Mongoose

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Mongoose | EB TYPE 37

Mongoose

In traffic at Brands

In the pitlane at Brands

A mid-engined machine for road, competition & trackdays.

Designed to gain a performance advantage from low weight, low frontal area and low centre of gravity the Mongoose is certainly an exhilarating drive with a stance that really does cry out racing car . Whilst it has been designed with the Rover 'K' series in mind the engine bay is large enough for other power units including having the length to take a motorcycle unit with chain drive to a diff unit. The engine bay is also long enough to accept an inline power unit with a transaxle. Please ask for more details on these options.

Onward with the Mongoose to 2007

The Three Sisters Class win together with a very productive track day at Brands Hatch has convinced the Becklands Team that we have a winning product for Sprints and hillclimbs. We also feel we can develope the car into a top notch track day machine and lurking somewhere in there is a good racecar. Keeping in mind, 'Rome wasn't built in a day' we will build an improved Sprint car for 2007 first.

We have finally found the time to start building the '07 competition car and the chassis has been painted and the floor panels fitted. Keep logging on every couple of days for progress updates.

WORK ON '07 FINALLY GETS UNDERWAY.

The inclined Elise engine

So how can we improve the Mongoose Sprint/ Hillclimb machine? Well to be honest its mainly detail work, coupled with a healthy dose of 'more power'. In 2006 we ran for most of the year with just a standard 1400cc Rover 214 power unit giving a heady 100bhp in the upto 1700cc class. This provided us with a good base to work with for chassis development. It also meant that if we got it wrong with sump mods etc and the unit went 'pop' it was only £50 down the pan. For our final competition outing, the Three Sisters sprint, we slotted in a standard 1600cc unit and the extra 20 bhp put us straight into a class winning position. The experts tell us we can comfortably achieve 160bhp from a 1600cc unit for a modest sum, so that is our target figure for 2007 (200bhp is possible but at far greater expense). We had no issues with the gearbox except for us fitting a faulty unit for the outing at Harewood, the lesson there, is to always check everything more carefully, test before an event, not on an event and try to better prepared. So we will stick to the Rover MA gearbox (actually its a Peugeot/ Citroen box) fitted with a Quaife diff' unit and standard Rover drive shafts. One issue that Brands Hatch raised was the front radiator layout, not with overheating of the engine, but overheating of the driver. Closer inspection revealed that because we had left the air to find its own way out of the small nose cone, coupled with insufficient sealing around the pedal box and the hot air from the radiator was finding its way into the cockpit and nicely cooking the driver. The longer runs around Brands had highlighted a problem not apparent on the shorter speed events, so we will be ducting the air flow on the new car and paying more attention to cockpit sealing.

Rocker arm front suspension and radiator

The suspension geometry is exactly as David Rivet drew it and he was aiming to keep good control of roll centres and camber change. So how has this worked out in reality? Well as the prototype was primarily for speed events, good traction from a standing start is very important and this has certainly been a strength of the Mongoose as born out by beating Bob Bellerby's time at Harewood with only 100bhp against his 170bhp Striker. The same excellent traction also proved itself over the year out of slow speed corners such as the Mere hairpin at Olivers Mount and on our visit to Brands Hatch the drive out of Druids was certainly a match for anything else there. Moving to the front of the car, the front end turn in entering corners has been another area of great strength, even in the wet it has never had uncontrollable understeer. Again for speed events this is a great asset, where conditions can change from one run to the next and you do tend to encounter tighter bends it is essential to get the front turned in to the apex. So we have got great turn into corners and great traction out of them, what about the bit in the middle? Well thats the bit that was an issue early on in the Mongooses development. The rear was too soft, which was helping the front turn in and the rear traction, but eventually in faster corners as you fed in more power coming out of the corner the rear suspension travel was all used up, instantaneous weight transfer took place and an instant swopping of ends was the result. Having realised what was happening, stronger springs were fitted and this cured the problem for sprints and hillclimbs, without losing our other strong assets. Fine until Brands Hatch! We went there on the crest of a wave, having won our class at the final sprint of the year, beating the over 1700cc class record holder as extra confirmation of our performance. The faster corners at Brands highlighted the rear suspension problem again, which of course was further compounded by the extra weight of passengers. Now when I say 'problem' I am talking relatively of course. The car was still quick around the course, especially bearing in mind its meager 120 bhp, but the suspension travel is being used up and though the problem is not as bad as it was it is still there and needs addressing. All chassis including the prototype have had the rear shocker pickup point raised to help address the issue and with stronger rear springs, no problem. What we are currently trying, before buiding next years machine is antiroll bars, which we haven't fitted upto now. If we can use the bars to stiffen up the car in roll but retain softer springs for bump and pitch we can retain greater traction, so an avenue worth exploring. So to sum up on suspension, other than the provision for antiroll bars, the suspension will be staying as is for 2007.

