Aug2

Written by:Steve Hart
8/2/2009 6:29 AM 

Tom and I did our second practice run with the Porsche on the back roads in St Lawrence county. We had very heavy rain so it was good practice for what we will likely run into in Newfoundland. Tom woke up extra early this morning so he could install the 6 to 12 volt converter for the windshield wiper motor. The wipers came in handy today. The windshield defroster is not hooked up yet and we would have rubbed an onion on the windshield if we had one! The car is now running only on biodiesel and the performance seemed excellent. The acceleration all the way up to 70 mph was impressively quick which should be well suited for the winding roads of the Newfoundland coastline.

Tom is spending all his spare time working on getting the car to race form. He installed the headlights, directionals, mirrors, tachometer and worked on the insulation of the interior floor before he installs the carpet which should arrive this week. While installing the tachometer under the dashboard his metal watchband came in contact with a terminal on his voltage regulator and actually melted the band. He has some nasty burns on his wrist and neck from the molten metal. After some first aid he was able to finish the tachometer installation. He now carries his watch in his pocket.

This week Tom plans to get the car inspected and we plan on doing some highway driving next weekend and I will get my turn behind the wheel.