Ghia race car project

[fastbus]

Hi Loungers, i have been in the process of building a race car that has had a change of identity in the last couple of years.

I bought the chassis off a Mr Jay Aldridge for a few pounds and decided that i wanted to build a full on drag car.
The chassis is tagged to 8.5 sec with a funny car style cage.
Jay used to run it with a buggy body and a JMR turbo motor, but he decided to give it all up and split the car up into parts.
The chassis was up for grabs and i bought it.

I had planned to use a beetle body which i acquired one and dropped it over the top.
Being a novice in the race scene, but with a couple of my pals who run an altered fuel dragster, we called down an msa chappy that they know.
After some advice on the regulations i would need to use an open top body as the chassis is already tagged for an open top class of car.    

Well this put a dampener on my project as i'm building it on a budget and i didn't fancy buying and cutting up a Karman beetle as a donar.

Anyway, looking through a few adverts one night and then i found a fiber glass karman ghia body for a fairly small fee.
With this turn of fate it had brought in some renewed excitement into the project and now its starting to look like a drag car again.

Have a look at a couple of pic's i took today down my mates lock up as they have been working on it of late and progress is coming on well.





They are starting to work on a hinge system for the doors. The shell was in 2 sections and they have had a fair bit of work to line it all up.
Once they have attached the shell and got the doors swinging it will be down to the sheet metal pan and the inner arches tubbed out.
Plans are for a wild turbo motor with a 091 trans.

Watch this space!

[Andy Sykes]

Awesome cant wait to see this done

Cheers andy

[71CALRIPPER]

How much room is there between the roll bar hoops and the windscreen ? Or will it just be a very snugg fit?

[fastbus]

How much room is there between the roll bar hoops and the windscreen ? Or will it just be a very snugg fit?

There is enough room to get in even if its a bit of a snugg fit! 
Once they have finished the mounting of the body, its going to need the rear end narrowed to get my erco wheels under the body.

Its was never designed for this shell but we think it will make a good alternative than what i was originally looking for.

Adaption is the answer!
 
   

[Neil Davies]

How much room is there between the roll bar hoops and the windscreen ? Or will it just be a very snugg fit?

There is enough room to get in even if its a bit of a snugg fit! 
Once they have finished the mounting of the body, its going to need the rear end narrowed to get my erco wheels under the body.

Its was never designed for this shell but we think it will make a good alternative than what i was originally looking for.

Adaption is the answer!
 
   

Instead of narrowing the rear suspension, wouldn't it be better to widen the body? If you cut the valance and the rear deck, add maybe 2 inches into the deck and 3.5"ish into the valance you wouldn't notice it, and it would mean that the suspension is still doing what it should.

[fastbus]

How much room is there between the roll bar hoops and the windscreen ? Or will it just be a very snugg fit?

There is enough room to get in even if its a bit of a snugg fit! 
Once they have finished the mounting of the body, its going to need the rear end narrowed to get my erco wheels under the body.

Its was never designed for this shell but we think it will make a good alternative than what i was originally looking for.

Adaption is the answer!
 
   

Instead of narrowing the rear suspension, wouldn't it be better to widen the body? If you cut the valance and the rear deck, add maybe 2 inches into the deck and 3.5"ish into the valance you wouldn't notice it, and it would mean that the suspension is still doing what it should.

Thanks for your input Neil, it's a very good idea and one and we will give it some serious thought.

I imagined that it would be quicker to narrow the rear end than the start the altering the body itself.

I was looking into giving it a slightly flared arch and never thought about splitting the 2 rear sections as you quoted which would be easier to perform.

I wanted the body to look as stock as possible and by narrowing the rear arms position and shock mounts i can get the required wheels under the stock look arches.

I be down there sometime this week some serious thought.

Cheers
 

[benlawrence]

Looking good Paul, keep it up mate.