20 March 1999:

The fun is really starting now - above is a picture of the Y10 awaiting its Integrale front end. Everything in front of the windscreen bar the tops of the inner wings, the entire bulkhead, and the floorpan between the sills all the way back to behind the front seats, has been removed. The missing bit is pictured below.

It seems so much is missing, but look now at the next picture - this is the hybrid one. The front of the Integrale has been attached to the remains of the Y10 shell. Strengthening as required is being built in to this car - I intend using it on track days and the like, and I want to feel safe. Look in front of the door to see the box section being built in. Lots of work needed here to give the required amount of strength. The whole car is being seam-welded, the panels are only spot-welded as built by Lancia. Finally, a roll-cage of some sort will be built up inside. I'll take a decision later on how much of a cage to have, full or just rear, but either way, it will help hold the car together and increase the stiffness. That can only be good for its handling.

The Y10 wiper motor has been retained, the single wiper is so much cooler looking than the two-wiper set-up of the Integrale. Its a tight fit, but the wiper motor just about fits, although if it packs up, the heater assembly will have to come out first.

The really smart ones among you will have noticed the decidedly non-Y10 bonnet sitting over the engine. Fear ye not, the Integrale bonnet is just sitting there keeping dust off the engine. The original Y10 bonnet will go back on, well sort of! Plans have been more formalised now, we know mostly how the car is going together and have decided how it should look. The wheels have been purchased from Elite Tyres; 7"x17" Rimstock Motorsport wheels in Anthracite with gold lettering, and the arches will be built around these. Thing is, if I'd stuck with the 6"x15" standard 'grale wheels, they would almost have fitted inside the standard Y10 wings! They only stick out an inch at most, could have pulled the wings out to cover that. But check out the racing Y10 on this site. Paul B and I took a decision to go the same way - pull the wings out to cover the wheels and stretch the bonnet out on top. In the absence of pictures of the rear arches for this car, we'll have to improvise. I've suggested doing them similar to the Renault Clio 16v at the back, smoothly coming out from below the window line, so from the side of the car, you don't see the flare. But of course, if some more pics of the racer turn up, things might change!

Finally a shot of the inside of the car. The astute will spot the large gap in the floorpan on the right of the picture. Also note the clearance cut round the wiper motor. A lot of box-sectioning is still to be done but the left side of the front is nearly there. There is also the small matter that the front of the car is about 3 inches longer than the front wings, but Paul's favourite phrase in times of trouble is "but we can get round that"!

The back half is next - read on.

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