The original GT40 does not seem to have had a means to secure the rear clip at the top forward end. Have any of you, or the designers of your replicas, added a mechanism to secure the clip to the roll bar structure so that it cannot possibly come open at an inopportune time?
If so, please describe what was done.
Anyone else feel a little uneasy about the clamshell popping loose at speed?
Thanks very much,
mike starling
FFR 1667
Sabre GT40 6210
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i've seen cars with hood pins and with the regular pins with springs that you pull a lever inside the car and the hatch pops open. the VW corrado 90-94 has a hood with 3 pins. i'm going to use the outer pins and lever from this car and it will work great. they are a good size and the handle is black and hides away very neatly. of course you can go with anything that you find that you can make it work.
cheers
luis
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The rear clip is intented to stay locked in position using the fastening clamps (from a triumph) on each side of the rear clip, fastening onto the sills. However it is a great idea to use a post and pin setup on each side of the roof. ERA has a spring lever type setup which is very professional, but rather difficult to duplicate. Tornado has a simple solution I think you can see it if you look closely on their website, I know their brochure has a nice picture of this. Also you can very easily make your own by bolting or welding two inverted "L" type brackets with the post bolted onto the top part and drilling holes in the roof section and bolting the seat part of the post onto it. If you see a picture you'll know what I'm talking about.
Paul Campoli
Toronto, Canada
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The USA GT40 I just bought has a pin/spring arrangement similar to a hood pin on a current vehicle. They have a small T handle just inside the roof head liner area on each side to release them.
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...to this thread. I was driving at about 60 three days ago and heard a loud "boom." Looked in the rearview and saw the back of my car (ASPP body kit, not real GT40) skidding along the highway. Fortunately, nobody hurt, and no other cars nearby. But the back clamshell is all messed up. $2400 for a new replacement, vs. I don't know yet how much to have a fiberglass shop fix it. It's still driveable, though no taillights/signals, so I'll take it into the shop tomorrow. I need to keep the phrase "Vette-lovin' front-engined fool" out of my vocabulary while I'm there. Whether I go for replaced or refurbished, I'm going to follow your advice and add at least one safety catch, probably two.
David
drivethatthang
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The original cars had the rear clip secured at the top front by a bonnet catch either side, much as are found on modern cars. However, many of the cars were fitted with pins and clips mounted on the baracket at the top of the bulkhead. John Allen's "GT40, the legend lives on" (Osprey ISBN 185532 524 1) and Brian Winer & Wallace Wyss's "GT40 Photo Archive" (Iconografix ISBN 1-882256-64-6) both contain great pictures of the rear clip securing devices (and loads of other great pics).
Cheers, Brian.
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