MEDUSA

April 3, 2013

hi chaps ,

new endeavour/disaster…

My train of thought went thusly, bit bored of minis and thought, what would i find really fun to drive, not super fast like the tvr, or my mini but just plain good old-fashioned fun.

and I thought hmm, an old open wheel type 1940’s race car on the rd would be fun, big rope steering wheel and so on.

then I found a 95 taxi down the magic scrap yard. so a bit of negotiation and I got the chassis and the reg docs. So in about minus 10 I went down, and in a day took off the body, and my good friend big john towed it …on a trailer…. up to my place 25 miles away.

Now to engines, hmm, well, these jag 24 v straight 6 engines, with ally block, are very cheap and seem to last a long time, so I got a couple of those, I had one in my garden for about 5 years so that gave me 2 to use and one spare.

I am trying to create a straight 12 from the 2 engines, coupling them with a rubber donut out of a prop, after a lot of research to see if that’s feasible ….finding a twin-engined rod with one in between 2 500 bhp sbc was encouraging!

the idea is to make a remote flywheel clutch gearbox assembly behind the cross member too but like an Alfa Romeo alfetta/75/gtv from the 80’s.

projected power is 250 for the back engine, and 225 for the front, and that’s as they are in normal form, with a long snakey exhaust and 12 bellmouths it may be more. so far the thing weighs in at 500kg chassis and 165 kg per engine, so it may come in at under a ton. ooof, on old 7.5 16 tyres I think it will be a traction nightmare !!

its called medusa for all the pipes etc, and I want to get Veronica to paint me a ww2 girl on the side with snakey hair. on the number plate, it will say “TWINS BASIL”

Here’s the victim before surgery, poor little thing doesn’t know whats in store for it 🙁

it’s going to love it 🙂

Even came with a sexy wooden steering wheel !!(bit small for full vintage ” I cannot control this thing” type driving though, something thin and ungrippable, without a good lashing of hemp, is more appropriate .)

trying to work out how to get the body off down the yard …in -4c….. brisk.

a few big bolts and basically hacking off everything else rubbery, and it’s off ..

chassis naked at last , interestingly on the scales at the yard it was 480kg , much lighter than i expected .

some quite nice deco esque features to it ,

say goodbye to your mama ,its time for the big adventure ,,you’ll love 500 bhp .

Home at last! having driven the Astra running on 2 cylinders for 25 miles, followed by John tearing up at every junction due to the raw LPG coming out of my exhaust pipe, oh we/I laughed!!