MadaboutKitcars

Unfortunately, this project is now on long-term 'hold'.

Personal reasons stopped me going ahead with buying the kit when I wanted to in early 2015, but I still had every intention of making a proper start in January 2017 as a retirement project.

But, I've always, always wanted a Porsche 356 Speedster, and an unstarted bodyshell popped up on ebay last week at a fair price. I just couldn't resist it and drove a 700 mile round trip to collect it from Cornwall at the weekend -



So, the space reserved for the 250 is now occupied for the foreseeable future by what's going to become an outlaw 356. Eventually.

This means I won't be using most of the parts I bought for the 250. I've already sold the wheels and you'll be seeing them fitted on a car fairly soon hopefully, which I'm rather looking forward to. If anyone here wants any of these other items, please PM me -

Genuine Nardi 14" steering wheel with boss for E36 BMW and (genuine) Ferrari wheel centre cap (you will need to source/fabricate your own horn push to hold the cap in place and make the horn operate) £150





Pair of coffin side repeaters £40



Pair of Rover 45 front seats in black leather. Very comfortable and in excellent condition from a low-mileage car. Manual adjustment with runners fitted. Complete with headrests and rear seats for spare leather. Very close in looks to original Ferrari 250 SWB seats £100





These will be 'buyer collect' or arrange your own courier and if nobody's interested it'll all go on ebay in a week or so at higher prices. Oh, and payment can be by cash on collection, bank transfer or paypal.

Thanks everyone.

Thanks for the interest everyone.

To answer a few questions:

No build thread just yet, might open one in the relevant section when I get started on the car.

Nice ideas about the donor - hadn't heard of the Pie Valley MGF based chassis, I'll have to google that later - but nobody's hit the nail on the head yet and I'm keeping that one close to my chest I'm afraid.

Just bear in mind that it is going to be a proper outlaw capable of making string-back gloved Porsche purists choke on their Pimms (apologies in advance to any Porsche purists reading this who've just spat Pimms on their favourite string-backs because they're so outraged at my criticism of their choice of hand wear, ok, I'm a d*ck).

The body has been around the block a few times although never with a chassis under it. The doors have been 'glassed shut, the front hood doesn't fit properly and the scallops for your fingers to go in under where the door handles fit have been cut out and filled flat. It's at least twenty years old, has had an unknown number of owners, none of whom ever even really started building it and the (very nice) chap I bought if from thinks it might be a Pilgrim body, but it could have been churned out by any one of the twenty or so manufacturers of Speedster bodies who've come and gone (mostly) over the last thirty odd years.

The body was on ebay for less than twenty four hours on a 'buy it now with best offer' basis. I saw it about ten minutes after it was listed, finished my very large glass of wine, looked over my shoulder to make sure my wife was still on her night shift at the hospital and hadn't sneaked home while I wasn't watching and submitted an offer of 60% of the asking price. Counter offer of 75% of 'buy it now' received the next evening and accepted without hesitation.

Even the wife's (semi) happy. She's not really into cars so long as she gets a new one every two years (and she does really like my Spyder), but a couple of weeks ago we put 'Top Gun' on the TV and when Kelly McGillis locked up the brakes in a black Speedster when she's pissed at Tom Cruise, she told me she wanted one of those and I said, well, funnily enough so do I!

Just a few minor issues with the spontaneous ebay purchase of a Speedster body, sight unseen... I live in Norfolk. The body was in St Austell. I don't trust Shiply drivers. I only have a piddly little box trailer. I only have a piddly little Nissan Micra to tow the piddly little box trailer with. And it was a 700 mile round trip. And it pissed down the whole way.

So, this trailer -



And this body -



And 350 miles across country in a torrential downpour. What could possibly go wrong???





Well, nothing actually.

Okay, so I daren't go above 45mph and it killed the fuel consumption, dropping it to about 30mpg from its usual 45 (when suitably thrashed), but it was eight and a half hours of relative calm in the slow lane listening to the smooth vibe of BBC Radio 2.

To be fair, I've had better ideas...

Sorry 'pops, you posted while I was typing. No IVA/SVA for me, and will be tax exempt.

Nothing to see here. Move along now, move along...

Didn't get any more info from Google but now that you mention it I think I saw it at a show a year or so back, maybe Stoneleigh last year. Great idea and that's going to be one helluva buggy to drive, but I'm not keen on IVA, so won't be going down that route.

Thanks Jones, yes I do like the early Porsche three dial dash.

Hmm, Spitfire based. Interesting idea. I suppose there could be space at the back of the chassis for an MGF subframe and motor... Do I want the constant worry of overheating and HGF though?

