Well looking at those lotus control arms, I think I will take up that pro bono consultancy offer As to the "when", I quite frankly am not sure at this stage as I have ended up thinking we're better off fine tuning things and driving the wheels off this first before we subject it to the welder's gun again! I guess it sounds like age catching up with me but I do feel that as things stand we have a pretty outstanding vehicle for what it is and we haven't been able to do justice to it as yet . And its at heart essentially a "rock rig" like our partner 4405 which does not stand to win much in pure desert races outside its class....
So I am trying to restrict myself to better shocks and bushings, fine tuning of springs/shackle angles, steering mods and maybe a custom fabricated stabilizer bar for the rear... I think thats cleans out my wallet until Cholistan 2013
Nevertheless since Toyota says "our minds are always racing", if I do win a lottery, I would not rule out acquiring a fresh chassis and reverting to the original plan to slowly make this into a rock buggy like our partner rig with linked coilovers and solid axles. Something like BellyDoc's rig from Pirate4x4:
Or the even more radical wild thoughts like turning things around into a rear engined IFS truggy like Shannon Campbell's KOH winner :