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Lee · 01-11-05, 06:15 PM

John
Happy hunting. If there is one thing I have learnt while being around 40s, it is patience. Current waiting times for Tornado and DRB are very long. I believe ERA are even longer but not sure. CAV may be quite short at present while I guess RF is somewhere in between. JP was having his MDA turnkey built for quite a while and has now decided to get an F40 instead. Hopefully we will soon see JPs car as a running demonstrator, and I guess Jimmy Mac's MDA is somewhere near completion but I'm not sure. I would really like to see the MDA driven in anger. It nearly made it to Goodwood last August, but not quite. Mark really needs to get his demonstrator out on the road and track for people to see. Until then, for me, it remains a hopeful rather than a candidate, particularly if you intend using the car on the race track.
If you want to be driving a 40 within the next year you will almost certainly have to buy one already built from somewhere other than a manufacturer. The only manufacturer who probably has a hope of delivering a turnkey to your spec within a year is Auto Futura CAV (sp?).
Apart from Autofutura you will even struggle to have a body/chassis with fitted panels delivered within 1 year. Then depending on your experience, time available and/or resources 1 - 2 years to build it.
As detailed on my website, DRB offered me the closest to my 'best possible' spec, and back it up with real cars out there, some built by owners, and some by the factory, being driven on the roads and on the tracks. I visited the factory and had a run out it flatchat's car during one of the monthly owners get togethers at the factory. Who else has a monthly owners get together at the factory? No-one.
This gave me an awful lot of 'real world' confidence. I could see it with my own eyes. The only thing DRB are doing to my car which they have not done before is lowering the engine even more than usual and having an exhaust manifold made to suit the lowered engine and the unusual heads I am using. The attention Peter has paid to achieving this is first class. As standard the engine is mounted low relative to manufacturers who use Audi or Renault transmissions, because DRB is based around the G50 series of transmissions, but I wanted to go that little bit further and will be running a dry sump.
So I get the G50 basis (for strength and engine low C of G), evidence of cars being tested in track conditions, all matching parts available from one manufacturer, and good factory backup.
As I said before patience is something I have learnt, as have most people who want something out of the ordinary. If you want a standard spec road car, I am sure you can shorten some of the times compared to my time scale for my special car, but the figures above will be a good guide to the reality, rather than the dream, but do your homework, and VISIT the manufacturers. Australia isn't really that far away when you're looking at such a large investment of future time as well as money.

01-11-05, 06:15 PM	#14 (permalink)
Lee Lee 5 Tenths Join Date: May 2002 Location: Silverstone, UK GT40: GT40 Australia Posts: 524 Rep Power: 12	Re: Which one and why John Happy hunting. If there is one thing I have learnt while being around 40s, it is patience. Current waiting times for Tornado and DRB are very long. I believe ERA are even longer but not sure. CAV may be quite short at present while I guess RF is somewhere in between. JP was having his MDA turnkey built for quite a while and has now decided to get an F40 instead. Hopefully we will soon see JPs car as a running demonstrator, and I guess Jimmy Mac's MDA is somewhere near completion but I'm not sure. I would really like to see the MDA driven in anger. It nearly made it to Goodwood last August, but not quite. Mark really needs to get his demonstrator out on the road and track for people to see. Until then, for me, it remains a hopeful rather than a candidate, particularly if you intend using the car on the race track. If you want to be driving a 40 within the next year you will almost certainly have to buy one already built from somewhere other than a manufacturer. The only manufacturer who probably has a hope of delivering a turnkey to your spec within a year is Auto Futura CAV (sp?). Apart from Autofutura you will even struggle to have a body/chassis with fitted panels delivered within 1 year. Then depending on your experience, time available and/or resources 1 - 2 years to build it. As detailed on my website, DRB offered me the closest to my 'best possible' spec, and back it up with real cars out there, some built by owners, and some by the factory, being driven on the roads and on the tracks. I visited the factory and had a run out it flatchat's car during one of the monthly owners get togethers at the factory. Who else has a monthly owners get together at the factory? No-one. This gave me an awful lot of 'real world' confidence. I could see it with my own eyes. The only thing DRB are doing to my car which they have not done before is lowering the engine even more than usual and having an exhaust manifold made to suit the lowered engine and the unusual heads I am using. The attention Peter has paid to achieving this is first class. As standard the engine is mounted low relative to manufacturers who use Audi or Renault transmissions, because DRB is based around the G50 series of transmissions, but I wanted to go that little bit further and will be running a dry sump. So I get the G50 basis (for strength and engine low C of G), evidence of cars being tested in track conditions, all matching parts available from one manufacturer, and good factory backup. As I said before patience is something I have learnt, as have most people who want something out of the ordinary. If you want a standard spec road car, I am sure you can shorten some of the times compared to my time scale for my special car, but the figures above will be a good guide to the reality, rather than the dream, but do your homework, and VISIT the manufacturers. Australia isn't really that far away when you're looking at such a large investment of future time as well as money.