Mamba Motorsport: John's C23

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Update: 1st December 2009

For those that haven't been following Richard's progress, work on the '23 was interrupted last winter to build Richard's Midget - Gertie - still looking good and ready for a few tweeks & next season. So now Richard's stopped shouting at me, time to get back to the '23!

Spent a bit of time between jobs tidying up that 2007 chassis, doing a few mods that will be required for the new IVA, sorting out a centre gear shift etc. Decided the centre shift was rubbish, remodeled the roll cage & put usual right hand shift back in - much better!!

Off to Paul Booth at Purton for a quick sand blast & a coat of paint and then we're ready to start the build up.

Our usual light grey for structural bits ('cause it is unforgiving & highlights any cracks in use should they occur later on) looks pretty though!

Out with the templates & a few adjustments, lots of rivets & PU adhesive & Voila! a paneled chassis! --Wish the glue would come off my fingers though!!

Now's the time to fit those tricky little bits you need to get right - pedal box, hand brake (yes - road cars DO need them apparently!!), steering mechanism then when you've finished drilling all those tricky holes time to pop the engine & box back in.

What's next - well gear shift, engine bay bits, fuel tank etc, but will update on that later with some more pics.

Any challenges - well yes! We're actually doing two of these at the moment - John's & Dave's. So TWICE THE WORK!!

The only real difference between the cars will be the engines. Both Duratec with VAG trans, but slightly different engine specs. More about that later.

Well something worth mentioning now though. John's engine was built up last year - remember - Gertie took over? Well to use available bits, decided to use two standard injectors/cylinder - yes that is eight - easy peasy, just alter the injector duration accordingly. No probs. Fabricate two galleries with -6 JIC fittings - this thing is running with 5 bar fuel pressure - all looking good. Well went to order Omex ECU & had a bit of bad news. The 600 no longer supports 8 injectors. Only economic solution is to go back to 4 new higher output injectors. The cost of the 700 series ECU & vastly more complicated loom etc meant sticking with the 600 series & 4 injectors was a no brainer - very irritating though - all that lovely work down the pan.

Update: 14th Jan 2010

A really quick update just to post the latest build pictures - the cooling system, fuel tank, engine, transmission and exhaust system are all in place and the suspension is complete bar the coilover units.