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My apologies to anyone who was waiting for an update - I've been pulled in all directions since my last post, so haven't managed to make it back on here...

Anyway - here goes:

Starting at the front - after a lot of research and head-scratching, I decided that I had to have something better than the standard steering rack. Believe it or not, the one fitted to the Dino is the same unit as went on the Austin Mini (and the De Tomaso Pantera). Made in Birmingham, UK by a company called Cam Gears, it suffered from all of the things that broke the British car and motorcycle industry in the early 1970s - outdated design, poor quality materials, and manufactured on worn-out machines that the accountants who ruled the management refused to replace.

A further issue is that the front wheels are going to be so wide that some form of power-assisted steering would make life a lot less stressful (you have to remember how narrow British roads are), especially when parking. The choice therefore was between a power rack and a power column. After some thought I opted for the latter - I looked at the various kits on offer, but didn't fancy paying the huge prices - so decided to go for something off a standard car. This would mean that parts would always be available.

It seems that the two most popular choices are to use the column off a Vauxhall Corsa, or a Toyota of some kind. After examining hundreds of photos and reading every possible website, I chose to go with the latter - a Prius to be exact (although I usually refer to them as a 'Pious'). To cut a very long story short, I bought the relevant parts off eBay, and to my great joy, discovered that there was an aftermarket adapter available that allowed me to fit the Dino steering wheel to the Toyota column. A bit of swapping the couplings and extension shafts around to get them past some vertical chassis tubes even allowed the column and rack fit together. Imagine how excited I was to turn the steering wheel for the first time - only to discover that when I turned right, the wheels went left...

Some bad words followed. After that, I delved back into the murky depths of the internet to have a closer look at the front end of a Prius chassis. Yep - presumably after partaking of too much sake (rice wine), the Toyota engineers had fitted the rack behind the front wheels instead of in front. Who knew? Not me... Luckily, I hadn't actually mounted anything yet - it was all balanced loosely in place when I did my trial run. Still - how to get myself out of trouble? A few grumpy hours later, I had a brainwave. My car is right hand drive - so why not buy a left hand drive rack and turn it end for end? Would it work like this? After some concerted CAD work (cardboard aided design), I convinced myself it would.

Rather than pay official prices, I ordered one from China - this will undoubtedly enrage some, but Toyota have their parts made there, so why not cut out the middle man? When the new rack arrived, I couldn't tell the difference between it and the genuine part. What was far more important at the time was that I needed to know if everything would line up and that the wheels would actually turn the right way. They did...

So - the power-assist motor on the column sits nicely up out of the way and all it needs is 12v power and ground and a CAN Hi / Can Lo signal. If I get the CAN messaging to work correctly (I have the necessary code), the ECU will tell the three-phase motor how fast the car is going, and thus modulate the amount of assistance provided. Hopefully, I can find some suitably sized tie rods to connect the end of the rack to the hubs. I haven't got that far yet - but I have managed to maintain the correct rack centreline, so there shouldn't be any bump steer issues. I will, of course, be checking that aspect thoroughly at the right time.

Working back from the steering, I've been playing with the relationship of the seat to the controls. I now have a Tilton pedal box in place, but found everything a bit tight - I couldn't get my foot from the throttle to the brake pedal until I adjusted them downwards due to the column being in the way. I thought I had done something wrong until I sat in an original Dino last week when I realised that it was even worse!

Part of the problem is that I need the seat to be as far forward as possible. This is because since the new powerplant is a twin-turbo, I need two intercoolers, and those need a lot of fresh air to work properly. In theory, I could mount them at the front of the car, as per their locations on the Maserati. But that would mean a) lots of horrible plumbing running through the cabin and b) a ridiculous amount of extra volume in the ducts. So I'm fitting them right behind the driver and passenger seats - with whacking great fans bolted to them. These will draw air from under the car through large holes in the floor. This rather eccentric arrangement will mean the coolers can sit relatively close to where they should be in respect to the engine - which in my world is a good thing.

While I've been doing all that, I've also been building an engine stand. This uses the surplus to requirements front subframe off the donor Maserati (which carries the engine mounts), along with loads of steel box tubing to carry everything else. I haven't completed it yet, but the 6-speed transmission is on there (I did get the adapter plate finished), along with the radiator and intercoolers. The plan is to get the new ECU working while everything is still accessible.

I've also been building a rotisserie so that I can access the rotten chassis tubes. This uses two engine stands, and will feature a long scaffold pole running the whole length of the car. For practical reasons, this will be in three parts with couplers to hold the middle section in place - and that's only there to make sure the two ends line up. Again - it's not quite finished yet.

The exhaust system is underway as well - it's about half-built.

And in between all this, we went to France to get another dog. Last time (a year ago), we got a two-year old girl having just tragically lost our six-year old to cancer. This time, we got a 16 week old little boy - we get them in France because the breed (known as 'Korthals Griffons' in Europe, or 'Wire-haired pointing Griffons' in the USA) are very rare in the UK. There's a much bigger gene pool in France. In fact, we had to go over twice - once to meet the breeder and be 'approved', and then a second time to collect him once his rabies jab had taken effect.

And while all that was being organised, we've also been working on trying to raise the finance for a TV documentary which is looking at 'The Passion of Ferraris' - specifically centred around the mid-engined cars. It features two people - one is a young chap from the local town who has made a lot of money in property development. He is a very likeable and down to earth character who lives and breathes Ferraris - he has something like 6 or 7 of them. He regularly visits the factory, gets invited to new model launches, does the race school, etc. The other person is a grumpy, scruffy old sod with no money who spends his life in the back of a shed trying to fit a twin-turbo engine into his Dino... Last week we took an immaculate original Dino (the great grandfather), and a 488 Pista (representing the end of the dynasty), off into the local National Park where they were filmed, sound recorded, etc. Hopefully, we'll have enough footage to put a pilot together to show the money people what we're trying to achieve. The idea is that my car - a Dino chassis with a six-speed gated manual and a twin-turbo engine, will complete the story by tying both ends together in one car.

The photo here shows the two cars in question parked up during the lunch break.

Here's a shot of the engine with some of the exhaust in place - the rest being balanced on top...

One of the things I've always hated about the Maserati version of the F154 engine is that the intake manifolds look as though they belong behind a refrigerator...

I'd been wracking my brain for an elegant solution to the problem when I realised that the intakes off a California T would fit. They cost me a lot of money, but they're the first thing you'll see when you look into the car, and, in my opinion, totally transform it...

My next problem is how to clean the rest of the engine - I may well take it to someone with a dry ice blaster.

Great to see the progress update Paddy!

I have been wondering about this project. Excellent progress. We definitely need more photos. I hope the funding for the documentary comes through. I would like to see it.

Watching from southern US.

_________________
Wade Williams
Master Ferrari Tech
Restoration Tech
Engine Machinist
Fabricator
Racecar Driver

Thanks for the update, looking good!

Funny on the powersteering....I'm waiting on a couple EPSA units from china, should be here soon.

Thanks for your kind words, Gentlemen! As requested, here are some more photos - first up is the fixture I made to hold the custom engine/trans adapter plate. When I finally got it from the company who provided it, the damned thing was so heavy that I couldn't make myself use it. So - some weight had to come off...

And this was how it turned out after attacking it with the mill...