Standing Around

(As it has been a long time since I updated the blog, I decided to backdate these posts to show everyone how the design has developed)

In my last post, I had successfully convinced the Leaf motor that it was still in the vehicle and not in a damp shed in Suffolk running from a bunch of ebike batteries. now came the more difficult task of pairing the Leaf drive system with the Figaro chassis. How hard could that be I asked myself? Anyone with experience swapping drivetrains in cars will be pinching the bridge of their nose and shaking their head at this point.

To begin with, our original Figaro - Mertyl had been given the thumbs down by every fabricator we had approached. Sadly she was too far gone to be restored. Thankfully my father in law - Jeff cam to the rescue. He offered to painstakingly salvage what he could from her to Allow the project to keep moving forward. Importantly, he was able to preserve her engine bay to help design a system that would bolt onto the original engine mounts effectively.

With my basic stick welding skills, I was able to make a simple stand that would suspend the engine bay and allow the drive system to be precisely located.

Any Figaro owners with delicate sensibilities look away now…

As it turned out, mounting an entirely new drive system to a car it was not designed for is a lot trickier than one might think. Mercifully, not long after I started, a good friend and seasoned designer, engineer, vehicle restorer and all round fountain of knowledge for motorsport - Pedro from IN Autos in Surrey got in contact and offered to help.