Reverse air scoop theory

According to Iain Ayre, KCB contributor, "There's no purpose for a hood scoop in an injected car. It just creates drag, slows you down and jams more static air into the hot engine bay. My Ayrspeed EcoCobra's reverse scoop uses the low pressure area in front of the windshield to suck hot air out of the engine bay, important for this car that has a 225bhp turbocharged Miata engine. It also has 320bhp per ton, about twice that of an ordinary Cobra replica with a 302 Ford V8. I'm looking forward to finishing it."

Rolls build-up continues

Our resident expat-Brit Canadian correspondent, Iain Ayre, files the following report on his ongoing Rolls Royce project...

"The Rolls fender is now at the rough disposable mold stage, with a thin impression taken off the original fender. Next step is to make a thick resin and mat positive, that will be the final buck from which the proper molds will be taken. Then I can make the four fenders for the car."

April issue sneak peek

Here's a preview look at the April issue that will be on sale about February 27 and in subscriber's hands in the middle of Feb. It's of course loaded with some cool cars, tech info, lots of news and some surprises. Be patient, you'll be able to have it in your hands shortly.

The Rolls rolls on

Our slightly off-balance Brit expat contributor, Iain Ayre, is never satisfied with ordinary. Instead of trying to prototype and manufacture a Cobra replica based on Mazda Miata rolling gear, he was unable to resist buying a 1950 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith in kit form: it's been partly converted from a plump Park Ward body to an Art Deco-style two-seater drophead, with the engine moved back in the chassis already. All he has to do is design and make a body for it. The goal is to take it to Pebble Beach at some point, where it will upset the people who deserve to be upset and delight the people who deserve to be delighted.
“I’m still considering the options. The body could be a Big Midge (google kit car Midge UK) – 3/4” plywood skinned in thin aluminium. Or it could be a Superleggera structure like an older Aston Martin, a light steel frame supporting lightweight aluminium body panels. Or, as the mudguards will be GRP anyway, I can also make the whole thing a curvy teardrop with multiple curves created freehand out of plaster and wood, then skin it in GRP and matting to make a one-off body.
“The mudguard maquette was constructed from foam and a thin skin ages ago, and is now in the process of being finished off. The structure is too delicate and too badly damaged ever to be prepped properly for moulding, so I’m getting it roughly into the right shape with plaster and some body filler. Then I’ll take a set of rough clamshell moulds, pop out a rough positive shape in thick GRP, and then I can prep the rough positive to gloss paint, and finally wax them eight times and make proper moulds to construct the four mudguards for the Rolls. They’ll be available if anybody fancies a set, but they are bloody enormous: they might look good on a Beauford.”
Stay tuned.

Feb 2009 issue sneak peek

Here's the first look at our Jan/Feb 2009 issue. As you can see it includes a big Cobra Guide special section. We had planned to publish Cobra Guide 2009 as a stand-alone magazine again this year, but due to the economy we opted to help our clients save some marketing money by including most of the editorial in this special section. If you're not a Cobra fan, fear not, as we've got plenty of non-snake stories to keep you busy. Even some of the Cobra section material should be interesting to car buffs of almost any stripe. Hope you enjoy!

Kit Car magazine shut down

We've heard from numerous sources that Source Interlink, publisher of lots of specialty automotive magazines, has shut down Kit Car in what appears to be company-wide cost cutting measures aimed at underperforming titles in light of the poor economy. Both, Steve Temple and myself, served as editor of that publication under the Petersen Publishing banner and are saddened to see such a venerable magazine fall by the wayside. It is unclear at this point what will happen to subscriber's remaining issues, but typical in such cases, Source Interlink will doubtless offer other magazines in their portfolio to fulfil subscriber terms.

0-60mph 2.6 seconds

Our expat Brit contributor, Iain Ayre, is recently back from the UK where he was able to experience this Suzuki Hayabusa-powered fiberglass Mini that zooms to 60 mph in less than 3 seconds. His report on this supercar killer will appear in full in the February issue on sale Jan 2, 2009 and available shortly before that for subscribers. I'm sure I won't be the only one to desire one of these go-karts. In fact, I saw a couple at the Stoneleigh show some years ago and haven't been able to erase them from my mind (or my short list) since. Stay tuned.