The 'Secret' prototype.....

[JayBee]

One is most intrigued by what is going to appear in this build.
A big front engined rear wheelrd drive creation, hidden in a plstic sheet body.
Hm!
Strangeness certainly lurcks here.

[PR19_Kit]

I like this configuration. 

I do too, but it'd never work on this car with the pipes sticking out through the bonnet. (hood....) Plus it's a DOHC engine and the one I'm using is only an SOHC. A twin cam engine wouldn't work in this car, the engine's width would limit the turning circle.

Is that an Indy Ford engine, like they used in the Lotus 38?

Strangeness certainly lurcks here.

Strangeness is ALWAYS with us here Jim. 

[Rheged]

Strangeness certainly lurcks here.

Strangeness is ALWAYS with us here Jim. 

To which one can only reply "Hurrah!!!  Thank goodness for that"

[jcf]

Yep, it's the Ford Indy 255 4-cam.
The old 1/25th MPC Gurney Olsonite Eagle kit includes one as an engine option,
the other engine is the Gurney-Weslake V-8. No V-12 unfortunately.

[PR19_Kit]

I've got a couple of Ford 255 Indy engines in various kits. That Olsonite Eagle one you mentioned, the original IMC Ford GT included a 255 as one of its options, and I have a couple of the IMC Lotus 38s as well.

Lovely looking engine, and I recall hearing Bruce Mclaren's M2B F1 car, which had a 3.0 litre version of the same engine. It sounded GLORIOUS, but sadly hadn't the strength to pull the skin off a rice pudding compared to the other 3.0 litre cars of the period.

[PR19_Kit]

I've taken then irrevocable step now and glued the engine in place. 

That was after the last bit of detail painting and making sure that it did still fit of course. The two white plugs you can see in the underframe were where the other exhausts would have exited had they fitted, so I've had to re-drill the holes a few mm back to link with the updated log manifolds.



I've also re-sprayed the proper bodyshell and it just needs a few touch ups and a coat of gloss varnish and it'll be ready to add the interior. LOTS more to do on the interior though.

[PR19_Kit]

Slotting a big V12 engine into a car that wasn't designed for something that big requires a much more efficient exhaust system, specially when it's attached to a not so efficient log manifold. And when the kit underframe only has one silencer and exhaust pipe, something had to be done.

My mate Pete, him with the teeny-weeny lathe, also has a heat gun (actually he's probably go everything you'd ever need in the tools line... ) and with the aid of that I've bent up some new pipes from styrene rod, and they'll connect to the manifolds too. I had to scratchbuild a new silencer for the other side of the car, but that was just a layered block made from 10 thou with some end caps glued in place.

Pics tomorrow when I've connected it all to the manifolds hopefully.

The proper body's varnished nicely now too, and it looks pretty good. I'll add some chrome trim with the Molotow pen tomorrow, with luck.

[zenrat]

 

Not having a heat gun I use steam to bend my exhausts.

[PR19_Kit]

Much though I'd like to, I'm not going to have enough time or space to pipe and wire the engine compartment of the Secret Prototype.

I'll install some water pipes for the radiator etc. as that would look silly perched out the in front not connected to anything, but the throttle linkage on this engine will be invisible anyway under the large intake plenum chamber and stuff. Plus the ignition wires are hidden in the long tubes above the exhaust logs as well, which helps.

The exhaust system is now installed, and what a job THAT was getting the various parts to match up and stay glued in place! I've got to grind off the single tail pipe yet, and then add the new twin tail pipes, probably in the middle.

That's the 'boy racer' in me coming to the fore. 

[PR19_Kit]

Much progress on the exhausts today. 

Here's the view of the engine from the rear, the white bits at the back are the styrene rod that I heated up and bent to fit, eventually. The big white blob on the top is the fuel injection system's plenum chamber, made from some styrene sheet and an old air cleaner from an AMT Ford Galaxie kit.




And here's the underside showing the new white pipes down one side, with the scratchbuilt silencer half way along, plus the two tail pipes, right on the centre line.  Wholly inappropriate you'll think when you see the final build, I'm sure.....

[jcf]

And here's the underside showing the new white pipes down one side, with the scratchbuilt silencer half way along, plus the two tail pipes, right on the centre line.  Wholly inappropriate you'll think when you see the final build, I'm sure.....

Will it have the obligatory 5lb coffee-can chrome exhaust tips?



Of course I like this rendition:

[PR19_Kit]

Hehehe, they'll definitely be chromed, yes.   

Thanks to my Molotow pen, which has been MOST impressive elsewhere on the model.

[zenrat]

We call 'em Wombat Hole exhausts...

[PR19_Kit]

Now I've got all the bits I can finish off the interior of the Secret Prototype.

Here's the instrument package strapped down on the back seat for the observer, him in the rearwards facing seat, to observe. That's a 4 channel signal conditioning unit on the top and an SE Instruments 6 channel UV recorder underneath, for those not into instrumentation packages. 



Now to make up the seat belt harnesses and that'll be the interior done.

[PR19_Kit]

 

The 'seat belt' kit that I bought for this model has an amazingly wonderful set of etched parts and some seat belt material. Except the material is about 3.5 mm wide and the slots in the etched parts are only 2.5 mm wide............

If you ever think of trimming some 3.5 mm seat belt material down to 2.5 mm wide, DON'T!   

Luckily there's a lot of it to play with.