Happy New Year...

Hello Dear Readers.

The seats are in:

More importantly, having said I would do it MONTHS ago, the bodywork is on for the last time! Pictures to follow soon I hope.

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a prosperous New Year.

TC

Steve Hignett Showcase…

It’s been an awfully long time since I posted on here. In fairness, I’ve been a bit busy – the MBA is full-on! Fortunately Steve has been making some excellent progress. However, the completion of the car has proved to be far from straight-forward with a few unexpected challenges. I’ve also had some specific requirements that haven’t necessarily made Steve’s job easy. Fortunately, Steve is 100% honest and will do everything in his power to replicate the dream/vision in your mind’s eye.

A good example of this is the scuttle and the holes for the steering column. The dash is integral which means that drilling accurate holes for the column is not as easy on some other cars. As a result, most builders cut slots so the scuttle so it can slide over the top of the column. Unfortunately, that wasn’t what I wanted so Steve had to carry-out a laborious measuring and mocking-up exercise to get it right. This is just one example of a job well done.

Measure - a few times:
Nice:

Another relates to a difference is size between the chassis and the bodywork. This is a ‘feature’ of all MNRs of a similar age to mine and things have apparently changed since. Some have used wood to shim the bodywork up. I think Steve’s done a much nicer job folding aluminium and riveting it at the right gradient to get a perfect fit. He’s simply not prepared to take half measures or ‘throw’ anything together. He’s a top man – if you find yourself in a similar situation to me don’t hesitate to e-mail him at: me@p4nts.co.uk .

Some rather ‘spiffy’ bits have gone on the car too – most notably the genuine carbon fibre bulkhead panel from http://www.carbonmods.co.uk/. It’s soon to be joined by rear wing protectors and canards (aerodynamic “whiskers”) from the Caterham CSR.

The rear suspension and drive-train is bolted together. The seats are now in. The exhaust is nearly fitted. It’s all coming together nicely… except that my front uprights have gone missing in the post. Not good, since they are relatively rare and not cheap. I’m still crossing everything that they will appear.
If you want to see more of Steve’s work, visit http://www.mercurymotorsport.co.uk/

Merry Christmas

TC