Hundreds of photos in the Project Cars Section

The car is ready for fitting of an engine/box & loom. Sale includes a donor engine (2.2 litre EW)  ready for race engine build by Sandy Brown Race Engines

£29,995

1999 Series 2 – 1 owner from new!
No expense spared – Estimated build cost as it stands, £70k +
Requires engine & gearbox (1600cc-2300cc)
Potential BHP per tonne with race engine of 440bhp+
Nationwide delivery service available (low rates)
Approx 640kg (+ engine/box) ‘Wide Track’ shell comprising of:

Suspension

• KRS Competition front hubs & top mounts, Bilstein uprights
• KRS Competition rose jointed lower arms
• Harry Hockly independent rear arms, Proflex remote reservoir dampers
• Engine mountings to suit 2.0 litre EW/XU engine & ST75 Sadev gearbox

Brakes

• AP Racing 4 piston callipers (front) (Pads 150 miles)
• 330mm discs/bells
• Alcon 1 piston callipers (rear) (Pads 150 miles)
• Wilwood bias valve & fly off handbrake
• Harry Hockly pedal box conversion (non servo)
• Earls Performance aero quip lines & fittings throughout

Wheels

• 4 x 7″ x 17″ Image split rim, offsets matched to wide track
• 4 x Yokohama A0 48 R 215/45/17 tyres (150 miles use)
• 4×4 twill Carbon fibre centre caps

Shell

• 10 x point cage based on 106 Works Maxi
• Seam welded engine bay, modified strut tops
• A & B pillar gusseting, dash bar, harness bars
• Strengthened lower arm points, tubular seat rails, all factory grommet holes plated and welded
• Fuel cell location recessed into rear seat area
• Plastics 4 performance polycarbonate side (5mm), rear (2mm) & front windscreen (5mm)

Fuel System

• ATL 35 litre composite tank with integral Bosch 10 bar pump and anti surge system
• Aircraft spec fittings (fuel & electrical)
• Fuel Lab chassis mounted fuel pressure regulator
• Earls Performance aero quip lines & anodised fittings throughout

Body (By Streamline Carbon)

Requires colour, currently primered/carbon finish. This is all pre-preg autoclaved carbon fibre in either 2×2 or 4×4 twill:

• Roof panel & cross bars
• Doors, internal door panels and grab handles
• Rear quarters (Works Maxi super 1600 design)
• Side skirts/sills
• Front wings
• Front & rear bumpers
• Tailgate & bonnet
• Dashboard
• Rear quarter internal panels
• Fuel cell retaining panel
• 2 x Seats & side mountings

Electrical system & display

• OBR Racing (Ole Buhl) Membrane Switch panel designed to work in conjunction with PCM Reduces wiring complexity. Reduces weight over typical switch panel installation and wiring. Improved driver visibility.
• OBR Racing Power Control Module (PCM) & military fittings. A programmable solid state module that replaces relays and circuit breakers, simplifies wiring harnesses and provides diagnostic capabilities
• 2D 2 CAN ‘Big Dash’ instrument display
• No wiring harness in place, will require design & installation

Engine

Donor engine included. EW 2.2 litre 16 valve engine from 406 coupe requires full build by Sandy Brown Race Engines at cost of £9,000 will give approx 310bhp/230ft lb torque , full race, naturally aspirated, multiple intakes etc.

Ancillaries

Either mounted on car or supplied separately:

• Aluminium radiator, single 12″ Kenlowe fan, aluminium header tank by ‘Primary Designs’ (loose)
• Maniflow custom 4-2-1 touring car (mild steel), spring connection exhaust manifold to suit EW 2.0 litre engine (loose)
• KRS Competition/maniflow stainless steel 2.5″ bore twin box exhaust system, slash cut, downward facing tailpiece (loose)
• Primary Designs (removable) additional silencer to meet strict noise restricted circuits/events (stainless steel), slashcut/downward facing tailpiece (loose)
• TOCA AP Racing 4 paddle, twin plate clutch (150 miles use) (loose)
• SWR Motorsport/GKN/Harry Hockly steel driveshafts, half shaft & joints (loose)
• Accusump tank, levers, lines & fittings (mounted)
• Gearbox oil cooler (mounted)
• Engine oil cooler (slight damage)
• Silicon water hoses (loose)
• Mocal aluminium breather tank (mounted)
• Willans 6 point harnesses (mounted)

Plus much more, far too much to list please call anytime or email to discuss further

Finished parts are sprayed in either a colour matched paint scheme or clear coat. At present this work is outsourced, but this is only until the Streamline Carbon paint booth comes on line. Finished products are then carefully wrapped and prepared for dispatch, UK and worldwide.

