1993 Litton Corse I - Strato's Replica

Thanks for sharing Darkspeed

This weekend is the Gold Cup at Oulton Park and I shall be taking along the Wednesday night Pizza and Party (workparty that is) Ginetta G32. Still a work in progress but now looking rather splendid on the new Rota's and Toyo's. This is a car I very much regret selling but I can't complain, the owner has me as a named driver and it was sold to make room for the Strato's. There you go valid reason for posting in this thread, if I really needed one.



A bit different now to the photo on the Pistonheads advert when I bought it.



By all acounts it goes quite well but if it rains I will be getting wet as the sunroof leaks - Who cares.

Limited work on the Strato's - Had a quiet weekend and went to the Gold Cup on the Monday - The G32 was great fun to take there and the 1.9 CVH is a gem. Not one of those Specialized engine tall block things but a 1.6 block with lots of work. It was going so well until I got stuck in traffic around Natwich and a weep on the clutch line drained the M/C reservoir and stuck me 2.1 miles from the owners place. QWuick version he arrived with a few tools and we nipped the union up that was leaking, bled the clutch and I did the final home stretch.

Fantastic Unipower at Oulton







Parked next to an equally superb Capri



This evening I dug the TIG out for a bit of practice, what I should do is practice on bits of scrap and do the old laying beads thing but Mike with the G15 is building a cold air feed that doubles as a snorkel for when he has to deal with the fords on the rallies - The old KN's were a right old state from previous dunkings and this is one of those things that has two benefits and we like those.

I am begining to get the hang of it but still cock up contaminating the Tungsten far too frequently - Fun practice project.









Practice make perfect - and I need loads more practice.

Strato's wise I am looking at the rear suspension geometry and the anti squat thats built into the lower rear wishbone suspension pick ups so I cant really do any welding works until I have that all squared.

I'm wondering why you did not use CDS tube? or is it trying to look original with the box?

I use CDS when it's appropriate for the application, for cages and suspension components where the extra strength and consistancy is required. For this application with an engine mounting load, beam stiffness is required and box is best for that application. Box is rubbish for torsional loads but in resisting bending loads in its two planes it's pretty good. Using CDS in this application would have provided no great additional benefit and would have had to be much thicker wall for the same function. Plus when the alloy undertray is fixed - riveting to a nice flat surface is far easier. The two large box sections at right angles going back to the bulkhead are there for extra beam support and to resist torsional loads into the main beam

Weight - They are both/all 16SWG carbon steel and 2" is 33.33% more than 1.5" so it's simply 33.33% heavier - a metre of 2x2 16SWG is about 2.5KG or about another 650grams heavier than the 1.5" - If I factor that gainst the 20000 grams I took off the engine alone and the lightweight construction I am employing with other aspects of the the build it's quite acceptable when weighed against the benefits The key here is having the right parts in the right place even if they do add a bit of weight. Benefit here is that they are below the axle line. My ultimate goal is not a straight line as fast as possible as the one thing the Strato's was never designed to do is go fast in a straight line. To do that they made a much longer one.

When driving one of these there is no need to go fast - everyone else slows down

Thanks for the explanation, where the original one cracked in the sill area is that a bit of a design fault by Lancia? seems a bit weak to have an engine mount beam fixed to a thin bit of steel?

Ah, yes I forgot it's not a gennie one - good for you though as it will fool most people.
Carry on, I always enjoy reading all your posts.

Made up some strengthening sections for the rear. These will reinforce the most rearward lower wishbone mountings and also provide a wider section for when the new lower subframe beams are positioned a little further outboard.

Measured the angle of the rear chassis section at 7.5 degrees and then transfered some calculations to cardboard templates and toop to some 1-1/2 with the hacksaw.







And the outer





A bit of cleaning up of the surrounding area's and it will be time for more welding.

Here's a A Ferrari version



And an Alfa version



All different.

Some pretty grim welding there! (not yours obviously)