1971 Spitfire Mk8 - A long overdue build thread

Man, I am EXCITED 

You and me both. Looking forward to a busy weekend to relax, compared to the past few weeks.

I think I will load the car on the trailer tonight after a run and down the street.

stafford1500 said:

Well it's been another long stretch without updates. It seems I prefer working on the car rather than updating the build thread.

Yeah, took 6 years to make it to page 2, and 8 to make page 3. lol

You mentioned you're using the SC300 uprights. Do you have any pictures or details on how the fabricated arms attach? I remember looking at them and thinking they would be difficult to adapt to because of odd attachment angles on the mounting points. 

I'm rethinking the packaging around the rear suspension on my wagon and a different perspective on them would be helpful. 

In reply to Crackers (Forum Supporter) :

I flipped them left to right and have the toe links above the lower a arm. I made conical bushings to recieve the rod ends I am using. All arms are fabricated and the push rod to the rear damper comes of the lower a arm. There may be apics of the rear end going together. If not I have plenty I can send you.

Okay, not loaded tonight but staged to do so in the morning. I did put it on scales this afternoon and the number suprised me.

Any guesses?

I weighed it without fuel/without driver, without fuel/with driver, with full fuel/without driver, and with full fuel/with driver. That should give everyone a wide enough target.

The corner weights are close to 50/50 front/rear and side to side.

I see some front tire clearance work that may need to happen. I have the death wheel in the tool pack out. There is the little point of wiring the headlights up so the switch actually connects to them too.

The clutch work set me back on these little items.

1875 pounds dry

1400lbs empty and dry

You have the full resources of the AFM Motorsports r and d facility at your disposal.

Dusterbd13 said:

1400lbs empty and dry

1401 Bob!

1633 lbs dry

Also, really excited to see it in a few days 😁 

Awesome work pushing through the clutch issue! Wish I was going down this year to hang and see the Spitfire in person.

Good luck!

In reply to AxeHealey :

Aw damn.  I figured you were coming down.

My guess is 1745#

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

I wish I were! Planning to be there next year.

Not for this thread but we may be coming through your hood in June so we may be able to link up then.

I'll take 1575 lbs.  This project is awesome.  Good luck at the Challenge.

I'll be in the 1750 range for the weight, that Lexus V8 is about 490 pounds alone so far heavier that the original engine. Same with the rest of the drivetrain, but minus all the body pieces, so guessing it is around the stock weight or slightly less. Should scream, can't wait to see how it does!

TurnerX19 said:

1875 pounds dry

Turner wins the price is right rules.

2071 without fuel or driver. You guys must think I am using carbon and aluminum everywhere.

I almost flipped a coin on analog vs digital this morning loading up.

See you all in Gainesville.

In reply to stafford1500 :

Crap, I was way light. I saw all the steel in the doors and widened body shell. How many square feet at a pound each...Alloy gear case packed full of steel gears. I still thought under a ton .

I'm excited to finally see this, Steve! It looks pretty awesome in the pics.

- Bill C

Day 1 of the challenge went well. No major issues and the old tires started to wake up a little toward the end of the autocross.

Drags showed the need for a more dedicated setup to get down the strip. Traction was missing all the way thru 4th gear and the car wandered at the big end of the track.

Bestbautocross time was 49.seconds. Nowhere near the pros 38 seconds in the fastest cars, but not bad for my own effort. Drag time was 18 seconds when I stopped. I did not want to hurt the car or me with sketchy handling.

Team cars

The car is home and it performed well for its maiden outing. Nothing is broken, but there is a little tuning to do before I take it to the local autocross to beat on it some more. At some point in the near future it will get some quality DMV time to sort it out as an actual street car.

So low, so wide. Love it!

I don't think anybody had grip in the drags.

I went 1/2 a second slower with almost the same mph I did last year.

Just roasted through 1st gear and 2nd gear.  When the car went a bit sideways grabbing 3rd gear, I called it quits.

The drag strip was very weird this year.