Ginettic Modification

[Ozzy Mandeus]

For a couple of years now, I've been minding a Ginetta G26. I rescued it from a well known breaker of fibreglass cars and essex engine fanatic, when I got it it had no engine, box or wheels. I used a set of alloys from a mk2 mondeo I was scrapping just to get it rolling and tried to get my son Conor interested in it as a project seeing as how I had royally screwed his capri up (this is another tale, which has Norm in it. I won't bother you with it now). Conor declined, and now has Norm's old capri to play with instead.

Fast forward to last month, I somehow managed to convince tonedepear that he really, really needed a fibreglass cortina based sports coupe with fiesta doors. Funds changed hands. The car came indoors and I had a proper look at it. I tidied up. World shaking stuff, really.

I even found some suitable rear seatbelts so that his daughter can be safe* in the back. REAR SAFE by KANGOL genuine 80s accessory action.




Ok, enough back story. Fast forward to main plot.

I had to take the cat to the vet today to have it fixed (so it doesn't make more cats) so I got to work about 10ish.



On the ramp is a large hole, surrounded by paint so flat you would think it was holland.



On the floor beside it is a 1600 pinto, complete with VV carb and 4 speed gearbox. This combo is best because it is basically free - the owner of the cortina it came out of yesterday wants a 2.0 and 5 speed fitting instead.



You can see the now engineless cortina in this pic. I'm doing two jobs at once here.



OM NOM NOM PINTO



Prop on, everything looking nice. I even looked at the void bushes which don't need doing!

Then someone brought me a BMW with a water leak. Bah.

[tone_depear]

Yay!

I love the yellow decal on the black box which I presume contains some ventilation gubbins. It looks all world war 2, but not in a really sinister BASF sort of way.

I'm also doubling my T-Cut budget.

[garethj]

You may need to treble your T-Cut budget.

Mine when I bought it


And when I sold it


Mine was a 2 litre 5 speed and it was very nice to drive, but it didn't really do high speeds because of everything shaking about. At low speeds however....





Have some misc Ginetta stuff too

[Ozzy Mandeus]

When designing a car, one has to be influenced by Lotus. I particularly admire the Excel and would liken the G26 to that car

hmmmm.....

[tone_depear]

SHUT UP THEY'RE EXACTLY THE SAME

[garethj]

Not exactly the same, the Ginetta can easily get 3 child seats in the back because it's so wide, the Lotus has that stupid backbone chassis where one of them would sit. The running costs are different too, even now there's no shortage of Pinto engines to put in there, but you could buy 2 complete engines for the cost of a carb rebuild on the Lotus.

The Ginetta also dishes out its thrills at lower speed and flatters even twats like me into thinking I'm a DRIVING GOD

I've got a mate who had an Eclat and whilst it's a lovely thing, you aren't going to keep one running for anything like the price of the kit car.

Here's the works carpark a while ago when pointy plastic cars threatened to take over

[Ozzy Mandeus]

More done today! Throttle cable found and connected, clutch cable attached but the pedal ratchet doesn't want to work (this is fairly normal...) and brakes tested for pressure and binding (both present).

I also found a radiator that holds water (on the fourth go)


and noticed that the engine seemed to be leaning back rather a lot - Went under to see why and found a collapesed gearbox mount.


I also noticed (again) that the crossmember mount is made from flat plate with no bracing. I found a mount and fitted it to the crossmember


After fitting, the engine and box were still leaning back - the flat mounts (which I didn't like) have drooped with the weight. OK, do it properly time! Found some flat plate


and triangulated it. I see no reason why Ginetta couldn't have done that - Brunel would have!


and while I was there I soldered a "new" plug onto the reversing light wires because the last person to remove the engine and box snipped the wires.


Coming along nicely. Here it is on its wheels again


Almost ready to roll! Exhaust next.

[Ozzy Mandeus]

SHUT UP THEY'RE EXACTLY THE SAME

[tone_depear]

Quattro Pro!?

[Ozzy Mandeus]

ViewSheet