Less than a week later we were in Swindon collecting an Alfa 145 with clutch/gearbox problems. This was the next logical step since it was a 1.6 boxer engined car and we already had a fairly healthy 1712cc 16-valve engine, from the 33, that would fit in it. The ingredients were all there. A solid bodyshell, a cracking engine… we just needed to make it into the car we believed we deserved.

After disposing of a scrap Alfa 33 body shell and some miscellaneous rubbish, the 145 was wheeled into the garage and the stripping began. All the interior trim was removed, along with the doors and tailgate, followed by as much wiring as we could get at. Next were the bumpers, bonnet and front trim parts.

The rear axle was removed, as a sub-assembly, followed by the radiator then the front sub frame, complete with engine and gearbox. Once the air conditioning pipes had been disconnected, the heater box was removed and the dashboard could finally come out followed by any wiring left behind. All the bonded glass (windscreen, rear and side windows) had to be cut out. All interior sound deadening material was removed, including a tar-based material, which is bonded in large areas to floor, rear seat and boot panels.

By now we now had a very bare looking shell from which we needed to remove all the under seal. To gain access to the under body areas we simply rolled the bare shell gently onto it’s side, on wood blocks and carpet, and set to work with hot air guns, chisels and scrapers. It took what seemed like forever to get it to a state we were happy with but it would all be worth it. We tried to save all the under seal and sound deadening in rubbish bags and we estimate that we have removed over 50kg of such materials…. a very healthy weight saving indeed. Having done all the scraping we could it was rewarding to find that the body was completely devoid of any corrosion.

To break the monotony of this kind of work we would take some time “off” to strip the doors, tailgate and hood of all their locks, latches, wiper and other trimmings. We also separated the front sub frame from the engine and gearbox, and then separated the engine and gearbox, also stripping the engine of all its ancillaries. This had the added benefit of freeing up more space for us to work in. Luckily I quickly found a buyer for the 1.6 engine to get it out of the way!

The next step was to have everything grit-blasted to remove the paint and remaining sealant. The bare shell was loaded onto a trailer to be joined by all the closures and the front sub frame components. The whole lot was taken away for someone else to work on for a while.

Whilst the body was away we continued to strip and recondition suspension and brake parts as well as take the gearbox to a specialist for a rebuild. Because we started with a damaged 1.6 gearbox we also took along the 1.7 16v gearbox from the donor 33 so the internals could be built into the 145 casing. We half expected problems but it seems to have turned out OK. In the future we aim to build a proper competition gearbox with some better ratios and a limited slip diff, but for now, the road car internals will have to do.

Eventually the shell returned from grit blasting. The other parts remained there to be worked on but we needed to get the body preparation under way. The bulk of that work was to be done by R&D motorsport in Daventry. The car was taken there in early April and received a comprehensive seam-weld and a very impressive roll-cage, built to some guidelines set down by us but to the highest standard possible, so that it could be certified. Unfortunately due to some injury in the ranks, the work took longer than expected but the end result is very impressive, with the cage extending to all the key suspension pick-up points and the seam welding covering every structurally important joint. The MSA certificate finally arrived recently and the computer analysis accompanying that document shows the cage to have enormous strength. To minimise weight it is constructed in T45 rather than the usual cold drawn seamless steel, there is obviously a cost penalty but since the body itself is fairly heavy and we want to maintain absolute structural integrity, we feel it's a wise investment.

With the car back in our workshop, any remaining seam sealant and other muck that had been burned buy the welding was removed and every hole would now be closed with steel. This ensures improved panel integrity and proper sealing from the outside world. We would also add to the seam welding by stitching the inner floor cross member in fully and adding some more welds to the rear seat area. All the remaining holes that used to be filled by grommets, covers and fasteners were then welded closed to ensure total body integrity. The next step was to take the car, with doors, bonnet, tailgate and side skirts to Nick Houghton in Bedfordshire to receive its splendid metallic silver paint. Nick painted our previous car and offered us a very reasonable deal on this one. The result is simply stunning; everything is painted silver, inside, outside and underneath. It is exactly what we wanted.

From this point it's almost all about bolting things together. Ok, so it's not really that simple and I have a fair bit of engineering work to do in the fitting of pipes, pedal box, electrics and the fabrication of the steering column and gearshift pedestal. We have "head protection" racing seat from Corbeau, an electrically operated fire extinguisher system, polyurethane suspension bushes, 4-pot front calipers from a Lancia Integrale Evo, single piston sliding rear calipers (rear axle from a Lancia Dedra) in place of the original drums, a bias adjustable pedal box and a big space waiting to receive an ATL saver cell type fuel tank. The engine is being built by Alfa guru Dave Ashford of Brunswick Motorsport to give us a reliable power producer. It will be fitted with a fully mapped management system using individual throttle bodies.

It's been a long journey since January 2003 and by the time we hit the track the team will also have achieved 2 weddings and a house move during the course of the project. We've started and scrapped one project then started a new one. We will not compromise on the specification of this car, but we are paying for it all ourselves, which is why the build is not yet complete. We've already achieved our goal of creating a very strong bodyshell as a basis of the car and only the highest quality parts are being used to build the rest.

The car should be complete and ready to test in March 2004 and we will be testing several times before committing to any races. Darren will again compete in the BRSCC Alfa Romeo championship whilst I am looking at several championship options including BRSCC Euro-Italia, BARC In Gear and the SEMSEC championships (Lydden is about 25 minutes from home!).

Keep an eye out for the next installment in Acorn where I will write more detail about the build of the car and what really went into it. Until then, you can keep up to date by visiting the Marquis Motorsport website at: www.marquis-motorsport.com.