Rear suspension with upright rear coilovers

The braking system on the Mongoose has used the original Rover duel circuit master cylinder with a pressure limiting valve in the rear line. Calipers are Willwood, with 4 pot at the front and 2 pot at the rear, together with a separate handbrake caliper all operating on Rover solid discs. Changes for 2007 are a lighter alloy master cylinder, purely for weight saving and at the rear we will fit Willwoods 4 pot option that incudes a built in handbrake mechanism. Initially we will stick with the Rover discs unless we can get a good deal on some cross drilled items (must spend the budget wisely).

Original cockpit layout showing gearlever housing

Chassis wise the new car will be a little lighter with thinner gauge tubing and will be a little stiffer with additional use of the floor and side panelling to aid this. The side panelling will be as used at Brands, as will the bodywork, including the screen panel because the majority of events planned for 2007 require a full windscreen with wipers. On the gearchange front whilst happy with the current set up the Metro lever housing is a little bulky so a neater arrangement has been fitted. Track and Race Car mag' said the gearchange needed 'binning', without explaining that the problem was they couldn't engage 5th and this resulted in a slow laptime. We have run the car in sprints and hillclimbs with 5th blanked off and with them calling us only three days before they wanted the car, we didn't have enough time to effect a modification for the long straight at Bruntingthorpe. On the new car this will not be an issue. We have no plans to change wheel sizes though we will try a slightly wider rear tyre, just to check out any gains or losses.

From this to this to this

Mongoose TS

Whilst road legal this car is more at home on the track, at trackdays or competitive motorsport.

STARTER KIT CONTENTS £1757.00

1. A lightweight tubular spaceframe chassis fully bracketed ready to receive inclined 'K' series engine.

2. Aluminium floor panel

3. Aluminium front bulkhead panel.

4. Aluminium rear bulkhead panel.

5. Aluminium dash panel.

6. Engine to gearbox adaptor plate. (for inclining engine)

7. Modified sump pan (exchange item from customers engine).

8. Modified oil filter housing.

9. Gearchange rods

10. 2 x water pipes.

INTERMEDIATE KIT CONTENTS £1875.00

1. 4 x Aluminium l bodied adjustable shockers with adjustable spring platforms

2. 4 x coil springs.

3. 4 x front wishbones

4. 4 x rear radius rods.

5. 2 x lower reversed wishbones (rear)

6. 2 x upper suspension links.

7. Modified steering rack (exchange item)

8. 2 x fabricated front suspension uprights

9. 2 x fabricated rear suspension uprights

10. Fuel tank. (option of 1, 2, or 4 gallon to accept donor fuel pump)

11. Adjustable pedal box with pedals.

12. Hydraulic clutch conversion kit (does not include cylinders)

13. Modified exhaust manifold and pipe (not silencer)

14. Full set of suspension bushes with nut and bolts

BODY KIT £ 882.00

1. GRP nose cone

2. 4 x GRP mudguards

3. 8 x mudguard brackets

4. Aluminium scuttle panel.

5. GRP engine cover

6. Aluminium side panels.

7. 7 aluminium cockpit panels

8. Rollover bar ( FIA bar optional)

In addition to the above parts the customer will need a Rover Metro or Rover 200 series donor plus :-

