The car has been progressing. I spent a lot of time modifying the steering rack in order to reduce the bump steer (bump toe out) to acceptable limits. Bump steer proved to be hard to eliminate due to the wishbones being angled forwards towards the car's centreline when viewed from above. The rear suspension also had unacceptable bump steer. I fabricated all new traling links to new lengths as well as rebracting the lower rea wishbone to make rear toe adjustments easier. To mount the seats and lower the pedal assemblies I removed the front and rear firewalls. I brazed in bracket for both seats, fuel tank mounts, roll over bar front support (to stiffen the chassis) and additional brackets as required. I also changed rod end sizes. I wasn't happy with 3/8" suspension bolts in single shear. I changed these to 7/16". All double shear rod ends are still 3/8".
The engine has finally been built and started. I will go into more detail on that on the Lotus Twin Cam. This was quite a milestone as to start the engine I had to fabricate the dry sump tank, catch tank, and swirl pot. All dry sump plumbing had to be assembled as did a temporary cooling circuit. The ignition was easy once I located a suitable coil for the pertronix electronic ignition system I fitted to the distributor. The modified Honda starter worked perfectly turning the engine very easily. Another big hurdle was the transmission. I fitted a VW Kombi trans initially. This I later discovered was not wise as the diff ratio was to low, added to that the gear ratios were less than ideal. I had also fabricated my own Formula Ford style Hewland adaptor. I located a Mk6 four speed Hewland transmission in bits. I rebuilt is using a 'new' second hand modified VW casing. I also fitted a new crown wheel and pinion to get a slightly better ratio, 3.875:1 instead of the original F3 4.125:1 As the car now had a Hewland I imported a correct Lotus length Hewland adaptor. In order to mate the transmission to the clutch I had a local engineering company make a correct longer length gearbox input shaft.
My current plan is get an alloy radiator fabricated loaclly by a company that built a similar radiator for a friends Lotus 59. I will then concentrate on brakes, plumbing and the gear change. I am undecided on what steering wheel to fit. I am erring towards a 280mm copy available from a supplier in the USA.
Engine for 23B Page - Lotus Twin Cam