The first picture shows the Panhard rod, necessary to stop the appalling rear-wheel-steering. The third picture shows the lever arm damper used as a idler arm for the steering. Hopefully with these views you can see clearly how much it differs from the production cars.
Its seriously below zero in the garage so I’m not really coming on with the restoration at the moment.

The free-flow exhaust manifold was made up for me by Danny at the old Scimitar Services . It was originally a “walking stick” manifold like the original Ford’s. I have had this done to make full use of the engine improvements that I have made. (strapped big end, special pistons, one-off John Wade camshaft, ported big-valve cylinder head etc.) I shall not be reconverting the car to LHD because of the problems you mentioned with clearance of the manifold. More importantly it would be a nightmare to fit the steering rack.  
I am now working on the instrument panel where I can design it to my own tastes. As a development buck the car probably never had any instruments anyway so no one can tell me what is original and what not. Consequently I have no qualms about “doing my own thing”.