BlownCorona

2nd drive with the prototype deflectors. this time a reasonably sedate cruise into work through 50/60kmh zones. previously this would have been semi uncomfortable and left me with an unpleasant wind blast feeling in my ears that lingered. today it was awesome, no different than driving a normal car with the window open. ill definitely proceed to making some nicer more refined parts.

I probably look like a dickhead with any accessories

I ordered 2x pairs of ear warmers. 20 bucks. If they don't work or I look like a dickhead my wife and daughter can have them to keep their ears warm in winter.

thats effectively whats happening behind my windscreen. my head is in that swirling area you see you dust in and my torso and lap is in the dead still air. leaving my head taking a hammering. i expect its definitely a tune able aspect of the cockpit. ive even seen seven type cars with a perpex blade on the top of the screen. i may give that a go, but im pretty sure most of the problem is on the side of the screen the stone guards on trucks are meant to create an airflow over the cab that blows the stones up and over yeah? like when you see a bird coming straight at your car windshield but it gets swept over the roof by the airflow.

Ill hopefully be dragging the Crown out this weekend to make a start on sanding it for paint so will hook the doors and roof out while i can. i much much prefer the car with no doors as its a far more fun experience, so if i can make it livable with the deflectors or another way then thats what ill do. currently with the quick thrown together deflectors i think its pretty good. just need to either make it slightly better or sus something to cover my ears, the beanie is a good ideal, though in the sun i wear a cap to keep the sun out of my eyes. an old workmate used to wear some dorky ear warmers in the winter that might be a solid option. he never seemed to have problems hearing us, but im sure they would cut out the wind rush. im interested to take it for a drive with the windsheild removed, though as you say face protection or a helmet would be required, which would also fix the wind blast issue anyway. i forget if i mentioned it in the build thread post, but a workmate also suggested lifting the screen slightly to create a gap between the glass and the screen to help equalsize the pressures and stop the turbulance. this is also something i can easily try, but will take some considerations to make sure the roof works. perhaps even putting together a new shorter screen to make up for the gap, if it works really well. i was out for a run a couple night ago and ran past a super cool vintage morgan so stopped to have a look at how it may combat this issue and i noticed it had both a large windsheild and also aero screens fitted at the same time. but with a hinge mechanism that would alow the full screen to lay flat, i wondered if this was done for when travelling at highway speeds. whod have thought a 60s style lotus rep would be so impractical

Ive been driving this a bunch and im really beginning to remember why i love old cars so much. it so much fun. except at above 75kmh.... then its a windswept hellscape. 100kmh and its borderline undrivable. there is such a huge amount of turbulent wind blast that i knew id have to do something. first port of call probably should have been to test drive it with the full doors on, but they are now burred in the back of my shed behind the crown. so i threw together some basic deflectors at work today, and figured if they showed promise then ill pretty them up, make them adjustable and removable ect. well turns out they work pretty bloody well. its still windy, but not unbearable, and i may be able to tune them better once i make them angle adjustable. after all its still an open top car with the flat windshield. another suggestion from someone at work has been to lift the screen up creating a gap at the bottom to hopefully equalize out the low pressure zone behind the window, i may give this a go, but will cause problems with fitting the roof. i think some form of ear protection may be a good idea as the wind rush can get quite loud, if anyone has any suggestions for something that can sheild my ears from the wind, but wont mean i cant hear surrounding traffic ect making it dangerous id love to see them. i tried some old ear phones but they blocked out too much surrounding noise for my liking. ive driven with a hoodie over my heat and its much better, but often not practical.

Got the crown back from the panel man today looking good! The rear gaurds are especially awesome and look so much better than the haggard flared fenders the previous owners did. Now I have to face the mammoth task of actually sanding this yacht down..

Dynasaur is great. Would look semi normal as a badge untill you looked closed

Finally got a chance to take this on a real drive. 50km round trip this morning, out to governors bay hotel for a coffee and some wedges and back through lyttleton and through the tunnel back towards home. The drive was awesome and the car performed beautifully. Only issue was the steering doesn't want to return to centre very well, probably just an alighnment needed but will check over the uni joints and the rack. Wasn't pushing it hard at all because it's very early days, but it seemed far far too easy to keep up with normal cars through the hills, I suspect it just eats the road up better than anything I've ever driven.

Legal! So stoked. A tentative 2 months rego incase it all goes sideways haha.

Spoke to Evan Fray from Chevron Engineering today. he said they were only ever intended to run a lap belt from factory, and the laws support this configuration so ive got some lap belts to put in tonight. that should see it wofd. but we all know how dangerous that would be. even the wof guys agree the harness is much safer, so ill probably put the harness back in for actual driving, but fingers crossed itll be wofed tomorow.

It was produced as a commercial kit, but home built. Proving it was always a 4 point may be tricky, but not impossible. I'll swing past tomorrow morning and see what he thinks of the above posted rule, I'll also see if I can get ahold of some photos of my car back in the day.

