Sorry, I didn't have any time to type a proper reply the other day, so decided to link to another post containing a little more info. It's funny that the car has come back to Somerset via Salisbury. The guy who bought it was going to keep it, but what he really wanted was an SD1 Vitesse and he was offered one shortly after buying this. He didn't have enough room to keep both of them, so put it up for sale again.
Regarding the USA plates, I wasn't ever stopped, but didn't like the uncertainty every time I passed a police car! So I decided to put something a little more legal on there, the US size UK ones work well IMO. I did like the US style ones though - the rear one currently adorns our lounge
Thanks for the offer of the UK plates - I may take you up on that as I don't know how well the US sized one is going to work below the bumper. Is the rear one shaped to fit the standard plinth?
I love the wheels - they were the first thing that caught my eye. It's strange how it goes, I'd only just decided that I wanted a V8 classic and started looking at P6's for sale. After a couple of weeks of looking at cars on ebay, etc, I decided that what I really wanted was a red one, then this one appeared. It wasn't too far away to go and look at and it just so happened that I was off work for a week, so could go and see it. The rest, as they say, is history!
Body wise, I'm not planning much. I want to move the rear number plate to below the bumper, to give it the same look as the Australian one that was part of the inspiration for this one. For the front end, I've got a pair of the V8 police spoilers planned, plus a custom front grille, based around the series 1 grille, but with a custom centre section. I've also got some new trim for the sides, to replace the current trim, which is pretty rippled in places.
Mechanically, the ultimate goal is a Rover 4.6 engine, with an R380 gearbox and Jag XJS rear diff. That's a long term plan though - I'll need a bigger garage before I can even contemplate that amount of work. Changing the current gearbox is going to be interesting enough - the car only just fits length-wise! I admire what you managed to achieve in your single garage - you did a good job.
Thanks for the welcome, the forum seems great - I've already learnt quite a lot from it in terms of gearbox info and will start my own thread when I get to actually doing something. I've enjoyed driving it too much so far to want to take it off the road for works, although with the weather turning, I doubt there will be too many more trips out.
I hope you get to building your next one soon - I'd like to see the result, what you've got planned sounds great.