Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....

[plasticfantastic]

Thank you eurogranada for your kind reply, and i do understand where you are coming from and yes for most people the (rough)figures i stated are quite 'large', but please try to remember that we are trying to replicate a £1M supercar and the kit i am making is far beyond just a stick on body kit.

I'm not looking for poeple to cue up for this kit, I'm looking for the one person out there with the love for this car that i have, i know they are out there!

I also completely agree with you that 'we' are not in the best economic times at the moment, but the truth is that the kind of person who will be able to afford a £25,000 donor car probably hasnt been affected as badly as the rest of us have been.

The above numbers i stated are also mostly not upto me, the £25k for the donor is just the rough market value, the £5k for wheels and tires is just their cost value. The £5k+ for glass, again it soon adds up when your talking about genuine ferrari door glass and frames. The cost of the body is the only thing i have any kind of control over and as said that is a rough idea of price and is for negotiation but the bill of materials alone will be quite shocking before the labour that is involved in production of the body. The people who have already travelled out to see me and this project understand after seeing it in person.

Thanks again for the feedback, any and all is appreciated

[froggy]

Id be more concerned about Ferrari sending a bunch of sharp dressed lawyers round with violin cases if that ends up looking like the real thing . The gull wing Merc rep and db5 ended up getting crushed along with the moults

[Darkspeed]

At those sort of numbers it would need to be virtually indistinguishable from the real thing. I can see why the Lotus would have been an attractive donor when the project started but as they are on the move price wise and are a classic Supercar status in there own right it makes it a little more difficult and, deserved or not, the V8's have a questionable mechanical reliability with expensive repair bills.

As you are in Ultima price territory I think you would really need to have a bespoke full safety cage chassis. Engine wise an Audi V8 and Transaxle would give the car it's 200MPH potential and the power numbers that are needed to get the necessary eyebrows raised.

Most high end replica's are actually faster and more powerful than the the cars the emulate and if anything less - a bodykit for a lesser powerful donor for example - they tend to not be taken seriously and accordingly the prices paid/invested are significantly lower.

I wish you all the best with the project and if it were an Alpine A110......

[ettorebugatti]

I think 55k is too cheap. ;D

There is a market for a 200k turn-key replica, but it has to be more authentic recreation. Meaning using Ferrari parts/design for the suspension and chassis.
Maybe it possible for that target market to sell it with the Lotus gearbox and engine, but I recon they can be persuaded to splash out for proper Ferrari V8 and turbo conversion.
But whether you can/ want to do that in a year time and with no less than 50k investments is make or break on this.

And the risk of waking up with horse head (from Maranello) in your bed is quite big with such an enterprise.

[GT4ME]

Couple of good points there, if you use an existing Ferrari base car it's not a replica it's a rebody. Plenty of 250 gto's and SWB California's out there that left the factory as GTE's. At £50k plus I think it needs to be a real Ferrari with the F40 body mods.
There's a company in the US who have done a number of 288 GTO's on 308 base.
The snag at the moment is Ferrari prices have gone berserk, 2 or 3 years ago you could of picked up a ropey LHD 308 GTB with poor bodywork for £10 to £15k to use as a base.


www.288gtoconversion.com/288GTOconversion.com/Our_288_GTO.html

[GT4ME]

288 GTO on a 1981 308;

[gofasterpinch]

Interesting to see another Davrian - is it quite an early one? I helped a friend rebuild several bits of a friends mk4 a few years ago

[duncanmartin]

The amount of work and the attention to detail in the way that you have made the body is really impressive. I admire the design ethos building it on top of the V8 Esprit, and if it weren't for the way that classic car prices have been exploding recently, it might have been a reasonable business model. I fear that the other comments are correct about the need for a bespoke chassis and more replica-ish engine than the Esprit though. Your competition at this level of the replica market are guys like these: www.tornadosportscars.com/MainPage.html
For £40k plus VAT you get a full tubular chassis and a brand new small block V8 (in keeping with the original but with much more potential). I have also heard that Ferrari are especially litigous when it comes to good quality replicas, so you would need to be careful - I don't know how one can make a replica without getting sued...
Good luck though, your work deserves to be made into a legit car, and if it is ever completed it will be epic!
Cheers
Duncan

[mdh]

I just caught up with your recent progress.

Wow! If I had even half your skills, all my projects would be finished already!

I'm loving the F40. The Lotus donor was an inspired choice for a one off, as it's ready to go and skirts registration hassles.

Going forward, how about using a tub from our mutual friend? That would drop the price a lot and remove any Norfolk stigma.

[plasticfantastic]

Hi all,

I though id update you all as more progress has been made on the project for those of you intereted I apologise if the writing below is a bit cut and paste but i think it makes sense along with the pictures.

