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Re: New(ish) car .. not really Lotus Content and a long wait..

Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 10:24 pm
by j2 lot
:thumbsup Takes a lot of balls to scrap a perfectly decent looking Alfa but it's beating heart is going to a good place.

Re: New(ish) car .. not really Lotus Content and a long wait..

Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 10:44 pm
by renmure
j2 lot wrote:
Sun Jan 07, 2018 10:24 pm
:thumbsup Takes a lot of balls to scrap a perfectly decent looking Alfa but it's beating heart is going to a good place.
When I told Wendy what I had done it almost literally took a lot of balls. :oops: :oops: :blackeye

Re: New(ish) car .. not really Lotus Content and a long wait..

Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 11:28 pm
by Mr Momo
If 2018 starts like this, the rest should be good !

Re: New(ish) car .. not really Lotus Content and a long wait..

Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2018 1:44 pm
by ed
Thanks for the update, cant wait to see when its finished. :thumbsup

Re: New(ish) car .. not really Lotus Content and a long wait..

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 9:58 pm
by Clarkie
Stratos will be stunning, good work Jim :thumbsup :D
Hope you took out AA P&L for the Alfa GT :lol:

Re: New(ish) car .. not really Lotus Content and a long wait..

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 11:24 pm
by hendeg
Did you sell the Alfa GT to Fred Flinstone?

Re: New(ish) car .. not really Lotus Content and a long wait..

Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 1:59 pm
by Corranga
Good to hear of some progress. Bit of a shame on the GT front, but sacrifices have to be made, and the end result will be better than and last a lot longer the GT anyway :)

Re: New(ish) car .. not really Lotus Content and a long wait..

Posted: Tue May 08, 2018 6:39 pm
by renmure
Crikey, a whole 12 months later and things are only now moving forward..... slowly.

My Stratos chassis is about to be made so I was down at the car show this weekend finalising some of the spec for it and paying a chunk of money so there is no going back from here. Up till now, my deposit has always been refundable and I would always have got my money back (plus a bit) for the 3.2 Busso engine. I think the car will start getting nailed together in the 1st week of June.

Having ticked almost all of the big options there wasn't really much to spec. Chassis wise, I'm having it LHD with the slightly lowered floor-pan to give a marginal increase in headroom. Exhaust will be a decat system fitted once the car passes the IVA test on a standard system, I confirmed the full wide square-arch Alitalia rally-rep spec with quad headlights, twin lower driving lights, chin spoiler and roof scoop. Interior will be red carpets, black seats with red harnesses as per the originals. The gearbox and 3.2 engine from my now-defunct Alfa GT are next inline to be rebuilt by the engine guy in Cardiff and he has promised me lots of pics of whatever it is he does.

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Re: New(ish) car .. not really Lotus Content and a long wait..

Posted: Tue May 08, 2018 7:31 pm
by Scottish Scrutineer
Looking forward to seeing the finished article


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Re: New(ish) car .. not really Lotus Content and a long wait..

Posted: Tue May 08, 2018 8:53 pm
by j2 lot
Spec. sounds awesome. I would be beside myself with excitement.

Re: New(ish) car .. not really Lotus Content and a long wait..

Posted: Wed May 09, 2018 7:55 am
by douglasgdmw
Great to hear there's some progress, albeit at a slower pace.

Looking forward to seeing the finished article.

George

Re: New(ish) car .. not really Lotus Content and a long wait..

Posted: Wed May 09, 2018 10:13 am
by Andy G
looking forward to seeing this - hope its as sideways as the original

Re: New(ish) car .. not really Lotus Content and a long wait..

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2018 11:42 am
by renmure
As this moves forward and I get more info and photos of the build and the progress I'll probably do a build-blog somewhere and just link to it for anyone who is interested. But, I got the first pics of my chassis getting nailed together yesterday and of some of the other bits along with some info about the chassis so far.

Please see attached few pictures of your chassis being made.

Your chassis is still on the table, where it will be welded up next week or as much as we would do on the jig table and then it will go into a rotisserie to be finished.

The chassis takes approximately 2 weeks to fabricate and then another week to powdercoat. After that we would fit the floor pan, which takes approximately one day. Thereafter it is around 300 hours to build the car, but that is just an estimate and it all depends on the skill and experience of who is building it and the ultimate spec of the car.


I've met up with the guy who is building it for me a few times. He is about as experienced in this sort of thing as you can be and has undertaken bespoke builds of things that are multiples of the cost of this so I know I'm in good hands there. His expectation was that it would be a 12 week build but that's very much dependent on a lot of other things coming together in that timescale. eg I'm having the Alitalia stripes painted rather than just vinyl which adds a time factor and having the custom loom, variable engine mapping, custom ITB's and the like can string things out. He was also saying that when he is building a car he often finds different or better ways of doing things as the build progresses that end up needing custom bits fabricated and often it's things like that which can add to the time but have a huge positive impact on the quality of the final build.

At the moment, my 3.2 V6 GTA engine is still in Cardiff at the engine builder being taken to bits before being rebuilt.

Another time factor is that the car will be built to pass the IVA test, and so be fitted with things like a sensible exhaust, a compliant road dashboard and instrument set with lots of additional safety padding, standard lighting, no sharp edges and lots of additional work to get the IVA certificate... and will then be back in the workshop to undo a lot of that and create a full-on rally replica.

Anyhow..... it's almost exciting now

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Anyhow... it's a start.

Re: New(ish) car .. not really Lotus Content and a long wait..

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2018 11:55 am
by douglasgdmw
Looking good, pictures of the chassis on the jig gives an impression that it will be a lot bigger. However sure it will be a tight fit getting in.

Keep the updates coming, some engine pics are always welcome to get the saliva flowing :)

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Re: New(ish) car .. not really Lotus Content and a long wait..

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2018 12:12 pm
by renmure
douglasgdmw wrote:
Sat Jun 02, 2018 11:55 am
Looking good, pictures of the chassis on the jig gives an impression that it will be a lot bigger. However sure it will be a tight fit getting in.

Keep the updates coming, some engine pics are always welcome to get the saliva flowing
I was on my hands and knees getting in and out of the demo car at first :blackeye