The big reveal

Craig and the team at Harper Sports Cars had been very busy while I was off organising the pretty stuff. Getting the main parts of the car (engine, chassis, suspension etc) sorted does not actually take all that long, it's the small things that take the time. There are literally hundreds of small, but critical jobs that are fiddly and time consuming. Fitting the pedal cluster, routing the brake pipes, making up the radiator mounts and piping, electrics, fitting the fuel pumps and surge tank etc etc. This is where the hours go.

ECU, idle control and fuses. All covered by the central console

Surge tank to make sure we don't run out of go in a corner

Fuel pumps and filter. One high pressure to feed the engine and one low to keep the surge tank full

The guys had been concentrating on these jobs over the last couple of weeks and the car was taking shape nicely. You would recall that the entire car has to be built up, then stripped to allow the chassis to be treated, and then rebuilt. At this point the car was pretty much built up for the first pass. The body was attached and the final exhaust flanges welded on.

The reveal scheduled by the ever enthusiastic Craig was only two weeks away at this point. The car now had to be totally stripped, the chassis painted and then totally rebuilt. In the meantime the body work would be sent off to be wrapped in a rather fetching matt black vinyl.

Craig was going to be a busy fellow!

After everything was removed, the first order of business was to finish up the chassis. All the spot welding that had been done during the built up was now completed and the chassis was painted.

Then the hard worked started. All the parts were stacked up in little piles around the workshop. All these little piles had to go back onto the car.

Fuel tank housing now riveted in

Front suspension, floor panels and fuel tank fitted

Rear suspension and steering column fitted

Finally standing on its own feet again.

Once the car was back on it's wheels it was time to fit the engine again. The chassis design was such that the engine and gearbox would be easy to remove. The rear brace is removed, the chassis lifted up and the engine is slid in from behind. Easy as that.

All lined up

Snug back in its home

Next up was the electrics. There are not that many electrical components on the car, the usual lights, engine sensors and the engine management mostly. However, this handful of items produce a surprising amount of wires.

Centre console with ECU, fuses, buttons and relays

The wiring to the front of the car

While all this was on the go the body work had been collected, wrapped and returned. Fitting the body would be the last thing done. But before all that could happen a test drive was required.

Freshly wrapped body parts arrive

The reveal was organised, there was to be champagne and muffins. Plenty of folks had RSVP'ed so the pressure was really on the Friday evening before the Saturday deadline. I had taken the day off to help out with the last few bits. Around 8pm that evening we bled the brakes and clutch for the final time and wheeled the unclad chassis out of the workshop for a test drive.

We only drove up and down the street outside the factory but were able to discover two things. Firstly, the clutch was leaking, but secondly, and far more importantly, we could spin the wheels in the first three gears. Now that was more like it!

The guys would be in early the next morning to fit the body work and then the big reveal would take place.

I arrived good and early the next morning to be greeted by this ....

It was the first time anyone had seen everything all together at the same time. It had turned out rather splendidly we all thought.

The reveal went off well with lots of interested in the car and lots of discussing how things were done etc.

Of course we had to start the engine a number of times too so that folks could hear the awesome sound track. In fact we started it so often that it fouled the plugs (no mapping had been done yet) and refused to start again near the end of the morning.

So, after all was said and done, Craig had made his self imposed deadline. The car had gone from concept to drivable in 10 weeks, a truly phenomenal feat considering what was involved. Christmas was around the corner and everything was shutting down for the holidays. I organised to have the car brought home so that I could finish off some of the minor cosmetic items. Early January was going to be roadworthy and then a proper road test.