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Mar 18, 2016 17:26:50 GMT
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Interesting, could be on the horizon a v6 or 8 depending on cash flow. If someone wants to give me 7k I'll drop the maserati engine in but I think sadly that's turning into a pipe dream, I just ain't got that sort of dollar floating about. I have seen sub 500 quid v6 and 8s about and if I do an engine swap it will be in that price range, it's a real shame cos could you just imagine how insane the noise would be with a full blown italian v8 roaring out the back. We need to ask a certain rich ginger soon to be on telly petrolhead if an engine donation might be possible!.. wink wink nod nod...
We'll see, never say never an all that. On a brighter note I've just polished and buffed to a nice glossy shine all ready for road testing this weekend, I shall report back with my findings.
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Mar 18, 2016 14:51:33 GMT
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Cheers thanks for the info, I'll contact them imminently, looks like a quality product. jonboisescort yes, we aim to be there that's the plan. Well it's been quite a productive week, managed to finish off all the little jobs regarding my air management and finally we have lift off and touch down, literally! Having a bit of a faff trying to get the new dash panel in, honestly only the medically insane would try to slam an elite, seriously what a major ball ache trying to thread all the wires in and around the air line and balancing a torch over the hole lot at the same time! However I can see it will go in, just. Little sneaky video of the panther in air ride action...
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Mar 16, 2016 13:02:45 GMT
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minininjarob Yes I've got the font and have the appropriate labels all ready for print, however I'm holding back until I know everything is working correctly before I go ahead and get them made up. It's really not easy finding a supplier of decals for cheap, I've been getting ridiculous quotes considering I need less than half A4, until I find an economical source the panel will stay as is. Warms the sole that you guys are liking the panel, been really hard work, and lots of waiting for the final laser cut sheet, which arrived wrong in the first instance, had to wait a further 3 weeks for the correct revised piece to arrive. Still worth the effort, and I've been able to keep the original dash panel should it ever need to go back.
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Cheers lads, always uplifting to hear your kind comments. Little history lesson regarding the very thin delicate alloy surround. After Giugiaro had designed the interior and gave it over to the Lotus boffins to create it was proving to be a real pig to actually produce. However Mr Chapman was adamant that the interior should look exactly as it had been penned by the hand of Giugiaro, so even though 'production' were complaining about the surround it was pushed through along with some other difficult elements. Never the less for me it has proved to be incredibly delicate and the slightest false move would have seen it crumpled in a ball of spaghetti in the corner of the garage, luckily I have what the italians call 'le mani d'angelo' which helps!
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Mar 14, 2016 20:00:06 GMT
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Who supplies your air stuff All and everybody. Bags from the UK, dials and gauges from the good ol US of A, air fittings, guy in bolton, bits n bobs ebay. It's hard work finding decent kit at reasonable prices but it is out there, just needs research. Hoping to road test this weekend.
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Mar 14, 2016 19:08:48 GMT
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Another beautiful and subtle addition to this car, great to see it continuing to evolve. Only one thing, isn't there an L in original? Yeah, it fell off and I've not found it since, ha!
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Mar 14, 2016 13:07:22 GMT
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Feb 11, 2016 15:56:10 GMT
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Well it's been a while, I've not forgotten you for one second, just been waiting weeks for parts and such. So what have I been up to? Well a lot in short, I've redone my rear end setup which is almost ready for testing, just need to get my dash panel back in place and plumb everything in so that we have uppy downy at the touch of a paddle. I've added universal air house bags to the rear and got rid of the air rams which in effect has half the air pressure but stiffer ride as the bag can spread the load a hell of a lot better, hense a nice stiff rear end! What else, well I'm tweaking a visual element at the moment which is closer to my very first original idea, but that you will have to wait a see, a little suspense never hurt anyone. Here's a few photos of progress. All in all a busy few months of work gone by and redoing work you think you've already cracked is a motivational tester. Anyway, as always I fight my way through and never give in and now we see The Panther is very close to a new improved season on the show circuit so if you see her out come over and say hi. On a side note, massive massive thank you to anyone who voted for the elite in car of the year, I really had no idea it was in the running and amazed she took home the trophy, feather in the cap and one that is greatly appreciated and a very proud moment. All the best Charlie. Keep an eye out, more updates soon...
