Build board up and running

Well finally the build board and table have made it to the new home. Board is now painted in white emulsion and ready to start remarking the outline of the chassis. I was thinking about making the frame bigger eg the McSorley +442, but have decided to keep the chassis and build true to the book. But using MX-5 running gear.

Which leads me onto my next tangent, donor vehicle and running gear. I bought NC MX-5 front uprights about 2 years ago and have decided to use these. My main issue with using these will be that the front steering geometry will need to be redesigned. A kit car company in the UK, Saturn Sports Cars, is currently developing their car to use the MX-5 front hubs etc. I have been emailing them since January in regards to possibly borrowing, or purchasing their steering geometry design.

Have been thinking also about choice of engine as well. Originally I was thinking of using an SR20, which is a 2.0ltr motor. The theory and design of these clubman vehicles is that they are lightweight with small, light and reasonably powered engines, which rev quite high. So the SR20 may be too big, both in physical size and power. People say you can't have too much power, but I think a car weighing about 500kgs with 200kw on tap could be a very difficult car to drive smoothly and consistently. So I'm back to looking into getting a whole cheap (even unregistered) MX-5 and using motor, gearbox, wiring loom, steering wheel and column, dash, differential, prop shaft, drive shafts, rear hubs and wheels. This means it would be a one stop shop to get the majority of the parts I will need to make the car go. At the end then I could happily give the body away to a wrecker of scrap metal man.

Ah the ideas and obsession continue. Sometimes it really does take over my whole train of thought.