Dear Tony,
1. The FIA "suitcase bumps" (the very item which makes an
FIA an FIA ) MISSING FROM THE TRUNK LID!!!
Please refer to page 114 and 158 in Michael Shoen’s Cobra-Ferrari Wars. You will note that the pictures of the car do NOT have the bumps. CSX2259 the first FIA car did not have bumps until much much later in its life… Lynn Park told me that he was tired of explaining why his car did not have the bumps so he had them put in. Also note that none of the USRRC (the other cut back door car) cars had bumps. More importantly, the FIA bumps are nothing more than big ugly zits on back of a beautiful body to comply with a capricious rule.
2. The hood scoop on the Kirkham FIA was incorrectly shaped.
The original cars varied by quite a bit. If you look on page 138 and 139 of the Cobra Ferrari Wars, you will see that the opening on car number 3 is a bit shallower than the other cars. Our first FIA bodies were more like this car than the other cars. I went and measured the hood scoop on CSX2494 (granted not an FIA car but an original USRRC car) and updated our hood scoops to the bigger opening.
3. The
oil cooler opening below the D shaped grill opening on the front of the car was missing.
The
oil cooler opening is very different today on the FIA cars than when they were racing in the 1960's. Only CSX2345 has its original
oil cooler opening still intact. See page 122, 138 and 139 of the Cobra-Ferrari Wars of what the original oil cooler scoops looked like. AC Cars has updated the opening to a 427ish style opening. As an aside the original front brake ducts will not fit on a car with the updated AC Cars oil cooler opening. Because of the confusion in oil cooler openings, SAI asked us to leave off the oil cooler opening and they would put it in for their customers. It only seams appropriate since FIA oil cooler opening was a mod by SAI in the first place.