Vintage Thing No. 127 - Bugrat
Entered in the 2013 Land's End Trial this year was this Skoda-based Bugrat. It wasn't far away from Binky and I in the running order and at Hangman's Hill (not a section I'd been on before) I took the opportunity to have a closer look.
Entered by Rory Pope and Andrew Scarborough of Shaftesbury, it was running in Class 8 with all the other rear engined kit cars and specials. Its crew felt they were a bit outclassed and that they wanted more power but the Bugrat doesn't way much and more power is never enough. Believe me, I know.
The Bugrat was designed by Vince Wright, head of RV Dynamics, and took all its vital components from the old school rear engined variety of Skoda, the one that gave Skoda its reputation that allowed various advertising copywriters to repudiate with the later front wheel drive cars.
There's an outpouring of understandable enthusiasm for them on Retro Rides and I like it because a) it recycles motor parts, b) Skodas are under-rated and c) I support the weird and wonderful world of DIY mechanarchy (but you knew that anyway)
Skoda saloons seem to make a lot of sense for trialling, for they were Group N RAC class winners for many years, but I remember talking to John Aley of the MCC about his. He campaigned a saloon named "Olga the mud wrestler" but she wasn't quite as victorious as he'd hoped. I forget why.
Lightening the Skoda plot seems a good plan and the Bugrat seems to have the potential. This one boasted 1289cc and (I think) fuel injection from the Skoda 130. This was the final incarnation of the swing-axle tail waggers that handled much better than most people thought after dire reports of swing-axle nastiness associated with Skoda 110s from the sixties and seventies.
Anecdotally, Bugrats are quite tail happy but so are VW desert rails and its useful to be rear end biased for off road.
It got up Hangman's Hill okay.
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| I'm not sure what that black plastic thing is on the front wing. it's not in the other pics so maybe a carefully insulated spot of "croust" for the crew |
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| At around 700kg, the Bugrat was much lighter than the donor |
There's an outpouring of understandable enthusiasm for them on Retro Rides and I like it because a) it recycles motor parts, b) Skodas are under-rated and c) I support the weird and wonderful world of DIY mechanarchy (but you knew that anyway)
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| Inside is all Skoda instrumentation but you have to wrap up warm |
Skoda saloons seem to make a lot of sense for trialling, for they were Group N RAC class winners for many years, but I remember talking to John Aley of the MCC about his. He campaigned a saloon named "Olga the mud wrestler" but she wasn't quite as victorious as he'd hoped. I forget why.
Lightening the Skoda plot seems a good plan and the Bugrat seems to have the potential. This one boasted 1289cc and (I think) fuel injection from the Skoda 130. This was the final incarnation of the swing-axle tail waggers that handled much better than most people thought after dire reports of swing-axle nastiness associated with Skoda 110s from the sixties and seventies.
Anecdotally, Bugrats are quite tail happy but so are VW desert rails and its useful to be rear end biased for off road.
It got up Hangman's Hill okay.
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