Ahhhhh, the old "blue book". It's more about what's NOT in it than in it. If it's not in there then you can do it (within reason)

hehe thanks for all the replies, yes the blue book is great, you read it then think" hang on have I missed something here it doesn't say I can't use solar power, a wind turbine, hydrigen, a kite and kers to increase BHP so why shouldn't I??"...or similar

The body work is going to be very much function over form I was thinking of a one piece boonet / front bumper akin to some old school racing Mini's, then my wife said "what happens if you crash into the back of someone? Won't it all break rather than just the bumper?" to be fair I was quite taken back with how astute that observation was, it also pointed out that I need to research hard, design to type, mock up and measure twice well before committing!

I'm looking to get a similar result to this German Schirra Racing team (even though this is an R56 turbo car gen 2 and I'm running supercharged gen 1 R53) http://www.schirra-motoring.de/motorsport/schirra-mini/.

The car will be slightly raked to improve airflow over the front, I'll be making a custom front scoop and the bonnet will have louvres over the exhaust pointing out, over the intake pointing in and over each part of the wing section. The arches will be extended and on each rear facing part will be vented, there will be a skirt down the side that links to each fender to aid ground effect while the front bumper will have 4 sections for ducting to the front brakes, there will also be dual cold air intakes 1 as a feed to my CAI and the second as a cooler to the CAI pipework, I'm looking to make a jacket out of cf for the piping which has exhaust reflection sheeting (gold) at the engine side to cut down on heat soak.

There will be an oil cooler rather than an AC unit / heater /oil exchange, 2 ducts will be either side of this a la Mini GP, 2 ducts will be where the fogs are on the aero bumper as per Oranjje performance and 2 ducts (for cai) will be fabbed into the front top grill or possibly where the headlight is on the right side.

The car will be getting a complete underside from front to back with venturis under the engine bay and toward the rear brakes for brake cooling, the exhast system and battery box will be altered and raised to allow for a full width diffuser at the rear, I'm thinking of making this from a kevlar aramid sandwhich of veneer, balsa, and expanded lightweight steel, I learnt this from an americas cup yacht builder I'm informed it's one fo the best ways to exploit strength without losing out to weight.

Any thoughts? I know this seems ambitious but hey without ambition or dreams we'd still be in caves!

I''m building a race car!
I believe that if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade..and try to find somebody whose life''s given them vodka and have a party - Ron White
Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting - Steve McQueen

Sounds like an ambitous plan, I like it!  If I understand right you are reversing the flow of air in the engine bay - usually in the front through the rad and out the bottom - you are making an undertray and venting out if the top.  Is this right?  If it is make sure you have enough airflow on the outside or you'll overheat massively!

WRT a one piece front its a good idea for access but you do run the risk of breakages. Most racers I know just use GRP and bash out a few fronts.  What you could do is have bond together sections so you'd only need to replace the damaged sections rather than the whole lot.  Look at an elise as an example, whilst its front is sectional through production requirements it does allow for replacement of just the bumper section.

Body rake and diffusers are quite well studied so that should give you a good starting point but you might need a trip to MIRA to get it properly set up

The venturis will be attached to two hoses going to the brakes so in total the front brakes will have 3 cooling ducts each, the underfloor will have exit holes for air flow under the exhaust to help heat produced from the block flow out and down, some will go out of the top over the manifold and some will come in from the top to the cai, airflow will still be coming into the bay via the tmic, radiator upper and lower grills.

It sounds like you have it well thought out.  I can't wait to see the results.

Started costing up materials and hope to get going on this from January onwards, I will update a project thread and post the link here once I get going, thanks for all the kind feedback and welcomes

I''m building a race car!
I believe that if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade..and try to find somebody whose life''s given them vodka and have a party - Ron White
Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting - Steve McQueen