MARCH 2005 - Research

13th
Visited Stafford Kit Car show to see some of these kits in the flesh, so to speak. I was particularly impressed by the MNR Vortx and the Raw Striker as both are cars with more of a focus on track use, and very little in the way of extraneous road trim! who needs carpeted interior and a plush dashboard? it'll only slow you down. :)

20th
Visited MNR's workshops, an hour and half's drive from my house. quite a jolly drive into the yorkshire dales. Half tedious motorway driving, and half fun B-road hooning in the lovely Puma. Had a good chat with Marc and Chris about specifications and recommendations. Decided Yamaha R1 power (motorbike) is the way to go. in such a lightweight car it should go like the proverbial clappers.

30th
Sold the Toyota Supra to make space in the garage for the build. A sad day, as she never let me down and was pretty rapid, but was ultimately a wee bit on the lardy side for any harcore Trackday ragging (which was my original intent). Only some serious work with a saw and grinder would have been enough of a diet, and I couldnt bring myself to do it. Fast in a straight line is good, but I'd already decided the corners are more fun, so it was time to see the old gal off.

Miscellanous waffle.
One of the biggest decisions ive been pondering about getting the kit, is a real girly decision..... what colour!
Apparently the MNR chaps said 99% of their kits sold have been either black or yellow. Yellow looks good, but theres loads of yellow 7's about. Black is nice for a bit more stealth or subtlety. but, you could hardly call a '7 with a bike engine roaring at full chat either stealthy or subtle. The more subdued colours I think are best suited to v8 cruisers. A track car should look pretty in-your-face so I narrowed it down to Yellow, Orange, or Kawisaki bright green. The yellow as mentioned before seemed a bit overused and I wanted to be different, and MNR's fibreglass doesnt come in lurid green so it'd have to be sprayed. That left orange. I am rather fond of orange Caterhams, so using a scan of Andy D's yellow fireblade VortX, I photoshopped a preview of what it'd look like with the GRP 'Tangerine' colour. here it is:

Andy D's Vortx, recoloured in orange to see what mine will look like

So that should pretty much be what the finished car should look like. neat!