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V12 BOMBER

by
Ian Hyne
Reprinted from Kit Car Magazine August 2001

Neil Foreman has created possibly the ultimate kit car in the form of a replica of a universally acknowledged supercar classic powered by a glorious V12 engine. Ian Hyne hits the high spots.

This is the stuff of boyhood dreams. I'm at the wheel of a Foreman CanAm. The car looks absolutely mouth-wateringly sensational with its blood red livery almost blinding in the fierce sun. We're in the outside lane of theM20 blasting past everything in sight when my enthusiasm is rudely interrupted by a speed restriction sign. I look at the speedometer but its one of those things that doesn't stir itself much below 60 kph and reads right up to 300!. The only slight snag is that it hasn't stirred itself at all so I look at the rev counter. It's sitting pretty steady at 4,000 which seems about right but the last time I thought that I got a speeding ticket in France for doing Paris to Calais on the Peage at an average speed of ninety in the Ginetta G20 on the return from the Liege event.
Once bitten, I lean towards Neil Foreman and ask him what revs I need for 70? 'About 2,500', he says. Oh bugger! I lift off, we leave the Motorway and head for H.Q. As we turn into the rural retreat that is Neil's home as well as that of N F Auto Developments, I'm surprised to see a Police car parked opposite, seemingly waiting for us. As I stop at the gate, a PC and WPC get out of their car and walk over as I frantically concoct a cover story whilst marveling at the speed and efficiency of their communications and powers of deduction that have led them directly to the perpetrator of the worst traffic offence Kent has seen in a long time.
What could I say? All I could do was to tell the truth and throw myself at their mercy. I mean it's one thing to be given the keys to a glorious replica of possibly the most beautiful Ferrari ever made. But its quite another to be given the keys to the car knowing that beneath that huge convoluted carapace that is the rear deck sits a V12 engine topped off with four red crackle-finish cam covers. The legend emblazoned on them is FERRARI.
It's an all alloy 4,823cc, quad cam, 60 degree V12 pumping out around 350 bhp @ 6,400 rpm with 304ft lbs @ 4,200 rpm. But that's just the statistics. It's the look, the lay out, the legend, the sound and that magical, lyrical performance. This is a very special car and though it's something that everybody will admire, takers for a car from this league in factory-finished Ferrari fired form are relatively few. 
They didn't make many Ferrari P4's; just a few Berlinettas of which two were converted to CanAms for a while. More than that they were all different so the features on this car represent an amalgam of features taken from a cross section of the cars produced. The black racing numerals with orange edging are off one car, the decal layout off another. Other features like the alternator cooling duct, the air vents on the rear deck and the extravagant rear deck mounted air intakes are also features of original cars.
There is an aura surrounding anything that is related to the Cavalino Rampante and this car has it in spades. Neil Foreman hasn't just put a Ferrari V12 into a loose replica of one of the most famous models ever to emerge from Maranello. He has invested blood, sweat and tears in a car that reflects every ounce of the artistry of its creation and though, engine aside, this automotive deception is aided and abetted by Ford, Rover, Porsche and BMW, the overriding influence is Italian and it is superb.
Descending from the hyperbole to the more mundane levels of facts and statistics, the car's correct moniker is a Foreman CaAm. The basis is a round and square tube spaceframe chassis of 16 and 18 gauge ERW steel. It has deformable front and rear crumple zones with bolt-on side frames affording lateral protection. It has a 16 gauge steel floor and aluminium interior paneling.
Front and rear suspension is by double polyurethane bushed wishbones and cast aluminium uprights with adjustable coil-spring damper units. The steering uses a Foreman modified Sierra rack and pinion mated to a Rover SD1 collapsible steering column. The pedals come courtesy of the BMW 3 series and incorporate the clutch master cylinder while the brake master cylinder is s remote fitting on the servo - in front of the passenger footwell. Brakes are Ford Granada Scorpio ventilated fronts and solid rears with the option of four-pot calipers and larger diameter ventilated discs.
In the engine bay, the choice covers V6 units from Renault, Volvo and Peugeot as well as the Small Block V8's from Rover Ford or Chevrolet. A previous car got a lot more exotic with a Lamborghini V12 but this Ferrari V12 is the ultimate inhabitant of the rear end.
This engine is taken from a Ferrari 400i V12 saloon if such a car deserves such a mundane description. They came in both Carburettor form wit a stack of twin choke Webers or Injection by Bosch. The standard power output is 315 bhp @ 6400 rpm but the Foreman exhaust gives it a good power hike greatly assisted by the absence of power steering and air conditioning such that the estimate of 350 bhp will be pretty accurate.
The transaxle is Porsche G50 five-speed unit from the 911. Driving 15 inch wheels fitted with 245/50 front and 305/50 rear rubber, the gearing works out to a tall 29 mph per 1,000 rpm which accounts for my concern at 4,000 on the motorway as it equates to 116 mph!!. Ho hum. I didn't do it for long but how can you accurately describe the sensations of driving a car like this if you keep it at 70? That surge of power that blasts it way beyond the performance ability of virtually every mainstream production car with casual ease is what makes a Ferrari and this car so special.
So what's it like?
Compared to the extravagantly styled exterior mission control is pretty ordinary as these cars go. You slide into a minimally upholstered seat that hugs your hips between the side pod and the central chassis rails. Ahead, the black, electro-statically flocked dash has a couple of bubbles; one housed the speedometer, rev counter water temperature, oil pressure and an assortment of fairy lights while the other housed a voltmeter. On the main dash is the fuel gauge and oil temperature with an indicator switch to the left of the wheel and a horn button to the right. On the driver's sill is the brake balance control knob with the ignition and other switchgear fitted next to the right hand gear change.
