Engine Punk

Could this be the last surviving Siva Mule? (Photo : Johnathan Twyneham) Before the Hillman Imp-based Siva Llama was the even rarer Mini-based Siva Mule. This particular one is a survivor that belonged, about 12 years ago to a young chap called Jonathan Twyneham. I've lost touch with him but would really like to know if this car made it back on to the road. I remember he was having lots of problems getting the thing to go but as it's Mini-based that shouldn't prove a problem. It's the rare Siva Mule bits that are important and this car looks largely complete - except for the headlights. Headlights are a sore point for me. My Llama has rectangular Mk1 Escort units fitted to the outside of the bodywork, not neatly flush fitted as in the photos. Even with this lash up, the bulbs are wedged up against the inner wing. It's obvious that the Llama was designed to have much shallower headlamp units and when I come to do my body off restoration of my Llama...

This post was prompted by a request for information about the GP Centron at the 2009 Exeter Kit Car Show. Somebody had one and wanted to know more about it so they put up a board about it in the designated car park for kit cars. They knew it had connections with Cornwall but not much more than that. I apologise for the quality of the pictures but these are photos of photos. I left my name on the writing pad asking for more info so if I hear anything I'll do an update. I happened to visit the factory at Threemilestone just outside Truro, when the moulds for the Centron II briefly resided there during the summer of 1983. At the time I was an industrial design student and tried to get a summer job out of them but had no luck. The company were called Statestyle and were developing an ultra-violet curing process for woven mat glass fibre. Staff on their experimental production line had very well bronzed forearms - it was a kind of rolling sunbed. The GP Centron was the first Beetle-base...

As found it looked a little forlorn but compare with the "after" picture below. Photo Tony Suckling It seems that just by writing about something I really stir things up. If you follow my Anarchadia book blog you'll know that real life is starting to follow the fictional world of The Horsepower Whisperer and The Wormton Lamb and probably rejoiced to hear that - from now on - all my books will feature brilliantly sunny weather. Well, now I'm stirring things up with Vintage Things. I blog about them and more come out of the wood work. If ever I fit ICE to my Llama I'll need speakers that big. Photo Tony Suckling This Siva Llama belongs to a doctor who has owned the car from new. He’s commissioned Tony Suckling in Kent to get the car going again and, through the wonders of the interweb, Tony found me to ask a few questions about Siva Llamas. It’s a 1975 car so a few months younger than mine and it looks like it’s the same colour. Mine’s been resprayed but...

Unlike previous Vintage Things, I've actually got one of these. I've had my Siva Llama for a few years now and it's currently awaiting removal of the body to allow the chassis to be shot blasted. It's a van variant - would you believe - and I've got all the hardtops and doors. It's just that it wasn't very well put together when it was built and somebody cut windows into the van sides. This wouldn't have been a problem if they'd got the measurements right. On one side they cut the hole too big and riveted in a strip to fill a gap of about 2 cm. They must have got this strip out of the bit they'd just removed. I bet the language was choice. I'm not sure how I'll deal with this when respray time beckons. Anyway, I never bothered with the doors or hardtops. It was always sunny wherever I went and the people always smiled and waved so I never felt the need. Don't judge this claim by the accompanying photos. Some of them might look ...