Page 40 - Cool Britannia

40These “new” shells are then rebuilt to the customers’ individual specifcations with Mazda power units and 5 speed gear boxes. The rear suspension is modifed to independent coil springs. Power steering is an option and each car gets a custom made wiring loom to connect the LED headlights and other mod cons to the original switch gear. Air conditioning and electric windows are all fairly normal options. Frontline make very drivable cars out of these cherished classics. Now the moment of truth, we were invited to drive Frontline Abingdon Edition out for a spin and good Lord was it quick. With the 2.5 litre 2015 Mazda 4 cylinder under the bonnet they claim 0 to 60 in small team of specialist craftsmen was fascinating. We left the workshop via a room flled with body shells waiting for paint and sound deadening, consisting of MGB roadsters and GT’s with a couple of Midgets. I was interested to know how they managed to fnd so many body shells in such good condition, the answer was they didn’t. After the acid dip strips the rusted metal away, Frontline replace any panel with a hole larger than about 5mm.As I was shown around, my favourite part, which I noticed almost instantly, was the fact that all of the brake lines were A: perfectly bronzed against the perfectly black underside and B: Perfectly straight and positioned to one side of the car, does that make any difference to the performance? No, not really, but it looks great and shows that the dedication and craftsmanship is unquestionable. We were taken up to the mezzanine foor to the trim shop. Here the interiors were being designed, hand stitched and assembled. This really inspired to plan a renovation of my own cars interior. Seeing frst hand the process from the selection of the leather hides to a fully ftted dashboard carried out by a