The 15/17 Register - My R15 the car so far.....

1973 Renault 15 TS "Covert" Ebony Phase III The Car so far.......

So you'll notice the difference between the Dutton GP Rally 1996 photo's, like how I have removed all the chrome on the body giving the car a more aggressive look, dash pod, etc, etc.

So this is how Ebony looks now, dechromed, mono-tone, well covert actually, that why the number plates are "COVERT". Apart front the black painted front Renault diamond, and debadged back, there are no signs that this is a Renault. You may say why, well as you drive down the street, people are often wanting to know, "Hey what is it", when you say a Renault, the shock on their faces is enough.
This was taken at the 1997 Melbourne F1 GP.

By de-chroming the car, it has cleaned the lines up a huge amount, in some ways this has also modernised the look of the car. Also by getting rid of the overiders on the front, the clean lines make the car look alot more unclutted.
The stickers on the door you see are custom designed, some of the stickers are Gordini Racing Parts, Mad Kitty Racing Team, which by the way is a growing force here. Movo Motorsport, Ebony Phase III, Ebony is the name of the car and that it's in it's third Generation of modification.

Here we see the start of the interior, mainly black carpet and polished alloy. Yep you have to climb across the side intrusion bars, but thats easy once you've gotten used to it.
The standard black door trims have been kept, this makes things here alot easier for registration, plain metal is frowned upon here, some padding is seen as safer, also the original rear side trim's were kept as well.

From here you can see how the custom dash sits in the original place of the dash console. I made it to fit into the original hole, even fitting similar holding screws as this made things alot easier.
The profile is not much different in overall dimensions, just that fitting the Autometer Tach gave me some interesting problems, Glare at night, well this is an on going problem to solve. I have a cover for the dash, it sits over the top at night, but driving normally around town, the light reflects out of the way in the windscreen so things are not all that bad.

So this is the engine so far, custom everything really, well it has been a long slog on alot of the stuff, finding places that would work on the car.
But we have found a group of places here that work on the cars, so in getting custom made upgrades, we have been converting as many things as possible to generic parts, like replacing the radiator hoses with stainless steel pipes and easy to find silicone end pipe fittings, hopefully increasing the overall engine life well into the future, no more split pipes.
Ideas like that, that is what l working towards with the R15.

Here is a close view of what you might see sitting in the seat, I have placed all the dials to be read alot earier. In this set-up the Autometer Tach can seen with no problem, the digital speedo is perfectly in the middle of the steering wheel, with the fuel and amps either side of it. On the custom gauge pod where the speaker grille was holds the oil pressure and temp.
You'll also notice the yellow shift light plastic cover, this is a fantastic little device, well it's a good "poverty" indicator, you set it on the Autometer Tach and then when the desired RPM is reached it light's up. Some people laugh at it, but at least I don't have to rebuild my engine every few months.

In this Photo you can see how we mounted the Terratrip 404 trip computer. Having it mounted in the glovebox area, we have found that during the day it does not suffer from sun glare. And it's out of the way of the navigators legs while still being clear and easy to read.
Also you'll see the alloy foot plate for the navigator, on the upper right hand side is a foot button for the air horns for the navigator. The driver uses the normal horn, this has ofter proved quite funny sometimes as the passenger ofter feels some power at having a horn to press.
The custom instrument pod is plastic plumbing tube, one straight and one curve, per side, it's then been bonded into the original speaker grille. The grille was them filled with plastic filler, sanded and the sprayed in black crackle finish paint. The dials were then fitted, by slowly enlarging the Internal Diameter of the tubes, so that they slip fit in.

The seats have been totally retrimed in recaro cloth, they are a marsh seat, but because the seat is an older basic design, they really suit the car.
I got "Renault Sport" cloth patches made for the front seats also in yellow and grey, these I thing compliment the seats really well.
And of course the Total racing harnesses, I have also kept the normal seat bels as for city driving it make getting in and out just that much easier.

