SouthernGT No8

MartinGough · 01-13-07, 01:54 PM

Thought I would begin a thread to detail my building of a SouthernGT from Mick Sollis based near Southampton in the UK. Basically this has all come about after buying a GTD last June. After owning the car for some time I decided to start a slow upgrading to personalise the car as most owners do. A number of calls to Frank Catt at Wealden Engineering had my car booked in for the work to start. A rod gear change, tilton pedal set, clip off steering wheel were the main jobs. I visited Frank and Geoff (who incidentally works along side Frank) to help out for a few days and make those small decissions. Hmmm. Descissions,Decissions? I was struggling doing that. After a lot of head scratching we decided that the best course of action was to re-chassis my car with a new chassis from Mick as one of the larger mods not already mentioned I was wanting to do was to fit Franks suspension setup which was starting to look a little silly financially. Eventually after some more thought I decided that the most sensible route would be to build a complete new car thus allowing me to still use my current car till the new one was finished. Off to see Mick with Frank and Geoff to order a chassis and detail what I wanted extra on the car. ie a roll cage, zf gearbox mounting, lowered floor pan etc. I visited Mick recently to tie up some loose ends and see how the chassis was coming along. Well its very nearly finished and a superb job has been done by Mick and his son Adam. I am looking forward to getting stuck into the build and will keep regular updates going on the web site. In the meantime I am doing some small jobs on my current car while the UK weather is so bad. As soon as Frank has the chassis to fit his suspension I will update the build thread.
Martin.

MartinGough · 01-13-07, 02:01 PM

Thought I would begin a thread to detail my building of a SouthernGT from Mick Sollis based near Southampton in the UK. Basically this has all come about after buying a GTD last June. After owning the car for some time I decided to start a slow upgrading to personalise the car as most owners do. A number of calls to Frank Catt at Wealden Engineering had my car booked in for the work to start. A rod gear change, tilton pedal set, clip off steering wheel were the main jobs. I visited Frank and Geoff (who incidentally works along side Frank) to help out for a few days and make those small decisions. Hmmm. Decisions,Decisions? I was struggling doing that. After a lot of head scratching we decided that the best course of action was to re-chassis my car with a new chassis from Mick as one of the larger mods not already mentioned I was wanting to do was too fit Franks suspension setup which was starting to look a little silly financially. Eventually after some more thought I decided that the most sensible route would be to build a complete new car thus allowing me to still use my current car till the new one was finished. Off to see Mick with Frank and Geoff too order a chassis and detail what I wanted extra on the car. ie a roll cage, zf gearbox mounting, lowered floor pan etc. I visited Mick recently to tie up some loose ends and see how the chassis was coming along. Well its very nearly finished and a superb job has been done by Mick and his son Adam. I am looking forward to getting stuck into the build and will keep regular updates going on the web site. In the meantime I am doing some small jobs on my current car while the UK weather is so bad. As soon as Frank has the chassis to fit his suspension I will update the build thread.
Martin.

Bill D · 01-13-07, 02:39 PM

Congrats!! I can see why you are smiling!!

Now tell us what you plan to build - engine, transaxle, colors, etc.

Cheers
Bill D

MartinGough · 01-13-07, 05:19 PM

Bill
Well I plan on doing an Alan Mann replica probably AMR 1. So the colour will be red with a pair of gold stripes. I am going to try and replicate the lack of sills that the team ran with just the tanks showing, I have a friend who that sort of fabricating for a living so should be possible. As for the engine it will be based on a 302. I am waiting for more info on the Ford Racing Boss engines as they would appear on first sight to be a good deal. Probably going the fuel injection route. Gearbox will be ZF when I get hold of a decent one, if I can? Picture below is my current car.
Martin.

Bill D · 01-13-07, 05:56 PM

Beautiful car. And it sounds like you're planning on building another cool one.

Good luck!

MartinGough · 01-27-07, 07:28 PM

Things so far. I am getting on well with the winter work on my current car. I have had the heads off and all looked well, so a good clean up and all put back together. Replacing all the origional bushes on the suspension with poly and giving all the underneath a good clean up. Steering rack overhauled and new docking radiator fitted. About anoter weeks work should have her back on four wheels.
The new chassis should be at Franks in a week or two and then up to Manchester so I can get my grubby mits on it.

Malcolm · 01-28-07, 02:38 PM

Martin, what was wrong with Mick's suspension? From what I have seen it was quite good. Maybe that is too strong wording, so what made you choose to change the suspenion away from Mick's standard setup?

MartinGough · 01-30-07, 07:18 AM

Well a few days should see my current car back on the road. Quite a list of jobs got done including new steering rack, new radiator, top end overhaul, tidy up front panelwork, new suspension arms on the front and poly bush all the suspension among other things. Thanks to Frank for his technical help and patience. Should have the new Southern GT chassis in a couple of weeks.

Bud · 01-30-07, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malcolm

Martin, what was wrong with Mick's suspension?

