Hi

My name's Dan and I live on the Isle of Wight.

I have just purchased Mac#1s white "Police" demonstrator car they built in 2005. Not had a chance to try it out yet due to the terrible weather this afternoon. Hopefully the 600 mile round trip I made today will be worth it.

Cheers

Dan

Hi mate

Im new here too - Im building a locost 1700.

Don't be afraid to ask questions you feel are silly on here.

The only time people think you are an idiot is when you end up in bother because you never asked in the first place!!!

Shaun

[Edited on 9/8/08 by prawnabie]

Welcome to the MAC#1 Mad House.

I am sure your purchase will provide endless fun.

-- Ash

Hi Dan,

Just returned from a week on the isle of wight, great empty roads and lots of sun, shame i saw no 7 types out & about.

Seams like a good place to go out for a blast, only saw 1 speed camera

is it still in 'police trim' ? do you have to take the lights off etc to drive it on the road?

Ash (another one!)

No. it's standard now.

You picked the wrong week to come to the Island, you should try and make it down for wightblat - http://www.wightblat.co.uk - It's getting bigger every year.

Nice to meet you yesterday Dan,hope you had a safe trip home. I'm sure the car will put a massive grin on your face. Keep us posted

Rich

Yes, we got home ok, very wet and tired though.

Took her for a quick drive today. I'm 6ft2" 15st and have size 12 feet.

My Initial reactions are as follows.

The steering wheel needs putting on straight.
The brakes need a super human leg to make them work.
The seat needs moving back.
My feet are too big for the pedals.

It was very windy today so I was getting blown about all over the place. When I have moved the seat and sorted the wheel i'll let you know who I get on.

[Edited on 10/8/08 by livelee]

the steering wheel and seat are easily sorted, I would recommend you get a set of Kart boots as normal shoes or trainers tend to be too wide, and you can hit all 3 pedals with one foot. And i recon the brakes are just because you have been brought up on Servo assisted tin top brakes. you just need to learn to push the brakes to stop.

I've got a nice OMP wheel from my old car so that will be going on and yes the seat is an easy fix. I will invest in some driving shoes and a weights bench for my legs.

Welcome Dan

Lovely car youve got there

Welcome to the club Dan

Got your email and have replied to it.

Whats the email address for me to join.

I choose my colours today, Pure white all round, with kawasaki green powder coated steel work and wheels.

click the m1moc or mac#1 linky on the post above yours then find the contact page and drop an email/details/spec etc and wierd magic happens and you will appear on the site a little later

[Edited on 11/8/08 by bigrich]

I looked on the owners page contacts section only a postal address & telephone number.

There is a email address on the mac1 web site. But thats for the factory etc.

Is that the one......?

Sorry Spence, just shows what I know. if you send the details to Mark I,m sure he will forward them on to the OC for you. though i was certain there was an email address to use for contacting the owners club

Rich

Another day, another quick drive, another problem

The throttle peddal has at least 1ft of travel. Off throttle my leg is bent but I have to fully extend it to apply full throttle. This leads to a very uncomfortable ride. Is this normal? Also the car seem to run on after releasing the throttle.

Best day ever?

Went out for a drive today, car running on 2 cyl, 3 cyl max. There is a nice spark arc from the leads so I guess the plugs have failed. The map in the car is very rich down low so it's probably fouled them. So I need a remap. Where can I get that done on the South coast? I need an OMEX and Zetec expert.

Next problem is the suspension. It's frankly terrible and dangerous. On a nice smooth bit of road it's usable but as soon as there is a slight bit of a bump I can only drive at around 40mph. The front is all over the place and the car wants to throw me in a hedge at every opportunity. I went out with a local caterham club and a few MKs today and I could not match their pace at all. They just glided along the road while I had to crawl to stop from crashing. So I need a full geo setup and corner weighting. Where can I get that done? It needs to be spot on and be done by a kit car / mac#1 expert.