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	`1973 Renault 15 TS "Covert" Ebony Phase III The Car so far.......`
So you'll notice the difference between the Dutton GP Rally 1996 photo's, like how I have removed all the chrome on the body giving the car a more aggressive look, dash pod, etc, etc.
	So this is how Ebony looks now, dechromed, mono-tone, well covert actually, that why the number plates are "COVERT". Apart front the black painted front Renault diamond, and debadged back, there are no signs that this is a Renault. You may say why, well as you drive down the street, people are often wanting to know, "Hey what is it", when you say a Renault, the shock on their faces is enough. This was taken at the 1997 Melbourne F1 GP.
By de-chroming the car, it has cleaned the lines up a huge amount, in some ways this has also modernised the look of the car. Also by getting rid of the overiders on the front, the clean lines make the car look alot more unclutted. The stickers on the door you see are custom designed, some of the stickers are Gordini Racing Parts, Mad Kitty Racing Team, which by the way is a growing force here. Movo Motorsport, Ebony Phase III, Ebony is the name of the car and that it's in it's third Generation of modification.
	Here we see the start of the interior, mainly black carpet and polished alloy. Yep you have to climb across the side intrusion bars, but thats easy once you've gotten used to it. The standard black door trims have been kept, this makes things here alot easier for registration, plain metal is frowned upon here, some padding is seen as safer, also the original rear side trim's were kept as well.
From here you can see how the custom dash sits in the original place of the dash console. I made it to fit into the original hole, even fitting similar holding screws as this made things alot easier. The profile is not much different in overall dimensions, just that fitting the Autometer Tach gave me some interesting problems, Glare at night, well this is an on going problem to solve. I have a cover for the dash, it sits over the top at night, but driving normally around town, the light reflects out of the way in the windscreen so things are not all that bad.
	So this is the engine so far, custom everything really, well it has been a long slog on alot of the stuff, finding places that would work on the car. But we have found a group of places here that work on the cars, so in getting custom made upgrades, we have been converting as many things as possible to generic parts, like replacing the radiator hoses with stainless steel pipes and easy to find silicone end pipe fittings, hopefully increasing the overall engine life well into the future, no more split pipes. Ideas like that, that is what l working towards with the R15.
Here is a close view of what you might see sitting in the seat, I have placed all the dials to be read alot earier. In this set-up the Autometer Tach can seen with no problem, the digital speedo is perfectly in the middle of the steering wheel, with the fuel and amps either side of it. On the custom gauge pod where the speaker grille was holds the oil pressure and temp. You'll also notice the yellow shift light plastic cover, this is a fantastic little device, well it's a good "poverty" indicator, you set it on the Autometer Tach and then when the desired RPM is reached it light's up. Some people laugh at it, but at least I don't have to rebuild my engine every few months.
	In this Photo you can see how we mounted the Terratrip 404 trip computer. Having it mounted in the glovebox area, we have found that during the day it does not suffer from sun glare. And it's out of the way of the navigators legs while still being clear and easy to read. Also you'll see the alloy foot plate for the navigator, on the upper right hand side is a foot button for the air horns for the navigator. The driver uses the normal horn, this has ofter proved quite funny sometimes as the passenger ofter feels some power at having a horn to press. The custom instrument pod is plastic plumbing tube, one straight and one curve, per side, it's then been bonded into the original speaker grille. The grille was them filled with plastic filler, sanded and the sprayed in black crackle finish paint. The dials were then fitted, by slowly enlarging the Internal Diameter of the tubes, so that they slip fit in.
The seats have been totally retrimed in recaro cloth, they are a marsh seat, but because the seat is an older basic design, they really suit the car. I got "Renault Sport" cloth patches made for the front seats also in yellow and grey, these I thing compliment the seats really well. And of course the Total racing harnesses, I have also kept the normal seat bels as for city driving it make getting in and out just that much easier.