So driving videos, which aren't great as far as videos go. And there is a stupid watermark because I don't know any free video editing stuff. Impression from the video is I don't know why the blower whine is so incredibly loud on the video even drowning out the exhaust noise.
The actual driving of the car cropped up some issues which obviously isn't the least bit surprising. The brakes are spongy which isn't a huge surprise considering all that's every really been done is a gravity bleed in the front. The car stops OK and it never felt like it wasn't going to but I need to get a hand at some point and do a better bleed. I just went a few hundred yards and didn't get past second gear, the car ran progressively worse as things went. I stopped across the street to see who was over there and shut the car off to be able to chat and it didn't want to fire back up which is a first. It acted like it was flooded and had started to cut out under throttle before I turned in there. It was Jeff who was there and he pointed out while I was getting out of the car that the carburetor was leaking, so I'm betting that the carburetor from the Jeep that I haven't done anything with may have given up. Or alternatively this was the first time the car had run any length of time with the charging system working and I haven't actually checked the fuel pressure so maybe with the extra voltage now the pump is overwhelming the float? I pulled the spark plugs once I pulled it back in the shop, the plugs which I've never changed, and they're half rich fouled.
Other things I haven't actually done yet, look at the valve lash or ignition timing. So these things should probably get done. Nothing seems to have fallen off the car and I survived the drive though and teething issues aren't a shock with something hand built making it's first run so I'm not super worried yet. Oil pressure looked fine the whole time and the coolant temperature never even topped 150 so I know it didn't get hot enough to mess anything up. I did notice when it was misfiring the AFR went down to 11 so more evidence it's too rich for one reason or another.
The positive thing is I think it sounds good inside the car going but the dominant thing is the thing feels like it's a roller coaster car. It's not like I was going fast, MAYBE 30 but every slight input in the steering wheel was felt as a direction change in the car. I was expecting the tall soft sidewall tires to blunt steering input and was really pleasantly surprised. At the same time I've been expecting to have noticeable body roll given the lack of any anti roll bars and again the soft tires but it was completely unnoticeable. Obviously it's a cliche, but go kart like feels accurate. Even having several custom cars with full aftermarket suspensions and tiny sidewall tires the steering is way more direct, again given the extremely small sample size.