I've been working on a Somethin' Extra with some modifications inspired by a number of other threads in this forum. At present, I have not posted a build thread because it pretty much looks like every other SSE build thread. However, I'm now starting to get to the interesting deviations, so I thought I'd share my first unique alteration. I'm going to use a Saito .72, but wanted to mount it a little cleaner than letting it stick straight out the top. After seeing the teriffic cowl jobs on the Ventures and 4* kits posted recently, I decided to attempt a side-mount with a built-up cowl. The cowl is still in it's infancy, but the mount and subsequent throttle linkage presented the first challenge. I wanted the needle to be accessible from the top, so I had to turn the carburator around. This placed the throttle arm directly behind the cylinder head. To (hopefully) prevent a very nose heavy condition, I needed to keep the engine as close as possible to the firewall. This left practically no room for conventional throttle linkage. The solution I came up with utilized a piece of 1/8" aluminum rod, 2 1/8" steering arms, a 1/8" wheel collar, a short length of 1/16" music wire, and 2 EZ connectors. It just so happened that the stock engine mounts were pre-drilled to facilitate the rod's use as a pivot for the offset linkage. The pictures show more detail, but this will allow me to run a Sullivan Golden rod below the fuel tank and through the firewall and loop back with a 180 bend to operate the throttle from the front, but below the lower engine mount.

Comments or critiques?