At this point in the day I'm pretty fed up with the car so it decided to ground out on a bump, rip a hole in the sump and dump all of it's oil on the road. Luckily I stopped. Then it started raining while I waited for a trailer to take me home. So I need a sump welding up and a steel sump guard made. Fortunately something I can get done.

Oh and the steering rack needs replacing. It's 4.25 turns lock to lock which is, frankly, rubbish for what I need.

[Edited on 25/8/08 by livelee]

Have you spoke to Mark and Colin up at the Factory?

As it used to be their car they might be able to help you with your problems!

Have fun anyway and keep us all updated.

Yes I have been mailing them trying to gain info on the car (the previous owner knew nothing). I'm currently awaiting a reply from my last email.

I don't want to keep hassling them though, they did build the car but they didn't sell it to me so it's not their problem to resolve issues. They have been great so far and i'm very greteful. When I popped in they did mention the car was mapped a few times and never very successfully.

I know what settings I should be using for the geo, I will get the car checked out to see what it's actually running. With any luck it's miles out so i'll have something to change. If it's all spot on then I have a problem.

Sorry to hear you are having problems with the car. I have driven it before when Mark owned it and it drove very nicely indeed. i struggled to drive it well as the seat was too far back but apart from that dont remember any big issues. It seemed to be a very competitive car when mac#1 had it. I wonder if the last owner has knocked it and kept quiet?

Sorry to hear you are having problems with the car. I have driven it before when Mark owned it and it drove very nicely indeed. i struggled to drive it well as the seat was too far back but apart from that dont remember any big issues. It seemed to be a very competitive car when mac#1 had it. I wonder if the last owner has knocked it and kept quiet?

When I drove it i found it a great deal more responsive to steering inputs than my one.

I believe this is due to extra toe in comapred to mine but you need to find a decent local garage to tell you how much is present and then take it from there

When the sump is off, fixed and back on I shall investigate the suspension issues.

The previous owner having a bump can not be discounted.

This one? I took this at Exeter show in November 2004
Rescued attachment 7cop.jpg

Ive often wondered if people with ali sumps can increase their durability by making a steel plate and bond it to the bottom of their original sump - act as a kind of skid plate. Maybe make the front section a bit longer and angled up. Ive often seen race cars with bits of timber on the front chassis sections - not sure if this is for similar reasons - ie a sacrificial skid.

Other option is to set up suspension and ride height so it doesnt contact as easy (this is what i did ref ride height - not done the corner weights yet). It might be a tad low at the front or the rebound set a bit soft. Something definitely sounds wrong. I seem to recall there was a post about initial suspension settings ages ago (suggested how many threads showing on spring platform and clicks for shockers) - Jos or BigRich may recall them.

Using google you can find it here:

http://www.m1moc.com/faq.htm

For some reason it has been removed from the OC site.

i was looking for that too. Hopefully that might help you compare what you have now to the normal starting point.

These cars of ours can be very unpleasant if not set up properly! Following on from the link to the setup instructions...

3 things have proved to make these car nasty to drive:

1. Too much toe-out on the front wheels. If you've got toe-out, try setting them at 0 degrees (i.e. straight ahead).

2. Make sure that the rear ride height is a bit higher than the front.

3. Make sure that your dampers are set to as low a setting as you can get away with (i.e. least amount of damping).

I'm not saying that any of these are your problem - but they're cheap things to try out, and all reversible.

HTH,
David

[Edited on 27/8/08 by David Jenkins]

.

[Edited on 14/12/08 by livelee]

Congrats on the family. Shame you are selling.

Ive had my car on PH for a couple of months now, a few enquiries but no-one coming forward with the readies. Its a tough time to be selling. Fingers crossed for you. In a good market yours should sell quickly at that price. Im not sure id have devalued it though by saying its very similar to an MK Indy (ducks for cover!!)

[Edited on 23/10/08 by DarrenW]

The MK reference was for people looking at the add and not realising what kind of car it is. Where MK has been around for longer they are more well know to the general public. For example they have their own section on PistonHeads. I removed the MK reference for the advert on here.