Many miles have passed since I last reported on the build, Wales - Lys y Fran; Yorkshire - Oliver’s Mount, a great hillclimb complete with bikes; Wiltshire etc, and competing at these events has demonstrated just how important it is to have a light car with plenty of horsepower. This was particularly clear at Longleat where I was amalgamated into the next class which included cars such as a DJ Fire…something or other sporting a carbon fibre chassis and 1600cc Hyabusa engine which was producing enormous power, so the chances of achieving a respectable time were nil, anyway enough of that, here is the next instalment.

You will remember that I had made the front & rear sub frames plus the centre monocoque and various bits of suspension, wishbones etc. Well, like most projects as progress is made the design evolves. For a start, the centre section is now tube instead of an aluminium monocoque, it proved to be so much easier and quicker to add, change the design or components and all that was needed was to weld them in place.

The monocoque required very careful thought and planning with particular regard to mounting points, so hence the change.

The wishbones have also been revised and now are made from flat oval tubing and they look much better.

So after all that I have only reached the point at which I was at before.

The rear uprights were designed to accept standard Sierra drive shafts in the quest for cheapness and availability but unless Cosworth drive shafts were used drum brakes came as standard. So to overcome this, the back plates were cut off and brackets were formed which were welded to the uprights and these were designed to accept Wilwood callipers. The only other modification required was a small amount of machining to the disc to provide extra clearance under the calliper.

Last time I reported I could not decide about the front suspension, this has now been resolved and should work OK having resisted the temptation to use aluminium uprights as I felt this choice would have added to the overall cost.

With the general decision made, I looked at what was available from Mr Ford: Sierra uprights with machined inserts to take the top ball joint? I don’t think so. Cortina, if you can find any and at a price? I finally settled on Triumph - don’t laugh, Mallock use them and one of ADR Engineering’s competitors does also. Oh, and the most important point is that they are still available off the shelf.

At this stage I have retained the top ball joint but dispensed with the bottom trunion and machined a new shank and thread in the former’s place. The bottom pivot is a rod end which screws into the outer bottom wishbone bush.

Brakes on the front will again be Wilwood and the suspension will be completed with coil spring dampers mounted in the conventional fashion.

One fact to emerge from the chassis change is that the weight of the original mono chassis was 45kgs, the tubular chassis, which is not yet panelled, weighs 28kgs, so even allowing for the aluminium, it will still be lighter.

Hopefully next time I will be able to report that the steering column and rack have been fitted and roll over cage. Once more I hope this has been of interest.

On a lighter note…...

An 86 year old farmer has divorced his 24 year old wife, apparently the reason was that he could not keep his hands off her…so he has now sacked the hands and bought a tractor.

Hope you all have a great new year.