Its about time to tell everyone what we are doing and get your reaction/
comments.
The Europa high top has its good points but experience has shown that
raising the fire wall, despite the fact that your are sitting higher,
reduces the forward visibility. While this is quite acceptable, to the
ex spitfire pilots, Terry Clark has decided he would like to do
something about it.
I conjunction with Andy Draper we have developed a modification to
replace the top engine cowl (with the standard cowl) and lower the fire
wall to the original height. This has proved to be remarkably easy.
See the attached photo. You can clearly see the 65mm gap between the
top frame and the lower moulding. The original upper and lower flanges
are now together (rather than attaching to the "high top" spacer). The
air vent was through the upper joint and will be completed in the new
joint.
For anyone with a High top (or the six kits on order) I will be happy to
send a more detailed description of what has been done. Andy and Roger
both like the result and this could become the standard Hi/Lo top for
the future.
The complication is that the result requires a screen 65mm vertically
deeper than the original. For this first prototype this can be made
---From the LPAero screen blank. A better solution is to make a new mould
and I would like reactions from Hightop owners/builders to see if it is
worth investing in this mould.
Ian Rickard #505 G-IANI XS Trigear
Europa Club Mods Rep (Trigear)
e-mail mods@europaclub.org.uk
or direct g-iani@ntlworld.com
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