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With the front suspension in a similar state to the rear, it's time to add the two assembled ends of the car onto the main chassis.  The chassis is 3mm hard coated 7075 T6 alloy and features many recessed areas to both lower the centre of gravity and save weight.
The front and rear differentials which protrude slightly from the gear casings actually side down into corresponding recesses at either end of the car.  The front and rear gearboxes both secure with four counter sunk M4 screws and a chunky moulded chassis brace attaches to the rear shock tower and main chassis. whilst the front bumper attaches at the same time as the gearbox.

no, the chassis isn't a vivid gold - I'm just a bad photographer that turns things to gold by accident! Actually - it's a good job it looks gold here, since the actual colour is similar to the review page background, and then you'd not see it! - a bit like this text huh!

 

The steering assembly on the 808 is fairly simple dual bell crank type, with a built-in servo saver.  The steering assembles and spins on two alloy posts which are sandwiched between the chassis and a stiff plastic steering plate. A carbon fibre steering link joins the two cranks and supports the inside steering link balls - there are two holes to adjust ackerman and a front moulded chassis brace finishes things off.

Two alloy posts attach to the chassis and the assembled steering slides over.
A plastic front chassis brace attaches to the main chassis with two screws & nuts. A plastic top plate then sits over the gearbox, steering and chassis brace - tying it all together.

 

   

The centre differential housing is a multi-part plastic affair which needs assembling around the diff before it can be installed. The 808 uses single vented steel brake rotor either side of the centre diff - with steel plates supporting some Ferodo fibre pads, which themselves need gluing to the steel plates.

 

 

 

 

Following the instructions carefully so you get the pads on the correct side of the plates, it's just a case of using some CA glue and centreing the pads correctly.  I did an OK job of this - but still the screws wouldn't easily / smoothly move through the plate & pad, so I used a body reamer to gently ream out any excess pad that slightly covered the hole in the steel backing plate. With this done, a pair of pads is screwed to the two top halves of the centre gearbox. A plastic top plate secures the front and rear tops of the centre gearbox, along with the brake cams that push the pads onto the rotating disks.

Lining up the pads 100% perfectly when gluing is hard, but even when it looked perfect the screw wouldn't slide through easily so I reamed the hole very slightly for smooth braking action. The pads mount onto two plastic top halves to the centre mount. Setting the pad spacing by using one of the disks.

With the steel brake discs pushed over either end of the centre differential, the whole lot gets sandwiched between the previously assembled top and bottom parts with four long screw, before being secured to the main chassis with four chunky M4 counter sunk screws.


Taking the centre diff out later is a simple case of unscrewing the four long screws and lifting the top off - leaving the lower half attached to the chassis.
Above: large plastic dirt shields attach to either side of the main chassis

I didn't have the engine that was going to be used in the 808 - in fact, it hadn't even been ordered by the time I'd got to this point so I went and borrowed a stand-in engine and pipe for this part of the build until the 'proper' items could be acquired. 

The 808 comes with its own flywheel and clutch - and these need putting on the engine first which was a little daunting for me since I've never done it before, but take your time and it's easy. The clutch is a three shoe type and the shoes themselves are aluminium, labled '1.71' - whilst the springs are described as 'hard' which should give a fairly aggressive take off.   The 16T clutch bell uses 5x12x4mm 'oversized' bearings for long life.
Some simple polished alloy engine mounts are attached to the engine before the latter can be mounted into the car.
   

The exhaust outlet needs to be measured against the plastic side guards, and an 'indent' making.


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