Decals, competition number, the prisioner

Time has come to fit a place to put a competition number (assuming I am to hill climb/sprint this car).  The requirement is for three sites one viewable from the front and one either side below the aero screen. The numbers have to be 9" high so that more or less dictates the size of the white background. You are not allowed to display the numbers on the public highway. I took the view that driving around with blank number sites was a bit bland so I added my own decal design of "the prisoner".

 I can always cover the logo with white background when needed or rip of the decal by applying a little heat.

For those viewing this and don't understand the decal. The prisoner was a cult 60's TV series staring Patrick McGoohan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhnTMxHOWlY

I designed the logo using Painshop pro:

* He drives a Lotus 7 , I drive a 7esk Westfield
* His prisoner number is 6, I do have a 6 in my Q plate (stretching the theme a bit far I guess!)
* The organisation's logo that keeps him detained is a penny farthing with a surrey top. And the Westfield symbol looks something like the spokes of a wheel.
* And my identity on to the forums is "the prisoner".

Contents

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Gear indicator

Strange as it may seam to those not familiar with Bike Engine'd Car's (BEC), the car currently does not have a gear indicator other than neutral. That is because in YR2000 they don't fit such things as standard to the Hayabusa engine. Possibly newer bike engines provide such features but not this one.

I purchased an electronic indicator (from ebay) driven off the gearbox selector leaver, a device that claims to be the ultimate fault free solution of course (at least they don't admit to any problems = same thing). If you read the forums they are not perfect esp if you have two attempts at a gear selection. However it does correct the reading when  passing thru neutral.  The company is called SBSMOTO Racing Beijing located in China of course.

Alternative devices exist which compute the gear you are in by measuring the revs produced and the speed you are doing and looking up a table of values. These devices are quite expensive if bought separately from the ecu.

This device works by having two hall sensors one for up and one for down and a signal picked up from the Hayabusa wiring loom which indicates Neutral . A magnet is attached to the gearbox leaver to stimulate the hall sensors. The  neutral feed signal from the gearbox must be some sort of electronic source that does not go all the way to 0V when active. It goes to about 0.7V,  I added a relay to create a proper 0V for the SBS device which it apparently needs.

The magnet is attached to the gear selector leaver fabrication with araldite.

If anyone tells you these things are easy to install they are either lying or they have done it before. I created two parts fabricated in stainless steel (they need to be non magnetic). A plate to mount the hall effect sensors and a bracket to mount the magnet. The plate is mounted on the same bolts as the clutch master cylinder. The magnet bracket is mounted on the rose joint hole for the cable/paddle shift.  There is not a lot of room around in that part of the engine bay. The wiring is poorly documented in my case so sorting that out was time consuming also. I tried to avoid modifying the clutch master cylinder bracket but that turned out to be not possible. Mounting the sensors behind the dashboard was a non starter of an idea. I hate working behind dashboards.

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Gear displayed just above paddles in middle

Gearbox fabrications

Lid for the boot box

After fitting the boot box around the roll cage I was not entirely happy with the overall appearance. I decided to either fit a cover from Softbits or make an alloy cover plate. The need for a boot box is fairly obvious in that you need somewhere tidy to put some tools when road trips are needed to try out development work. Enough room has now been created for a tool kit including some tyre repair stuff. The cover was made out of 1mm thick alloy sheet painted with two pack to match the rest of the car. I also made some closing panels for the cage. I will fix it with rivnuts and dome headed screws. Still need to put a sealing rubber on. Yes you will need an alan key to get at my tools.

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Alloy stage

Painted

In use