Battery charging first. I moved things in the garage so that I had space to reach down to the Anderson connector and removed the plug that seals it. However, without line-of-sight, trying to fit the awkward jump lead connector wasn’t working.
I ended up remnoving the red handle from the jump lead connector since there was barely sufficient ground clearance to connect it. After much more struggling, the connector popped in.
The battery voltage was 12.5v, which seems good after a few days of sitting in the garage. The first few attempts at charging were unsuccessful until I found that the charger had a blown fuse. That replaced the car charged away and didn’t take too long to reach 14.4 V and then settle at 13.6. I unplugged the charger, but left the jump leads attached so that I can test the voltage again tomorrow.
Ground clearance next. I had a go at measuring the height from the ground of the centre of the front splitter. This was about 10cm or 4 inches. It isn’t very. I hope that speed bumps and going on/off ferries etc. will be ok.
On to tyres. The age of the tyres was something I hadn’t checked, so I went out to take a look. They are older than I thought… If I am reading the tyres correctly, they seem to have been made in 16th week of 2003 (rear) and 16th week of 2002 (front). These are both quite old, and indicate the rearas have been changed since the was delivered in August 2002, but the fronts may be original!
I am not that happy with this, but the tyres show no cracking and all have decent tread. Perhaps the best plan to is to keep them on until after a trackday / driver training day in which we can properly shread them, then get some nice new rubber. Until then, I will be a bit more careful than I had planned to be.
Front driver’s side – 16th week of 2002.
Rear driver’s side – 16th week of 2003.
Front driver’s side. That is a low-sidewall tyre…
Rear driver’s side.