scratch built Mazzer roadster

Glad you like it!

 

Busy applying fiberglass cloth and resin to the diffuser today. Not a good environment for a camera. Will take pictures later. So far so good.

For those who prefer looking at mechanical bits, I should be back on the engine soon. It won't be anything real spectacular. Just a valve job, major tune-up, new seals and gaskets, cosmetics, etc. Later I have plans for the spare Maserati 4.9 V8 to make some real power and then swap engines. The stock engine will have to do for now. I want to get this car on the road before I run out of motivation.

 

Yeah, I'll probably do that. What you're planning is certainly very interesting. If you didn't already, you should start a thread on your engine project. I'm sure there would be plenty of interest (Actually I think I heard of your project a few years ago - aren't you friends with S. Swain?). If some of those parts become available I would certainly be interested. Your new crankshaft wouldn't be a quick swap however. Both of my engines came from QPs (with automatic transmissions) which are only compatible with Mopar flywheels and bell housings.

We use Ferrea stainless valves and related parts in our engines. Ferrea make a good product.

The only performance upgrade I made so far for this engine was to fabricate a set of true equal length exhaust headers with primary pipes in the 30 inch plus range (I don't remember the exact length). I certainly want to flow the heads and I have a virtually new 2 liter Lysholm supercharger on the shelf that was too big for my 3 liter 308 engine but should be perfect for this 5 liter QP V8.

With the supercharger I will of course be installing EFI and may go back to an Electromotive ECU but I've also thought of adapting a used Ford or GM V8 ECU and saving some money.

 

Here are two photos of the tail section on a work stand we're building, similar to the stand for the nose section, so we can planish, file, and sand the aluminum skin smooth on a sturdy base with good access to the underside. The stand is made so the tail can be stood on end or raise it up easily for good access and saving the knees. It will also allow all the messy jobs like surface finishing, priming, painting, wet sanding, etc to be done away from the rest of the car. I hate having to clean up all the sludge and over-spray that inevitably gets through the masking somewhere.
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Thank you but I'm just wondering, is that getting a little better or a little worse?

 

Hi George,

As long as it's not literally tearing up the hills right? I'd like to keep the shiny side up for at least a little while.

 

Don't mess with my wheels man! Those are custom made HREs and they cost me a fortune!

I didn't want to build a replica. I wanted to honor the styling of the 450S to have the look, sort of, but with more modern underpinnings. The drive-train components from a 1980 QP are not exactly modern anymore but what the fudge. Anyway the wheel centers have a multi-spoke design which, in my mind, are a modern interpretation of the wire wheel. The HREs are lighter and stronger than Borranis and mount modern tires.

 

As I mentioned in my first reply to you, I do plan to install electronic fuel injection (and ignition) along with the supercharger. I already supercharged my formerly carbureror equiped 308 with a Lysholm unit and it has EFI controled by an Electromotive ECU. I would do something similar with this car.

One would think that flow doesn't matter with forced induction but it does. It's been proven in Dyno tests.

The main change to make with the camshafts is to dial out valve over-lap which wastes fuel and compressed air. With a normally aspirated engine , leaving the exhaust valve open for a moment, after the intake opens, promotes exhaust evacuation and intake flow, taking advantage of gas momentum, but with supercharging none of that really applies.

Yeah, the lack of a vibration damper is an interesting problem I haven't put much thought into yet beyond the fact that the crankshaft doesn't protrude through the front of the engine. The crank pulley is mounted on a an extension, coupled by splines which have play. That doesn't seem to be the ideal place to mount a damper.

I'm interested in learning about "Dr. Doll's block stiffener". What can you tell me about it? Is there a web address I can look up? Do you have pictures?

 

Thanks for the interest. Unfortunately my photo software has completely collapsed and I can't unload or send photos in an organized manner. We tried fixing the problem without success, gave up and bought a new computer. I hope to have the photo software back up and working soon.

In the mean time, the nose is back on the car, it's a good place to store it, and I installed both pressure adjustable gas struts after bleeding them to about 30 pounds mechnical pressure on a scale.

We have the tail section on a stand we finished making and are smoothing the metal out with planishing, filing and sanding to get it ready for a skim coat of filler to smooth out the minor imperfections.

The doors are off the car and and I'm adding some brackets for attaching some minimal upholstery.

I'm not making as much progress as I'd like because I have a lot of other things going on but progress IS being made. I'll have to photos to show soon.

 

Here are some photos of the left rear quarter after planishing, filing and sanding the aluminum skin. The tape was applied around the louvers as an aid for trimming them evenly.
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Thank you.

 

Here are some photos taken today. We took a break from banging and filing aluminum and did some fiberglass work. We laid fiberglass cloth on the underside of the front fenders to protect the relatively soft aluminum skin from rocks thrown by the tires. We also glassed the diffuser and prepped the inner fender panels for fiberglass to protect them. It ads a little weight but who wants to look at a bunch of pock marks on the fenders and it stiffens them up too.
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