Left Linwood as a 'Singer Chamois'
History
Car bought in September 1991 from an ad in Impressions Magazine. It had a sport engine, front rad, front discs, front ARB, 'interesting' full cage, rally dash and some very neat re-wiring. I built up a 915cc engine for it, fixed a lot of jobs needed for an MOT. Since then the car has had a variety of engines, including the one currently in my Davrian. That was fun, 0-60 in under 8 seconds in a car that looks like it belongs in a scrap yard. The name is phonetic and comes from the fact that whenever I started a job on the car, some crucial component was found to be siezed!
Specification
Currently running a 930 'sport spec' engine on either performace Solex or HS2 carb. 998 with Chesman head, twin 40's and R17 cam in bits in the garage awaiting assembly
Standard gearbox, RAC springs with adjustable dampers. 1.25" spacers under the springs, giving around 10" clearance at the sills.
Brakes: Unknown front discs on alloy hubs with Girling 14/LF calipers (Marina and just about every other british car made in the early 70's). Bias pedal box
4"x13" wheels, thought to be from an early Midget or A40. 155R13 remould tyres by Motorway (less than 10 pounds each), not the best on tarmac!
Pictures
A series of pictures taken on 'Climperwell' on the Cotswold Clouds Trial 6th Feb 1999, by Derek Hibbert
Competitions to date
1992-1998: many autotests, PCTs,12 cars and so on, some victories in amongst them. A failed go at the Allen in 1993, mainly due to me not understanding what was going on and the exhaust falling off. No-one even told me to tube the tyres, I only found that out a couple of years later!
Won the grass autotest in the pouring rain at Weston National Weekend in 1997, using the race engine now in the Davrian (no traction at all, wheels spinning everywhere!), also won 'Shed of the show' at the same event.
Bristol MC Allen Trial Nov 1998 - The first event, I rushed to get the car ready, as I was supposed to be passengering someone else, but their car was destroyed on Mineheads Exmoor Clouds event. The car was amazing, I couldn't get over how well it went. The first two sections are fairly straightforward, we cleaned them without too many problems. The third section, Big Uplands, is one of the most difficult, only 26 cars cleared it of 70, and we were amongst them. So amazed was I that I decided that we had to reach the finish no matter what. I knocked the tracking out, lost a rear shock, both due to my own mistakes, the back brakes started to bind on, eventually I had to remove the shoes on one side at the rear so we could go forwards, which left us with no handbrake. We made it to the end, picking up 16 penalties, 6th in a class of 13 and 21st O/A of 70. Driving home was a nightmare with no rear supension, bent steering and no rear brakes on the M5. A Fantastic day!!!
Stroud Cotswold Clouds Feb 1999 - Back down to earth with a bang. We only cleaned two sections and broke 100 penalties. The car was completely reliable, except the brake problem returned which killed the power and so the climbing ability.
Car now awaiting some TLC before coming out to play again in 2000.