November.

Well time may have been standing still on here,  but I have been busy over the last few months with the final design of the dashboard, the placement of switches, air vents and most important, column stalks, I now have indicators, lights, side/headlamp dipped/main beam/flash, 2 speed screen wiper/washer and intermittent wipe. I now have eight, yes eight, air vents, as you can see I have four eyeball vents in the dash, two demister vents for the screen (SVA requirement) and I had two vents facing down in the middle under the dash, well I want the radio to go there, so  moved them to the side panels. Now I have to admit that I have no idea how this going to work but I can close the vents if I need a blast of air in any one direction. The subject fresh air has been debated on the forum and I have become paranoid about getting stale air out of the cockpit and fresh air in, hence the eyeball vents to the face, where it makes you think you are being cooled without going to the expense of air conditioning.

The dashboard, doors and seats have been sent for trimming in leather. The dash will be in black, the seats in black and red and the doors in black and red. The interior has been a major hold up for me, as I wanted the interior to reflect that this is an expensive car and also some of my input and to this end after much thought and going through the options I decided to cover the sides of the cockpit with thin hardwearing grey carpet going into black to the footwells, I've also used the grey to cover the floor. A lot of people will be calling this sacrilege and that the alloy panels should be shown as this is part of the vehicle's makeup as it were, but after time I felt that my solution would wear and look better than scratched alloy, and as I stated before I wanted to put my stamp of individuality on it. Although I am thinking of leaving the back panel in bare alloy, I'll wait to see what it looks like as I can cover this panel at anytime.

Forward planning is a must in this game, I now have switches, which weren't that cheap to start with, that I no longer require. Guess I'll just have to hit e-bay with them, never know might get more than I paid for them!

The engine is here and looking good, just got to decide whether to fit the engine and final fit the body or final fit the body and then fit the engine.

My next big purchases are going to be accusump and oil filter with all the associated pipe work and fittings plus the fuel lines as well. I have designed the layout but need to accurately measure for the braided lines (they are very expensive, so don't want to get more than I need!)

Here are some of the engine, it still needs a bit of work with the alternator, flywheel, clutch etc but here's a flavour of what it'll look like when finished.

The engine isn't the most powerful out there but with a car weighing in with an all up weight of around 980kgs it really isn't an issue for me, we think that this engine with the cam and heads that are fitted should release around 450bhp with around 400ft lbs torque, I'll have a better idea when I go for a rolling road set up after the initial running in period.

Run into a slight problem today, I tried fitting the adaptor plate but it fouled against the crank balance weight. I think I'll have to either get the centre milled out or phone the factory and find an alternative plate.

 

I went with option one, took it to a local engineering firm and got 7mm milled, it now fits.

I also picked up my re-trimmed seats, doors and dash and I'm very pleased with the way they have turned out, the quality is fantastic and exactly I as wanted.

I can thoroughly recommend Auto Interiors of Barwell, Hinckley , friendly people and quality workmanship. If you need any re-trimming then give them a call on 01455 847900. All I have to do now is get all back together, which will be over the next few weeks.