NickR

The "trouble" all started at the National Kit Car and Specials show, Stoneleigh in 1988. Let me explain. At that time I was driving company cars, which were boringly reliable as well as just boring! I had become interested in kit car ownership through the dubious purchase in '87 of a Dutton Phaeton SIII, whose chassis had all the torsional integrity of a hospital bed. I was searching for something similar in concept, but with a more "mature" design approach. Having seen the constructional sins the builder of my Dutton had made, I was also determined to build it myself.

Enter Ruth, my loyal girlfriend at the time.

Ruth had a shiny new Vauxhall Nova when I met her, but pretty soon she started driving my company car and the Nova was neglected, decaying, outside.

She was also at that fateful show in '88 and I remember her taking a fancy to the driver of a competition version of a Sylva Leader on the Swindon Sports Cars stand. He took her for a "frightener" around the roads at Stonleigh, but she came back smiling! I then, cashing in on her obvious enthusiasm, proceeded to convince her to sell her Nova to finance the build of such a toy.......(for her sole use you understand:)

So in April '89 an order was placed for the purchase of a kit from Swindon Sports Cars in Wiltshire.

Ruth and I slogged and slogged during '89,'90 and the best part of '91, then finally on 25th September '91 Q311VMF was registered. I include here an incomplete story of the build that Ruth wrote sometime in '92. I must get together with her and try and complete it before we both forget....

The car has been off the road for about 18 months, but just recently the beast is back, and I have run in the Guy Croft built, 180 Bhp Fiat Twin Cam engine. I have been busy working on the Chassis/Brakes etc. 10.5" discs and gorgeous AP Racing aluminium 4pots, replacing the old front calipers.

CP5100 Caliper

All I need now is a Spray Job as the car was never painted being finished in red gel coat, and now very faded!

I rather fancy this yellow Leader 400.

Click here for more detailed facts on my Leader...and here for an atmospheric picture I took while holidaying in Cornwall with my family in early '95.

Bike.

Get a 1/4 mile time on my recently upgraded Honda VFR400 NC24. I have had my bike for just over a year, and like all things "me", it could not be left untouched. So in typical style I have swapped the silencer for one less restrictive and have been playing with the jetting in the Carburettors. The net result should be power up from 59Bhp to about 64Bhp.....it's definitely quicker, so lets see if we can better the 13.2 seconds for a stock bike !!

A VFR400 NC30 Not ridden by me! HiFi.

To make my Speakers Active.

This involves the design and building of two, 2 pole active highpass / lowpass filters, to be built into my Preamp. These in turn drive separate channels on 2 Quad 405-2 Power Amps. Quad 405 Power Amplifier This will allow me to be rid of the crossovers inside the Speakers and therefore greatly reduce the kind of phase distortion inherent in the passive filters common in most Loudspeakers. A further benefit is that the bass driver is directly connected to the Amplifiers output impedance, allowing the Amp to better control or damp the wayward behaviour of the Cone, and hence improve the speakers ability to deliver transients