build diary

March 6, 2005: Partly for the book and partly because I didn't believe it could be correct, I put the Seven back on the scales today.
Yup, it is perfectly balanced when I'm in the driver's seat. Or when a limited slip diff and four dyno calibration weights are in the driver's seat, anyhow. The downside is that the car seems to have gained a little weight. The fuel tank was brimming and the new tires are noticeably heavy. Is that all? Well, other than gravel strategically placed in every nook and cranny, yes. Maybe it's time to start thinking about pulling some weight out of the car. Somewhere. I did raise the rear slightly so that the car sits level when I'm inside.

I spent some more time with the bump steer testing. Remember how I realised that my steering geometry was wrong some time ago? This forced me to move the tie rods below the steering arms, leading to the problems with the rod end limitations. Well, even with with my newly raised steering arms I still needed to either raise them further or drop the rack down. Maybe my measurements were done with the tie rods on the top of the arms after all. I suspect the truth is that I measured to the center of the arms. Regardless, I dropped the rack down about 1/4" (the limit without rebuilding the rack mount) and improved things fairly significantly. It's still not perfect but that will have to wait.

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