Hi all,
Being the owner of the Tornado that didn’t make back from Le-Mans under its own steam, this failure can’t be attributed to Tornado, as it was a transmission issue, which was not supplied by them.
However as the builder of the said vehicle I can add a few comments:
Panelling up a spaceframe chassis doesn’t take long, especially if the factory supplied pre-cut panels are used. The price delta for the monocoques would be difficult to justify on a build time especially if you’re on a tight budget. I’d happily panel you a car for the £8k price difference!
Confirm with Tornado that the front wishbones are now made from seamless tubing, as early ones are know to fail. Don’t accept the argument that is only needed on the rose-joint track suspension option. These have been know to fail on cars that have been no where near a track
I built my own wiring harness from scratch, but I would be concerned about using the current supplied Tornado harness after seeing there are no relays used – it’s not good design practice to have the switches seeing full current loads
The quality of the fibreglass bodywork leaves a lot to be desired, probably acceptable on an old race car, but not for ‘40 which will get a great deal of attention when finished. It look a lot of effort to get the shut gaps right and now my ‘40 body has been through a few heat cycles, I now have witness marks showing where the light boxes and wheel arches are bonded it and ripples along surfaces that were perfect previously. This nothing to do with the way it was painted; it is the quality of the raw materials used and the thickness of the panels. It’s not just my car, I’ve talked to other Tornado owners and it’s a common gripe. It also doesn’t have the steel frames in doors and roof spyder as claimed on the website.
Now I will be first to admit that my ’40 was manufactured by Tornado in 2000, so I hope by now that these issues have been addressed. But as other have said, talk to other owners to get a balanced opinion.
Hope this helps your quest.
Regards,
Andy
