Vintage Thing No.107 - Nimbus
Nimbus was, and is, low. Note the great scallop cut out of the bonnet to allow hot air from the front mounted radiator to escape. I'm not into personal plates but TOY711 seems quite appropriate. Nimbus is a very low hillclimber built by Don Parker and powered by a supercharged 1293cc Mini engine and gearbox mounted at the back. The bodyshell is a much modified moulding originally intended for a GSM Delta, a rare breed of kit car that came to Blighty from South Africa in 1960. However, Nimbus pre-dates the GSM Delta by some years (nobody is now sure by how many). As built in the fifties, it had aluminium bodywork to clothe its spaceframe chassis and a front mounted Riley engine, which was subsequently replaced by a transverse Ford sidevalve engine. This drove through a Norton gearbox and chain to a rigid rear axle and apparently was a pig to handle. Must've been that rigid rear axle, I guess. Anyway, by the time I saw this curiosity at Prescott Hillclimb in 1984 (incide...