I've had this crazy mad business idea.

I wasn't looking at authentic restorations, it was to make them comfortable as well as fast.

Remember fat executive arses aren't as good at handling the bouncing and bumps as they were, and to get old cars to go fast with original engines, you tend to need to keep tweaking them, and strip out an creature comforts that they do have.

What you need to do is create a car that will make them think they are driving the car they remember, but without leaving them bruised and battered when they arrive at their meetings.

It needs to be a real "never needed to open the bonnet once while I had it, never remembered them being that reliable" type experience, running unleaded, keeping them cool and comfortable, but still sounding and feeling like an older car.

In news: snipped-for-privacy@news.individual.net, Sleeker GT Phwoar decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

You'll be somewhat surprised how many fat executive arses actually like being involved in proper cars. It's surprising just how many of them own classics to start with, Caterhams, Land Rovers, Capris etc.

Mk1/2 Escorts, Consuls and Capris with the 2.0 Pinto or 3.0 Essex in will happily run on unleaded, have brilliant eyeball vents, don't use much oil unless farked, and weigh bugger all. Start wrecking them with aircon, ABS, TC, and all the other bullshit new cars need in order to "be comfortable and safe" and they'll weigh twice as much, not handle, and generally be travesties to the originals.

As for reliability, the 2.0 Pinto and 3.0 Essex were used in repmobiles, ambulances and police cars for many many years without breaking all the time. Servicing intervals as slightly shorter than on new stuff, say 6000 mile oil changes, but remember that in the case of the Pinto that RAC men carry cambelts for the Pinto and will happily fit one by the side of the road.. The Essex doesn't have a belt.

The Sunbeam Tiger uses the 270 / 289ci Ford V8s, therefore the engine is bombproof!.

Not wanting to sound demeaning of your plan, but...

basically it sounds like you was to rebody new cars with older looking shells.. (like a paul baham (ex) rs200 or x99 or...)

not sure most would be that interested..

for me (i consider myself a Joe Public figure) i would rather drive the real thing or not at all!!

i like kit cars, but more the Cateram 7 and lookylikeys, or something distinctive.. none of the ginetta's or such, which are just rebodied fords!

it would be interesting to see what others think of this idea!!

Lost

Yes and no. Using authentic bodies, rather than poor quality ill fitting, hardly authentic GRP knockoffs (Banham), more like a Hotrod than a kitcar, without any performance gains other than those provided by newer mechanicals.

I admit it might be a "niche" market, hance making it a membership based club, for those who like things exclusive

Me too, but not everyone is like that.

Fair point lightweight speed machine kits and one off builds are genuinley nice if you want something fun for the wekends.

BTW, happy for the comments and critique.

It was just on of those "mad moments of inspiration" we all have after watching a program on telly, and there was a classic car or two driven by the characters, in modern traffic, and the old "Stream of conciousness" kicked in after the missus said, "oh thats loverly, you can have one of those", and I replied, "I would love one, but it would be too slow for the motorway, and it would need leaded fuel and, etc, etc", and the idea just flowed from there in about 20 seconds flat.

Just thought I would share with the regs here. Anyway, someone has to follow Remus and Rob :)

I reckon there is some definate merit in the idea, however there is a couple of issues. The set up costs would be massive, by the time you'd bought the old shells, all the new internals and running gear, and got someone to fit them all. Then they'd all have to get engineers reports before they could be insured. The issue of insuring people on all of them, say 10 cars, to drive say 2000 miles a year in each, is probably not possible, especially without knowing all their details. The insurance bill if youcould find someone to take it would be huuuuuuuuuuuuge. Then you've gotta store/maintain all the cars etc....

Add all this to the very small niche customer base you're looking at, and whilst i think it would make money, it would take a LOOOOOOONG time to beat down its start up costs :)

Yeah, I know. But what a mad idea :)

And just make membership fees suitably stupid to only attract the right kind of people. I'm sure talking to a broker, you could arrange a named drivers fleet policy (because all members could be named).

Still, mad 30 second thought. Would be so cool if it could work though.

"Sleeker GT Phwoar" wrote

I'm sure that somehow Dan would be able to get it done under "warrenty"

LOL! When will this ever stop, it isn't just me doing it now, there are at least two other people ROTFL :) :) :D

Well some of the bits are gonna have to be new ;)

Oh apart from the shell, everything under/in it will be new, right down to modern size, but correct vintage spec steel wheels where needed.

Where does one find such items? Or would i spent all my time going round scrappers and ebay finding the right wheels and stuff for us to restore :) ? 'Cos, to be honest, that also sounds like a cool job!

Ages ago I had an idea of a collectors edition Mk1 Escort to mark the 50th anniversary of when the 1st Escorts came out. It'd be a brand new shell, but exactly the same as the original Mk1 Escort shell, with RWD, but modern suspension and features, but not too much extra weight to compromise the idea of the original. Which I think would be an excellent idea for Ford. They could make it really really really special, do a limited run of around

Peter

-- "The humble bic biro draws 13 beards, 9 devil moustaches and 49 penises on newspapers in its lifetime."

That would be great if they could. It would sell out without a doubt. Sadly, regulations these days are far worse than back then. The same shape shell would probably be impossible, as it'd need thicker pillars. It'd also be double the weight, I expect due to airbags, and other safety features. Still, it'd be a great bit of kit!

Cheers, Andy

Insurance wouldn't be too difficult. As an example, you could insure a rental Ferrari 360 for a shade over £10000. Perhaps a few figures would show how viable it is:

Car cost: £30000

Write the car off over 5 years, and that's repayments of £6000/year Servicing/maintenance: £3000 Insurance: £8000 Garaging: £600

Assuming you make people pick the cars up, that's a yearly running cost of £17600. Split that over 50 weeks (2 weeks for servicing), and that's £352/week.

Would you pay that for a Mk1 Escort with a Duratec?

Not half!

Cheers, Andy