Mick has spent the best part of a year on and off getting his suspension geometry correct, so why change it for something else?
I have even helped Mick make and set up some jigs for testing the suspension and if he is not happy with the end result then the whole lot will come off and he would start from scratch, so you have to hand it to him for his perseverance and determination.

MartinGough · 01-30-07, 05:35 PM

Your the second person to intimate I chose Frank`s suspension over Micks which I take exception too and is simply not the case (as outlined in my origional post) I started this post to describe the build and share it with others on the forum and have made many personal choices thus far. I have total faith in both Mick`s and Frank`s engineering skills backed up by purchasing their products. Its all down to personal choice at the end of the day. My money. My choice.

Malcolm · 01-31-07, 05:29 AM

Apologies Martin no offence was meant. Definately your money your choice. It is part of the fun of building your own car. It was the reasons behind your choice that were of interest, I did not say you made a good or bad choice. It would be quite normal for a reader of the forum to expect a builder of a Southern GT to go with Southern GT suspension. You have chosen not to, so this creates some extra interest in your build. I have other friends building Southern GT's and we were interested, thats all. Just trying for a dsicussion.

Wishing you well with your build, and I look forward to seeing it progress on the Forum.

Ian K · 01-31-07, 05:21 PM

Malc and Martin,

I believe there is some confusion and misunderstanding going on.

From what I can tell, Martin was going to upgrade his GTD's suspension with
Frank's, but decided it was more feasible to just get a Southern GT rather than
a) upgrade the GTD with Frank's suspension or b) rechassis the GTD with a
Southern GT chassis.

It appears Martin is upgrading the GTD suspension with Frank's anyway.

At least that is my understanding.

Ian

Malcolm · 02-01-07, 05:41 AM

There may well be some confusion then as I read the posts in a way that meant the GTD stays as a GTD and the Southern GT would get other suspension before Martin built the rest of it. If I am wrong in that understanding then apologies again for being daft in my reading! Whatever I think this thread has enough deviation and Martin will want it back as his build thread so I am stopping posting here.

MartinGough · 02-01-07, 02:15 PM

Sorry if the origional post was a little misleading. Just to clarify:

Plan 1. Take my GTD to Frank`s and have some mods carried out including pedal box, steering wheel (clip off type) rod gear change plus a load of other bits and bobs some safety related that Frank found during his initial check over. At this point I asked Frank about fitting his suspension setup to the car and an AP brake setup. As the car was now getting on a bit I thought it a little silly to do all the work and spend a considerable amount of money on a chassis which although sound was getting on in its years. It made more sense to re-chassis the car.

Plan 2. Re-chassis the car with a Southern GT chassis using Frank`s suspension which I origionally wanted. This would allow me to save some money buy utilising bits from the GTD and save some time. Plan 2 didn`t last long as I thought it would be a shame to break up what is a good basic GTD.

Plan 3. Build a complete new car. Again using Mick`s Southern GT chassis but retaining the suspension from Frank which I wanted origionally on my GTD.

At present I am working on my GTD sorting out some issues and getting it back on the road hopefully next week. I have stuck with origional GTD suspension on the GTD as it had been previously rose jointed at the front but the geometry was all wrong as arms had been used from another manufacturer and were not quite right. The chassis from Micks is very nearly ready and will be off to Franks hopefully next week.
I hope this clears up any confusion arising from my origional post.

Regards Martin

Bud · 02-02-07, 04:23 PM

Ok Martin
Your money, your choice
Good luck with the build and keep us all posted on the progress.

Bud

MartinGough · 02-02-07, 05:38 PM

Cheers Bud will do. The chassis is ready now and should be over at Frank`s next week. In the mean time I am finishing of rebuilding the GTD. Should be finished tomorrow all being well. Spent all day till 10pm working on the front end. Here are some pictures.

MartinGough · 02-07-07, 01:10 PM

Well I finally finished and have the car back on the road. It`s good to drive it again. Feels completely different now the front is working correctly and the brakes are working properly. Thanks to Frank for explaining how to bleed the system properly. Will post a few pictures soon.

Regards Martin.

MartinGough · 02-11-07, 01:03 PM

Had a quick blast round today.

MartinGough · 02-14-07, 06:08 PM

Had a real busy day today. Along with Chris Melia and John Wisher we visited Quaiffe to confirm final details so that work can begin on the new transaxle outlined in the ZFQ thread. This also gave me the opportunity to get my first look at the suspension parts from John Wisher to go on my new build. Wonderful is all I can say. Frank gets the chassis tomorrow from Mick Sollis so work can now start. Should have the chassis at home in a few weeks time.

MartinGough · 02-15-07, 06:03 PM

Good news. Today Frank received the chassis from Mick and as you can see quickly got to work on the slightly controversial suspension package! The pictures clearly show its great weight saving properties along with cost savings in the tyre and shock absorber department. Not quite sure about its handling properties but parking should not be an issue.

Regards Martin.