Discussion
After much time spent lurking and enjoying other member's cars, I decided it's time to post up my pride and joy.
Built over an embarrassingly long period by my old man and I. The 'by the book' (Ron Chapman-esque) chassis, a few rose-jointed suspension bits, royal blue wings and nosecone and finally the donor escort were purchased about 7 years ago.
This and this:
Eventually became this:
Our welding is reasonable, but not pretty and we weren't confident enough to build the chassis. Thank christ we didn't as it took us long enough without that! We did however design and weld all of our brackets and mounts on. Our philosophy was to buy as little off the shelf stuff as possible and do as much as possible ourselves. We did our own panelling, made our own scuttle and rebuilt the old engine ourselves. I cannot even begin to count the number of curses and bloodied fingers that occurred along the way, let alone the number of beers!
The chassis with our brackets and mounts prior to powder coating.
Engine before being stripped and rebuilt.
Engine en situ.
Panelling, the pedal box and the scuttle.
Our home-made scuttle before spraying. The scuttle did cause us a lot of problems and is one thing we would certainly be tempted to buy off-the-shelf next time. I am however really pleased with the interior and in particular the finish of the dash.
The car failed it's first IVA test on a lack of self-centering and a few other bits and bobs. Second time round it sailed through without any problems. After getting it on the road, we took it to a friend who designs and builds racing cars. He was distinctly unimpressed with the inherent design of the front suspension, which was inherently flawed. With his input, we adapted it. It now handles well and is great fun - despite the rose joints all round it is relatively compliant, especially at the front. Oversteer on demand out of roundabouts is also great fun :-).
The engine is a rebuilt 1600 GT Spec Crossflow. It's now got a fruitier cam, 1300cc pistons and a few other bits and bobs. We've kept the standard Weber carb for the moment, power output is around 115bhp. It's certainly and old-fashioned style set-up and the most cost effective method would have been to plonk a zetec or similar straight in there, but we like the simple and mechanical nature of the whole thing - there's something to be said for reaching for a bigger hammer when things aren't going well!
Other bits of then spec that I haven't mentioned: Quick rack off ebay, 5-speed box (type 9) from a local scrappy, a polo rad, an oil cooler off an old Golf, Smiths gauges, a kill switch and probably a bunch of other things I've forgotten.
We took it down to the Le Mans Classic this year and it didn't miss a beat despite spending plenty of time sitting in traffic. We've had a blast in it and have plenty of plans for track days and upgrades for the future...
Built over an embarrassingly long period by my old man and I. The 'by the book' (Ron Chapman-esque) chassis, a few rose-jointed suspension bits, royal blue wings and nosecone and finally the donor escort were purchased about 7 years ago.
This and this:
Eventually became this:
Our welding is reasonable, but not pretty and we weren't confident enough to build the chassis. Thank christ we didn't as it took us long enough without that! We did however design and weld all of our brackets and mounts on. Our philosophy was to buy as little off the shelf stuff as possible and do as much as possible ourselves. We did our own panelling, made our own scuttle and rebuilt the old engine ourselves. I cannot even begin to count the number of curses and bloodied fingers that occurred along the way, let alone the number of beers!
The chassis with our brackets and mounts prior to powder coating.
Engine before being stripped and rebuilt.
Engine en situ.
Panelling, the pedal box and the scuttle.
Our home-made scuttle before spraying. The scuttle did cause us a lot of problems and is one thing we would certainly be tempted to buy off-the-shelf next time. I am however really pleased with the interior and in particular the finish of the dash.
The car failed it's first IVA test on a lack of self-centering and a few other bits and bobs. Second time round it sailed through without any problems. After getting it on the road, we took it to a friend who designs and builds racing cars. He was distinctly unimpressed with the inherent design of the front suspension, which was inherently flawed. With his input, we adapted it. It now handles well and is great fun - despite the rose joints all round it is relatively compliant, especially at the front. Oversteer on demand out of roundabouts is also great fun :-).
The engine is a rebuilt 1600 GT Spec Crossflow. It's now got a fruitier cam, 1300cc pistons and a few other bits and bobs. We've kept the standard Weber carb for the moment, power output is around 115bhp. It's certainly and old-fashioned style set-up and the most cost effective method would have been to plonk a zetec or similar straight in there, but we like the simple and mechanical nature of the whole thing - there's something to be said for reaching for a bigger hammer when things aren't going well!
Other bits of then spec that I haven't mentioned: Quick rack off ebay, 5-speed box (type 9) from a local scrappy, a polo rad, an oil cooler off an old Golf, Smiths gauges, a kill switch and probably a bunch of other things I've forgotten.
We took it down to the Le Mans Classic this year and it didn't miss a beat despite spending plenty of time sitting in traffic. We've had a blast in it and have plenty of plans for track days and upgrades for the future...
Did you have much experience of this kind of thing before, or did you learn as you went along?I had zero experience, but the old man had built a Sylva Striker with a mate a while back. The mechanical stuff isn't that much of a problem. It's more the 'designing' bits that we didn't have any experience of - welding, choosing where stuff should fit etc. The wiring was also a massive ball ache. To be honest though, there's a wealth of information in books and on the net. Particularly if you go for an old-fashioned build like ours, there are loads that have already been there. Anyone could do it.
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