The last few months have seen quite a change in the f40 now, as you can see in the pictures the tub is now bonded together and the majority of the cab rear bulkhead has been finished. I have layed up the reare wheel tub since these pictures so next step is to finish the left hand rear arch and a little work on the L/H cab window and vent. Then the plan is to lift the shell off its current table and ive bought a chassis table so that will come into the workshop and my Esprit chassis will be bolted to that them my body can be fitted to the chassis.

Once the fitment is sorted i have already bought a roll of carbon/kevlar hybrid weave to skin the inside of the shell. once all this is bonded in i have also bought a tube bender so i can design and build a prototype roll cage that will also bolt to the chassis. This will be tacked together inside the shell so i can cut it out of the body later when the molds are done then a jig can be made. Eventually the roll cage will bebuilt and bonded into the shell during construction.

Final stage is to then buy the custom wheels and tires to final check all clearences and to paint the shell. Then i can finally start to make the molds!

Another small update on some of the jobs done over the last couple of weeks. Ive been working more pn the RH rear arch, i bought a part worn 345/35/19 to continue checking the arch shape, all seems good so far, i need to do a little more work on the arch curve before being able to put the radius' onto the lip.

Ive also started to finalise the front end location and fitment. Its now locked down square to the body and ive cut apart the LH front arch to finalise the shape, size and location i want. I havent completely decided on what wheel and tire size to use on the front yet, whether to balance out the wheel size and have matching 19 like the rear, but id have to run quite a low profile to keep the circumference down, something like a 225/30/19. Or to more match the tire profile with something like a 235/40/18. I'm not a huge fan of super low profile and the 345/35/19 has quite a big sidewall so id like to balance that out on the front.

Ive also now buzzed most of the body down to 400 grit. i still have repairs to do, and parts need blocking down but I'm pushing towards getting the shell ready for primer. I'm currently widening the flanges around the door openings to make laying up around the sharp corner easier later on.

Comments and criticisms appreciated

Cheers

[CaptainSlog]

So good to see progress here again, thanks.

[langsam]

Bookmarked I cant believe i have missed this build thread before.

[jpsmit]

Looks awesome! and especially great to see it pop up again! You mention using this for a mold, so, are you planning to make to sell or is this a buck to make a finished shell for your use? (this is mostly a question about legal issues with a car that looks very similar to the original)

keep up the great work and keep us posted!

[plasticfantastic]

Hi all,

A little more progress has been made. I have thickened up the return flange around the RH door, this was because in places it was a little too narrow and would be difficult to mold later and also i need a wide flange around the edge of the mold for the vacuum bag to stick too.

I have also done most of the work needed to catch the LH rear arch up to the same stage as the RH rear arch, only a little more todo now before i decide on rim width's and offsets, but the body needs to go onto the chassis before i can do that.

In an effort to do something other than sanding filler, today i have been mocking up ideas for how i plan to do the roll cage and the bulkhead areas behind the seats that enclose the fuel tanks. The tube in the pictures is a little thick at 55mm as i plan for the main hoop to be 50mm and the rest of the cage will be 40mm keeping it inline with the MSA designt regs.

Comments and criticisms appreciated

Cheers

[plasticfantastic]

Hi all,

Happy new year to you all

Just another little update on some of the jobs i did before the year ended. Ive been working more on all 4 wheel arches, both front are now cut and repositioned ready for glassing. Ive also brought the rear bumper and doors out from storage so they can be worked on at the same time. And i also had a quick tidy up as i was knee deep in filler dust!

Cheers

[plasticfantastic]

Hi all,


Just another small update but theres hours going into these wheel tubs, they're pretty slow going! but they are getting there. Now i have got all the space there possibly is tu use for the fear suspension movement. The inside wheel tub is now touching the inside of the NACA duct on the backend. At full bump on a 19" rim the chassis is 75mm from the floor, and just a comparison pic of the original 17" tire on the other side which leaves less than 25mm between chassis and ground at full bump.

No there is enough room in the arch I'm working on how it joins to the backend when the backend is closed. I want the inside of the arch to be as seamless as possible so it doesnt collect road muck and I'm building in a step that helps stop any water making its way past into the rear bumper and it also halps locate the rear end and bumper tegether when closed.

Cheers

[forkliftfred]

Wow! I started following this thread years ago and I forgot about it. I'm so glad you're still working on it.

[blackpopracing]

Awesome.

[plasticfantastic]

Hi all.

It's been quite a few years so I doubt many if any of you will remember my project but I've dragged it back out from storage and have started spending a few hours on it. Mostly sorting the rear of the cab and engine bay and finalising wheel arches.

Cheers

[grandsport]

Good to see you are back at it.