Sylva J15 Build Blog: Collecting the kit

The kit was collected from Jeremy's factory unit at Horncastle near Lincoln, a 600 mile round trip in a very large van. Many thanks to Aliblast Sevices for lending the transport and an extra pair of hands for the weekend. Before picking up the kit Jeremy took us to Cadwell Park for a view of a very nice black J15 going around on a test day. See Ref Cadwell Park below for a Youtube video. The car is owned and driven by Paul Collingwood it is fitted with a Honda Integra 2L and it goes.

Tank

Returning home, and once I collected my thoughts, I turned my attention to the tank. The problem with the standard offering is it restricts the legroom on the passenger side for anybody over 4'8" which is most of the population of UK. I have mocked up in cardboard my latest design (MK 2).

The tank design tank can be fabricated at reasonable cost by Bryn Jones from AllyFab, latest quote £207. I am waiting to see if there are any design issues that may affect the IVA. The relevant IVA rules are:

10. The fuel tank must be positioned so that in the event of a leak the fuel could
not accumulate or find a path to the passenger compartment. (if fitted in a
compartment there must be a drain which does not exit onto a heat source)

11. A Fuel Tank must not be located in, or form part of the passenger
compartment, or other compartment integral with it and the bulkhead that
separate the passengers from the fuel tank must be free from holes through
which any escaped fuel could travel.

Grp seat

A GRP seat was obtained MK Engineering the position adjuster was sourced from ebay Additional cleats were welded to the chassis as I don't want any holes in the floor for this. I checked the steering position with the donor steering items from the puma.

Steering

I felt that the steering was not at a comfortable arms length. I did not want to modify the position of the PATS sensor either so I modified the chassis (preliminary see later) to give a bit more room for the stuff around the steering lock. I am retaining the steering lock as the anti theft device for IVA.The Ford steering lock has the PATS sensor attached to the ignition switch. I intend to retain this part of the wiring.

I have just had a spare key made including chip copied at Timsons the shoe repair shop £70, cheaper than Ford.