As a 26 year old design/detail draughtsman in 1979/80 my test to become a Project Design draughtsman was to produce the 2D manufacturing drawings for the clutch bellhousing and the gearshift casting. The bellhousing was to mate the ZF gearbox to the Rover V8 Engine. I also did the dashboard labels, translated from Swedish to English. I remember ding the detail drawing for the engine mounts [ designed by a colleague ] which i was unsure about how they were made.
I still have the drawing prints today and often wondered what happened to the vehicle ! I keep meaning to model it in 3D as CAD did not exist in those days. I recall that I used a stencil provided by the Volvo Engineer (called Anders? ) for the text and the lines were using Pentel pencils, so not quite freehand.
The patterns used for the casting of the bellhousing were made locally at a company in Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
It is a while ago and a lot of industries and drawings later - I did the fuel tank and visited a company in Wellingborough with the fuel Cap for them to fit onto the tank.
I only had one short drive in this vehicle and managed to try the diff-locks in a small area on the Dosco site which used to be a residential army camp during WW2
DOSCO also added an ambulance body onto another 4x4 chassis and Volvo provided a 6 wheel truck - all of these kept the Volvo Engigne and all three went on the British Army Trials. I was not allowed to go on these trials with the vehicles even though I was the only one with a professional Class 1 licence [ still annoyed but still alive 🙂 ] The identity on the front grille on the Hawker Siddley logo HS100-4. This vehicle was said to have been used to pull the competition out of the mud when they had become stuck and the British Army were impressed but this is only hear say to me.
I also know why the project was allegedly dropped by the Dosco MD at the time.
