Visit

I made my way up to Bardney on Jan 14 2002. Travelling up from Suffolk, through Norfolk I lost count of how many sugar beet lorries and tractors pulled out in front of me, but I was in a good mood and the first fifty or so we vaguely amusing.

Arrived in Bardney around 10, remembering to look out for a Porsche garage, which I found. There was a sign with 'Sylva Autokits' lying on the floor and a selection of closed doors. I wandered around a bit and in the end went into the Porker shop and asked where Sylva were. I was directed right down to the bottom end of the facility and sure enough they were in the last 2 units. For those of you that don't know where they are either when you arrive, yes they are behind the door with boarded over glass. I thought at the time that a sign or two might not go amiss, but maybe this would attract the wrong kind of attention to the place.

Once inside I met Jeremy Phillips for the first time. A man with whom I had had many and varied conversations with over the previous 12 months or so. I made a coffee while he chatted to a customer on the phone and had a browse around the piles of car parts that filled every corner of the unit.

We soon got down to the business of discussing my requirements which included the details of the parts I wanted plus seeing if the 13" wheels I had brought along would fit on the IRS rear (they didn't, despite fitting on Simon's car), how they would affect the ride height (improve it) and what damper lengths I needed from Nitron to match the custom Spax units that Jeremy uses (got the tape measure out).

Fortunately for me there was a chassis in the early stages of construction and a completed Striker to look at, sit in and take pictures, just in case they come in useful...

The morning was spent talking about al sorts of interesting stuff, not all car related, and I ordered the following parts:

• Lightweight, IRS Striker chassis with Escort mkII front uprights in gloss black powdercoat finish. Interestingly the new Sierra front uprights have exactly the same dimensions and geometry as the Escort parts and as such they are interchangeable. However the Sierra uprights I found in a pile in the workshop were bloody heavy compared to the delicate Escort items. The lightweight chassis is so called because it uses thinner gauge material and more round section tube than the standard item.
• Lightweight layup, clear gelcoat bodywork. There are two other versions of the bodywork available; normal and lightweight layup with coloured gelcoat. The clear gelcoat is much thinner without the need to provide colour and this combination was deemed to provide a significant weight saving, despite there being very little bodywork in the first place on the Striker. Being uncoloured it will be necessary to get the bodywork sprayed, but I would have had to do this anyway as I intend to cut off and space out the rear arches to accommodate the rear wheels and tyres I have and to do something a bit neater with the rear lights and number plate.
• Custom fabricated engine mounts to suit the R1.
• Custom fabricated rose-jointed gearlinkage to suit the R1.
• Centre-bearing mount.
• Twin cylinder, balance bar brake box.
• Cross braced roll bar.
• Aeroscreen.
• Aluminium fuel tank.

I was given an expected lead time of 8 weeks, but arranged to return before the collection date in order to assist in the engine mounting and centre-bearing mount fabrication.

Quite frankly I couldn't wait ten minutes to get started on it now!

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