Well I was going to post this up on CO3S but for whatever reason my posting privileges have been removed
I have officially embarked on a new project. The car will be loaded up on a semi car hauler and will be enroute from St. Louis to Colorado on 01-12-09. A little background on this project, when I was in high school in the late 80's and early 90's there were two cars that were in my opinion the be all and end all of all cars. The first being the Ferrari F40 and the second being the Lamborghini Countach, these were the cars of many teenage dreams.
Realism has now set in and I know on a cops salary both are out of reach, however I can have a nice replica version. So, my next project is a Replica F40.
Here are a couple of pics as she sits now:
Initial goals are to get the interior into the car and get it into a drivable configuration, and give it a quick respray of paint so I can enjoy it while collecting parts for the build up. Right now it has a fresh Fiero 2.8 V6/5 speed set up with all new suspension, brakes, and bushing's.
I figure it will take me a year to 18 months before I have all of the parts needed in hand for the massive rebuild which will realize the final end state goal of the build will be to replicate as closely as possible the original F40. I have a exact replica dash being made that will look 100% like the real deal. The rest of the interior will be as close to 100% accurate as possible. I will be updating the interior as the parts come.
Now starts the hard part, I will be stretching the body 3.1 inches so it matches the dimension of the real F40. I am considering modifying the front flip up hood and rear spoiler to F40LM configuration but have not decided 100% if I am going to go that route. To fit the new stretched body panels I will be replacing the rear of the car from the firewall back with a custom subframe which will give me the 3.1 inches of "stretch" I need to match the real F40 wheel base. This suspension set up is also a huge upgrade over the factory Fiero rear suspension. This will also allow me to match the rear track of the F40. As an added bonus the new subframe will also get rid of all the factory Fiero engine compartment sheet metal and trunk area which will make it look closer to the real F40 when the rear hatch is lifted.
The front suspension will be replaced with an aftermarket "slalom setup" that will allow me to match the factory F40 front track as well as completly update the front suspension.
I am in talks with a VW/Audi racing shop and we will be looking at installing a Twin Turbo charged longitudinal VW W8 with Audi 5000 trasaxle for the drive train. Why the W8 you might be asking? It is the only 8 cylinder that will fit longitudinally in the space I will have available with the 3" stretch. The other option is the same setup but with a Lexus V8 however, this will require some serious modification to the firewall area i.e. moving the firewall in at least 3 inches. Once I have some hard numbers in place I will decide which route to go on the drive train.
Well that is a quick synapses of the build plan in a nutshell. Trust me the actual build plan has been well thought out, I have talked to everyone who will be making specialized parts and priced them out, trust me I am not jumping into this sort of a build with my eyes closed and blinders on, this was just a 30 second overview.
Let me know what you think, if you just want to slam on my idea STFU and don't because I am not interested. Positive replies and honest questions are more than welcome though. To my fellow CO3S members once I have her up and running you should see her on the road and I will try to make it out to some events with her
Matt
My new project, no it's not a 3S
