1993 Litton Corse I - Strato's Replica

And with regard to incomplete welds the front of the chassis was not a great deal better




So what is actually left of any worth or to work with on this chassis especially with all the parts being thrown in the bin or needing repair?

Litton did produce cars to a good specification the chassis suspension and steering parts were all bespoke the only donor part being the calipers and discs but these could also be specified as motorsport units if required. The Steering rack is a motorsport bespoke unit for Litton and is a rather quick 1.75 turns lock to lock.

The engine although pretty old and not of a type with a huge tuning market to support it does have some potential, it came fitted with a couple of decent stainless manifolds and system, although the system was a bit butchered its not beyond saving. It has a light flywheel and with a few modifications should be able to be coaxed to exceed the original Strato's Ferrari V6 2.4L which developed 190BHP. Not a great deal of power by today's standards but enough for entertainment.

Back to the plan - Start the clean-up removing all the ugly removing all the odd brackets and bits of weld either left over by the factory or added by the builder.





Some braces were added to the integral cage and the front legs replaced with new 38mm CDS as per the original design.

Bloody hell. Good job it wasn't in a drivable state when you got it. Could have been nasty!

Whilst at Lister Bell having a look at the progress on the bodywork I took a few shots of one of the latest chassis under construction, specifically the door mounts, as I needed to make modifications to the chassis to make sure all of the panels of the car fitted and operated as they should.

The LB work is stunning, the parts are all CAD designed CNC cut and the fabrication work faultless.








After a couple of dozen steps backward it was time to make a few steps forward.

Darkspeed just noticed your location. An uncle of mine used to farm at Tilley. Lovely part of the world

A few of the forward steps

A bit of lining up and checking to see how I can integrate the LB parts into this old relative.




The next stage involved putting away all the cutting discs, saws and chisels and start breaking out the grinders, sanders and the welder to start some restorative fabrication works.

This part of the chassis in the wheel arch is a double skin and was originally folded and formed the door hinge - when modified for the other hinge system the skins were not fully welded together. As well as welding up all the holes from various pop rivets I also ran a row of plug welds to stiffen the panels.







Clamp it up and weld it.






Oh and whilst the welder is out - fill a few hundred rivet holes

Finish off this evenings episode by completing the welding in of the replacement front legs of the cage.







Profiled and tacked - The body work needed to be dropped on and off a few times during this as these tubes fit in a channel of the body that forms the A pillars with just a few millimeters clearance.

Repeat plug welding and filling holes on the other side




looking more like it - My G31 in the backgroung - Pistonheads shed of the week claim to fame when I put it up for sale.



Tub having been removed for the umpteenth time and the tubes fully welded.







Looking a bit better.

Could not find any cereal boxes so it was Cardboard that came to the rescue for a couple of patterns



Transfer to some bits of steel clamp in place and out with the hot steel gun





Out with the mini grinder and clean it up



And give the floors pans a quick go over at the same time.




I build / rebuild cars that I have with the bare minimum of creature comforts and this will be the same so all of the internal frame and structure will be on show in the car - I cannot abide garish red and yellow colours for chassis and suspension components. I have a simple rule and scheme.

Chassis - Dark Grey - Specifically the old Race car colour BS381-632 - Dark Admiralty Grey
Suspension - Black
Aluminiun parts stay - Aluminium - polished if they can be polished.

So this car was basically completed in every possible way I dislike apart from the Black suspension arms.

Red chassis
Red painted alloy engine block
Red painted gearbox !
The lovely alloy uprights were painted black
The Superb alloy steering rack painted black
The rear calipers which had been removed to refurb had been painted Yellow.

very cool remember lusting after one of these when I got that magazine but was 15/16 at the time. Always fancied one but don't think I will ever have the spends

It turns out that I am only a few months younger than the original builder - In 1993 at 29 I think was running around in an old '78 1500 Spitfire whilst rebuilding a '76 Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV Bertone Coupe. That was the period I started to learn how to weld and was putting the parts together to build a Formula 27. I had also taken out a mortgage on my first house and the wife would have been pregnant with our first - I was skint... No Strato's on my horizon.



These things typically take a part time builder 2-3 years to build - Taking one to bits and rebuilding and re-engineering it could take a while longer - especially as this is also being worked on in between a couple of other projects. I think I have at least another 2 years to go with this car from where I am at the moment but at least that helps spread the bills.