Episode 12 Episode 12
If you're building a boat from scratch, you should probably talk to someone who knows about boats
Our friend and genius fabricator Marc Witt built his own land speed record setting amphibious vehicle. (Emphasis on land.... it wasn't so quick in the water.) After the outing above, he said "Maybe I need to talk to someone who knows something about boats." With this project, I needed find someone who knew about Honda S2000 swaps. Lucky for me they were in my back yard. Eddy and Joey at Performance Options in Oakland CA have done a number of Honda F20C powered drift cars, and all kinds of crazy projects and were foolish enough to take on the remaning punch list items to make it driveable.
Headed to Performance Options. On the list: Brake lines, (again) get it running, fab a parking brake, make it steer for real, getting the lights and electrical stuff to function, get it to start (I thought I had an issue with theft system immobilizer, because the fuel pump wasn't running, and it would turn over but no fuel) figuring out a fuel filler for the tank...
Cortina hanging out with the JDM crowd at Performance Options
Steering rack was cut off and centered again, this time successfully.
Brake lines fully plumbed
Stand alone fuel filler in trunk and Honda throttle pedal and cable in and functioning
The first drive is always a bit terrifying. No lights, turn signals, brake lights. Lots of rattles. It felt lightning quick -- we'll discover a reason for that later. The next step was to clean up the wiring and make everything work.
Honda Wiring everywhere. Performance Options decided it would be easier to run the engine on the Honda harness, and everything else with a Painless wiring kit.
Cleaned up wiring in engine bay.
Brake light switch and welded hole from steering box on left side footwell
Mostly cleaned up dash area
Fused link on battery box, and almost ready to go!