I decided to crack on and with a heel bar and some elbow grease I removed the spacers used on the donor cars brake pedal that were welded to the bulkhead. Once removed I cleaned up the spacer the spot welds on a bench grinder. Right, Put them on the brake servo and refit the brake pedal. I fastened the steering column to the bracket and offered it up again. I still was not happy, the steering column was too far to the left and it would be impossible to drive. I double checked the fitting but the side of the bracket was still fouling the clutch bracket. I looked at the bracket again and went back to the internet (facebook photos). The photos showed the bracket fitted to the demo car looked the same but the angle of the side piece appeared to be the one from the opposite side of the bracket. Back to the car and the bracket. My thoughts were that the bracket, which was made from one piece of folded steel, had been folded and welded up the wrong way.
I took some photos and sent them off to Graham and Ben to see if they can shed any light on the issue. I still can’t reach the last bolts on the rear suspension top mounts. Need someone with longer arms. Time to make a few calls.
The Newark kitcar show is on at the agricultural show ground. The weather is all over the place with heavy cloud and rain showers but I decided to go mostly because I wanted to find someone who could potentially paint my car when the time comes and also that I get some ideas for a colour choice. The turnout wasn’t as good as it had been at Stoneleigh, I expect the weather played its part with numerous car cockpits under golf umbrellas or in some cases the whole car wrapped up in its “sleeping bag”, The show didn’t have any sprayers showing but I got a few photos of some nice cars.
There were a few interesting colours and combinations including a light blue pearlesant cobra which on closer inspection revealed that it was a film applied to the bodywork. It looked awesome until you got close up then you could see the seams and overlaps. The favourite colour for my car is looking like British Racing Green but with the variety of BRG available I’m looking for options. The mica pearl effect is very subtle but I haven’t seen it in a dark green. The current favourite is the Lotus metallic green. I’ve seen it on the Evora (albeit with twin yellow stripes) and the Elise
and think it will look great and kind of reminds me of my first Impreza.
I went passed the Italian replicas some of which I recognise from Stoneleigh. One of the guys I got chatting to, whilst admiring some very nice cars, couldn’t understand the reason for the cars as they were only Toyota MR2’s underneath. Later I got chatting to one of the owners who had a Lamborghini Diablo. However this was no “dressed up Toyota”. Painted in the mica pearl orange, as seen on the Lamborghini Aventador and MSC’s new RTS demo car (which looks cool), under the hood he had fitted a 5 litre V12 BMW engine with a couple of turbos bolted on for that little extra lift. He recently had a new clutch fitted. As he told me shortly after its first engine management setup, with the engine only pushing out 400hp, the old clutch had given in and shattered whilst he was driving it. The new clutch should take up to 700hp and he is having to do extra workouts in the gym to operate the clutch. His plan was to run it for the summer and for the winter was to change the gearbox to a Porsche and tune the top end of the rev range.
Alas there were no Murtayas to be seen, something that I will have to rectify next year. MEV have produced a kit that from the online photos I thought might be direct competition for the Murtaya. But after seeing it in the flesh so to speak there’s no competition. The MEV X5 is a redressed Mazda Mx5 which I’m sure would be fun but not the power of the Murtaya. It also doesn’t have the detail either and you lose the boot. Sure it is cheap, there is no IVA test required, it’s a relatively straight forward panel replacement which appears to be growing in popularity due to low cost and complexity as well as laser scanning giving near perfect replication of body panels.
When I got home there was an email from Graham confirming my suspicion that I had been given the wrong part. The part that had been delivered was for a left hand drive and he would arrange a replacement on Monday. Graham also included photos of the pedal box and the column mount which highlighted a screw up on my part. I did not need to part the accelerator pedal from the brake pedal. Also there are only two fixings onto the tub not four as I previously thought. Also the spacers I took from the donor car were not required the spacers on the clutch pedal look like they need to come off. None of these are major issues and all are easily restored.
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