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Jan 17, 2016 11:13:28 GMT
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Looking great, hard graft certainly paying off.
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Dec 24, 2015 13:05:48 GMT
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Well, the rear defrost/wiper/wash switches were always redundant after I had smoothed the rear hatch, but the hazard light switch I've simply hidden under the dash side panel. That left 4 switch holes and I had a hunch that those paddles would fit, I need to make a surround for each paddle to fill a slight gap but all in all they are a plug and play. Gunna be a challenge getting the nylon air line behind the dash as it's not very flexible but I reckon it'll go in with a little persuasion.
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Dec 24, 2015 12:46:24 GMT
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Can you spot the difference?
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Dec 23, 2015 10:09:32 GMT
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Really coming together, good progress looking forward to seeing more developments. Well done keep up the great work.
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Very interesting, my hunch is that it will showhorn in, it would be very tight and I'm pretty sure some manipulation somewhere along the line would be involved. I'm going to research this further before I make any hard and fast decisions but all good progress though and further research needed. Fwiw, my crank to head is about 450mm.
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Cheers clement, just done my measurements, it's looking too big, dammit. My bay is 720mm width, height (I knew this would be the problem) is only 550mm but the length would easily fit, got loads of room there. I mean it would go with body modifications to the bay and bonet, so not all is lost but I don't really want to wreck the shell if I can help it. I know a V8 can fit in here, a few lotus elite/eclat owners have already done it so I won't give up on the idea just yet. I still think the biturbo would shoehorn in, early days but good food for thought.
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The wedge profile restricts the engine height even the bog standard lotus lump is practically hitting the bonet. Any engine with carbs mounted centrally will be a problem without cutting the bonet, and I don't want to do that. All depends on finding the right size lump and that's currently future plans at the moment I'm knee deep in my tank installation. Regarding features and what not, expect a 6 month wait, the guys at RC are overloaded with cars, it takes a while.
Edit: Just had a sneaky peak on the excel forum, very nice to see positive comments coming from 'Lotus' guys. I've always been open and honest about the car on all forums and 99% have been enthusiastic towards the build, I had it on their stand early this year and the excel guys were very encouraging, and I saw some of them again at the NEC recently, nice to catch up and again very positive. The car is there to enjoy, if anyone doesn't 'get it' then so be it, entitled opinion. For me though, I just carry on with my build, and believe me there's more to come...
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Cheers man, I appreciate the comments, hopefully it makes a little more sense after the feature. Anyway, I've been busy with more improvements and one of the mentioned cato-esque surprises is to convert the air ride to a managed system. I've crafted some panelling around the boot area to mount a tank and compressor and I'm hoping to do a clean installtion with hard lines, nothing to complicated just hoping to keep things really neat and simple. This I'm aiming to do before the new show season next year. This car is ever evolving and am also getting the very real want for more power, namely italian stallions in the form of a whopping great maserati engine, I've asked clement on here for dimension (I think a biturbo V6) might just fit and is ecconomically realistic, so we're looking into that as a possible, watch this space. Here's a boring photo of my hidden air lines.
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Looking good, what did you do about the suspension, are you still going air ride or is that not possible?
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Nov 28, 2015 19:51:28 GMT
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Yeah I was totally amazed to get a front cover a very nice feeing especially as I've got flu but seeing the cover really lifted my spirits. I have to say I'm over the moon with the feature and Daniel did an awesome job of making sense of the scribbles I sent him, he totally nailed it and understood where I was coming from, massive credit to him and Chris for a great job on the photos.
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Nov 27, 2015 10:32:41 GMT
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What a lovely surprise I had this morning, The Red Panther finally hits the stores with a front cover appearance in RetroCars magazine, and what a brilliant article they have written, it's a good read even if I say so myself. Totally stoked, thanks to kelsey media (Daniel Bevis and Chris Frosin) for showing such a interest in the car and build.
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