We'll thought I ought to stick a build thread up here. I'm not entirely sure if it's right forum since although it was registered 2005, it's on a E plate by virtue of the donor (please move it if I've done it wrong already haha).
So the backstory. We'll if you've seen the demise of the lexus build thread, youl know that's had its day. And I needed something else to tinker with and keep me out of bother.
I've got a bit of unfinished business with a kit car(lotus 7 style thing), I say unfinished when I was about 15 I had a go in 2 (one with a 1300 x flow, the other with a 2ltr pinto in) and I loved it. The noise, the rawness, the sense of impeding danger haha. 30mph felt like 130
Me and my dad were going to build one as my first car, he was friends with Martin Keenan (the original guy behind mk kitcars who I'm still in touch with) so we organised the donor parts and he was going to supply a chassis. Well that never happened, the insurance wouldn't go near me as a first car. And members of the local travelling community who were into scrap metal stole my donor bits. So we built my mini instead and that was that.
Fast forward 19 years and a whole lot of life I really fancied finally getting one. No there not practical as a form of transport. But as a toy. Surely the closest thing to a bike you can get. And without building something 600bhp how would I go faster than the lexus. By adding lightness that's how 😉
I'd pondered a bike engined car. Although the 15k rpm rev limit seemed apeallin the cost and the fickleness of bike engines (especially dragging half a ton along) put me off. Another deciding factor was budget. Or rather my lack of it. Seems it's been one way traffic from my bank at minute and just as the nice weather was making an appearance all the cars I fancied jumped by 2k too.
Now I could have built one from scratch. I've got hang of welding to a decent level now. And got the tools needed. But not the time. And regardless of any budgets I came up with, we all know it would cost atleast twice as much as it should. And take 5 times aslong.
Then there's the cost of the IVA and it's stupid rules. Il be honest if I get run over by a kit car, the last thing il care about is rubber caps on the nuts 😂. I didnt particularly want to mess having to register something either.
So with that what I really needed was a car engined car, that was rough and ready but registered and I could make my own.
Browsing the depths of face ache one night and a tiger cat E1 popped up on the for sale pages. Correctly registered, terribly advertised and only down the road. And cheap. Really cheap. The crux, it would start but only idle not rev up??!
Straight away mind goes into overdrive. Worst case wants an engine straight on eBay what's going rate for said engine. Bargain we can live with that. Couple of messages exchanged and we've organised to view next day
My boss is fully onboard with this latest daft idea so came with me to view. He's fancying a cateram himself (definitely different ends of the budget to me 😂) Turns up an it's sat on stands in a garage where it's sat last 3 years. But it's all there. Asked to hear it run and coincidentally it now won't start at all. curse word.
Now what do I do. The back story is he bought it as a non runner from the guy who built it originally (alarm bells straight away surely guy who built it would be able to fix it). Fixed the damaged wiring loom and it's never worked since (there's more to that fable but il save tha for another day). Then COVID happended (bloke owned a pub, Mrs got poorly, life got in way etc etc) and here it's sat.
The car itself has been put together properly. As said it's a tiger cat E1, built from a kit using Sierra donor parts. Has a Sierra lsd, spax adjustable shocks, billet hi spec 4 pots braided lines etc etc. Oh and the engine. A ford st170 engine running dice itbs and dta S60 management!! So the money's clearly been spent! But it didn't run.
It's also got a folder 3 inch thick of the original build, every reciept for a scary amount of money (now I know why I throw reciepts away haha). All the relevant IVA paperwork and even a build diary. Oh and the logbook which confirmed 1 previous owner!
So what did I do. Waded in with the size 12s on, and made an offer. A cheeky offer but an offer all the same. Tiny county offer back and we'll. Here it is 😂😂 (not content with owning Cars that don't work, I'm now buyin em in broken haha). These were the pics from the advert
Now it's not a stunner off the bat. The colour scheme does nothing for it. The wheels are horrendous in my eyes (and really want to be 15s not 16s). The "roll bar" looks like it will do more harm than good If I go upside down. And the bonnet looks like a blind man had a go at fibre glassing after ten pints (it's been altered to clear the st170 engine).. but scratch beneath the ugly and the grime. And the foundations are there... I hope 😂
I'm not sure that this is fully suited to retro rides so won't waffle on any more for now (although the rack is Cortina how retro is that haha). But if we want to see more, il carry in
Cheers
So the backstory. We'll if you've seen the demise of the lexus build thread, youl know that's had its day. And I needed something else to tinker with and keep me out of bother.