1. A VW Polo radiator or one of similar dimensions £60.

2. A hydraulic clutch slave cylinder and master cylinder £54.

3. Master cylinder reservoir x 2 £32.

4. A set of discs and calipers.

Calipers Willwood - pair £219

Non vented discs - pair £30

Vented discs - pair £52

5. A silencer from £45

6. Seat cushions - pair £101

7. Seat belts - pair £83

8. A steering wheel & boss £132.

9. A set of lights £152.

10. A set of brake pipes and hoses £80.

11. A clutch pipe £22.

12. Handbrake cables £34

13 A set of wheels and tyres (the donor ones can be used as we have on the prototype).

14. A set of rose joints for suspension and gearchange POA.

15. Nuts, bolts, pop rivets and pipe clips £39

16. Longer speedo cable £48.

17. Panel sealant £15

WE CAN SUPPLY ALL THE ABOVE PARTS AND INTHE CASE OF ITEMS 1,2 &3 OFFER THE CHOICE OF NEW OR USED. PLEASE NOTE WE HAVE TRIED TO COVER ALL THE ITEMS YOU WILL NEED WITHOUT ANY HIDDEN COSTS.

DIARY OF THE MONGOOSE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

The seeds of the Mongoose were sown about two years ago whilst we looked at a motorbike engined car. After analysing all the available information we decided it was not for us at that time (I will our explain our reasons later). Whilst looking at the pros & cons of such a development and the inherent problems of a mid engined car with a transversely mounted power unit ( as in an Elise, for example) it became apparent that C of G and polar moments were an area for improvement. This was all theory of course and one way of achieving what we felt would have been a good solution would have been a little too expensive for the type of vehicle we wanted. So what did we want? Well bearing in mind we had a competitive sprint / hillclimb car in the Firefox that was easily buildable for less than £5000 and was easy to drive, well it had to be better and be around the same sort of money or it wasn't worth doing. It also had to have good supply of donor components that would be around for at least five years or more. With this in mind the Rover 200 was chosen as well as the Rover Metro because the 200 series is still being sold new as I speak, there are a lot about and the recent demise of Rover has meant the prices of donors has come down some. We felt it sensible to make sure that any components we used were going to be available new from one source or another. Now this is obviously not the case with the engines but virtually all the components that make them up are. For example heads, pistons, liners, gaskets and bearings have been available from other companies for a few years now and the gearbox is a Citroen unit still an off the shelf item. So the with the inherent weight and cost advantages of the Rover unit in mind and not forgetting that we have run a1400, 1600 and 1800 version for some 5 years in motorsport and not had a single failure, we plumped for the Rover unit.

The chassis takes shape

After kicking various options around David G was pushing for a low polar moment and David R was pushing for a low C of G and David R's proposal of an inclined engine fitted the bill and gave the potential for a lower frontal area as well which is a real bonus when you are trying to achieve good performance without having to spend lots of hard earned cash on lots of power. (Conversely if you do go for more power then you get even more performance for your loot). After careful consideration it was apparent that the slightly longer engine bay required by the inclined unit would actually allow a motorbike engine to be fitted as well as an in line engine with a transaxle, if desired. Of course I am sure if someone wants to fit a Ford, Vauxhall or Honda power unit then we will be able to accommodate them. So the plot was taking shape. The next stage was to see how we could incline the engine quite a bit, but the gearbox only a small amount. I probably should have said 'if' rather than 'how'.

The inclined engine

Actually inclining the engine was very straightforward as we decided to mount the engine and transmission unit solidly in the chassis. This meant the load could be shared out among four mounting points and all the adaptor plate between the two had to do was provide relative location of the units to each other rather than accepting big loads. A small amount of relieving was required to the gearbox bellhousing area and the adaptor plate was cut from 2mm sheet steel. The unit was then suspended in the engine bay and the relevant mounting brackets fabricated and welded in place, simple! (I am joking). The sump was next and this was a bit tricky. It had to clear the chassis, the gearbox and the o/s driveshaft as well as carrying enough oil and keep the oil in the right place. Well we did it and when the rest of the machine (it didn't have a name at this stage) was complete we fired it up with one eye on the oil gauge and one on the exhaust tail pipe. All seemed ok so the next step was a run up the road again with one eye glued to the oil pressure gauge and accelerating up the road seemed everything seemed okay. Braked for the village bends, back on the throttle and cyclists from far and wide were heard to cough and die such was the amount of blue smoke streaming from the tailpipe. The engine emulated the cyclists but just managed to keep running, but the oil pressure held up. We retried this manouver a number of times and the result was the same each time. Constant throttle and hard acceleration were fine but braking was bad and hard braking was a disaster, with the engine drowning on its own oil. A second sump was made and this cured the problem. Hard braking was fine and hard acceleration was fine, and for a while all seemed rosy in our garden. At this point we decided a longer run was called for and a longer range fuel tank was installed. The journey seemed fine to start with and then we noticed some smoke from the tailpipe followed by yet more smoke from the tailpipe accompanied by a stuttering and finally a dipping of the oil pressure. This had all happened without any hard braking, hard acceleration or hard anything so this was a different problem. We switched off and had a hard think. Nothing positive came to mind so the engine was restarted and the problem had gone away. We set off again accelerated really hard, no smoke, braked really hard, no smoke. Again and again we tried, no smoke and good oil pressure. We cruised home mystified and just before reaching base it all started again. What was happening was the oil was being retained by a baffle plate when braking hard but also unless you accelerated really hard it would not drain back to the correct place in the sump. In fact it was building up just as it had under hard braking before. So back to the drawing board.

