Good morning Geoff. I guessed it might be you who would be gracious enough to give me some advice. As I posted earlier, I am still in the throws of a project which should have been finished by now!. The irony is that it is costing me a fortune which I could have better put into a decent 403.!!
As it happens, I have seen your advert for the 401 with the Holder engine and appreciate that a lot of the hard work has been done. Given a choice I think I would buy a 403 for the extra power but regardless of that, if and when I am in a position to buy a car your advice would be much appreciated.
What I do know about these cars is that they have an aluminium superleggera body on steel tubing. I understand that the hessian buffer can rot and allow galvanic corrosion to occur.
On the auction car I notice that the underside of a sill appears to have been peeled open; presumably to asses the condition of the tubing which I would assume will be pretty rotten. I know that Aluminium - especially old aluminium - is tricky to weld.(38 years ownership of a 1930 Austin Swallow attends to that!) The separate chassis may be impossible to repair without removing the body and if that was the case here I would have to pass on it.
I know the dry liner engine has a reputation for being expensive to repair. I found this link:
https://www.inracing.co.uk/wp-conten...-Catalogue.pdf