As there wasn't a lot else to do as we headed back to Vlissingen to pick up supplies, I spent several hours going over the dimensions of the foam model and still things didn't add up. I penned a quick note to the scanner's to ask them to firstly check the figures and then to reset the mirror line so that the overall width of the model would be exactly to 1/5th scale of the real thing (reducing the width by 7mm). Then all I had to do was wait for the revised images to come back.

That's more like it! I'm glad I'm not the only one who has trouble with measuring devices. To give them their due, an apology for inputting an '8' instead of a '6' (20mm at 1/5th scale) was quickly forthcoming and what a difference 100mm made to the full-scale result. I could stop fretting!

I also asked for a couple of other dimensions to be confirmed; the overall height, the body width excluding the wings and the ground clearance, which came out as 1425, 1375 and 225mm respectively at full scale. The overall width of the car including wings is 1613mm, so the proportions have now fallen into line.

Although I've a bit of work to do on the shape of the radiator grill, this is a good start.

Similarly, the rear view is a whole lot less bloated. The shape of the rear window/s is going to be tricky. Something I want to try to avoid is the blanked-out rear 3/4 view from the driver's seat when sitting at an obtuse angled junction - one of the worst things about driving vans.

Naturally, my thoughts then turned to the workings of the oil system on the MS engine and how I was going to incorporate a remote filter. Demonstrated by the flow diagram above, the oil is collected from the sump, pressurised by the oil pump and then sent to the filter. It then goes from the filter to the various parts of the block and head.

A rough sketch of the oil filter cover plate shows where everything is in the scheme of things. The manual shows the oil entering the filter from the plenum and emerging from the core of the filter on its journey to the engine. I may have got the position of the relief valve wrong, but the effect would be the same if there was a blockage in the filter; pressure would build up in the plenum, open the valve and continue to pass oil to the engine, albeit unfiltered. I thought at first that in removing the filter to a remote location, the plenum would need a baffle of some sort to retain the pressure from the pump, but my thinking is that it's the pump that creates the pressure and whatever you put in front of the feed, the pressure will remain the same though the flow rate might change. Pressure might drop - as measured at the gauge - only after the oil passes the filter and into the system. Time for a tech review with Learned Counsel.