of April which will be more like 1,400 miles in total including the north/south legs.

Brands Hatch - report

Just back from a long day at Brands Hatch...

Garage 18

Total Kitcar live was a one day track focused show, allowing anyone to signup and ride with the various marques present as a passenger.

I originally was attending as a static display example at the invitation of GBS, but the opportunity arose to also take the car around the track too; baptism of fire - wet track with no experience.

Garage 18 - The GBS racer was present, but on slicks and not going out; my motor an example of a road targeted customer build:

Some really nice Ford escorts adapted for racing next door, No idea what all the cars were, a good mixture, bike engined, replica, 3 wheeler, single seater, even an electric trike, but I don't think the wet conditions suited his vehicle.

Spent the morning chatting to KentZero from GBSOwnersclub and potential customers/interested parties including 2-3 people who had seen the blog and/or were in the process of looking at options or building their own cars.

On-Track

Fantastic to get on Brands Hatch as a driver

The track session; starting with sign in, the nominal drivers instruction then 2-3 sighting laps following the safety car; all very well organised. Relaxed atmosphere since the focus was on showing off the various marques in action. Special note made during the briefing informing all drivers the most usual place  to spin is after Druids - which of course was phropetic!

My first outing at my own pace with my wife in in the passenger seat: was fine for the first corner; - Paddock hill bend looks steep as a spectator - but even steeper from inside the car with adverse camber, then straight line with a right kink up to Druids, and I think I was the first spinner! - a little too much right foot coming out of the corner, back end came around and a short detour sideways onto the grass!

Attempt to save it, steer into the corner - no luck - grass is more slippery than the damp track...

No Damage though - so a quick check, clean up and back out half a dozen times over the day with my wife and a some prospective/interested GBS customers. Cannot say I was quick around Druids, but could give it some speed around 70mph down the straights and sort-of getting the hang of Surtees and McLaren..

Paddock is cool in a fatalistic sort of way, needs setting up on the straight, and then trying to smoothly drive through it and get onto the uphill straight before running out of road width.

Lots of practice on the blue flags and letting faster cars past; hopefully I didn't get in the way too much.

 

In the background on this picture from TKC Magazine's Facebook page, DRLs nicely bright!

My dash camera has a built in GPS which can extract basic speed telemetary. The graph is speed vertical with time left to right. It shows each outing onto the track as a cluster of verticals, laps marked by the significant low points which is me taking it very easy through the Druid's hairpin.

The horizontal axis is not continuous between outings; i.e. we had significant breaks between the 5 drives around - avoiding the worst of the weather if nothing else.

Still in one piece and luckier than some - I was not the only spinner, and one unlucky Cobra replica ended up losing a headlight and re-modelling a wing as it spun on the start finish straight hitting the pit-wall resulting in a red flag for a while.

All in all a good day - 7.30 am start at the track, and good time to drive, wander and look at other cars and watch the general goings on. Mostly dry/damp but no real clear sky to let the track dry off and one total downpour for good measure.

The drive home felt so much more stable than the track; I think a mixture of dry conditions, instruction and setup check will help before venturing off the road again.

You've got to have a go though!

A few videos with more in-car shots to follow in due course.

Totalkitcar Live 2014 @ Brands Hatch

Totalkitcar Live is running at Brands Hatch on the 15th November. GBS invited me to attend and display my Zero with them in Garage 18. 

Various cars will be running the Indy circuit during the day and taking passengers, I might get the chance to get on the track too...

Autumn driving...

Any excuse to get in the car for a drive;

September: Donnington & SKCC

Donington Kit Car show a couple of weeks back; Good show + on the same weekend as a race day + an excellent F1 car collection on site. This was also the excuse for a run back through central London in the sunshine. I also met a few of the group from the Scotland run earlier in the year.

..then SKCC drive with 40 cars to the Amberley Heritage museum; Convoy from the cafe meet to the museum was great to be a part of, and the weather was with us again for a relaxed wander around - its 80s claim to fame being the location for the external shots for  Main Strike Mine in the Bond movie A View to a Kill.

October: GBS Run out

..and last weekend its back up the M11, A1 towards Newark - GBS have organised a Sunday run out. While its a fair way to drive - any excuse for the countryside further north has to be taken;

Missed the worst of the weather and 'toughing it out' in a local B&B with Pub down the road the night before - sorted :)

GBS Write up is here, Facebook album here, and a sample of photos, including me smiling again - don't know what does it! :)

All Zeros but all slightly different depending on the builder's preference:

80 or so miles of country roads and high speed convoy:

Hats off to the photographer laying in the ditch to get this shot as we all went past...

Good run, although I did cook the engine slightly and now have some excuses to tinker & upgrade the cooling system.

A few hundred more miles on the clock with the round trip to Nottingham, ODO is now around 5,200 miles since build.

GBS Badges

I spent Saturday at the Classic Motor Show & while I was there picked up some pre-ordered badges from the GBS stand. Its a while since I went to the show - and I don't recall it being so massive before - it seems to take over the entire NEC now - not kits but classic cars/bikes/auto-jumble etc. I don't think I saw Lotus or any Sevens other than GBS.

GBS had the white demonstrator and red Mazda based demonstrator on show. GBS Facebook Show page has a picture of the stand, there were a few tens of thousands more people about when I dropped in mid morning:

I'm still not convinced on a nose badge & anyway the bonnet is already sporting Union Flags & don't want to get too busy.

Opted for the steering wheel centre and boot badges:

Custom 'Zero' model badge to come for that space under the GBS roundel later...

IVA - Passed!

Result! The IVA is passed and I have the certificate to prove it.

