As this was a bit of a wakeup call to the potential dangers of racing, I had decided to fit a half roll cage with side intrusion bars. Problem is, being 182 cm tall it is very difficult to get the regulation 50 mm helmet clearance to the top of the roll bar. My solution was to cut out the front part of the factory targa bar back to the channel that holds the back window for the roll bar to sit in, and raised 33 mm above the targa bar. I also made a drop floor, and lowered the floor about 25 mm under the drivers seat. This would give me just over 50 mm helmet clearance.
Next was to trailer the car to the cage specialist to have the custom roll cage built and welded in. A week later and it was back home ready to paint the roll cage. Then I discovered that the welding in of the cage had caused the door gaps to close up quite a bit, to the extent that one door would not fit properly. Shrinkage or distortion due to welding can often cause problems, but the welder was confident it wouldn’t be an issue. The joys of an open topped sports car. I decided if I cut the doors bars out it hopefully would spring back to the door openings that I had before. So out with the angle grinder and attacked my brand new cage. It worked, the doors will now fit much better. I still have door bars, I coverted them to removable bars that are bolted in.
Now to add some colour the the rear end. Luckily I still had some paint left over from when I built the car up 10 years earlier, so no trouble matching colours. The rear quarter panels required a bit of filler here and there, but before long it was starting to look much like it did before the bingle.
Time to start putting all the suspension, brakes, engine, gearbox, cooling hoses, electrical, tail lights etc back in.
The crash had demolished my cold air box, filter and custom air intake scoop in the RH quarter panel, So a new system was made to fit the twin 40 DCOE carbs and connected this time to the modified factory air scoop in front of the LH rear wheel, including a new K & N Apollo filter kit.
Luckily my custom alloy replica of a standard series 1 engine cover escaped any real damage, but I had to do some repairs to the fibreglass boot lid and attached spoiler. Also the light weight fibreglass roof needed a small mod to clear the roll bar. Then more painting of course.
I decided it would be best to upgrade my other safety gear with a HANS device, which required a new helmet and 6 point safety harness, so bought a new Sparco race seat to go with it all.
All back together and a wheel alignment and corner weight balance with a couple of days to spare before heading off to a sprint event at The Bend, that I had entered about 6 weeks earlier. Nothing like having a deadline to hurry things along.
It was really good to get out on the track again, no chance for a test run so just took it easy for the first few laps to get my eye in and check everthing out. Nothing broke or fell off, so that is always a good sign. My fastest lap was 4 tenths slower than my previous best, but seeing as how it is now about 30 kg heavier than before, I am happy enough with that for now.