Sylva in New Zealand
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 3:50 am
Hi, down here in the colonies it is pretty rare to see any of the Sylva/Fury type cars due to the cost of freight, so I was pretty happy when I spotted a Sylva Phoenix Mk4 body minus chassis for sale. It had been in careful storage since 1998, and had never been fitted.
I was about half way through building my second Lotus 7 replica when I found this body , so have now started working out how to fit it onto a 7 chassis ( because I'm too old to start on a new chassis).
After some study to see if it was easier to cut the fibreglass rather than take the cage off, we went with the easier option:
The 7 wheelbase is about 200mm longer than the Sylva, and about right in the track, but some small wheel arch extensions will be required. The spec will be Honda 2.4 VTEC with rotrex supercharger, W58 toyota gearbox, WRX LSD diff, and will be raced in the sports car class here as well as being road legal.
I offer my apologies now to anyone who considers this a travesty, but you have to admit it will look a thousand times nicer than a 7.....
I was about half way through building my second Lotus 7 replica when I found this body , so have now started working out how to fit it onto a 7 chassis ( because I'm too old to start on a new chassis).
After some study to see if it was easier to cut the fibreglass rather than take the cage off, we went with the easier option:
The 7 wheelbase is about 200mm longer than the Sylva, and about right in the track, but some small wheel arch extensions will be required. The spec will be Honda 2.4 VTEC with rotrex supercharger, W58 toyota gearbox, WRX LSD diff, and will be raced in the sports car class here as well as being road legal.
I offer my apologies now to anyone who considers this a travesty, but you have to admit it will look a thousand times nicer than a 7.....