MadaboutKitcars

You had to go back a long way to find this
Of course I have pictures

But im not ready to share yet as my photshop skills are still lacking
DSG has helped me visualize and I can't thank him enough for his time.

I have reverted to cutting and pasting (not on a computer but with a scapel)

The buck is slowly coming together at the workshop and in my front room.
It is still very much a Z300s based shape albeit with an up to date twist.

You can run, but you can't hide.

Jokes aside, I thought of you when I first saw this build thread on a US forum I use.

So I hope you find it interesting.

http://www.ffcars.com/forums/146-other-replicas-scratch-builds-kits/543666-new-project-taking-shape.html

Good luck, Paul.

Hide from you lot how can I :P
Thanks Paul for the link, I like it.

Ive quickly tried to tidy up my collage of bits of paper.

Its quite a long way from where I started.
Influences in the mix include

Aston DB10
Exagon Furtive
Bauer Catfish
Shelby Cobra concept
Jag E type lightweight

My son and I have been visiting exotic car sales and borrowing ideas.
His input has been priceless
Picture the scene we are looking at an Aston Martin derived Mansory Cyrus.
Completely carbon bodied and bespoke styling - http://astonmartins.com/car/mansory-cyrus/

He looks at me and says "I think its trying to hard"
So ive taken that on board and I have tried to keep the shape pure.

At the end of the day its just a modified nose on a z300 but the rear has had a slight update

Over a 100 new views and no comments.
Not sure if that's good or bad

The majority here love classic style
or
Maybe is a child that only the parent can love

Great concept, I like the shorter nose. But the rear is a bit bleughh for me. That is why I am looking at a cobra rear with 250 swb front. Oh and a hard top. But a shorter roadster even so.

Could the problem be that Mazda already build it?



Just a thought...

Most of the kits than Chris sells tend to be more retro so don't be put off by a lack of response.

Thank you for your comments

Mr T - you could have a point, by trying to use current styling cues I run the risk of it looking like something mainstream.

The previous incarnation was not but I felt the front and rear were not gelling

but I felt the front and rear were not gelling

This is really important for me. The Bertini has a pretty rear end but who ever designed it was clearly in a different place to the person designing the front end.

This was my biggest worry when I stuck the short-nose on my Z300S but thankfully it has worked well.

Barber - welcome to the forum and thank you for your honesty

I always intended to work from the z300 kit
Its strange but the photos you see of them don't do them justice.
The rear end is a series of curves that come from the D type that formed the basis.
The rear arches are wide - about 3" over the z3 narrow body.
I have 17x10 rear wheels but I may still need a spacer to fill the arch.

I admit that due to my lack of digital photo editing skills my picture may not capture what im aiming for.
The legend that is DSG however did produce this for me



Somewhere between mine and his there is the finished idea

I can see that the orange car above has much beefier haunches and overhang. At the end of the day, we are all here because we want something different. Fabulously, Chris is happy to indulge.

I have no idea if the cobra/swb mix will work as a whole, but the "muscle" features of both are common. I might end up with a 289 with a kim kardashian bum. In any event, my idea of simply getting a 250 swb in contemporary format is currently on the shelf. The possibilities thrown up on this forum are fascinating. It is a bit like wandering around an pld fashioned hardware shop that has adopted virtual reality.

Thanks JagTVR and Nick the z300 was your vison and I admit when you went short nose I thought it might not work. But in the flesh there is no doubt.

Im sure the Kobra front would work too.

The plan is like this.
Money is getting tighter for most of us. I can't afford to have a toy so the car must be useable all year round.
I love the convertible but with the roof up its not great to drive.
I have done about 4000 miles in the donor.

So I designed a hard top that doesn't loose all the benefits of the convertible.
I found a huge glass sunroof, but it still fits in the boot.
I chose a curved rear screen to match the z300 rear.

This is currently being made at home with me.

Chris has the rest of the kit at his and he is patient and supportive with every change of direction
The first change was to find modern lights to fit the curvey rear and then everything developed from there.

The design elements come from these

Just a quick warning about the big petrol filler on the orange car. I originally had one of those fitted but changed it because I kept catching my leg on it getting out of the car.

Car not great with the hood up - Absolutely agree. Totally water tight and easy to put up and down but the car gets very boomey with it up. My solution is to keep it down most of the time and drive faster so the rain goes over your head. I have probably put 30,000 miles on the clock of all year round driving since the conversion and only about 300 with the hood up.

I will be interested to see your hard top solution and find out how it performs. I too plan to have the tribute car as my only transport. My wife will have her own car for when 4 up is required. Like most, i dream of mini tours both in the uk and europe so useability at the cost of sportiness is ok.

My wife doesn't drive but our four seater is the old pickup truck I bought for trips with the mountain bikes and taking stuff to the tip.

It is funny at some restaurants we use. They make a point of getting either the Mercedes or Barchetta parked out the front but when we turn up with friends in the pickup we always seem to get directed to the back carpark. Strange...

Haha,however,seeing as how good the Tribute cars look and scrub up, I see where they are coming from.

Those of you who watched my last build (seems an age ago) know that I built outside in the front drive.
It inspired Paul L to take on his adventure

This time I don't have a drive, which is one of the reasons I didn't start from scratch this time. So after a chat with Chris a modified z300 was the way forward.

But I find it hard to be 150 miles away from the project and I have visited and worked in Tributes workshop on a regular basis. Chris is more skilled than I and he will produce the finished article.

So what to do - idle hands and all
Well for a while I drew design after design which didn't help as I diluted the original design.

After getting stuck in traffic in the Z3 in torrential rain I had plenty of time to look around.
The rear window is tiny, it feels dark and cramped.

Maybe a targa is the answer but the more joins the more a chance to leak.

So a fixed hard top with a large tilt and removable glass panel is the answer.

Im making the buck in the front room, it got a way to go yet but the shape is almost there.

The white sketch reminded me of ford puma headlights and the profile of the back with the wide arches of the Audi tt. Maybe you could find your grill on a ford focus rs body kit or in the style of. Mk4/5 version.

Spot on Zag
The headlamps are puma and are dirt cheap these days
They are not a bad shape and feature projector lamp units.

Not so many pumas about now so not such a give away.

I have most of the other parts ,like you I have been collecting
The grille is Ford but from Asia and I might modify it to loose its origin even more

Rear lamps are also Puma but I have modified them = opened them up and changed the lenses fitted LEDs

Roadster - I am certainly looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Chris @ Tribute has a very good eye for getting various shapes to work together.

I think the hard top approach will be the feature that will makes it stand out as "different".

Although if I started building a "buck" inside the house I wouldn't live long enough to see the car on the road.

Good luck, Paul.

Not exactly like the picture but then again they never do
But the inspiration is there.



I might have to rethink the puma headlamps
The shape is more viper than Aston

Squint and you can almost see it.

Crack on with the paint job now...

I've just seen a GT40 on copart that looks very similar.


http://www.copart.co.uk/uk/Lot/39759975?searchId=275230163

After yesterdays progress on the front I can see the shape emerging.

My original collage of cut paper didn't represent the rear of the Z300.
Thankfully WCA used to post pics on his post and any other post he could

So I printed a suitable pic and cut the bits I wanted.
I used paint to change yesterdays pic to a solid item.

The puma lamps are giving me a headache. my front end is just as curvy as the rear but the puma had a squarer profile meaning the lamps don't flow into the wings as I would like.

Quick flick through ebay for cheap suitable headlamps and I came up with these. (I really like the front and rear lamps to mirror shape and style)

MGTF lights? Looks good.