This is a read-only archive of the old Madabout Kitcars forum. New posts and replies are no longer possible, but every thread is still here to browse and read.
That reminds me of pulling up to the lights in my TVR 350 Wedge next to a Porsche 911 Turbo and a kid crossing the road asked me which was faster and I replied "His".
I was please when the kids dad said "Yeah, but I bet you smile more"
Anyone else notice that the pale blue Dino 246 bought by the Cheshire based supercar dealer (who once paid £1m more than a car was worth, btw) had 'Ferrari' and Cavallino Rampante stuck all over it?
Dino models never had those when they left the factory, they were just branded as 'Dino'. I'm beginning to wonder if the dealer's gauche, blingy Rolex was actually a $10 knock-off...
When you look completely impartially at those kinds of cars, most o them are piles of unreliable, badly engineered junk. I once had a ride in a 250 GTO (a real, 4 million pound one) and whilst it is beautiful and sound wonderful, it is a pile of badly made, poorly fitted bits and pieces, as are Lamborghinis that people coo over. My son had to work on an early Countach LP400, his previously favourite car. Within a day he was describing it as "that bloody shed in the corner". Parts of the insides of the many body vents were made of Italian road signs, because they had no aluminium. You could clearly see part of a men at work sign!
Having said that, I'd still kill for an Alvis Speed 25!
Cheers,
Martin
I worked on a friends Ferrari 308 GT4 . Similar thoughts , it sounded nice and looked good but the chassis was a cobbled together bodge in about half a dozen different sizes of random steel tube and box section.
I also live near Malvern , home of the Morgan. Morgan owners are a similar breed and often have lots of money but no brains. They get really funny when you ask them about their "kit car "which is all it is at the end of the day. Again , nicely finished but very crude and basic , available , biult partly by hand and yours from around £35k.
I've worked in product development at car manufacturers, and had a F car we were using for development (can't say any more :icon_lol Some of the welding we found was pretty poor to say the least - I'm not a pro welder, but if I was welding on a regular basis and couldn't do any better I'd take up cookery or something else....!
Sometimes welding can look a bit flimsy but is done as required.
In the 80s i did a bit of top-fuel motorbike racing and i had a frame made by a famous dutch framebuilder Nico Bakker http://www.bakker-framebouw.nl/who did build a lightweight frame made from chromoly.
All the tubes were different sizes and it looked as they were only tag-welded,when i asked if i had to finish the welds myself Nico laughed and told me this was stronger as a full weld mainley because there was less heatheffected zones in the metal.
The different sizes of the tubes were to reduce weight,only as strong as was needed on a particular place was used,not only the outside diameter but also wall thickness was different.
I used this frame for 8 years including 3 crashes and sold it when i stopped racing,after this it was used for 5 years more and still exists in a private collection..
Only telling this to show if you think it's bad it don't have to be bad
Yes that HAZ can be a real pain. Many's the chassis design that has had to be re-thought because stresses fed the wrong way show that up. Causes brittleness and breakage 1-2cm from the joint.
It's a lovely wheel and getting in and out will always be easier with the smaller wheel.
I've got a 13" wood rim wheel. Not as nice looking as yours but I'm building the car to suit me, not trying to make an exact replica and I can always change it later.
you would have been better of with a 15" diameter....
Yep, probably should be a 17" for maximum authenticity. One of the things I noticed when I test drove a Z3 though was how little space BMW allowed to fit unnecessary fripperies in the cockpit, like legs.
As Hurnleft points out above, you've actually got to be able to get into the thing to be able to drive it. Plus I like a 14" wheel, it's the Goldilocks size for me - not too big, not too small, but just right.
Mister Towed, I notice you have bought some Rover 45 seats, if you have them to hand could you please tell me how wide they are at the bottom, the bit you sit on. Would they squeeze into an 18 inch gap between transmission tunnel and door?
I have a pair of seats for the Berlinetta but they aren't particularly comfortable, in fact they are particularly uncomfortable! Not what I would like to be perched in for six hours anyway.
Some of the welding we found was pretty poor to say the least - I'm not a pro welder, but if I was welding on a regular basis and couldn't do any better I'd take up cookery or something else....! 
