Thread: Project Sebring GT Spyder

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Originally Posted by Hotrod46

I don't intend to put this car on a drag strip very often, but it may see a hard launch or two!!

Crikey, that's something I'd like to be there to see.

Well gang, I have an apology and some very big news to report on this project!

First I’ll get the apology out of the way. I have been very MIA for the last few months on this thread and for that I apologize to everyone that has followed this story over the years, but it was for a good reason. Not long after the last post I made a solemn vow to myself that this car WOULD be drivable before the end of the year. No ifs ands or buts, no excuses. There are 3 big car shows that we usually attend toward the end of the year and I wanted to drive the car to as many as I could. To that end, I quite literally became a man on a mission. I have been doing 10 -12 hour days in my shop on all my days off for the last several months. I also burnt a lot of vacation time toward this goal. There were very few days that I didn’t do something on the car.

BUT, the good news is that I have driven the car! It is still not absolutely complete and was not exactly trouble free, but it was good enough to drive to the Cruisin the Coast affair on the Gulf coast last week.

There is much to this story and I will probably miss a lot of it, but I will try to post enough to get everyone caught up on the build. Of course, if there are no pictures, it didn’t happen. So here is the proof.



As you can see, the car is actually painted, which was an adventure in itself. The color is British Racing Green as done by Mazda for the M series Miata’s.

The trip and the car was not without issues.

The night before I left, I realized that I had never did a tune for anything other than to get it to the paint shop. I made up something that I thought would work and uploaded it right before we left. Still needs a little work, but I got over 19 MPG at 70-75 MPH on the interstate. I think there is a little more on that front.

I made the trip to the coast fine, but the car was pretty squirrely on uneven bridge crossings and bumpy roads. I occurred to me the night I arrived, while lying in bed mulling this over, that I had never dialed in any rebound dampening into the shocks. I essentially HAD no shocks. I corrected that the next morning and things improved a bunch. I still need to recheck the alignment and ride height now that the springs have had a chance to settle.

There were several things that I simply ran out of time to get done. I had no top, since the new windshield wouldn’t work with the old top and I have about 75% of a functioning windshield wiper setup, but perfect beach weather solved those problems. The AC and heat aren’t hooked up behind the dash, either. Oh, and there is no horn, wiring, but no actual horn.

The biggest issue was that I thought the engine was in melt down the first time I got caught in traffic and believe me there is a LOT of HEAVY traffic at CTC. The dash gauge was reading 235 – 240 at times, but the engine never acted hot! I was puzzled by this since I never heard the high speed cooling fans come on. I should add that I’m running a stock LS thermostat and the engine runs around 208, which as far as I can tell, is perfectly normal for an LS with stock stat. My fans are set to come on at 215 (low) and 225 (high). This aligns closely with the factory stock settings of 218 and 228. Yes, it was very hard for an old guy like me to accept that these engines are happy at temps that would scare me to death if it was an old small block. Anyway, to get on with the story. I never heard the high speed fans come on and they are plenty loud enough to hear over the engine. I had accidently left my laptop at home, so I had to go to an Office Depot and buy an inexpensive laptop to see what was going on in the ECU. I didn’t really mind because I have been wanting to get one to carry in the car just for tuning. Turns out, the ECU wasn’t seeing anything over about 220 and the temp was being perfectly controlled by the low speed fans. The gauge was going wonky when it went over 210. After that, I didn’t really worry about it and only heard the high speed fans come on briefly one time after a hot restart. I think I know what is happening and have a potential fix, but that’s another story for another time.

In all, I put over 800 miles on the car. Other than the few problems I mentioned, there were no other real issues. I didn’t hammer on it much because I wanted to break the engine and clutch in or at least give them a fighting chance. I will say that the few times I really got on it, it goes pretty good! Mucho fun! The exhaust note is great and several people commented on that. Has a nice mellow “sports car” sound until you get on it and then it really talks to you. My wife said that apparently I must really like that, because I seemed to make it talk a lot! It was a hit with spectators, too and wound up posted on the CTC Facebook page. Many pics were taken over the week.

Here is a bonus video from the autocross. I couldn’t resist having a go after a little goading by a friend (who was brave or foolish enough to ride with me). My first time on an autocross track and with a new car to boot! It was a fairly slow run compared to the hot shoes with the purpose built cars, but I was about the same time as a Cobra the previous day. Still had a ton of fun and can’t wait until next year!

https://youtu.be/xb5DgxqvY5U

Here are some pics I took when I got home.

Awesome Mike! Glad your on the road! auto cross sounds fun! Car looks excellent. Thumbs up.

Amazing thrash to the finish line! Congrats! The car looks amazing!

Times 3 Mike! I agree with the others. You've done a lot of incredible work and the car reflects that. Can't wait for some more updates.. hint hint LOL

Good one mate, it looks bloody gorgeous, I'm not surprised it's a head-turner!

I'd wager you're as happy as a dog with two tails...

"while lying in bed mulling this over, ........" significant, unlogged build time.

I'm gob smacked at how well it turned out...........not surprised, but still impressed. Two things strike me the most, though there is so much to take in. First is how successful you were in making it look so much more like an actual Healy than what you started with. Fabulous! Second, I love how you made the engine compartment look both functional and "hot roddy" at the same time without too much showy crap.............so clean looking. That thing is a detail freaks delight.

The car came out beyond great, really first rate build!

It came out bootyful. Congrats on gettinrdun. Also congrats on making Cruising the Coast, you were pretty impressive on the road course.
Nolan

That car just looks RIGHT.


.

WOW! Beautiful car Mike, and job well done. You have more patience than I ever dreamed of. CTC is the perfect place to break it in. I’ve never been to it, but I just booked a room there for next year.

Thanks everyone for the compliments. It's been a long, long journey for sure.

I'm really enjoying driving it, for sure. Still needs a lot of tuning and tinkering to get completely ship shape, but it's plenty good enough to enjoy right now!

I have about 14 days to get it ready for a 400 mile drive to Panama City, Florida for the Emerald Coast Cruise. I really need to get that top fitted!

"It's been a long, long journey for sure."

Yep.
Just looked back to when you started this thread: November 2014.
But I think you can say that the end result was worth the toil and frustrations.
It's a beautiful beast and a credit to you.

That's outstanding ! Wow what a hotrod! Glad to see your hard work pay off and it did in BIG way, Congrats !