The final part was emissions; 

Simon @ GBS re-worked the map to use both my narrowband lambda correctly and adjusted the IACV settings to get through the emissions test. Both Lambda & IACV are options I decided to re-fit, many of the cars run without both or go wide-band Lambda.

GBS agreed to bring the car down and take it through the test - then if any tweaks were needed I had the experts on the job. Simon had already spent time setting the car up in Nottingham & checking with their local test station.

It sailed through the test first time... almost so quickly we didn't realise!

I met Simon & John at the Gillingham test centre around 2pm, sorted out the fee to the testing station and once the car was warmed up the test itself took less than 5 minutes; Simon held the revs at 2,800 then idle - the machine said YES, the inspector said YES & I have a nice official IVA certificate !

My Zero back in the garage after a month away - its been missed:

Thank you GBS: Richard, Keith, Simon & John


Next step DVLA, road tax & plates - now surely that is going to be easier than my fun & games with VOSA ?  (touches wood, salutes magpies, avoids black cats, ladders & mirrors).

Made it - Zero safely at GBS

177 Miles more on the clock

Good run up to Nottingham; no windscreen and only goggles for protection - its a nice cruise around 60mph & sunny most of the way too. 

Couple of blips on the throttle through Dartford tunnel + out of the wind it was warm.

The M11/A1 route isn't bad for a small car - two lanes most of the way so I didn't feel too overwhelmed by larger traffic as on a motorway.

I did put my foot down here and there  - but without a screen or helmet the wind just gets painful! Close to GBS the last stretch of A roads is perfect for Zeros - sweeping roads & rolling hills with a couple of sharp corners. I love the engine intake sound when you put your foot down - you can hear it sucking in that 2 litres per rev of air capacity with a whistle as the power comes through.

I can understand why many drivers don't ever put windscreens on - while I understand, I will be putting one on my car eventually otherwise I don't think my wife will be passenger again.

Arrived & Zero left behind

The car is safely at GBS, I just need to persuade VOSA to move the paperwork up from Gillingham and with a bit of luck we'll get the car registered:

The only minor problem - I lost my Silencer bracket guard. I was just showing Richard around the car to mention any non standard assembly & all that was left of the bracket was the jubilee clip that held it on! The vibration on the trip up did for it. Shouldn't be a problem since its done its job now.

(Standing back from the car for the first time - that nearside front wheel arch isn't in a perfect position, its a little far from the tyre - but I can't really change it now)

The car looks pretty good, even when sitting alongside the factory builds, I'm really happy I got the build to this stage; This first real long drive with no problems really made the effort over the last 12 months worth while.

The little machine I built/assembled in my single garage took me half way across the UK on its third outing without issues - Its been fun & rewarding to build - I can completely recommend a kit car, and specifically a Zero, to anyone considering a project.

12 months on

Its virtually a year ago I was first at the GBS Factory being shown around - the GBS team were preparing for Detling then & I was a potential customer for their Kit.

Today, one year down the line, the kit has returned as a finished (save windscreen) Car & GBS are busy preparing for the National Kit Car Show - Stoneleigh so everything at their offices is on the move for the show stand:

A little time to wait before Keith could give me a lift to the station so I wrote some feedback on the process which GBS decided to publish on their testimonials page.

Just need to find a train back to Kent now!

Back to GBS

I have a plan,

I'm not getting anywhere trying to adjust the ECU on the fly at IVA, I decided to ask GBS to help get me through the final emissions test. They know the cars, and if its failing due to some assembly mistake on my part they will be able to correct that too.

The challenge is getting the car the 177 mile route back to the factory. My insurance is good on the chassis plate until Monday and IVA rules say I can drive to a pre-arranged appointment to fix any item outstanding from the test.

The car is good except emissions - so no reason I can think of not to drive it :)

• Oil - check
• Coolant - check
• Spare wheel - check
• Duct tape & basic tools - check
• Power map installed - check
• Breakdown cover - check
• Fuel can - check
• Windscreen - nope !

The only couple of bits of fabrication; a couple of swing clips to ensure the spare bracket bolts stay in place even if they manage to shake the thread lock loose. I have a broken 3.2mm drill bit which leaves only about 5mm of bit & means I could safely drill in this area without any risk of hitting the fuel tank above:

We shall see if I get there...


View Larger Map

The biggest challenge might be reaching up high enough to pay at the toll booths for Dartford tunnel.


If anyone sees a loon in a red Zero, no windscreen heading up the A1 tomorrow - give me a wave !

Kit picked up!

A long day yesterday, 8am start - hire the van, set out en-route around 9.30am, arriving at GBS around 2pm;

Good support from the team at GBS talking through the build, general advice etc then checking through the order.

I ordered virtually a complete kit so it took the best part of 3 hours to check everything against the list and load into the van. I happened to have rented an extra long wheelbase van which was easily filled by all the boxes.

Of the 100s of parts half a dozen will follow later;

Richard designed a spare wheel carrier for me, removable and integrated into the chassis - otherwise the Kit is standard.


Got home around 9:40pm, lost the light around 10pm, first chance to use the engine hoist (in darkness) to get the motor out of the van, and finished unloading by about 11:00pm:

Note; the bonnet (sitting on top in this picture) is rolled and edges formed as standard now; + the main right angle bend on the rear panel:

Its all tidy at this point:

And now not so much,...  ready to sort out a little:

Again panels - it looks like the side panels have changed a little - larger floor 'triangles' built in and all bent/formed up (bottom left of this picture against the wall):

The picture on the wall is to provide inspiration and make sure I don't lose sight of the wood for trees!

+ the GRP panels are currently sitting in the conservatory loft space.

First build task - sort all this stuff out so I can move in the garage;
Need to find somewhere to put the tyres on the wheels which will save some space too.

Busy - but very productive day!