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Originally Posted by phdm
Note that, in order to convert the car to FF spec, you would need :
- a legal FF engine
- an exhaust and silencer
- engine mounts
- 4 cast iron callipers (instead of the Griling aluminium ones)
- 4 5.5" x 13" steel wheels and legal FF tyres.
Whatever you do, this is going to cost money and it would not make any economic sense to build a Formula Ford out of this car, given its asking price.
Remember you can get a restored Historic Formula Ford for £ 10k to 15k (€ 15k to 22k).
You don't necessarily need to buy a Merlyn which admittedly is a highly desirable car, fast and easy to drive. You can consider other cars such as Elden, Palliser (Brabham inspired), Jamun, Macon, Nike (Brabham inspired) or even Vaney (Tecno inspired).
You could pick up a later car (1972 to 1976 for example) car for sensible money which would be a good buy for the German Open, CFFC or the French series.
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It seems clear that FF would be the ideal class to start with single seater racing. And I also agree that buying a complete or ready car will always be cheaper than to convert something else, with an unknown amount of work/time/money until the conversion will be finished. Not to mention the time it will take to find the required parts.
On the other hand, searching for a FF car which also fits my idea of a "good looking" race car, is not an easy task. At least on the internet I found very few. Most of the later cars are very "boxy" designed, with lots of sharp edges, others cannot be called anything else but ugly.
In the meantime I have found another Merlyn for sale, not a Mk11, but a Mk24. The car seems to be currently located in Denmark. The old advert (when the car was in Sweden) on race-cars.com can be found here:
http://www.race-cars.com/carsold/mer...1/m24x01ss.htm
It seems that it may take some more time to find the right car... in the meantime I am trying to extract as much information as possible from all the helpful posts on this forum.