Love that clip, and wish I had that workshop and the skills to use it.

But at least I know I can fabricate stuff in fibreglass in my shed instead.

Oh, and as for the trailer, everything was perfectly legal - it's a quarter ton trailer and the shell weighs about 150kg's. It was properly secured with straps, ropes and a wooden crucifix screwed into the body of the trailer so it couldn't move a mm. The centre of balance was directly over the trailer wheels so the tow hitch wasn't pushing down or pulling up on the tow ball and it was displaying all the correct lights and reg number at the back.

I did expect to get pulled by the Motorway patrol at some stage, but trundled past a fully marked up BMW 5 series cop car that was sat on the hard shoulder on the M5 and the white hats didn't bat an eyelid. The trailer towed without a hitch (pun intended) and was certainly more stable than most of the caravans that were fishtailing past me in a desperate attempt to get in front of me so they could slow down on the uphill stretches and hold me up in my hi-po articulated rig.

I did get a few funny looks from truckers when I pulled into their truck park at the services though...

Wow, that's really good value for someone, just not me. Nice find.

That's a shame, they are very comfy...

Hi Paul, Speedster will be correct dimensions as original but with a few hidden outlaw surprises.

Yes, I saw that refurb thread, very interesting but I still think it should be named Delilah - Why? Why? Why? Delilah, da da da da da da da. etc.

Build thread will have to wait until I actually build it...

If you mean the 356, no, it's still at the gathering parts stage.

It'll be a slow process putting it together - now I've had a chance to take measurements from the bodyshell it seems that what I actually have is a Banham New Speedster body, which was intended to go on a Rover Metro/100 base, so the wheelbase is 150mm longer than it should be.

That means I've got to take 75mm out between the back of the front arches and the leading edge of the doors and another 75mm out from between the trailing edge of the doors and the front of the rear arches. Sounds simple enough...

Hi Andy, I believe a few got built - there's one in the madabout kitcars picture gallery if you look hard enough - and the demonstrator looked pretty good to me -



As for the cooling issue I have a couple of tricks I'm planning to use to ensure it keeps its cool, like an electric coolant pump, a decent sized copper cored rad and 'brake' cooling ducts in the front valance to allow air into the engine bay.

Just need to find the time to get on with it now.

Useful items for a 250 SWB build now listed on ebay. Seats, indicators, badges, Nardi steering whee (including E36 boss and Ferrari centre cap)l and barely worn 15" tyres all available, listings end next Sunday -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/142100079252?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/142100078736?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/142100078350?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/142100078033?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/142100077673?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/142100077012?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

I'm going Spitfire chassis and Ford Puma engine. Should be pretty quick.

Very nice indeed Roadster.

I'm still at the stage of gathering parts for my 356 project and I'm not going to rush as I want to do everything to a very high standard.

So far I have: a body, two chassis' ('67 Spit & '74 GT6), a Ford Puma 1.7 to donate its engine, fuel tank and loom, an RX8 five speed gearbox and lots of ideas.

Before getting on with the 356 I'm going to strip down and refresh my Spyder as it's getting a little tired here and there after four years of all-weather use. Before respraying it I'll be taking a mould from the (550) dash, which I'll be using in the 356 as I want it to have more of a race car look and feel.

Once I've refreshed my Spyder I'll be getting on with the 356 and it will be heavily influenced by a number of different racing Porsches, 550 and 718 Spyders, for example, and outlaw cars from the likes of Emory Motorsports, including rolling the doors under the sills. Probably.

As it'll have a front mounted radiator I'll be letting a pair of MGF air intakes into the front of the body close to where the brake cooling ducts are on late model 356's.

I've been retired for about six weeks now and I really don't know where I ever found the time to go to work. I've spent a fair bit of time pampering my wife - posh lunches at Sandringham, a surprise holiday to The Lake District, etc., and I've cooked all but half a dozen meals since I retired - , but now the weather's improving I'll be able to get on with the serious business of enjoying myself building cars.

Inspiration:

Hi Zag, just seen your request as my internet was playing up all day yesterday. I'll do some measuring and post a reply later today.

Okay, here goes. This is about the best side on shot I can get at the moment, and yes, it is doing a Peter Pan in Panto impression -



Close up of the back end shows that there's quite a bit of height above the rear arches -



23cm from the arch to the 'shoulder' of the rear wing -



And 40cm from the arch to the highest part of the deck -



The highest part of the rear deck is about one metre across. Bear in mind that this is a stretched body, a Banham New Speedster, I suspect, that's going to need about 180mm taking out of the wheelbase. That means the gap between the rear of the door and front of the arch will be about 75mm less once I've taken the angle grinder to it...

Hope that helps.