Over ten years in the making and the P35 is finished.
This car's story started with a chance discovery at a storage facility at Heathrow in 2011. Phil was enquiring about an entirely different car which shared the same facility. Whilst inspecting the other car, this one was spotted in the corner and upon further investigation it became clear what he'd stumbled across. Having been rebuilding Nissan GTP cars for a number of years, this really was a remarkable discovery.
After some negotiation with the owner, a deal was struck and the rolling chassis along with some boxes of other parts were secured and shipped back to the workshop.
Initial inspection of the consignment revealed that the main monocoque chassis appeared to be complete and undamaged. The car was able to roll about because there was an empty gearbox casing and supporting tubular structure which the rear suspension was mounted to.
Although there were quite a lot of parts which came with the car, it was obvious that there were three main important elements missing. Front bodywork, rear bodywork and engine. Yes, engine.
Whilst feelers were going out to source an engine for the car, KS Composites started the process of recreating the front and rear bodywork using reference images of chassis 1 which are online, plus the scanning of a diecast model of the car too.
As the many revisions of the bodywork were being processed, there was an opportunity to start painting the existing bodywork, that being the cockpit, doors and side panels.
Attention turned to some of the other systems in the car. Luckily there was already a fuel 'bag tank' in the car which was removed and reverse engineered to make a replacement.
After finalising the front end bodywork, it was painted and assembled with lights and plastic covers. Along with some screen and body graphics, it was starting to come together.
Over time the transmission slowly came together using the NPTi cast gearbox casing which was machined but had no internals. The box was a 'drop gear' 1st drive box because the crank of the engine was so low in the car. There was a lay shaft and crown wheel amongst the parts but little else. Using some DGB Hewland gears, a working transmission was assembled.
Eventually a suitable V12 engine was sourced and now the real work started, mating it to the awaiting transmission in the car.
Amazingly there was a flywheel amongst the parts that came with the car. A multi-plate dry clutch with the starter ring gear attached to the front, instead of behind. After some careful calculations it was clear that a different ring gear plate would be needed for this application so one was designed and manufactured.
After much engineering of engine mounts and adapters the engine was finally in the car.
Whilst other issues were being figured out, the car went for the exhaust fabrication. The car came with carbon fibre floor featuring a blown diffuser, so there were pre determined exits for the exhausts to meet. The headers were configured as 2 x 3 into one on each side exiting the floor in four places.
With engine position finalised, the snorkel and rear body can be finished.
After some time consuming issues with reverse gears, starter motor engagement and ECU mapping, the car finally got running on the dyno.