I've got a bit of unfinished business with a kit car(lotus 7 style thing), I say unfinished when I was about 15 I had a go in 2 (one with a 1300 x flow, the other with a 2ltr pinto in) and I loved it. The noise, the rawness, the sense of impeding danger haha. 30mph felt like 130
Me and my dad were going to build one as my first car, he was friends with Martin Keenan (the original guy behind mk kitcars who I'm still in touch with) so we organised the donor parts and he was going to supply a chassis. Well that never happened, the insurance wouldn't go near me as a first car. And members of the local travelling community who were into scrap metal stole my donor bits. So we built my mini instead and that was that.
Fast forward 19 years and a whole lot of life I really fancied finally getting one. No there not practical as a form of transport. But as a toy. Surely the closest thing to a bike you can get. And without building something 600bhp how would I go faster than the lexus. By adding lightness that's how 😉
I'd pondered a bike engined car. Although the 15k rpm rev limit seemed apeallin the cost and the fickleness of bike engines (especially dragging half a ton along) put me off. Another deciding factor was budget. Or rather my lack of it. Seems it's been one way traffic from my bank at minute and just as the nice weather was making an appearance all the cars I fancied jumped by 2k too.
Now I could have built one from scratch. I've got hang of welding to a decent level now. And got the tools needed. But not the time. And regardless of any budgets I came up with, we all know it would cost atleast twice as much as it should. And take 5 times aslong.
Then there's the cost of the IVA and it's stupid rules. Il be honest if I get run over by a kit car, the last thing il care about is rubber caps on the nuts 😂. I didnt particularly want to mess having to register something either.
So with that what I really needed was a car engined car, that was rough and ready but registered and I could make my own.
Browsing the depths of face ache one night and a tiger cat E1 popped up on the for sale pages. Correctly registered, terribly advertised and only down the road. And cheap. Really cheap. The crux, it would start but only idle not rev up??!
Straight away mind goes into overdrive. Worst case wants an engine straight on eBay what's going rate for said engine. Bargain we can live with that. Couple of messages exchanged and we've organised to view next day
My boss is fully onboard with this latest daft idea so came with me to view. He's fancying a cateram himself (definitely different ends of the budget to me 😂) Turns up an it's sat on stands in a garage where it's sat last 3 years. But it's all there. Asked to hear it run and coincidentally it now won't start at all. curse word.
Now what do I do. The back story is he bought it as a non runner from the guy who built it originally (alarm bells straight away surely guy who built it would be able to fix it). Fixed the damaged wiring loom and it's never worked since (there's more to that fable but il save tha for another day). Then COVID happended (bloke owned a pub, Mrs got poorly, life got in way etc etc) and here it's sat.
The car itself has been put together properly. As said it's a tiger cat E1, built from a kit using Sierra donor parts. Has a Sierra lsd, spax adjustable shocks, billet hi spec 4 pots braided lines etc etc. Oh and the engine. A ford st170 engine running dice itbs and dta S60 management!! So the money's clearly been spent! But it didn't run.
It's also got a folder 3 inch thick of the original build, every reciept for a scary amount of money (now I know why I throw reciepts away haha). All the relevant IVA paperwork and even a build diary. Oh and the logbook which confirmed 1 previous owner!
So what did I do. Waded in with the size 12s on, and made an offer. A cheeky offer but an offer all the same. Tiny county offer back and we'll. Here it is 😂😂 (not content with owning Cars that don't work, I'm now buyin em in broken haha). These were the pics from the advert
Now it's not a stunner off the bat. The colour scheme does nothing for it. The wheels are horrendous in my eyes (and really want to be 15s not 16s). The "roll bar" looks like it will do more harm than good If I go upside down. And the bonnet looks like a blind man had a go at fibre glassing after ten pints (it's been altered to clear the st170 engine).. but scratch beneath the ugly and the grime. And the foundations are there... I hope 😂
I'm not sure that this is fully suited to retro rides so won't waffle on any more for now (although the rack is Cortina how retro is that haha). But if we want to see more, il carry in
Cheers