Mystery build , what am I going to be > 1971 Nota Fang

I will give more info on what this is but for the moment I thought I'd put it up as it sit's and see if anyone can figure it out ...







It is something I have wanted to make a model of for a while but never been game but after seeing what others are doing here I've decided to give it a go , will have some questions later on with the build for how to make parts of the bodywork ....

Is it going to be a hill climber based on mini running gear,

It is pretty obscure so I'll add a bit of a hint (thank's heaps to Allan for the mini bits ) ,

Then again , maybe I won't be mean because most people will have never seen , let alone heard of one . It is a 1971 Nota Fang (originally called a Nota type IV but the name Fang stuck) , which is also the yellow thing in my sig pic . Nota is a small Australian company building road and race cars and the mini based Fang (The Fang is still availible new with a variety of powerplants right up to the F1 with V6 toyota power ) was around the 450 kg mark with a mini cooper s engine anywhere up to 100hp (in race trim) mid mounted and the front wheels out under motorbike guards . Very light and very low with roof height being only a couple of inches higher than a mini bonnet . This one (NOT MINE unfortunately) has the same rear deck as mine with the whale tail spoiler and will give an idea of what they look like .




Mine has the front end from a Hillman Imp and not the later Nota independent front end that this one has . Unfortunately mine also has a long way to go before it gets onto the road ... There were about 160 mini based fangs produced .

I was gunna say a Nota type IV Fang......
Yeah right, never even heard of one!

Ya me seen them in magazine's never seen one on the road be for.

It's nota....it's nota...it's nota...anything I've ever heard of before!

Cool car man - looks like a lot of fun on a tight twisty road.

Glad your giving it a go it will be cool when its done the car sort of reminds me of a sprite.

Here's a little bit of reading material from the launch in 1971 ....

How's the fang going.

WOW! I thought those things were all dead and gone.

Would you believe I got more of it done today and just came in to put photo's up ....

Chassis is almost finished , just have to add the "glovebox" that sits behind the engine bay (need some measurements from another Fang as mine has been cut off for some obscure reason by the previous owner ) .

Obviously it still needs some filing , filling and finishing as some of the flat styrene overhangs the extruded bits in places .







Next is to start on the scratch built Hillman Imp front end (unless anyone happens to have a 1:24 scale one sitting about ???) , I can't find any mention of one being availible in a kit in 1:24 scale , only in 1:32 .

By the way , does anyone have a bottle of time I can buy/borrow so I can get more done on this

looking great so far,after seen the black one in the photo there was a red and silver one running around down here for year's have not seen it for some time,did not know that it was powered by mini it was driven by a young red haired lady she wore a white full face motorbike helmet.me looking for money tree plant.

A couple of photo's from last years Mini Muster in Brisbane , neither Fang made it there this year



The red one is David Whitehead's (I think that's his name from memory) and is known as the "Blasto Fang" , holds many track records around the east coast . Not sure on the other one but it's a lot more civilised ...

have seen a few of these around over the year's alway thought they were VW kit car's,did not know they had mini engine's in them.there have been some racing in King Edward park,hill climb race's,Newcaslte each year.

Well I managed to get a bit of time to
play so I started on the front end . This is what it looks like in
reality, it was originally fitted to a Hillman Imp/Stiletto
.



This
is my notes and measurements along with the template





Rough
cut of two thicknesses of 1mm styrene sheet glued together before
sanding to shape
,



two
thicknesses of 1mm styrene glued onto a single thickness 0.5 mm
styrene sheet 1 mm wider than the 2 mm section to resemble the welded
lip on the full sized article , two 0.5 mm plates fitted to mount
front end to chassis
,



Front
end in place (when I realised the front of the chassis was 5 mm too
short



after much silent cursing I extended the front of it) ,




Front
end in place with extended chassis
,



Since
I was on a roll I made the fuel tank as well (yes , the fuel tank is
the seat support and directly in front of the motor , but more
worrying is it's directly in front of the clutch so if something
breaks it flies through the fuel tank before hitting you
....)



Next
is reworking the Tamiya mini front subframe which , I'm now realising
is way out as far as scale , accuracy and detail are concerned so I'm
having to build the top half of it and extend the front of it .

Ian this is insane I love it !! What particular car will you be replicating ?

Sean

It will be mine as it would have left Nota I think .... Mine has the same rear lid as the silver one on the other page but originally had the same as the others in the various photo's . I would like to do the whale tail spoiler type rear lid but realistically I think the normal type will be easier and more within my skill levels . Hopefully I'll be starting the body work in a week or so when I visit my parents who have a bandsaw so I can start shaping the pine "plug" to shape/bend the styrene for the body over .

Believe it or not I'm enjoying this to the point that I'm already looking at the next project ....







Again this one is mini based ,I've been trying to find it but it dropped off the radar in the late 80's when it was owned by a Sydney tow truck driver who had land on the central coast ...

Now that little coupe will look cool u are getting there with the fang.

Well that brings back menories yes I remenber them, it should be a good subject to model something different

"Fangs" for the memories. I'd forgotten about this little Aussie car until your thread came up. I remember reading the story in that magazine and others. Looks like you're progressing well with the build - congratulations on taking up such a challenging project.

Thank's to Zenrat I now have some wheels in the correct scale , shown as a rough mock up here with the chassis sitting on some tyres (definitely not proper ride height at the front) . I've put a standard mini wheel in front too for a comparison and they do look like 12 "or 13" compared to the mini 10" . Thank's heaps Fred (it was brake fluid you used to shrink/clean the two tyes wasn't it ? ) .