Replicar for Arizona

[snowbird1]

Just out of interest, I took the Replicar to the county weighbridge - with a full tank and no driver it weighed 1660lbs (750kg). I also weighed a wheel/tyre assembly on the bathroom scale - 45lbs (20.4kg). I know those wheels are heavy but that is over 10% of the total weight of the vehicle.

[Stiggy]

velly interlesting! However, consider this... If you lighten the vehicle by taking off 20.4x4=90.6 then your car will only weigh 659.4 kg but... it will be hard to push with no wheels on it!
Seriously though I just weighed a 15" wheel and tyre at only 8.6 kg.
Still prefer your chrome wires to the space saver I just weighed though!

[R2S]

snowbird1 The thing is the wires just look right, only other option would have been to go for narrower wheels and tyres which would clearly be lighter but probably not that much.

Just thought what about using helium in tyres? (only kidding folks).

[snowbird1]

I haven’t done much with the car recently, other stuff going on. Did the Route 66 parade in Needles about month ago and it got hot – pegged the temp gauge, weather was mild - only about 22 deg and had no troubles previously. Let it cool but it would peg the temp gauge every few miles on the way home. Figured it was a stuck thermostat and sure enough it was hardly opening, stuck a new one in but still overheated in a few miles, discovered that I had no coolant flow through the small hose, found the fitting on the back of the head was completely blocked. Correcting this fixed the high idle problem but it still overheated. Advice from ‘gunwar’ was to get a genuine Mazda thermostat – problem solved, it was 43 degrees (110 in old numbers) last week, took it for a run and the gauge stayed in the middle. Wish it was a ‘real’ gauge so I would know how hot it does get, another reason to make a new dash.
I’ve done a bit of work on the suspension, cut one coil off the rear springs; this dropped it by 20 mm and got some rebound travel. Also removed the rear sway bar – the car feels a lot more settled but the rear wheels still lock first on hard braking.

[snowbird1]

Back in the USA, car a bit dusty but seems to have survived the summer OK.

Always a bit unnerving the first time you let someone else drive your car but our daughter Cathy loved the car and had no problem with the left hand gearshift:



Driving her Mom around:

[snowbird1]

Update on the Arizona car, mainly been enjoying driving around and doing a few car shows before the weather gets too hot, always gets lots of interest, comments are usually 'beautiful car' and 'the steering wheel is on the wrong side!' My stock answer to that is 'I don't understand why a country with a population as well armed as this sits on the side of the vehicle where you can't get your gun arm out the window!'

Been doing a bit of work on the car - kit cars are never really finished.   Enclosed the space between the air intake and the radiator to make sure that most of the air goes through the rad instead of round it. Basically extended the under tray forward and made 2 filler panels that bolt to the grill and chassis.



Finally got round to making some louvers for the side 'vents'. (Thanks to Gary (R2S) for the templates he made before I had the body for my car)

Not authentic but they look OK, if I build another one I will make the vents functional.

[snowbird1]

The Arizona Replicar is off on it's 2600 mile trip to it's new home in New England.



Garage is looking awful empty, new build starting soon!

[tojeiro]

Maybe just me but I think that is one of the best pictures I have seen of the Replicar, maybe just a great angle that would normally be a bit tricky to get to.

[snowbird1]

Thanks - seconds after I took the picture I fell off the wall and broke the camera - D'oh!

[R2S]

just spotted the fact there are no spinners