A series of baffles were required in the sump and we probably went a bit overboard in the next sump layout. A number of hinged valves certainly sorted the job and the next time out at a track day saw no problem whatsoever. Oil pressure remained good through all types of corners and under harsh braking and then acceleration. Steady cruising was also fine, no problems at all. At this point we decided to stay with the same 1400cc standard engine and put some serious mileage on it to make sure there were no wear issues in the longer term.

Our attention turned away from the sump at this time and focused on the suspension because we became aware at the trackday we had a problem with sudden swopping of ends, that is, it would spin like a top but only under a particular set of circumstances. The problem turned out to be overly soft rear springs that were fine in bump and pitch but too soft in roll. What was happening was, we were running out of travel and the coilover unit was going solid, resulting in quick spin. It would only do it on the exit of fast corners just as you were feeding in more power. This was using up the last bit of suspension travel, but it made us think it was down to applying the power to early.

First shots of the prototype during construction.

36.5" to top of rollbar (we have to be careful not to trip over it) - just under 10' long - 5' wide.

Front suspension & engine bay


	ONYX SPORTS CARS \| home Mongoose \| EB TYPE 37 Mongoose In traffic at Brands In the pitlane at Brands A mid-engined machine for road, competition & trackdays. Designed to gain a performance advantage from low weight, low frontal area and low centre of gravity the Mongoose is certainly an exhilarating drive with a stance that really does cry out racing car . Whilst it has been designed with the Rover 'K' series in mind the engine bay is large enough for other power units including having the length to take a motorcycle unit with chain drive to a diff unit. The engine bay is also long enough to accept an inline power unit with a transaxle. Please ask for more details on these options. Onward with the Mongoose to 2007 The Three Sisters Class win together with a very productive track day at Brands Hatch has convinced the Becklands Team that we have a winning product for Sprints and hillclimbs. We also feel we can develope the car into a top notch track day machine and lurking somewhere in there is a good racecar. Keeping in mind, 'Rome wasn't built in a day' we will build an improved Sprint car for 2007 first. We have finally found the time to start building the '07 competition car and the chassis has been painted and the floor panels fitted. Keep logging on every couple of days for progress updates. WORK ON '07 FINALLY GETS UNDERWAY. The inclined Elise engine So how can we improve the Mongoose Sprint/ Hillclimb machine? Well to be honest its mainly detail work, coupled with a healthy dose of 'more power'. In 2006 we ran for most of the year with just a standard 1400cc Rover 214 power unit giving a heady 100bhp in the upto 1700cc class. This provided us with a good base to work with for chassis development. It also meant that if we got it wrong with sump mods etc and the unit went 'pop' it was only £50 down the pan. For our final competition outing, the Three Sisters sprint, we slotted in a standard 1600cc unit and the extra 20 bhp put us straight into a class winning position. The experts tell us we can comfortably achieve 160bhp from a 1600cc unit for a modest sum, so that is our target figure for 2007 (200bhp is possible but at far greater expense). We had no issues with the gearbox except for us fitting a faulty unit for the outing at Harewood, the lesson there, is to always check everything more carefully, test before an event, not on an event and try to better prepared. So we will stick to the Rover MA gearbox (actually its a Peugeot/ Citroen box) fitted with a Quaife diff' unit and standard Rover drive shafts. One issue that Brands Hatch raised was the front radiator layout, not with overheating of the engine, but overheating of the driver. Closer inspection revealed that because we had left the air to find its own way out of the small nose cone, coupled with insufficient sealing around the pedal box and the hot air from the radiator was finding its way into the cockpit and nicely cooking the driver. The longer runs around Brands had highlighted a problem not apparent on the shorter speed events, so we will be ducting the air flow on the new car and paying more attention to cockpit sealing. Rocker arm front suspension and radiator The suspension geometry is exactly as David Rivet drew it and he was aiming to keep good control of roll centres and camber