Okrasa Special

[Pandora]

Are they the alloy rimmed steels, Steve? either way, they do look good. BRMs are nice too of course

Al

[steve wright]

Hi Al, no just the standard 356 steel rim unfortunately...

[911hillclimber]

So good to see this major step underway.
I hope we can enjoy a near blow by blow reporting Steve.
Personally love this stuff.
As to old race cars getting developed for good or bad, certainly came agree on that one from personal experience....

[neilbardsley]

Look forward to see it at a track soon

Sent from my X5pro using Tapatalk

[Pandora]

Is it finished yet?


Al

[Barry]

^^^ What that bloke said .

[steve wright]

No it's not finished yet but significant progress has been made...

[steve wright]

A number of us took a trip down to Mouland & Yates to see the fruits of Vic's work over the past 6 weeks. It's fair to say he's been busy. I must admit to a sleepless night the night before, partly due to excitement and partly due to a worry that we had got the design horribly wrong and that in the metal it looks like the ugly child no-one other than a mother can love. Fortunately I think we can safely say we've avoided that pitfall.

Vic was at pains to explain that the panels are only roughly finished and at the moment they're only laid over to give a sense of the overall shape and design, and that it will start to look better once some of the detailing and trimming of the panels begins in earnest.

The first thing to notice is how big the panels are. Rather than make up lots of small pieces and then weld them together, which would make life easier with the English wheel, Vic elected to wrestle the curves and shapes into much bigger panels to minimise the weld lines as he's aware we're not painting the car. The front of the car is just four panels...


The next shot highlights the lovely curve Barry carved into the top wing of the front wheel arch and the gentle upturned sweep along the top of the door to marry the taller, more aggressive haunch we created over the rear wheel arch to give it more aggression.... I joked that we should leave the rear panels like this so we could run a Le Mans Langheck version! What we definitely will be doing is running bolt-on wheel spats front and rear for speed events.


Again the rear of the car will be a very small number of panels to minimise the welding lines. A few things to notice here: firstly the treatment of the leading edge of the bootlid. Because the roof is steel and the bootlid aluminium they can't be welded together obviously. Although we could have one rest on the other as we're having a clamshell rear, the little upturn in the leading edge does two things: it gives depth to the rear end (something it always suffered from - the 'no hips' syndrome) and secondly the exhaust runs through the rear bodywork so we have to provide some cooling air in which will be exited out the rear panel. Also notice the sharpness of the inside edge of the rear wing. Typical cars of the period mostly had a gently curved radius, but a few have a sharper edge providing more aggression which really works.


Here's a better picture of the rear wheel arch and the sharply tapered inside edge...


We had intended to put Porsche RSK inspired oil cooler opening and brake duct apertures in the front, but they now patently don't work with the front of the car 'in the metal', so we've agreed an alternative. More on this next time. Ignore the headlamp and boot lid in paper - Vic (standing next to Ian Clark) had drawn these up to give more reality to the panels and bodywork.


A parting shot showing how small the car is in the flesh (it makes the 356 look positively huge) and the overall proportions.


We'll be going down in six to eight weeks time when Vic has finished the major panels and trimmed the existing ones to fit better. Barry if you want to pop down next time to visit let me know as I'll be going past your door.

Oh, and we'll be taking a scotch brite pad to the panels to get rid of a bit of the shine! Until next time...

[Pandora]

I must admit to a sleepless night the night before, partly due to excitement and partly due to a worry that we had got the design horribly wrong and that in the metal it looks like the ugly child no-one other than a mother can love. Fortunately I think we can safely say we've avoided that pitfall.

I sleep like a log, safe in the knowledge you have nothing to worry about......

Looks good so far, - just keep the natural highlight line through the door and into the rear arch bang on level to keep it looking 'strong'. The 'bootlid' leading edge is looking good.

Al

[911hillclimber]

Another huge move forward.
Just 6 weeks to get that far, brilliant!

[kvinyl]

Fantastic work, great to see this evolving...can't wait for the next set of photos

The famous quote from Mr. Porsche comes to mind every time I browse this thread...

"I looked around and could not find quite the car I dreamed of, so I decided to build it myself"

[steve wright]

[arminius]

the metal work on that is insane, the light lines!!! That inner front wing / bonnet section is also a work of art a hell of a reverse curve to pop the wing across. Not many that can do that!! And the intersection at the rear between the haunches and the deck.

Do you have any other pictures where you can see the tracking of the wheels on the front wing?? can learn a lot by studing the panel bare.

[steve wright]

Hi Arminius, I don't have any other photos unfortunately, but thanks for the kind words - I'll pass them onto Vic. I asked him how long he had been doing this, his response was 'oh I've been bashing metal for almost 45 years.' As you point out, there's quite a level of experience showing through in the bare panels, which is why we're not painting the car... I couldn't bring myself to cover up such beautiful work. When I went to see M&Y one of the key reasons I went with them was their experience: Auto Unions, C-Type Jaguars, pre-war Bentleys, Ferrari 250LM's and Sharknose race cars, etc. etc. Plus they do a lot of one-off work on behalf of major manufacturers. It was an easy choice

[steve wright]

Kvinyl, it's been a love/ hate sometimes creating the Special. Frustrating at times breaking new ground and constantly solving problems, but it's a rare pleasure to be able to build a 'new' old car that isn't a restoration. It's unbelievably exciting to now see it coming to fruition and we're so looking forward to driving and racing it.