I was sitting down in the sanctum sanctorum the other evening... contemplating what to do next. The ERA Slabside is long finished (and has been expropriated by my wife, Suzanne, for her exclusive use) my sons' #1313 circa 1967 Meyers Manx Dune Buggy is off to have a real roll cage installed and, as a result, there was a vacant space (temporarily) in the "shed."
Now I have always admired the sports racing cars from the 1955-60 period and have long wanted to do a V12 project. Jaguar, Aston Martin, Scarab, Maserati and Ferrari front engined roadster designs were, in my opinion, some of the most gorgeous automotive "art" ever produced. I've also been inspired by the many one-off sports car "specials" of the period.
One thing has led to another and I have three V12 Jaguar motors currently pushed against the back wall. Once you strip away all of the superfluous belts, hoses, pumps and fuel injection piping, they really are beautiful motors. The block is ribbed aluminum which, I understand, was originally designed, in part, to go to LeMans in the XK13.
The next step was the call to New Britain. Some recent visitors to ERA may have noticed the big block chassis up on the roof of the container next to the welding shop "normalizing". It turns out that a customer had purchased an ERA 427SC kit some twenty five years ago and never finished it. After two and a half plus decades, he called Peter and asked if he could bring it back and have them finish it. Over the years there have been numerous minor changes to the ERA chassis to accommodate different rack and pinion, brakes, transmission and rear cage to the point that a decision was made to do a new chassis for the customer. Thus the "orphan" chassis on the roof just begging for a foster home....
After the usual arduous negotiations with ERA management involving innumerable, one pound hamburgers and "OK, bring the fries, I'll just count them," lunches (and a lot of begging and pleading) the chassis was off to Adam's (ERA's ace welder and fabricator) for a little stretching (to 96") and "adjustment." The chassis is now down in the shed behind the house, motor and transmission mounted, awaiting suspension, brakes and steering. My thought was to get the mechanical, drive train and suspension squared away before tackling the body, utilizing as much of the time tested ERA engineering as is possible.
The body buck/mold will be the big challenge, but as my mini Mediterranean friend in New Britain says; "Don't worry if one side doesn't match the other, you can only see one side at a time."
Jim