No cert plate either, or declaration papers, the way I understand it and the way the wof man did too is that's its not a modified vehicle. So would only have been complied by what ever means that was in the late 80s It does have a stamped serial number on a chevron branded plate and a land transport 7Axxxx... Vin number on another chevron branded plate.

thats exactly what i was looking for and was semi certain existed. Cheers Clint! hopefully i can get some form of confirmation that these belts are all it ever had, perhaps they will even simply accept it. Edit cheers @AllTorque too since you actually posted the answer and I missed it!

I've gone to the same place for years, some good old boys who arnt idiots. You're not gonna pass any dodgy shit there but they arnt going to fail you for just having an old car. Hard to say how this will play out

Have just taken the Chevron/Lotus 7 for its first wof in ~15 years and although it went through nicely and nothing of note was picked up. they did pick up the four point harnesses and want to query land transport on monday. does anyone here know/have experience/know where to look in the virm for this situation? car was built in 88 and to my knowledge never had anything except a 4 point harness fitted. i have emailed Chevron engineering and apparently Evan is a friendly guy so i expect a response from him, but threres every chance hes gone on holidays and who knows when that response may be. have also messages the guy i bought it from to see if he has any historical pics but im pretty sure hes given me everything hes got. options seem to be; 1 Land transport say its ok and i get my wof. 2 Land transport say it needs an authority card. - not a major i guess, but does this mean only people with a MSNZ licence can drive it on the road? be a bit of a buzzkill if i cant share the fun. 3 I fit lap and diagonal belts for road use - happy to do this but dont want to stray into cert territory. 4 ????? *your option here?* 5 profit

Took it for a wof this morning. Never been so stoked on a fail in my life! I was prepared for serious issues given how long this has been sitting, although I'd been over it and felt everything was good. Maybe I should just back myself more. Only failed on No rear reflectors - new tail lights don't have them and I never noticed. Rear directional tires backwards - dumbass me out the wrong wheels on the wrong side when in a hurry the other day. And the only real sticking point being the harnesses, the wof man wants to ring land transport and clarify if they are OK without an authority card as the car was built with them. Not sure how this is going to go and I'm about to post in the wof/cof/cert thread, but feel free to comment on the discussion page if you have input. I would be happy to run a lap and diagonal belt on the street and a 4 or probably 5 point harness on the track coupled with a new roll bar, but don't want to stray into cert territory. There's a slim chance land transport will give me an early Xmas present on Mondays though...

After a substantial amount of fucking around, i finally have the honda civic alloy radiator fitted. everything was close which meant everything needed pissing around with. the radiator cap isnt the highest point which may prove problematic. got around it for now by filling it with the car jacked up in the front but an inline filler may be required. (radiator has a top mount now) other than that, just tidied up and splashed some paint around and its starting to look pretty good! took it for a wof today, too bad the que was out to the road and the man had to turn me away, will reattempt on saturday morning, but i fear every idiot whose left the family car wof to the last second might fuck it for me. legal for christmas is still the goal!

yep still got it at mine

twin v twin cross cart. one normal turbo feeding both engines.

yup they are too long for sure and the excess belt is cumbersome. sticking with race harnesses would probably see me looking at single seater harnesses or similar

Oh diagonal absolutely wouldn't be used for Motorsport. Even the low levels I plan on. The belts I have in it now are a normal style race harness and there's just not enough adjustment in it. So at any rate I'll have to change to something. Thanks for the input! I have plenty to think about

I was going to put this through for a wof this afternoon or tomorrow. Drove it in to work which was super fun, chucked it up on the hoist at lunch time and replaced several of the rivets that hold the floor panel on. The wind somewhat came out of my sails when looking just how scummy it was under there, no actual rust. But heaps of flaking paint and surface shit. I'd rather spend a day with a wire brush, some rust converted and a few cans of black paint, than ask a wof guy to ignore the shittest looking undercarriage he'll see all month. Also the radiator bottom tank is pretty hammered, looks like someone jacked it up at the front and hooked it. The cheapo half radiator civic ones everyone uses look to be a perfect fit, and will likly help with the overheating I experienced on the way home. Looks pretty yuck in the radiator and I'm picking its pretty blocked up, and that the thermostat is pretty similar, so a good flush out and a thick civic alloy rad should sus it. Also noticed the bush's on the rear shocks are done, will whip the shocks out and see if they are OK, and maybe just re bush them. Fronts seem OK, they are nice spax damper adjustable units, but are probably still too stiff for such a light car? On a more positive note, I discovered driving without mirrors is scarey as fuck, and found supercheap have these awesome little rear veiw mirrors on a suction cup! Very pleased with it. I'm also strongly considering changing the belts to normal lap and diagonal for street use, as cool as race harnesses are, they suck for street use, and probably arnt legal without an authority card, We'll see though. Maybe some dot rated clubman style harnesses with the standard belt clip, could be a good middle ground. But god damn is it fun to drive

Heaps of knock offs around, be careful and buy from a reputable source.