Engine Punk

Looks quite innocent don't it? Many people remember the turbocharged 2CV that Car magazine featured back in the eighties. It famously caught fire but showed what could be achieved in squeezing out more power from these little engines. This supercharged 2CV6 belongs to Alan Mills and although he didn't build it, he's still developing it. The exhaust note was a bit of a give away. It had a much harder edge to it and the ends of the pipes looked like blow-off valves. Behind the standard headlamp bar is the cover for the belt drive to the supercharger. You can just see the little blower under the carb. Those are tool boxes either side of the wheel to maximise traction and that front bumper is a roll of lead. The supercharger fits on top of the engine and is driven by a belt behind the standard cooling fan. It's a shortened Roots blower and sits under a down draught carb. Not a great shot but we were about to climb Crackington on the 2015 LET The clever ...

This could only be a French car This is a car that I don't fit. I sat in a Mehari years ago one and was struck by the lack of foot and legroom. Why this was so I don't know. I've never had this trouble with 2CVs. Look at those little corrugations The Mehari is a sub-culture car within 2CV circles and is made of unrusting Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene panels (or ABS to you) that unfortunately are supported by a metal frame and a standard 2CV chassis. Replace the rotting chassis with a galvanised one (as so many 2CVs sport these days) and galvanise the body frame as well and you have sustainable fun motoring. To look at, the Mehari couldn't be anything other than French. That either puts you off or makes it highly desirable. It's not a world car designed by committee even though it's a fast running dromedary (a kind of camel designed by just one person) that gives the Mehari its name. This car has national identity. It's so redolent of the s...

The Charleston Special - that's what the owner called it and even he wasn't sure this was right.  To anyone expecting to read about 2CVs, sorry - this Charleston Special is based on a Hillman Imp. It turned up at the ARCC (Association of Rootes Car Clubs) Rally at Blenhiem Palace in 2000, intrigued lots of people quite apart from myself and then dropped out of our lives. The owner at the time admitted to not knowing a great deal about it and it was up for sale so probably has changed hands at least once since then. The low pivot point of the front wishbones would hamper off road performance but on road performance must have been like a little go-kart. UVA produced the F30, which was a purely road going version of their Fugitive kit. Apparently too many people were fitting Rover V8s into the back of the off-road rails and making badly over-engined (note that these weren't not well over engineered ) monstrosities. More isn't always more. What I do know is that it...

An Anglo-French hybrid, British Racing Green but definitely une bolide I first met Ontos at the Exeter Kit Car show. It had been widely reported in the media that Lomax were going to do something different from their 2CV powered trikes and the result was this surprising device. It was a very clever motoring joke, recreating a vintage Bentley out of a 2CV. But what really made our heads spin was the drivetrain that looked like a supercharger. Despite a great deal of publicity, it remained a one-off but Ontos cropped up at Geevor Tin Mining Museum earlier this year when I visited this fascinating site, and when it re-appeared at the Lanlivery Show this September I was able to talk to the owner, who works at the museum and instructs school children on rock breaking. If the government is seriously expecting to re-generate heavy industry, this is more important than most people think. Ontos has a standard 2CV chassis so avoids any SVA test. However, everything else is different...