CLEAR PROP....CONTACT!

Today is E day. Is this thing going to run or what?

Checklist is pretty simple really. The fuel system is done, there's go-go juice in the tank, it has pressurised on the pump, and nothing is leaking.

The relevant buttons make the ignition work, and the starter operate. Coil is powered, and all the right wires go to all the right places.

The coolant is in. Oil is all there, the cooler is fitted, there is nothing obvious that suggests we'll dump it all over the floor.

Engine at TDC, the gutless dizzy is in the right spot. Crank sensor is connected, ECU is connected, in theory this now fires.

Nervous looking at one another. Screw it. Drop in the seat, left hand flicks up the aircraft-style cover, flip the ignition switch. Both fuel pumps chatter to life, the Facet pump solid-mounted to the car thumps and rattles like a jackhammer hitting steel plate.

Thumb the starter button. The engine turns once, and the garage erupts with the sound of an AJ16 on open pipes, instant thunder. Chief engineer doubles over with the laughter of the hysterical, the words from three beaming faces drowned by the roar of noise a blip of loud pedal provokes. Just what the nieghbours like to hear on a sleepy Sunday morning.

It was so much fun we turned it off and did it again....

Well, that rather changes things, the bloody car works. Better make it corner now. And stop, and all that sort of thing. The cage has climbed back in and welded itself to the car, which means we can bolt things on that are meant to stay. Many of the parts that have gone inside so far have been loosely fitted, and time is lost actually now fitting them. But better this way than find that they not fit.

The job is now one of assembly. All the pieces are here, and most of them fit, they merely need to be fitted. This is the part of the job when you find that you're missing a few parts, you might have 50 rivnuts, but you need 56, there are only 18 M4 bolts in the box and you need 20, it's that sort of time.

Clearly she might be a bit loud without an exhaust on, so we’ll need to fit one. The car’s signature piece won’t be ready for quite some time, but we don’t need it to test at Brands Hatch. A test is just that, it’s to find the problems. There are always problems.

Helen got an exhaust upgrade last year, so her old system is lying about. It goes on remarkably easily, but then it should do, it’s for a Jaguar XJS, and this is one.

Springs jump into the front, old front springs that turned out to be too soft for the ever-heavier class F car (thanks JEC!) are fine for this lighter machine, and correctly spacered to get that high ride height we know works so well.

Rear springs are a special order pair run alongside two we have in stock, fitted to the best 4 of the 8 Gaz that fell off the two Comer cars – not perfect, but cheap. Ironically three of the four came off the rolled car, the one he’d been running only had one rear shock we felt we dared use again! That said, Bear has proven that he’s actually faster with ruined rear dampers, so figure that one out!

A sense of approaching deadline grips us, that tiny voice that says despite three months to play you need an extra day. Nobody has even mentioned windows yet, and it does need some. Sheets of polycarbonate have arrived, we found a cheap supplier, but actually making the windows is going to take some time. We tackle the rear window early, they are a right old shape, and merely tracing a glass one doesn’t work, because we don’t use the rubber, you have to make it oversize, and the corners change shape on you. The smell of hot polycarbonate is a tough one to get out of your nose, and your hands end up covered in fine white dust, which transfers beautifully to a sweaty face as you remove the breathing mask.

Officer David is essentially living here, his four day final stint brings the car right into range, but it’s the stupid things that are going to defeat us, you spend half an hour looking for just one more M6 bolt, but we’re out of stock, or the rivets have run dry, the fittings for the rivnut gun go walkabout, even the calm disposition of a Kutukan can be tested, the chuck key for the drill is the sort of thing that can lead to a fist fight.

The seat is finally installed, belts to go with it. Happily we appear to have got the mounting lugs in exactly the right spot. Unusually for us the seat is side mounted, but we only have one of them, so fabricate the other from 3mm steel, not at all difficult to do, and the thick end of forty quid saved. I’ll pit the strength of that mount against the alloy items offered for sale any day of the week.

The interior is finally assembled, tunnel top, pull cables laid and actually fastened to something, we even allow her a gearknob.

The body panels so loosely hung on the car are now finally attached, but this is now the night before we depart for Brands, and panel gaps are a bitch. Hang the doors to match the shell, then hang the wings to match the doors, the bumper to fit the wings, the bonnet to fit the hole that’s left for it. Not made easier by the reclaimed offside wing, which has a shape that is a best guess rather than Jaguar intent and insists on making the door’s life difficult.

Vanessa gains 4 BMW wheels, shod with old T1R tyres. It’s not our current race rubber, it’s the road tyre we all ran on until the end of 2009, these are the tyres that belong a class D machine, 225/50/16s, and incidentally a set that ran for the entire 2009 season. In short, used. The car is lowered to the ground in the early evening, and she sits well. You can just tell by how they sit whether they are right, and she has the right attitude straight away, no need to tweak ride height..

It is as the sun sets that it becomes apparent that this car is not going to be done in time to set off tonight. We are only taking two cars, but this one must be loaded first. The decision to depart for Brands Hatch in the morning shifts the deadline to 5am. We pack the Bear off to bed, the truck driver cannot be fatigued. The remaining Kutukan pulls an all-nighter, something we’ve never done before.

It is fortunate that the neighbours are some distance away, because the angle grinders have all broken but the big one, and there are still 4 windows to make. The noise that makes in the crystalline silence of 2am is muted by the walls, and distance, and the merciful fact that polycarbonate makes little sound when sliced.

Careful filing, drilling, and black spray paint finish off the windows, a pop rivet orgy hangs them on the car. In final form these will be hung with rivnuts and little bolts, but this will get the car on circuit, we must have windows or a window net, and in our little heads is the knowledge that the girl the car is named after is likely to be about this weekend, the car really ought to look finished!

As the sun crawls back above the trees an exhausted Kutukan proclaims the car ready to go. Some parts will have to he done when we get there, things like the bonnet pins etc, but the parts that definitely have to be done here are now done.

The checklist says that we have steering, suspension, brakes, engine, exhaust, tyres, panels, windows, cage, seat, belts, fuel system and electrics all done. She runs, steers and stops. Some of the finer finishing details can wait, but this car is ready to drive.

It is 5am on test day. A Bear is shaken awake, and the car is loaded into the truck. Assembly complete.

PART 5 COMING SOON - TESTING TIMES!

PART 5 COMING SOON – TESTING.