Fisher Fury R1 Ownership - September 2007

1^st September

Decided to take a look inside my bullet camera, on the basis that if vibration killed it, then something may be obviously loose inside. Good move. Inside were numerous tiny boards with loads of minute surface mount components on them, things not really prone to vibration. There were two other components that were clear candidates for vibration damage though, a capacitor and a crystal. The crystal had snapped at the legs. Two minutes with the soldering iron and it was working again. A good excuse to go out for a drive.

And so I have my first proper in-car video at last, 376Mbytes of it! Only, I can't share it here, not least because the sound levels distort, the microphone seems to have a dodgy connection and the bullet camera seems to be flapping about in the wind. Oh, and it looks like someone has speeded it up . All in all, pretty rubbish really, once I move off. The main thing in view is my rear-view mirror. I've added a new video clip section.

2^nd September

Second attempt to fabricate the bullet camera mount. It seems to have worked much better. Today's in-car video is actually watchable but I still have some things to resolve. I mounted it with the camera facing rearwards, to see how it looked. I made a mistake with the rotation of the camera though and the focus also needs adjusting. The sound is slightly muffled because I put the microphone in my helmet, to allow me to give some commentary. Pointless really, because it still distorts and the sound levels are just too high. There is still some camera movement at 'higher' speeds but all in all, much better. Next goal is to improve on the sound levels and then to add a second microphone to get full stereo sound.

8^th September

Based upon my experiences so far, I've fabricated a much more rigid bullet camera mount from some aluminium plate. This is the last one! Total cost was about Ł4.

15^th September

That was close! Whilst investigating a new design for the oil pressure sensor, I must have moved the cover over the positive battery terminal ever so slightly. When I dropped the sensor, it managed to touch the terminal and the electricity took the path of least resistance. With the engine earthed with a thick strap, the battery shorted through the braid on the flexible pipe, which vapourised instantly, taking the oil inside it with it, in a rather spectacular and thankfully quite small fireball. Bugger! That will be a new remote hose required then. More importantly, it renders the car undriveable until the new one arrives. And the sun is out.

17^th September

Ordered a replacement hose for the oil pressure sensor. Think Auto (Tel. 0208 568 1172)

22^nd September

Fixed the new oil pressure sensor. I've used a 40mm exhaust clamp, mounted through the footwell bulkhead to mount it this time. A bit more weight than I wanted to add but, at 99p, it's a cheap and solid way to fix the oil pressure sensor. This approach also grounds it nicely, though I ran a dedicated ground wire for my previous solution. I ordered a slightly longer hose (35cm) this time to give me a bit more flexibility on the mounting location.

23^rd September

Bright sunny day and a fine drive planned up to the Lotus Cars factory, where their was a celebration marking 40 years of manufacturing at the site. It didn't seem appropriate to drive my Fisher Fury through the Lotus front gate at Hethel on such a day. The deciding factor was that my son wanted to come along for the day. He finds the Fury a bit too loud and the prospect it for 80 minutes there and another 80 minutes back didn't appeal. I've put some pictures up on my Elise web site

30^th September

A rather cool but sunny day. The ambient temperature has dropped a fair bit recently and this has reduced the tyre pressures by nearly 2psi. I set tham at 17psi all round to see how the car felt. It definately rides softer and is less bouncy at the front. I prefer the way the back end feels more hooked into the tarmac running with my more usual preference of 18psi. I'm going to try 18psi rear and 16psi front next to see how it feels.

I also checked the ride height. The the front is 125mm from chassis to ground, the rear is 145mm. This gives me 75mm sump clearance. The whole car could run lower but, being mainly a road car, I'm worried about the sump grounding.

The engine takes a lot longer to get up to temperature and runs cooler. The oil pressure seems to be consistently higher with this new sensor. This might just be because it is new and different but, it might also be that I've fixed the slight oil leak. The tyres take a lot longer to warm up. A couple of times, I floored it on exiting a roundabout and the back slipped out. In my old Elise, this would have been scary but the Fury is so much more progressive and just tucks itself back in line if you keep the power on. You get much more warning that it's starting to relinquish its hold on the tarmac and the quick steering rack helps to more calmly keep things in line. Driving through the winter months is going to be challenging though and I'd rather be in an Elise, with it's windscreen, heater, roof (and ABS nowadays).