[Ant]

Mike,

You make very good sense about just covering the tunnel with carbon, will achieve a minimal result!

I had a guy look at the car, from a composite supplyer, he suggested that it would make a big difference, but in the last few weeks I have gone off the idea, and you have 'hit the nail on the head' on how it should be constructed. It is not going to be practical, especially with the open bottom, even though I was going to secure that every 12".

I have a Homologated rollbar for racing, with diagonal forward bracing to main chassis rail, and back to rear of chassis. Regarding fabricating a tubular backbone section, that is reasonably easy to do as per the Cobra Coupe, which added a claimed 50% to that. I am still quite happy with the conventional ladder platform chassis, as its a bit heavier than original (4X3) and I would say quite a bit more rigid than original, plus I am going to run a small block 347with alloy heads, I am sure with the right selection of springs shocks etc, and the wee bit of track experience I have had over the years may help in setting it up! ALL THAT IS WISHFULL THINKING AND A BIT OF GUESS WORK!

I did contemplate building a space frame or backbone style chassis, then thought the devil I know, plus in NZ the motorsport clubs are going away from non original style concepts, so to keep it a bit period!