change. So how has this worked out in reality? Well as the prototype was primarily for speed events, good traction from a standing start is very important and this has certainly been a strength of the Mongoose as born out by beating Bob Bellerby's time at Harewood with only 100bhp against his 170bhp Striker. The same excellent traction also proved itself over the year out of slow speed corners such as the Mere hairpin at Olivers Mount and on our visit to Brands Hatch the drive out of Druids was certainly a match for anything else there. Moving to the front of the car, the front end turn in entering corners has been another area of great strength, even in the wet it has never had uncontrollable understeer. Again for speed events this is a great asset, where conditions can change from one run to the next and you do tend to encounter tighter bends it is essential to get the front turned in to the apex. So we have got great turn into corners and great traction out of them, what about the bit in the middle? Well thats the bit that was an issue early on in the Mongooses development. The rear was too soft, which was helping the front turn in and the rear traction, but eventually in faster corners as you fed in more power coming out of the corner the rear suspension travel was all used up, instantaneous weight transfer took place and an instant swopping of ends was the result. Having realised what was happening, stronger springs were fitted and this cured the problem for sprints and hillclimbs, without losing our other strong assets. Fine until Brands Hatch! We went there on the crest of a wave, having won our class at the final sprint of the year, beating the over 1700cc class record holder as extra confirmation of our performance. The faster corners at Brands highlighted the rear suspension problem again, which of course was further compounded by the extra weight of passengers. Now when I say 'problem' I am talking relatively of course. The car was still quick around the course, especially bearing in mind its meager 120 bhp, but the suspension travel is being used up and though the problem is not as bad as it was it is still there and needs addressing. All chassis including the prototype have had the rear shocker pickup point raised to help address the issue and with stronger rear springs, no problem. What we are currently trying, before buiding next years machine is antiroll bars, which we haven't fitted upto now. If we can use the bars to stiffen up the car in roll but retain softer springs for bump and pitch we can retain greater traction, so an avenue worth exploring. So to sum up on suspension, other than the provision for antiroll bars, the suspension will be staying as is for 2007. Rear suspension with upright rear coilovers The braking system on the Mongoose has used the original Rover duel circuit master cylinder with a pressure limiting valve in the rear line. Calipers are Willwood, with 4 pot at the front and 2 pot at the rear, together with a separate handbrake caliper all operating on Rover solid discs. Changes for 2007 are a lighter alloy master cylinder, purely for weight saving and at the rear we will fit Willwoods 4 pot option that incudes a built in handbrake mechanism. Initially we will stick with the Rover discs unless we can get a good deal on some cross drilled items (must spend the budget wisely). Original cockpit layout showing gearlever housing Chassis wise the new car will be a little lighter with thinner gauge tubing and will be a little stiffer with additional use of the floor and side panelling to aid this. The side panelling will be as used at Brands, as will the bodywork, including the screen panel because the majority of events planned for 2007 require a full windscreen with wipers. On the gearchange front whilst happy with the current set up the Metro lever housing is a little bulky so a neater arrangement has been fitted. Track and Race Car mag' said the gearchange needed 'binning', without explaining that the problem was they couldn't engage 5th and this resulted in a slow laptime. We have run the car in sprints and hillclimbs with 5th blanked off and with them calling us only three days before they wanted the car, we didn't have enough time to effect a modification for the long straight at Bruntingthorpe. On the new car this will not be an issue. We have no plans to change wheel sizes though we will try a slightly wider rear tyre, just to check out any gains or losses. From this to this to this Mongoose TS Whilst road legal this car is more at home on the track, at trackdays or competitive motorsport. STARTER KIT CONTENTS £1757.00 1. A lightweight tubular spaceframe chassis fully bracketed ready to receive inclined 'K' series engine. 