MadaboutKitcars

You'll like this too Scottie:

Octane Magazine

Absolutely fabulous stuff y cymro!!

I must admit that whilst reading the story, I felt an extremely difficult-to-resist urge to masturbate!!!!!

HOWEVER I did resist, and somehow remained in control.

But, you never know, in a weak moment I could always go back and read it again................

Today

Small job on the recently removed luggage rack, the elegant rubber feet arrived in the post so I did the business, and now the rack is ready for bolt-on after the ever looming paint job.

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Argh, image stuck in head, must format brain, need scotch...

That said, it's a good article - and Octane's 'coolest car'

Try this : https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/115660383436295169415/albums/5947173150520550001/6006604828119507298?pid=6006604828119507298&oid=115660383436295169415

Yeah, that nailed it WCA, thanks for that.

Cannot imagine for a moment what madness possessed the builder to fit wire wheels to it!!

Should have been Dunlop's finest I would have thought.

There were a few things I was not impressed with on that red one!

I better shut up before I drop myself in the mire...........

Rear rack is mounted backwards too...

Slam the brakes on and your luggage will take your head off

All 16 of the originals have the rack on that way, and as far as I can tell all of the replicas too.

Some time back Mr Towed pointed that out too!

I think they were all mounted that way because the acceleration was so fierce, it they were not that way you would have lost all your luggage!!

Seriously though they were all mounted that way, and so will mine be.

Providing the rack is correctly mounted to the car, and the luggage is secured correctly to the rack, I can't see any problem.

Plus the fact that unlike the original which had no boot space to speak of, just a "postbox" for the spare wheel, (hence the rack in the first place) my car has a huge boot, plus a large space behind the seats, so I would most likely never need to carry any external crap anyway.

Hey, its supposed to be the coolest car in the world not the safest!!!! :-)

I was quoting from Mt Towed.

I assumed he spoketh with great knowledge. I now know that you are the true source of wisdom and shall from henceforth quote you.

For goodness sake don't drop me in the shit with Mr Towed!

HE IS THE SOURCE OF ALL WISDOM!!!

By all means quote me, but don't mess with the Towed!! :-)

today



For those that did not follow y cymro's link, The car magazine Octane,
had named the XKSS "The coolest car in the world"

Now, given what I am building, and the effort I am putting in, I'd be stupid to argue against that!

However, I have always had two minor criticisms of the XKSS styling,
one being the screen, which I have always thought was too upright, and the other, the nose of the car which I think is too pug-nosed, or squashed looking.

Fortunately, I am in a good position here, as neither of those problems exist on my car.

I deliberately, welded my screen frame in such a way that it is raked back more steeply than the XKSS, and the nose on the body Chris has created, is longer (I would imagine because he used a long-nosed D Type shell to copy from)

The longer nose version was a part of the R and D program at Jaguar.
When they were winning all the races with the D Type, they did not rest of their laurels, but kept developing the car, and one result was
to add an extra 9 inches to the bonnet, and they called the car the "long nosed D"

This made it more aerodynamic, and increased the top speed by several extra miles per hour.

The following pic shows the difference, and as far as I understand it the 16 XKSS's were all built using the short nose version bonnet.

Hence the snubness.

So when I finish my build, I may well have a cooler car, than the coolest car in the world!!

I will surely have the only XKSS replica not to be Jaguar-based?

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You should have a T shirt made: 'my car's cooler than the coolest car in the world"

Scottie - One thing is for sure, you are going to have a very cool car when you are finished.

Good luck, Paul.

Sunday

I did not post yesterday as I was so busy.

When I first fabricated my stainless exhaust quite a while ago now, I had briefly trial fitted it, and was satisfied with the result.

Since then, I have drastically lowered the car, in order to get the look I wanted, also with satisfying results, so far so good.

The other day when I fitted the exhaust to the car "properly" I had not checked under the car on flat level concrete, as I had done the work outside with the car on rough grass.

So yesterday I did check, and was totally f**king horrified at finding out I only had 2 inches of clearance (that's 50mm to you europhiles).