The future holds a lot of opportunities and new ventures for the company. Streamline Carbon already supply parts to a growing international market, with the products being sought after by customers in the Caribbean and Australia as well as all over Europe. A number of company vehicles serve the purpose as show cars and test beds for product research and design. As word spreads and the reputation of the company grows, the orders are coming in greater numbers.

Streamline Carbon is becoming a recognized premium brand, promoting that its products are proudly UK made and unlike many, supplied directly to the end user, cutting out the middleman and offering a cost effective solution for the customer to enjoy the ownership of high quality carbon fibre components on their vehicle.

Of course, the firm is keen to remember its roots, so as well as continuing to develop new products, one of the projects that made the firm notable in the first place still gets attention when time allows, notably Chris Harwood’s carbon fibre bodied Peugeot 106.

More on that in a later feature… Read part one and part two.

Creating moulds for the carbon parts is a time consuming and labour intensive task. For large body panels the process can take several days due to the need for a stepped approach. The first is preparing the original part or pattern for moulding, using wood, fillers and primers and above all, experience. In almost every case there is a degree of prep work to fill and smooth it to make it suitable for the next step of the process, even with newly supplied panels; Mervyn’s old school pattern making eye does not let anything go by. There’s a gallery of some of our moulds in the projects section.

Multiple coatings of an industrial release agent is applied to the part and then, layers of fibreglass and resin are laid-up onto the surface. In some situations fiberglass is all that is needed to be used to make a mould, but in other circumstances the mould itself is made from a tooling pre-preg carbon, essentially in a similar way to the end products. The moulds are made of material far thicker than the end products to ensure that they are strong endure the manufacturing process involving heat and pressure inside the autoclave.

In the laying-up process, a layer of fiberglass sheet and resin is applied. Tools are then used to remove air pockets, which if left in the curing resin would significantly reduce the strength of the finished mould. Once the mould has cured, wedges are then driven between the original part and the mould in order to separate the two. In some cases the part being replicated in carbon is complex enough to require a two part or multiple part mould that needs to be fastened together, if this is not completed accurately, the tool will not allow the component to be released without breaking the part or the mould.

Once the bags of moulds are removed from the autoclave the parts are released from the moulds. This in itself is no simple task as the heat and pressure of the autoclave ensure the parts are set firmly into the tool created for them. Mervyn has an array of tricks to get the parts ready for the next stage of the manufacturing process.

Released parts have a degree of flashing around them that needs to be removed. Diamond coated cutting discs and finger belt sanders are used to trim parts to the necessary shapes. The dust released from cutting carbon is nasty stuff so extraction of the waste is important to maintain a safe working environment.

Cut parts then need to be prepped further by hand, to meet the companies exacting standards for quality. Sometimes things don’t work out and imperfections in the materials or production process mean parts are binned at the quality assurance stage, interestingly product pricing can sometimes require an element of scrap to be built into the process, due to its nature.

Read part one. Part three will be released on New Year’s Day.

The manufacture and supply of carbon fibre products to the automotive industry is most certainly a growing trend, but not all carbon products are the same. The Streamline Carbon team kindly offered to open their doors and give a behind the scenes look at what happens at their UK facility.

The huge sign on the front of the premises leaves you in no doubt that you have arrived at the right place. Streamline Carbon’s logo is distinctive and has a strong association with high quality, UK manufactured products that take many forms. I am greeted by Mervyn Griffith’s the technical mastermind behind the firm.

Many firms in the industry claim a motorsport heritage, particularly those located in Northamptonshire. The Streamline Carbon link is proudly displayed. Mervyn worked for Williams F1 handcrafting patterns, tools and components during the height of their successes in the 1990s. Photos of Senna, Prost, Hill and Mansell adorn the walls. A technical background in a firm from the pinnacle of racing means that there is vast experience, knowledge and passion invested into every product Streamline produce.

The workshop is divided up into different zones where different elements of the manufacturing process are completed.  The ‘clean room’ is where materials are cut from the pre-preg carbon fibre material to accurate workshop templates that have been designed to lay into the tools for both structural and aesthetic benefits. Christine Harwood (currently mentored by Mervyn) lays the material into the moulds, carrying out the initial stages of work to prepare parts for going under vacuum to be cured in the autoclave or high pressure oven.

Mervyn explains that there is a huge range of different pre-preg materials available. The impregnated resins offer different levels of resistance to heat, so those exhaust surrounds are not made out of the same base materials as things like door cards. They also need to be cured at higher temperatures in the oven. The process is clinical and methodical.

This is the first of a three part exclusive look behind the scenes of Streamline Carbon. Look out for part two at Christmas and the final instalment in the New Year.