Am investigating dry-sumping the car as I have discovered Pace still have the Mantis Challenge kits available. Cost not prohibitive as I only need a simple two stage system, but I have yet to hear what the fitting bill might be! Progress on the exhaust front too, having been quoted a bit much by far-distant MH and received no reply from Peninsula Autos (another customer lost), I have visited the excellent Tube Torque in Macclesfield. After some discussion we have settled on a twin heavy-gauge stainless system from the Cats back, taking the bore up from 2″ to 2.5″ in the process. If I am really sad I will attach a ‘.wav’ file to this page with the new sound on… Heh! Heh!

Once again I am reminded that my Mantis was one of the first five built. The exhaust has split (hard to tell with that delicious roar coming out of the back, mind!) & it turns out that my car has a mild steel system, which Marcos ditched for stainless early on (not early enough!) in the Mantis development cycle. It also appears that I have clipped something under the car & nudged the sump guard into the sump, fortunately without damaging it. Then again, I have just lowered the back of the car so I will obviously have to be particularly vigilant for those policemen catching some zeds in the middle of our roads!