2. Aluminium floor panel 3. Aluminium front bulkhead panel. 4. Aluminium rear bulkhead panel. 5. Aluminium dash panel. 6. Engine to gearbox adaptor plate. (for inclining engine) 7. Modified sump pan (exchange item from customers engine). 8. Modified oil filter housing. 9. Gearchange rods 10. 2 x water pipes. INTERMEDIATE KIT CONTENTS £1875.00 1. 4 x Aluminium l bodied adjustable shockers with adjustable spring platforms 2. 4 x coil springs. 3. 4 x front wishbones 4. 4 x rear radius rods. 5. 2 x lower reversed wishbones (rear) 6. 2 x upper suspension links. 7. Modified steering rack (exchange item) 8. 2 x fabricated front suspension uprights 9. 2 x fabricated rear suspension uprights 10. Fuel tank. (option of 1, 2, or 4 gallon to accept donor fuel pump) 11. Adjustable pedal box with pedals. 12. Hydraulic clutch conversion kit (does not include cylinders) 13. Modified exhaust manifold and pipe (not silencer) 14. Full set of suspension bushes with nut and bolts BODY KIT £ 882.00 1. GRP nose cone 2. 4 x GRP mudguards 3. 8 x mudguard brackets 4. Aluminium scuttle panel. 5. GRP engine cover 6. Aluminium side panels. 7. 7 aluminium cockpit panels 8. Rollover bar ( FIA bar optional) In addition to the above parts the customer will need a Rover Metro or Rover 200 series donor plus :- 1. A VW Polo radiator or one of similar dimensions £60. 2. A hydraulic clutch slave cylinder and master cylinder £54. 3. Master cylinder reservoir x 2 £32. 4. A set of discs and calipers. Calipers Willwood - pair £219 Non vented discs - pair £30 Vented discs - pair £52 5. A silencer from £45 6. Seat cushions - pair £101 7. Seat belts - pair £83 8. A steering wheel & boss £132. 9. A set of lights £152. 10. A set of brake pipes and hoses £80. 11. A clutch pipe £22. 12. Handbrake cables £34 13 A set of wheels and tyres (the donor ones can be used as we have on the prototype). 14. A set of rose joints for suspension and gearchange POA. 15. Nuts, bolts, pop rivets and pipe clips £39 16. Longer speedo cable £48. 17. Panel sealant £15 WE CAN SUPPLY ALL THE ABOVE PARTS AND INTHE CASE OF ITEMS 1,2 &3 OFFER THE CHOICE OF NEW OR USED. PLEASE NOTE WE HAVE TRIED TO COVER ALL THE ITEMS YOU WILL NEED WITHOUT ANY HIDDEN COSTS. DIARY OF THE MONGOOSE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT The seeds of the Mongoose were sown about two years ago whilst we looked at a motorbike engined car. After analysing all the available information we decided it was not for us at that time (I will our explain our reasons later). Whilst looking at the pros & cons of such a development and the inherent problems of a mid engined car with a transversely mounted power unit ( as in an Elise, for example) it became apparent that C of G and polar moments were an area for improvement. This was all theory of course and one way of achieving what we felt would have been a good solution would have been a little too expensive for the type of vehicle we wanted. So what did we want? Well bearing in mind we had a competitive sprint / hillclimb car in the Firefox that was easily buildable for less than £5000 and was easy to drive, well it had to be better and be around the same sort of money or it wasn't worth doing. It also had to have good supply of donor components that would be around for at least five years or more. With this in mind the Rover 200 was chosen as well as the Rover Metro because the 200 series is still being sold new as I speak, there are a lot about and the recent demise of Rover has meant the prices of donors has come down some. We felt it sensible to make sure that any components we used were going to be available new from one source or another. Now this is obviously not the case with the engines but virtually all the components that make them up are. For example heads, pistons, liners, gaskets and bearings have been available from other companies for a few years now and the gearbox is a Citroen unit still an off the shelf item. So the with the inherent weight and cost advantages of the Rover unit in mind and not forgetting that we have run a1400, 1600 and 1800 version for some 5 years in motorsport and not had a single failure, we plumped for the Rover unit. The chassis takes shape After kicking various options around David G was pushing for a low polar moment and David R was pushing for a low C of G and David R's proposal of an inclined engine fitted the bill and gave the potential for a lower frontal area as well which is a real bonus when you are trying to achieve good performance without having to spend lots of hard earned cash on lots of power. (Conversely if you do go for more power then you get even more performance for your loot). After careful consideration it was apparent