While I was waiting for my body shell, I had time to work out what I wanted to achieve and how I was going to do that.
Replicas are by definition frauds, and a lot of so called kit cars fall into this category also.
If a Jaguar based XKSS is a fraud, how fraudulent must a Triumph Spitfire based one
Be?? An incredibly naughty fraud I think!
Fraud it may be, but to be half believable, it must be a damned good one, so attention to detail becomes very important.
An XKSS is an iconic car, and a replica must have all of the salient features that make the car unique. After I finished the wheels to as good a standard as I could on my limited budget, I decide to tackle the very obvious side exhaust.
On the original car, the exhaust is on the left because the XK engine has the manifold that side. Unfortunately the Spitfire has the exhaust manifold on the right, which meant having to get the gasses under the car floor and out to the left side.
Because the finished car will be as low as I can get it, I could not use a large bore pipe
To go under the floor, for obvious reasons, then it occurred to me that I could , if I squashed it almost flat.
I worked out the surface area of the original pipe, squashed a much larger one, which when “flat” would give me a little more area than the original pipe and the problem was solved. All I had to do now was make it.
The whole thing including the silencer box was to be made of stainless steel.
I have tried to show the results in the pictures to follow, its not finished yet, but most of the hard work and problems have been sorted out.
The system is made from discarded stainless steel bits and bobs from my local scrapyard at peanut prices. The most expensive buy was the argon gas needed to weld it all up.
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