After 3,5 years of rebuilding (after an initial 2,5 year built, and 2,5 years of driving), I've finally finished the rebuild of my Indy. After I finished it the first time, there were many areas where I thought I could improve things. So I took it all apart, and rebuild the entire car from scratch. To sum up the changes:

Body:
No body panel remained untouched (only MK panel is the rear panel, although I did take out 30 mm in width, as it was wider than the chassis); nose was scratch-build, scuttle was scratch build (now has a Caterham windscreen), alloy side panels at engine bay are supplied by Dax (made to measure for my car without surcharge!).

Chassis:
Extra reinforcements, and inboard front suspension.

Engine: it was a Zetec Silvertop, running on OEM ECU. Now it's a Blacktop, running on an Omex600, spiced up with an Eaton M45 supercharger (of MINI origin). It is now VERY crowded under the bonnet, but it turns out 218 bhp on the rollers.



And now some pictures:

That car is absolutely lovely. Congratulations!

Bet your really happy with it

looks great

know how you feel ive got a turbo zetec in mine and there is even less room than yours!

evertime you get something else you need to move about 5 things to make it fit

What a beauty, best looking Indy ive seen, and love those rear lights, well done.

Nice build, lot of work.
Lot of time gone into this.

where in holland are you situated?

marcel.

That looks lovely! Really like the rear lights

quote:

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Chassis:
Extra reinforcements, and inboard front suspension

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Any pictures of your inboard suspension?

A screen and wipers? (plus 218 horses).

You're not thinking of taking it out in the wet surely?

Congratulations on a stunning looking build.

Is that a home made scuttle? It doesn't look like an MK one.

Stu

Excellent looking car.

Thanks for the kind words.

I'll see if I can find some pictures of the reinforcements. I have no clue if they have an effect on the driving, in theory they should, but I doubt I would notice.... I had some FEA done on the reinforcement I added in the engine bay, and according to the analysis that had a huge effect (from memory more than 20%) on the stiffness. On both sides of the engine there is a tube running from the rear of the engine mounts to the top of the top where the tunnel ends (so more or less hugging the bellhousing). Next to that I added a diagonal in the front of the chassis (behind radiator/intercooler), and an inverse V from the front lower wishbone rear bracket, up to an X which I put where the V was above the front suspension. Are you still with me?

Rear suspension was modified to solve the 'Indy rear suspension design flaw' (which I have never noticed but it has been discussed here a lot, and while I was changing things, I could address this as well.) I now have the outboard side of the rear top wishbone bolted at the shock absorber mounting point of the upright (so it is now at a steeper angle). The shock absorber is now mounted to the lower wishbone, and from there to a new bracket on the chassis.

Front inboard suspension: new wishbones (mounting point for pushrod as far outboard as possible), rocker mounted on new tube below original shock mount. Lower mounting point shocks on bracket on 25x50 mm tube which runs from steering rack plate to tube in front a sump. The lay-out was optimised for rising rate (1.15) and appears to be working nicely. But I'm no racer, so have no clue whether it is indeed better.

So, that's it in wording.

218 BHP.... Makes you smile everytime you press the loud pedal. At a certain point the supercharger whine also kicks in, adding to the experience. Yesterday, after take these pictures, I was caught by some rain, so used the wipers! But I added them mainly because our MOT requires them, and I wanted the car to be 'complete'. I don't care so much about their extra weight.

More pictures here:
Link to Photobucket

And a picture of the nose, without snow plow:

New nose 5