So i'm gonna start this blog post off by letting you all know Let Loose Racing will be at Motor Ex on the 26th and 27th of May but ill fill you in on that at the end of this blog post.
One thing i've been looking at for a while with the XF is adding a little bit of aero to the big square falcon, now I don't want to do anything to out there its not a World Time Attack Car it doesn't need to have a rear spoiler the size of a pool table or a F1 wing mounted a metre in front of the car, I really wanted to create something that has a nice subtle aesthetic touch and still providing performance at the same time. As you know I have given the car a slight NASCAR/AUSCAR touch so the rear wing was always going to be a drag wing, its pretty similar to what the XF AUSCAR's use to run but with a bit of Pro Touring inspiration.
Once we set up where we wanted everything we drilled out the boot lid and fitted the hinges up with some m4 rivnuts, the hinges we used are just door hinges from Bunnings I was a bit worried when I first placed them on the boot lid as they stood out really bad!
Once the wing was mounted on though it all started to look much more at home, the wing is made out of 4mm aluminium so it shouldn't flex but at the same time is still really light.
Last up was mountings the adjustable splitter rods , they are 150mm in length and allow us to run the spoiler the desired angle we need.
With all four brackets mounted and the spoiler sitting back on the car my vision had really payed off, everyone was doubting that it was going to look good but I was pretty confident in how it was going to turn out and I must say I couldn't be happier with it.
I'm now contemplating to clear coat it how it is or brush it up a bit or to powder coat it black, I may have to have a play on photo shop and figure it out.
One other thing we have managed to do over the last week is paint the rest of the car.
I think its probably been 10-11 years since I have seen the car looking this complete and I must say its pretty exciting, i've been designing and thinking about this car for the last 11 years and to finally see it start to take shape is truly amazing.
The combonination of the role cage main hoop X, rear spoiler and 275 Hoosier's really give the car the stance I wanted.
As awesome as fresh paint is its so scary to work with, I have never been more paranoid to work on a car or even just walk around a car I just wish the paint could stay this nice for ever.
The next step I am not looking forward to do, anyone who has worked on anything from an XD to an XF will know how painful all the window moulds are to work with, I have majority of the originals but some didn't survive the original dismantle process.
The colour looks so different out in the sun at times it looks really cream then really white and then as seen here even a greyish white. Im super stoked with how the paint came out the car looks like glass, we do have a few runs sand out but apart from the I couldn't be happier.
So last but not least Motor Ex, we have been procrastinating for quite some time about wanting to have Let Loose Racing on display, we want to be able to show people about what this brand is and our plan to turn it into something really special, the XF will be there on display no matter what state of the build it is in as after all I want people to see the car in person and get some attention to the build and the whole blog series as the blog will be something much much bigger then just the initial build, also on display at Motor Ex will be the Let Loose Racing prototype racing simulator, a project we have been working on for quite some time that we will show you some details of very soon! So do not forget to tune in and we really hope to see you all at Motor Ex with a much more complete version of the XF.