Finally A Great First Drive!!

FIA-ERA · #1 (**permalink**) 04-10-2010, 06:10 AM

Well after 7 years and untold hours of labor, it was running and driving! The first go at it resulted in a stuck thermostat that almost blew the motor up! Nothing sucks worse than seeing all that hard work covered in antifreeze with only 34 miles on it!! Everything was fine then all of a sudden the temps went crazy and messy! Its hard to believe a $9.96 part could cause so much work and frustration. Still have a small list of gremlins but at least I wasn't parked on the side of the road! I feel like a nerd driving with ear plugs BUT WOW she is LOUD! It wasn't as blazingly fast as I thought it would be but probably more street able than I thought it would be. I'll try and post some pics later. Thanks, Matt

cobrajeff · #2 (**permalink**) 04-10-2010, 06:41 AM

Congratulations! The fun is just beginning. Once you get past a few start-up gremlins, you'll have a smile on your face every time you look at that beauty!

regards,

Jeff

mdross1 · #3 (**permalink**) 04-11-2010, 05:51 AM

You should be proud.My first ride was so anticipated we have a picture of the lawn matted down by the tires,as the car left the shop for the first time under it's own power.After having a big block Corvette with side exhaust,my Cobra's exhaust barks out the back.

FIA-ERA · #4 (**permalink**) 04-10-2010, 07:03 AM

Thanks Jeff! Your car has been a great inspiration to me for a long time! I've always liked the uniqueness of your car and all the cool parts! I'll try and get the wife to post some pics as I'm a computer dud. I've just got a one mysterious oil leak that's driving me crazy! Thanks, Matt

Ron61 · #5 (**permalink**) 04-10-2010, 07:33 AM

Congratulations Mat. And it is great that you never blew the engine. When I took mine for the first drive I had one small water leak around a hose, and a gas drip. The water leak was fixed by tightening the hose but I had to change the gal line fitting as I think the one I used had a bad thread in it. Nothing like that first drive. As for the ear plugs, I had mine toned down to get past the road side sound detectors they had around here and I still wore ear plugs as after about 30 miles that continual low roar would deafen me.

Ron

lnfletcher · #6 (**permalink**) 04-10-2010, 07:45 AM

Now you've done it! It'll be hard to finish it now because you won't want to do anything to keep you from driving it the next day!
Congradulations!

Rickd · #7 (**permalink**) 04-10-2010, 09:32 AM

Matt, congrats on the start up. What are the specs on your motor? What heads are you using? What rear end are you running? Jeff's car is amazing - the first ERA FIA built - and probably the coolest one built to date...he did an amazing job on it. I keep forgetting the ear plugs - it's not awful loud - but I can't hear very well after a 300 mile Saturday AM run down to the Florida Keys and back!!

FIA-ERA · #8 (**permalink**) 04-11-2010, 09:17 AM

Hey Rickd, and everyone Thanks for the great comments! It has been fun and I'm ready to get all the bugs out! I'm running a 351W w/ Edelbrocks Performer RPM package. I put it on the dyno and it performed just as they said it would. It has 391 HP and 422 TQ all under 6K rpm. I raid so many horror stories here about how undrivable these cars are with all the gross HP numbers and plus there just isn't many places around here to get a little crazy. If fact I had a friend here that sold his car to a guy in Germany for this very reason!

The rest of the car is ERA standard fair. It has a Jag rearend with 354 gears, 4spd close ratio top loader, 15" Trigo's FIA"s, drop dash, "Smith" auto-meters, Kirkey seats, detachable steering wheel, etc. I ended up doing the side pipes a little different to gain more ground clearance and they work very well. Although they probably radiate more heat being closer, I don't have any ground clearance probs! I've still got to get the carpet in as I'm still undecided on which way to go on that. I'll probably do a mix of the carpet and aluminum. I still have to adjust a few things, add some camber to the rearend, change carb jets (too rich), I have a header leak, the mystery oil leak, etc. But it drives!!

My only real complaint is that I'm short legged and I feel like "Grape Ape" driving this thing! I've moved the pedals as far back as I can but I could have place a comp battery behind my seat! I guess I just need some large platform shoes like the girls wear! Thanks for all the great comments! I'm going out to get some pics! Thanks, Matt

Rickd · #9 (**permalink**) 04-11-2010, 10:26 AM

These cars are very driveable - you just have to be sure you don't do anything crazy - make sure you have it "pointed" in the right direction before stomping on it. There was a youtube film showing a young (relative term) lady taking her boyfriend's Superformance for a first drive - turned the wheel to pass a car in front and stopmed on it - did an immediate doughnut, crossed the street and hit - I think - a drycleaners. Good thing to do after you have her broken in 1500 miles or so - is some mild track time and a skid pad. Our club in Florida had a "high performance driving school" at the Gainesville Speedway road racing track = what a hoot!! Very mild track - no barriers - 1.6 miles with 8 curves. We ran hot laps then took turns on a skid pad - to find our at what point she would break loose. Then back on the track. Really come away with a better feel for the car and tremendous respect for how well they are built.