Flares.....

[Darren65]

Hi Patrick,

Hope all's well.......a little sleepy on OPP's so thought I'd leave things here until I have some major updates......a little more news on DDK if you're interested.... https://www.ddk-online.com/phpBB2/vi...3389&start=525

The body is fairly advanced and about 70% of the prep work prior to paint has now been completed, Chris who's painting the car is coming in a couple of days a week when he can so not blistering progress but we should see some colour in the next 6-8 weeks. The shell is looking pretty sharp .....







....other than that I've delivered some juicy parts to the engine builder and have been messing around with 8-pin CDI boxes.....







....I'm expecting the project to kick-on in the next few months so hopefully more to show and tell soon.

Take care,

[Darren65]

Shell now complete and in primer where it'll sit for a few weeks before going into final body colour.....

[Darren65]

All gearbox items sourced and delivered to Mike Bainbridge at MB Engineering for rebuild with freshly chromated cases by Greatworth Classics after media blasting by Gary Cook at GDC, a very sexy looking 8:35 CWP from Tandler Engineering, a myriad of parts from Porsche Centre Swindon, RSR oil pump plate from Ben Coles and a fabulously engineered RS 'TL' 5th gear from Matt at Guard Transmission ( https://www.guardtransmissionllc.com ) whilst Gary Cook saved the day by letting me have a super rare RS 'RP' 4th gear from his own private stash.....



.....along with a bunch of items already delivered and a ZF limited slip differential that Mike kindly supplied hopefully the full RS spec gearbox will be ready in a few weeks.

[Darren65]

.....a very special package arrived from Gus Pfister....



....I commissioned this MFI pump two and a half years ago and was due to collect it from SF summer last year until world events got it way.....I'd been waiting until the US opened up and was keen to coordinate a family visit (and pump collection) to North California once it had but circumstances made that difficult......last ditch I seriously considered a Tues out-Wed back flight to San Francisco to collect, it could have been done for not much more than the shipping cost although seemed a bit extreme and I finally allowed Gus to persuade me to ship the package......fortunately all went smoothly and what a Christmas present it was!



One of the most important and crucial items of this build, this MFI pump from the MFI Guru that is Gus Pfister at Pacific Fuel Injection Inc will soon be helping the engine hit 300HP+

A legend and wonderful to deal with, huge thanks once again to Gus for all his help.



Happy days

[Darren65]

......shopping list slowly getting smaller....

....racing springs and valves sourced from EBS https://www.ebsracing.com ....



....items collected from Mr Coles.....

.....magnesium disk filter oil housing 8) .....



...competition engine brace and twin CDI box plate....



....lightweight barrel tins, spark plug retainers and lightweight racing crank pulley....



....magnesium MFI pump plate and brace support and magnesium racing thermostat blank ....



.....magnesium centre lube chain covers...



....and a sexy looking racing brake assembly 8)



.....so looking forward to the start of assembly this year!

[Darren65]

....glorious lightweight engine tin made of glass from EB Motorsport ( https://eb-motorsport.com ) and looking exactly 48 years old! ......







......Porsche porn of the highest order!

I was told that EB's racing engine tin was good but still incredibly impressed with these......they look beautifully made and accurate and should save a lot time when it comes to fitting....

.....can't wait for that day!



Cheers,

[Darren65]

Here's an odd one......

.....I was fortunate to get up close to the ex-Mexborough car #9092, on which my car is loosely based, at Hedingham last year and what a wonderful thing it is 8) ....



.....whilst drooling over the numerous details I noted something odd in the passenger footwell....a left footrest, often referred to as a dead pedal......



....whilst fitted to almost ever early LHD race car, it made no rational sense to fit one to the passenger side in a RHD car :? ......it was highly unlikely that this was added during the recent restoration at Maxted-Page although quite possible that it was added for some strange reason by a previous owner, however I suspected it may have been an homologation item and therefore fitted to all 3.0RS/RSR's or maybe something that was fitted to the shells before six were converted to RHD.......Correct or not? It's had me wondering ever since!

With my car about to go into colour I needed a definitive answer and having queried this with many people I finally got confirmation I was after with images of #9099 (ex-Hesketh) and the Australian delivered RHD RS #9103....





....also confirmed as not being an homologation item it highlights how all these cars start life swinging to the left until being swayed to the right!

Now I just need to fit one.....advertised for crazy money in certain places you can actually still pick one up from Porsche for about forty bucks!......



....I would never have believed these existed on RHD cars until I'd seen it in the flesh.....mad, totally pointless and unnecessary weight imo but for the sake of authenticity it has to be done....



....naturally we'll revert to a few spot welds rather than staying with the duck tape shown!

Cheers,

[Darren65]

One item that's been causing me a little angst is the 74 RS/RSR front central oil cooler......





.....these are super rare and seldom come up for sale and when they do they're at a level I couldn't possibly justify!

The most important thing on a car that will be used hard is obviously one that functions correctly however I would also like it to be the correct dimensions, shape and ideally resemble an original item.......unfortunately there's nothing aftermarket or reproduction that I can find that comes close.

With this in mind I turned to Clare and Bob at Concept Racing ... https://www.instagram.com/concept_racing_/ .... https://www.conceptracing.co.uk .... Bob is a highly regarded genius in this field and it's easy work for him although he highlighted that to fabricate a cooler that closely matches an original it would be good to have end caps machined or cast and ideally a 3D of an original would help no end......I set to work....

Sadly, after many months of searching I've been unable to source an original cooler to scan and it looked liked I'd hit a dead end.....I was then pointed in the direction of fellow enthusiast Olivier Sauzet (Olivier on this board) ... https://www.instagram.com/0livier906/ ...although I've spoken to Olivier numerous times over the years I hadn't picked up on his recent endeavours and his ultra cool fabrication of a reproduction 906 oil cooler ......







.....Olivier is a highly skilled draughtsman who fabricates rare Porsche parts for his 906 project and for fun although unfortunately the 906 cooler is much smaller than the one I need and we couldn't use his previous work. However after a few discussions Olivier agreed to help with the fabrication of end caps and the core and believes he can be pretty accurate with the numerous photograph and reference dimensions to hand.....

....not quite there and a few tweaks to be made but Olivier is close to having drawings and files ready for caps to be fabricated....













....early days and obviously the cooler will still need to be fabricated once the caps are made but good fun and it'll be interesting to see how close we can get to an original

With it being hidden behind the front bumper I doubt many will spot it's not the real deal!



Cheers,

[Bantam]

Darren

An enjoyable read of todays updates over the Sunday morning coffee, this really is one of the great builds. Fantastic detective work on the passenger dead pedal.....who would have thought it!

[OliveR]

Awesome Daren, it's going to be a one of the best 3.0RS clone I've ever seen