Interior door handles?

Mike Drew · 08-25-07, 02:00 PM

Has anybody figured out how to incorporate original-style interior door handles to the Superformance GT40? I find it curious that Superformance did SUCH an excellent job replicating the car, and then either forgot, or chose not to fit the interior door handles? I have had the privilege of sitting in exactly one Superformance car, and I'd be sitting there still if there hadn't been somebody on the outside, because the cheesy pull-cable had broken almost immediately, so the door couldn't be opened from the inside!

Here is a photo of the original interior latch as fitted to P/1080:

From both a performance and aesthetic perspective, the proper interior door latches will be important to me. I'm still at least a couple of years away from being able to buy my Superformance GT40, but I'm trying to get the details sorted in my head now, and this is one of them. As virtually every other manufacturer includes these as standard, would it be possible (or even easy) to use CAV, Toronado etc. handles to actuate the Superformance latch? Or would the entire latching system need to be replaced?

Rich E. · 08-25-07, 02:39 PM

I may be getting it confused but there was a superformance MK1 at the Monterey Historics last weekend. IIRC it had those handles but then again I can't remember if I saw them on one of the originals.

BTW, has anybody figured out how you can lock the car from the outside ie, taking the car on trips and locking it at night.

rich.

Dutton · 08-25-07, 03:01 PM

Mike,
I'd bet if you were to ask 5 different engineers for their best design for an interior door latch, you'd probably get 4 different answers! I have to agree with you though about the cable though I'd bet they learned something from the failure and have to imagine they'll come back with something more robust.

Rich,
Many of the 40 road cars were equipped with exterior door looks. If memory serves, those locks were from a Rover. Sadly, not as easy to find these days as spark plugs down at the local NAPA store. My personal preference for security would be a mismannered pit bull chained to the front wheel on the drivers side, but taking the pup with you on an overnight drive could present a problem.

Best,

T.

Scott Calabro · 08-25-07, 05:58 PM

.

Mike and Rich,

Check out P/N's 40-84 & 40-85 on Tornado's website.

Complete TS40's come standard equipped with all of the above.

We will sell just parts too.

Cheers,
Scott

Mike Drew · 08-26-07, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bigblockquad

I may be getting it confused but there was a superformance MK1 at the Monterey Historics last weekend. IIRC it had those handles but then again I can't remember if I saw them on one of the originals.

Nope, I made a point of looking to see if they had corrected the problem, and they haven't.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bigblockquad

BTW, has anybody figured out how you can lock the car from the outside ie, taking the car on trips and locking it at night.

Well, they have seen fit to fit a removable steering wheel hub, which, although unsightly, does allow the owner to remove the steering wheel and bring it with him when the car is parked. This is more than enough to discourage the casual thief.

Rich E. · 08-27-07, 04:09 AM

I agree that the lack of a steering wheel will hopefully discourage most car thieves, though I'm more concerned about someone vandalizing the interior or taking a free gift ie, one of the seats..........

Rich.

BenL · 08-27-07, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Drew

Has anybody figured out how to incorporate original-style interior door handles to the Superformance GT40? I find it curious that Superformance did SUCH an excellent job replicating the car, and then either forgot, or chose not to fit the interior door handles?

Some of the original cars had pull cables instead of levers on the inside. So perhaps the car they chose to emulate had a pull cable. However that doesn't explain why the cable broke.
---Ben

Daryl Adams · 08-27-07, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BenL

Some of the original cars had pull cables instead of levers on the inside. So perhaps the car they chose to emulate had a pull cable. However that doesn't explain why the cable broke.
---Ben

My understanding was that a few people (usually excited passengers) had been yanking on the cable to pull the door shut. It's not surprising that the connector might fail under that kind of mis-use.

Lynn Miner · 08-27-07, 03:03 PM

As I'm sure you all know, no two original GT40's are alike in every respect. The car that SPF patterned their car after had the cable style door release mechanisms. There was a tech bulletin released shortly after the release of the first SPF 40's that said "DON'T USE THE CABLE TO PULL THE DOOR CLOSED" I took that to heart and made the labels and door handles shown below. I was told by Tim Ganskop (a forum member) the he was the one that supplied all the original design drawings to Hi Tech Automotive that they then used to build their version (warts and all). It would have been nice if they had picked the best of all the different design ideas but that is not too practical unless you want to spend a decade doing the research and surveys to see what customers think is "best". I find that the cables work just fine as long as you don't yank on them. It takes a very light touch to actually operate the door mechanism. There are many areas of these cars that are "delicate". They were designed to last 24 hours and if they never ran again so-be-it. SPF tried to replicate the original race car faithfully and I think they did a pretty good job.....warts and all. There are a great many items that SPF could have improved on (and I personally wish they would have) but they made the decision to keep it as real as possible and they did. A perfect example is the weather seal. The originals leaked like a sieve.......guess what......so do the SPF cars. Don't drive in the rain without a wet suit.

Foowowee · 08-27-07, 03:35 PM

I like the pic of the mechanism in #1080. I wonder if it would be possible to retrofit something like that on the SPF40? Does anybody know where this part might be available?

Mike

Steve Briscoe · 08-28-07, 10:23 AM

For what it's worth, the cable pull matches the Ferrari F40. The cable pull seems to be one of many steps several manufacturers have used to "reduce weight". Having said that, I am concerned about the cable pull when shutting the door so I like Lynn's idea of installing a handle where I want it. On somewhat of a related note, I asked Ian Grunes at Dynamic Motorsports to see if SPF would fabricate a locking outside door handle. It seems a lot of guys want a bit more security inside and outside the cockpit.

Steve