Vintage Thing No.101 - Kermit

Phil's wife it was who painted on those eyes

I would like to say exactly when I first clapped eyes on Kermit - for it was indeed a momentous occasion - but I can be no more specific than Easter 1984 or Easter 1985. Or maybe Easter 1986. I can't honestly remember. The venue is in no doubt, though - Tregrehan Hillclimb near St Austell in Cornwall

On that occasion there were bikes, cars and three-wheelers at the same event, which featured a very muddy paddock. The three-wheeler classes consisted of traditional asymmetrical sidecar outfits and symmetrical home made creations, often a triangluar frame extending backwards from the front subframe of some front-wheel-drive saloon, typically a Mini.

Kermit as built was a stubby little fellow. It's now a lot sleeker to allow me to get in it.

One of them was so obviously different in concept from the others and conspicuously supercharged that it held my interest as it came to the start line. This I subsequently came to know as Kermit, so-called because it was green and had a French heart and soul - a Citroen engine gearbox and front subframe.

As it span up its front tyres to warm them, somebody tapped me insistently on the shoulder. I turned but there was no-one there. I fleetingly wondered if the start line at Tregrehan was haunted by The Ghost of The Ancient Hill-Climber but carried on watching and as Kermit came to the line I held my hands up to my ears. Bloody hell it was loud!

The driver and intrepid passenger waited for a green light to go and the revs rose. The tapping on my shoulder became quite a thumping and got more insistent but I ignored it. Then there was a green light and Kermit shot up the first straight despite its muddy slick tyres.

And the tapping on my shoulder disappeared as well.

It was then that I realised that, far from anyone trying to attract my attention, and rather disappointingly not experiencing The Ghost of The Ancient Hill-Climbe, rI was feeling the impacts of Kermit's exhaust pulses exiting from stubby exhaust pipes tuned for top end power. Drag racers call them zoomies.

I was about twenty feet away from Kermit at the time. Kermit is low and I am well over 6 foot tall.

That's how hard the exhaust pulses were.

Kermit was built by Phil Williams of Tywardreath in a week having been inspired by Tarkus (VT No.100). Phil had competed for years in an Imp-powered sidecar outfit and had even raced at the Isle of Man. He was no stranger to three-wheelering and the symmetrical variety was eligible for speed hillclimbs.

Mismatched paint is from when it got squashed by the fuzz on the way to an event

As built Kermit had two Mini arms at the rear so Kermit was really a four wheeler but, like the UK road taxation rules, if they were a certain distance apart they counted as one. Phil subsequently told me that a single arm would have been better. He found two arms did nothing for the stability and one arm would be a lot lighter.

Phil followed Jake Challenger's example and supercharged Kermit's engine with a vane-type Shorrock C75b supercharger. He also ran it on alcohol with jets so large that neat fuel ran out of the zoomies when he opened the throttle without the engine running. That's the rule of thumb to follow with dope fuels, apparently.

Kermit went very well. Rumour has it that it still holds a record on a hill albeit one that's no longer used anymore.

Somebody told me Phil went straight on at Tregrehan's top hairpin once, hitting the gateposts outside Tregrehan House so hard that Kermit stood up on its nose before crashing down again. There was a shocked silence but then Phil turned his head and grinned reassuringly at the crowd. If he wasn't rattled, why should they be?

Kermit was once assaulted by the police, too. Phil made a special trailer for Kermit and one day, while waiting to turn right on a busy road, a policewoman ran into the back of him. I think she was off duty. Let's be charitable and say that she'd had a hard shift. Anyway, Kermit got a bit bent although the trailer probably fended off most of the impact. Kermit's frame was quite brief and, while not particularly strong, it was simple and didn't take a lot for Phil to repair.

A few months after I bought my house in 1996 I noticed an advert in the local Free Ads offering a pair of Citroen flat four engines with gearboxes in Saltash. I have a long standing interest in Citroen GSAs and rang the number to confirm what was on offer. The vendor, a fellow enthusiast called Wayne Holmes, also had driveshafts and a selection of gearboxes so I asked him if he'd broken a GSA for spares in case he had body panels, interior trim and such like.

"Nah, mate, they came with a hillclimbing trike."

"Not Kermit!" I replied.

"Yeah!. Come on! Take the whole bloody lot!"

So I did.

The way I looked at it I bought a load of Citroen GSA spares and got Kermit thrown in for free

One of the engines was mounted in Kermit and featured two Weber 28/36s on home made manifolds. Wayne's wife was a paraplegic and he'd hatched a plot to fit Kermit with a semi-automatic gearbox of the type featured in GSAs so she could go hillclimbing. However, this project ran out of steam although I really liked the idea of it.

Kermit had been stored outside for some time and had suffered a bit. I don't think Phil Williams had given much thought to rust prevention during Kermit's week long conception and gestation.

I subsequently tracked Phil down through a conversation at one of Peter Tuthill's talks about Cornwall's Grand Prix circuit and discovered that Phil was 5'2", which explained why my feet went passed the pedals.

That's the main modification that I've undertaken so far. I had to lengthen the main chassis rails by 20cm just to fit in it.

Phil used universal brake fluid in Kermit which featured Citroen discs, a BL master cylinder and Mini wheel cylinders in the two rear wheels. I've converted it to full Citroen system with a 2CV master cylinder and a 2CV wheel cylinder on the single rear wheel. Y'see, having spoken to Phil about what he would change on Kermit top of the list was converting to a single rear wheel.

Another tip I got from Phil was to keep the front and rear brake systems separate. He didn't but only for his initial test drive. With the first application of the foot brake he locked up the rear wheel and did a full 180 degree spin. 

Phil kept the supercharger and I don't know what happened to it ultimately but they come up for sale from to time. Phil, who died a few years ago, told me that originally the blower sat on top of the crankcase but as "I'm such a shortarse I couldn't see over it!" By turning it through 180 degrees and mounting it low in front of the engine, he managed to improve the visibility markedly.

The main plan is to get Kermit just to run again using a 1299cc GSA engine in standard from with its fan and all its cowling intact. Phil originally ran Kermit on alcohol and only for short distances but I know from advice garnered from members of the Citroen Specials Club that GSA motors don't like everyday use without their fans and cowlings because the rear cylinders run hot. Phil liked the naked look and enjoyed telling people he'd made an overhead cam conversion for a Beetle engine.

I am considering using Citroen "up-and-down" suspension on the front end. Jake Challenger developed a cunning wheeze for Tarkus where he could use cut down rubber trumpets from a Mini but Phil made up a pump so that he could tune the suspension ride height to different tracks. I've got a Hydragas pump for my Allegro that does the same job so this seems the sensible thing to do.

To cater for my lankier frame, Kermit is now a good deal sleeker than its rather endearing stubby little self. I didn't agonize about this for long - there was no way I could fit into it without modification. I will run it with the fan and cooling shroud as well, for reliability's sake.

Running on methanol allowed Phil to dispense with the standard fancooling and engine chrouding. He also derived a certain amount of pleasure by explaining to a credulous public that he'd designed and built an overhead cam conversion for a Beetle engine.

There's still a lot to do to Kermit such as clutch and throttle cables, zorsts, fuel tank and - if I want to use Kermit on the road, which appeals hugely - lights. SVAing Kermit will take time but would really expand the opportunities to enjoy it.

Blowing a GSA motor also sounds attractive to me. Phil had a lot of time for the French engine and found it more durable even in blown form than using a normally aspirated Alfasud engine (that's another story to appear here on Engine Punk soon).

And if I get the blower it'll stick out front like it did before.