that the slightly longer engine bay required by the inclined unit would actually allow a motorbike engine to be fitted as well as an in line engine with a transaxle, if desired. Of course I am sure if someone wants to fit a Ford, Vauxhall or Honda power unit then we will be able to accommodate them. So the plot was taking shape. The next stage was to see how we could incline the engine quite a bit, but the gearbox only a small amount. I probably should have said 'if' rather than 'how'. The inclined engine Actually inclining the engine was very straightforward as we decided to mount the engine and transmission unit solidly in the chassis. This meant the load could be shared out among four mounting points and all the adaptor plate between the two had to do was provide relative location of the units to each other rather than accepting big loads. A small amount of relieving was required to the gearbox bellhousing area and the adaptor plate was cut from 2mm sheet steel. The unit was then suspended in the engine bay and the relevant mounting brackets fabricated and welded in place, simple! (I am joking). The sump was next and this was a bit tricky. It had to clear the chassis, the gearbox and the o/s driveshaft as well as carrying enough oil and keep the oil in the right place. Well we did it and when the rest of the machine (it didn't have a name at this stage) was complete we fired it up with one eye on the oil gauge and one on the exhaust tail pipe. All seemed ok so the next step was a run up the road again with one eye glued to the oil pressure gauge and accelerating up the road seemed everything seemed okay. Braked for the village bends, back on the throttle and cyclists from far and wide were heard to cough and die such was the amount of blue smoke streaming from the tailpipe. The engine emulated the cyclists but just managed to keep running, but the oil pressure held up. We retried this manouver a number of times and the result was the same each time. Constant throttle and hard acceleration were fine but braking was bad and hard braking was a disaster, with the engine drowning on its own oil. A second sump was made and this cured the problem. Hard braking was fine and hard acceleration was fine, and for a while all seemed rosy in our garden. At this point we decided a longer run was called for and a longer range fuel tank was installed. The journey seemed fine to start with and then we noticed some smoke from the tailpipe followed by yet more smoke from the tailpipe accompanied by a stuttering and finally a dipping of the oil pressure. This had all happened without any hard braking, hard acceleration or hard anything so this was a different problem. We switched off and had a hard think. Nothing positive came to mind so the engine was restarted and the problem had gone away. We set off again accelerated really hard, no smoke, braked really hard, no smoke. Again and again we tried, no smoke and good oil pressure. We cruised home mystified and just before reaching base it all started again. What was happening was the oil was being retained by a baffle plate when braking hard but also unless you accelerated really hard it would not drain back to the correct place in the sump. In fact it was building up just as it had under hard braking before. So back to the drawing board. A series of baffles were required in the sump and we probably went a bit overboard in the next sump layout. A number of hinged valves certainly sorted the job and the next time out at a track day saw no problem whatsoever. Oil pressure remained good through all types of corners and under harsh braking and then acceleration. Steady cruising was also fine, no problems at all. At this point we decided to stay with the same 1400cc standard engine and put some serious mileage on it to make sure there were no wear issues in the longer term. Our attention turned away from the sump at this time and focused on the suspension because we became aware at the trackday we had a problem with sudden swopping of ends, that is, it would spin like a top but only under a particular set of circumstances. The problem turned out to be overly soft rear springs that were fine in bump and pitch but too soft in roll. What was happening was, we were running out of travel and the coilover unit was going solid, resulting in quick spin. It would only do it on the exit of fast corners just as you were feeding in more power. This was using up the last bit of suspension travel, but it made us think it was down to applying the power to early. First shots of the prototype during construction. 36.5" to top of rollbar (we have to be careful not to trip over it) - just under 10' long - 5' wide. Front suspension & engine bay