Well, I've been lurking on here for a while now & thought it might be time to show you what I'm putting together. I just love the look & rawness of the LeMans 289's and as there's a lot of FIA clones, I figured it'd be a bit more unusual to the normal cars that are out there. The chassis will be 4" diameter & will support the Jaguar indepent front & rear suspension. Front A arms will be scratch built to allow for adjustments. The body will be aluminium over a birdcage frame
I was originally offered a loan of a 289 slabside to use as a buck to make my aluminium body. But after a lot of consideration I thought it might be better to buy a shell & cut & shut that to get the final shape that I wanted. This will then be used as the buck to form the aluminium body & the buck can then be sold on to recoup some of the cost outlayed. The buck will eventually be finished to a high standard & would be ready for paint.
Because I wanted an ali body and I was unable to purchase a fibreglass 289 style shell at a sensible price, to use as the buck, bearing in mind it'll be cut & changed dramatically, it made sense to me at least, to buy a cheap 427 shell & modify that. I bought a Pilgrim bodyshell, but without the inner skins on the hood, trunk & doors and most importantly, the cost was right
There won't be much 427 DNA left in it by the time it's finished anyway.
The body style that I'm going to replicate is a cross between CS 2131 and CSX 2130, taking the styling cues from each that I like. Once the body modifications are done, I'll then make a start on the chassis. The engine will be a 302 stroked to 347 fitted with downdraughts, backed up by a 5 speed trans.
These are the cars for my inspiration. I like the front lower valance and lower grille on 644 CGT & I'll also replicate the rear fenders to look like this car
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I like the front fender lips on 39PH, so again I'm going to replicate those too.
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This was the starting point, one cheap 427 bodyshell
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cheers...Nige