You're comfortable, strapped in and ready for go and the procedure id deliciously intricate. You have to flip the red protective cover on the steel tipped toggle switch, flick the switch to ON and then press the tit alongside. The result is quite a high pitched whirr as the engines twelve cylinders spin up to speed before erupting into vibrant life. Twelve cylinders equals seamless smoothness with millisecond intervals between detonations such that tickover sounds like a gentle hum as opposed to the lumpy beat of a pumped-up Chevy. It actually sounds pretty innocuous until you blip it. The hum becomes a growl while you need to give it a healthy dollop of revs to really get that symphony beating timbre and exhaust reverberation that is so much part of the Maranello mystique.
If the sight of a Foreman CanAm in Ferrari red looks intimidating when it's looming large in your rear view mirror, initial impressions are that it's anything but from behind the wheel. The gear lever is a bit ponderous to get into first but the pedals are well weighted with an easy action such that smooth take offs are easily accomplished although at first, you do tend to overdo the revs on quite a light throttle. Once on the move a decisive tug back takes you click, clicking into second as the quite firm suspension copes with the erratic undulating surface of Kent's rural back roads. This is a big car, fourteen feet long and six feet wide but such is the control reaction and feel that it is easily placed and controlled. As we purr through the dappled shade of leafy lanes, the car is quite happy in third with oodles of torque doing the work while low revs make it feel as docile as a lamb. Once we arrive at the main road a dab on the brakes finds a good deal of travel on the middle stump which, along with the recalcitrant speedometer, Neil identifies as the other problem he has yet to fix on this car. That said, braking efficiency is no problem.
On the main road, the suspension delivers a much smoother ride such that you press the throttle. The result is stunning. It's not that this car is faster than all other Foremans - it isn't. A Chevy or Ford V8 can match it for brawn all the way but it's the way the Ferrari lump delivers it's goods. Throttle reaction is superb as the Bosch K-Jetronic systems (one per bank of six cylinders) do their stuff. There's a squat from the back end as the pedal goes down and then that crescendo of glorious noise that rises from the tyre treads to wail in your wake as the tacho needle swings towards 7,000. Words can't describe the sound; that's why you have to buy or borrow a Ferrari to experience it but it's a narcotic in the way that it grabs your senses and makes an indelible impression that, once heard, you will forever recognize.
As the CanAm accelerates, successive gear changes find sympathetically spaced cogs in the Porsche box that whack it up to a theoretical 188 mph. Having experienced the casual ease with which it catapults you well into three figures, I can believe especially as when sitting on the motorway at 4,000, a twitch of the right foot found the Maranello motor instantly ready to rock. With many engines it's the scream of acceleration that gets the nerves tingling and the hairs standing proud on the back of your neck but this one was sheer music at the steady beat of 4,000 rpm. Maybe it's something to do with an appreciation of the mechanical complexity exercising just behind your head. Those four cams, a bucket-load of valves, timing gears and of course, twelve pistons spinning on an intricaltely machined crankshaft located on seven main bearings. I love it but though the chief area of interest is the engine that powers it, it's by no means the CanAm's only talent. This is also a superbly gifted car in the handling and roadholding stakes.
Though the front end is very lightly loaded, it's still rolling on bally-great tyres such that the lightness and fluidity of the steering came as a pleasant surprise. It feels absolutely perfect and weighs up beautifully as you coax it into the turns. When you do, the Ford/Rover double act that makes up the rack and column feeds the information to the driver in pretty emphatic terms. We drove quickly on the motorway but we didn't hang around on the A roads either where the steering feel and accuracy allows you to position the car with real precision, tucking well into the left handers and taking a fine line through the rights where forward vision is unobstructed. The only snag in such an arena is the distortion reflected ih the Perspex wind deflector especially when you're looking to the left but I found just raising my head a fraction to look over it solved the problem.
Body roll is negligible so you've always got a stable platform for the monster rear rubber to grip and go and even as the corner speeds increase to high levels, there was never a twitch or shimmy from either end; just solid grip and hugely confidence-inspiring handling that made the car easy to drive which is not to say that you can ever relax when you're on the gas.
In truth, this particular Foreman is the ultimate kit car delivering the looks and performance of a classic supercar at a fraction of the millions an original P4 would command. That said a fraction of millions is still a lot of money and Neil reckons he'd need about £60,000 to produce you a car to this specification. For that you also get a working speedometer and a successfully adjusted brake pedal.
Is it a glorious but ultimately white elephant? The answer is an emphatic NO. This is the third Ferrari-powered Foreman Neil has made and while it serves as the ultimate specification demonstrator for the Mk4, it also serves as the finest possible mobile advertisement for his engineering and fabrication skills which are in great demand.
On the day of my visit, the workshop played host to the initial stages of an E Type Jag restoration, a Lancia twin-cam, turbo powered Transformer Stratos which the customer wanted Neil to finish, the Lamborghini V12 engine from a Mk4 which the owner wanted Neil to rebuild following a blow-up and if that wasn't enough three Mk4 orders have come in all together with another two on the way. I'm hugely pleased that there is a demand for what Neil does as it's a wonderful advertisement for this endlessly inventive, an accomplished industry.
IAN HYNE

Note: The Police were just friends visiting for a cuppa. Neil.