So now my car is almost done, i thought i'd summarise my journey.
1. I did my homework on current manufacturers at the time and decided I should buy from a U.K manufacturer (As thats where I live). I did as much searching as I could, talked to owners, looked at cars etc. There were only really two U.K manufacturers in the running at the time. Tornado and MDA. Southern GT were only just starting up.
2. I decided to buy an MDA after seeing their series two chassis on display at the Exeter car show and getting a good deal which included rose jointed suspension, pin drive wheels, black powder coated panels, gulf body work and wheels and tyres.
3. Took delivery on time, as promised and started putting it together.
4. I started getting some poorly fitting parts or incomplete part sets sent to me but as I was not a million miles from the MDA factory, i managed to get the bits I needed eventually.
5. MDA went bust. During this time I had an engine on order from Mark Sibley (Not MDA fortunately) but was being given the run around (Very stressful).
6. One year later I recieved my engine (massive relief). It wouldn't be fired up for some time so I was hoping I didn't have a bag of nails in a shiny box.
7. Parts were nearly impossible to get from MDA or Mark Sibley moving forward (As you would expect) so I approached Southern GT who were recommended to me. They took on the challeange and helped me complete the car, get everything working and get IVA.
The engine incidentally was fine although I had to swap out the Motec injection system for an Accel management system (Not cheap) as this had all the correct features to get me through an IVA emmissions test.
This has been a very stressful build, although not since Southern GT have been involved I must say. I now class Mick and Adam as personal friends. Thanks to them I can now relax, get her painted and then enjoy the driving.
If it had been easy, I probably wouldn't appreciate it so much. And believe me, I do.
Martin