I knew with a sinking heart, that the part where the exhaust curls under the chassis, to start its journey under the passengers floor, would have to be radically altered to stand any chance of remaining on the car after a speed bump.

Back to the drawing board.................

I worked very hard for a very long time, thinking, swearing, injuring, cutting, grinding, bending , and finally I think I have the solution and my extra 2 inches of clearance.

Right now the exhaust is all in cut sections again, but hopefully sections that when I weld and put them back on today, will be just what is needed for the clearance required.
Again, two more days work that I had not planned on!!!!

I think the car is deliberately pissing me about because it knows it's not going to Stoneleigh.

If it carries on in this fashion, it won't be going next bloody year either!

Pics to follow after its done.

Today

Well, I got stuck into the exhaust again today and am still at it.

I have done a lot of welding and cutting yet again, and felt pleased with where I was, until I realised that sod was trying to attract my attention.

With an increasingly uneasy feeling, I listened to sod explaining all about his "law".

He said that according to his law, all the drastic modyfying I had done, would result in all the holes I had drilled in the body and chassis,
( to accommodate the fixing brackets) must now be in the wrong places.

Also all the brackets I had painstakingly made, would also be useless and the wrong size and shape.

Of course I told him to piss off, and told him what to do with his law,

then with the same sinking feeling Max Clifford must have had earlier,

I realised the bastard was right!

So with a heavy heart, I started fabricating and drilling all over again, and like I said I am still at it.

I am starting to learn that coolness does not come cheap, - in labour terms at least.


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It has just occurred to me that I am having to labour so hard to get my exhaust ground clearance, simply because I laboured so hard to drastically lower the car in the first place, its a funny old world we live in..........

It has just occurred to me that I am having to labour so hard to get my exhaust ground clearance, simply because I laboured so hard to drastically lower the car in the first place, its a funny old world we live in..........

While you are doing all the metal work, couldn't you make a rod for your own back?

Oh, you have.

Well... it was either this or having to 'plan' all your journeys on streetview to make sure all the roads are flat before setting off!

Scottie - Hang on in their mate, you are getting the car you want, the way you want it.

Despite all the extra work, there is no way you will be missing Stoneleigh 2015.

( Provided you don't take a chainsaw to the car when you discover something else needs to be re-worked. )

Good luck, Paul.

All part of the fun Scottie...

I now have just under 90mm ground clearance at the lowest point, which I would treat as an absolute minimum for road use.



Before fitting the 175/80/14 tyres with 150lb Spitfire front springs cut down by 30mm (in place of the 175/70/14's and 220lb Vitesse springs cut down by 95mm that I started out with) I had less than 70mm ground clearance.

The car was a nightmare to drive as it kept grounding, even on relatively flat roads. This led to me driving around with my buttocks firmly clenched in anxious anticipation of the inevitable graunching sounds and the fear that I'd see bits of exhaust, sump and con rod in my wake if I looked in the rear view mirror.

It's far more comfortable now and can be driven much faster with confidence. I'm all for the 'praise the lowered' approach, but 90mm is definitely the lower limit (pun fully intended).

Thanks for the support guys!

Mr T, I'm sure you are right on that one, and that is why all this labour is going on, as far as my exhaust goes I am confident that at the end of the exhaust marathon, I will have AT LEAST 90mm.

As you say, praise be to the lowered!!

Exhaust saga

Back at it today,

now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

The pics are not up to the usual standard becase yesterday I rolled over on my camera under the car and totally f**ked it up and had to bin it.

It was an expensive one too, however I have bought a cheaper model but not got used to it yet, so the pics are not so good.


I will post theses pics then crack on:

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I have a horrible feeling that the exhaust is going to rattle and bang a lot. They tend to be rubber mounted for a reason, sorry!

I understand your concern, but I have no room for any saggy rubber, but when it is lagged with the correct stuff, and then bolted back, it is so tight it will not rattle or bang, but there may well be some vibration, I have used the longest length of flexi I could, so we will have to see.

There is always a way, have more faith!

Good luck, I hope it works.