In the mad rush to get the car on the road, the blog has been neglected somewhat. We actually achieved start a week ago. 5L of oil went in. 10L fuel went in. Ran the pump. No leaks, good! Checked all the connections. Checked we were getting oil pressure by turning the motor over without spark. Then connected plugs. Fired off a quick prayer. Engaged starter but no spark…
Ok, start trouble shooting. Turns out the coil fuse was blown. I suspect this was due to me fiddling with the loom during installation. Replaced the fuse, confirmed 12v at the coil. Engaged the starter again and BRAAAAP!! What a sound! I couldn’t believe how awesome this little motor sounded. Truly a racer at heart.
Deo then set up the basics in timing and mixture while the motor did its first crucial 20 minutes of bedding in the cam. It needed to maintain 2000 RPM for the 20 minutes. I scurried to find us some hearing protection! This thing is loud! We wanted to take a first drive once done but it was getting late and the brakes weren’t sorted yet either.
It turned out the front brakes shoes weren’t properly seating in the newly skimmed drums. We had to reline the shoes and match them to the drums. This all took a week. Which meant we only got try again today. Brakes all sorted, first oil change done, valves set, it was time. I gave Deo the honours and we set out around the block at a pedestrian 20kph, with my twelve year old daughter and myself in the passenger seat! After we dropped her off, we drove the car 2km to the petrol station. She took 38L. We started with about 3 to 4L I think. Guess she is a sprinter, not an endurance racer!
After that it was my turn behind the wheel. It was a bit of a sensory overload at first. I was so worried that something would fail. Or that some one would wreck our maiden voyage. But everything held up. No rattles. No major hiccups. Everything pretty much worked ‘out the box.’ The gauges worked fine, albeit with a bit of a bounch on the speedo needle at low speed. Second gear proved a bit tricky to select. The clutch needs adjusting too. And there is a bit of a bind on the steering shaft at certain angles. I think I know where to go look for the cause. But otherwise it drove perfectly. The engine is super revvy and just wants to go. What a relief!
For the next week I’ll try bond with her a bit more and get a feel for the handling. Revs are being kept between 3k and 4k for now as far as possible. First impression is it actually drives a lot like a real 356, albeit with more torque. The steering, shifting and sound is actually quite similar. The sound isn’t that loud while seated in the car to be honest. The seats are pretty firm though, although they work well in the corners. Good thing that tank isn’t so big!
The project was conceived in the cockpit of a Boeing 737 in 2017. It was initiated at the start of 2019. The body was painted and returned on 29 September 2020. The first drive was 20 March 20. All considering, I don’t think we did too badly. I am indebted to Deo for constantly pursuing mechanical perfection. I think we have ended up with a pretty impressive homebuilt homage to the 1950s.
