June 2000

1st June 2000

Well I was supposed to head of to Le Mans this month with a group of friends in all manner of machinery from Porches, Ferraris, TVR Griffiths etc.., but I landed a new contact and could not get the time off. So I wasn't best pleased. At least I didn't have the rush to get the hood completed as this was taking longer than expected. The company who were going to do it kept putting if off week after week so it didn't look like I was going to get it done in time anyway. I'd already covered the sideframes and fitted all the ferrules and hood metalwork so in the end Jill and I will probably do the hood ourselves.

17th June 2000

Watched Le Mans on tele....I really wanted to be there, but as it happened my journey to Le Mans would not have been without incident, let me explain. Today I took a friend over to a local motorcycle shop as he had booked a test ride on a Honda SP1. We got there no problems, but as we were about to leave the shop me in the Cobra and him on the Honda, I was planning to try and keep up with him - some hope! Anyway my accelerator felt very stiff. I took a look and found that the cable had started to fray and kept getting caught in the outer sheaf. Luckily I always carry a spare, so it didn't take too long to change it. I did then have a good look at the route the cable made when the accelerator pedal was pressed through the full travel. The cable is a push bike break cable complete with the adjusters on the end, very good and cheap at around £3.00. What was happening was the inner cable was rubbing on the metal adjuster and causing wear. Because the cable was not being pulled in a straight line it was sawing through the cable when the pedal was at middle to full travel. So I need to have a look at this and modify the throttle linkage to ensure a smooth route for the cable.