Hi all, wow, quite an overwhelming amount of responses! thanks for the interest and comments all! it's that sort of thing that spurs you on in a project like this!
I've not done a whole lot more since to be honest, however, I have received the Impreza intercooler, it's actually quite big and very thick. It should still sit nicely under the bonnet though. I will have to sort some sort of ducting so as I don't cook the intercooler with the manifold and turbo, a tilted bonnet may also help when standing still and ticking over.
Luckily, I have my mate Daran helping out when he can, he'll be the one shouting motivational slogans at me, and also he's officially in charge of most of the wiring! in fact we're going to get onto the loom on Sunday, all things being well.
The car is completely stripped out, it doesn't even have a dashboard, just two bucket seats and a pair of four point harnesses. The sunroof's been replaced by an alloy sheet panel, and all other unused bits and pieces have been removed. I even removed the bitumen sound deadening material from the floors and other areas, that alone got rid of approximately 15kg, the sunroof was around 30kg, and I can only guess at the interior weight! it was all leather and wood, so likely much heavier than a standard velour and vinyl interior.
I'll try to find other ways of weight saving, though the most obvious will be to polycarb the side and rear glass at some point, but that's probably something for next year now.
It's on lowered springs with Unipart NOS MG Montego Turbo front gas struts and some aftermarket rear gas struts, currently with the Turbo front ARB and EFI rear ARB. I've no idea how it will handle or behave, but you can bet I'll be very cautious driving it until I get the measure of it and make the necessary tweaks. As said though, they do handle surprisingly well!
It is really surprising just how well the T5 fits in the Maestro's engine bay, even down to one of the mounts lining up almost perfectly! big odds!
It's going to be looking pretty stock on the outside asides riding noticeably lower, the taillights are also inverted to place the brake lights higher post lowering. The only differences are the 15" Montego 'cross spoke' alloys and the lack of front grill. Oh and the scoop for the intercooler!
I'll do another trial fit on Sunday and start marking the bulkhead where it needs to be slightly dressed back, we'll also do a little more research on the remaining engine mounts, position of the downpipe. Once the engine's mounted I can start to take some accurate dimensions for the the two short outer driveshafts, I'll be retaining the outer Maestro CVs and the Volvo inner CVs. Initially I'll do some cut and shut jobbies, and once I'm satisfied that they're right I'll have some one piece items made.
A fast minor was mentioned, now I know there's various Fiat twink and Rover V8 powered versions around, and whilst I like that, I prefer this:
plus:
equals....
http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=219069
Truly inspiring!!!
