Paradigm Shift…

After much debate, Steve and I have decided to call the new car the Mercury Motorsport Paradigm. Dictionary.com defines the word paradigm as: “a set of forms all of which contain a particular element, esp. the set of all inflected forms based on a single stem or theme.” This rather sounds like the ‘sevenesque genre’ of cars to me and hence it stuck. The same source also gives the following as synonyms: “mold, standard; ideal, paragon, touchstone.” Well, we hope so.

I said that I’d give a few more details about the car. There is absolutely no doubt that the car is a risk, or at the very least an experiment. Steve and I (particularly Steve) are pouring everything we know about these cars in to this new build in the hope that we make something which is greater than the sum of its parts. My input comes mainly in the form of knowing what I like, and more importantly knowing what feels comfortable for me on track e.g. pedal arrangement etc. Despite all this, we’re still researching as we go along on some stuff. The majority of the mechanical spec became apparent in my last post. The final departure from convention is that we are going to use (Sierra) drums at the back. We could have easily used Sierra disc brakes but they weigh a shed-load. The alternative would have been aluminium callipers and light weight discs. The cost would have been considerable though and there seems to be some concern over mechanical advantage for the handbrake no matter what brand of calliper one uses. And so, having overcome a totally illogical hatred of drum brakes - largely through great experiences with both Striker and Locost - we decided to give drums a try. We then had to decide whether to use 8”, 9” or 10” drums. Taking some advice from RGB racers, we concluded that 8” drums were a bit marginal on some cars so we went to the next size up. It should be interesting if nothing else.

My original plan for bodywork was to use aluminium alongside a Locost nosecone, scuttle, bonnet and wings. The idea was that it is cheap and easily replaced. Unfortunately, because Steve had made the chassis an inch taller than the standard Locost to help accommodate a tallish bike engine, the nosecone looked ridiculous. Fortunately Steve had a couple of Westfield nosecones that he was prepared to sell to me. These look great, and are very (VERY) light since they are pimpy (PIMPY) carbon fibre. They aren’t perfect but since I’ll need to paint the aluminium side panels, bonnet etc this is no great problem.

Here’s a few more pictures – very little has full welds as yet – the idea has always been to tack it together in case we incurred unexpected interference. That said, apart from the roll cage and some of the smaller parts like harness mounts and earth points, it’s almost ready to weld-up.

Custom-cut brackets:

Radiator and Oil Cooler mounted:

Pedals mounted:

Back-end:

So, there we have it... most of the big decsisons are now made.  This includes the choice of colour.  Given my penchant for retro race liveries, what do you reckon I've gone for?  It won't be Gulf-colours again though.  Those colours are cursed!

TC