TimFF

Funnily enough there's a thriving Scimitar club in NZ; quite a few made their way out new and a few have followed out since. I was fortunate to hook up with them in 1996 when I spent 6 months in Auckland. One of the guys had fitted 6 bike carbs to a hand made manifold - that engine was a sight to behold...

Pete My humble apologies! I was relying on a 'mate' who was allegedly transcribing the times as they were read out over the PA. I think he only noted the 64 sec time posted on T1 by Matthew rather than the other 5 posted by Matthew and Peter which were all sub 60s... Initial post updated to reflect reality rather than Mike's addled brain. And I promise to search out the official results either from the paddock office board or the published ones now on ScimWeb in future. Tim

Hi witstu The Green Meanie was Chris Lloyds Se5a - it bore little resemblance to any form of road-going Scim! It was the car (and driver...) to beat for a while as you say. Sadly Chris passed away some years ago and the car was broken up - but considerable important portions of it found their way into the red coupe which is the first pic above. The dealer you're thinking of is Graham Walker - they still trade in Scimitar spares and indeed hold the rights and moulds to the Scimitar so could theoretically build new ones. Mind you their showrooms are no longer full of Scimitars but other performance cars...

Mine was 2 owners at 2 years and 17,000 miles. Both had it as a weekend car, 1st owner an MD who did 10,000 in exactly a year then part exchanged for a 370, 2nd bought it as Nissan used car and did the rest as a toy and sold it as it was the school fees fund... All documents were in place to show so I had no qualms. If I sold now that would be 3 in 24,000 and 3.5 years but all have looked after it, especially me...

Hi Colin Dabble is the word, but here's the Scim long before I blew rather too much money on a bare gelcoat repaint! Funnily enough it's a not very crowded Curborough paddock and me on the hairpin trying to stop the inside rear wheel spinning up on boggo suspension and no locky diff. That day wasn't my finest day - I needed rain and no brain for that!

Just for you then Stew... This one was tuned the old style way - bored, lumpy cam, big valves, headers, Holley carb, ported, polished etc etc. Not a laptop in sight. Even so this still 'only' put out 200bhp (up from a rated 135) from 3.1 litres of Dagenhams finest converted diesel engine. Compare that to a stock DE or HR

ta for the compliments... All the images are as taken, none have been edited in any way. But a lot got binned! FTD was 62.82 secs. I've never driven a double lapper so have no personal marker - but I have done a 36 something on a single lap test day; unfortunately in someone else's well prepared sprint car rather than my own. It's a great little place to drive as it's not that fast, and to watch others as you can see virtually all the track from the spectators hump along the straight. Before they were banned years ago, the pukka hillclimb cars (a la F5000 monsters) would hit 130mph over the finish line. They then had 50metres to slow downhill before hitting a slippery right hand corner back to the start. Somewhere is a photo of me legging it out of the way of an early Griffith who was heading for me (and my camera...) having failed to make the corner...

Not exactly SW London but if you're able to travel further these folks have sorted some of mine out in the past: Wheel Works in Crawley. I think some other forum members have used them too. Lepsons are further afield but have a good reputation. cheers TimFF

For my sins I used to have a Scimitar, and sprinted it with varying degrees of success over a couple of years - I even managed a 2nd in class once. I'm still a member of the club, and every year the annual sprint is held at Curborough, just outside Lichfield. I get roped in as Club Steward, which basically means I get to stand around talking cars all day as in 20+ years no-one has ever protested anyone (even when sportsmanship was being seriously 'exercised'). So for once I remembered to take my camera... And being 'signed on' means you can get closer than Joe Public Scimitar FTD of 62.82 secs was from a 1968 Coupe. This car is fast... It was a double lapper which meant there's a heavy braking moment for the hairpin return. Not everyone got it right each time. This is a Sabre which normally competes in Historic racing. It too is quick... The exit can be tricky if you get the entry wrong too! Nearly right This ones closer to standard This is one of the later Small Scimitars (SS1). They came with a Nissan Turbo engine in 1800Ti guise, but the previous owner of this one spent thousands on developing it to as it is today. It's a previous FTD winner. We don't just have Scimitars either. Oh no. This is the car I wanted to take home with me... It's no garage queen - it was driven hard! Ferraris don't always come in red either And as you'd expect this MG 1.4 turbo'd Vision would be really fast. FTD of 54.27 secs If you want to see a few more images, take a peek here or here. cheers TimFF

Was in the queue to turn right into Three Bridges Road, but I was behind white van man who was behind you. That's 2 spots in 2 days, 150 miles apart!

Late return Sunday and hectic Monday... Spotted leaving the circuit, grey / gunmetal 370

Managed to miss this thread... from another Crawley inmate!

I echo the comments about what a Harley is like to ride! Some years ago I was visiting some friends who lived in San Francisco and thought I'd treat myself to hiring a Harley for a few days. I got a Sportster 883 (I suspect much the same model as you linked...) for 3 days and looked forwards to riding across the Golden Gate and hitting Highway 1. And took it back after 2 hours. The clutch was unbelievably heavy, the front brake the same but bleedin' useless anyway, the rear locked up as you thought about braking and for me the riding position was torture - all the weight on my bum. I swapped it for a BMW R80 (I did say some years ago...) and then REALLY enjoyed myself. Try before you buy but as SteveM says - you will drop your first bike. It's not 'if', it's 'when'. Been there, dropped first and second and - oh hang on a sec over nigh on 250,000 miles and a dozen bikes I think I've had a low speed or stationary 'moment' with most of 'em! It's usually a stone underfoot or diesel in a fuel station that are the culprits... Surprisingly the most drop proof of all of mine was an ST1100 Pan which had built in crashbars covered by sacrificial plastic. What ever you get, as Stew said, anything over 500cc or so will make the Zed seem slow... Have fun - it's serious fun!

If I'd come face to face with a bear that would have been me...

Did I hear a pig squealing in the distance??? Seriously, that looks rather pleasant to say the least! Some friends of ours moved to Portland, Oregon a couple of years back and swapped a 3 bed terrace in Belvedere for something rather similar. I'm not in the least envious of either of you. Oh no. Not at all.

Hi Stuart and I used the Parking Dynamics ones fitted by http://www.parking-sensors-fitter.co.uk/ on both my zed and the other half's Mini as I didn't want to make unsightly holes in the bumpers. No issues on the sensors or the workmanship... cheers TimFF

I ran an 85 944 2.5 8v (early square dash) for 4 years between 1997 and 2000, taking it from 80k to 150k. I thoroughly enjoyed it - nice and fast compared to Scimitar I also had, with plenty of torque. Being a Porsche it was well screwed together and apart from a bit of interior wear you'd not have known it had 150k on it. In the time I had it I suffered just a failed engine mount (typical issue due to proximity of the exhaust manifold) and replaced the clutch at the same time as that's a big job and we were some of the way there in unbolting bits; and a failed front wheel bearing. Other than that it was just routine maintenance which was dead easy to do myself. Parts weren't expensive and it seemed pretty good on fuel, but I never bothered to work it's mpg out. Rust is a bit more of an issue these days I believe, but you can see inside the body easily once you've removed a vent in the door shut. Mine had none and no scabs, but it was a bit brown... I sold it as I needed a bigger car, but did spot it for sale a few years later with a blown engine. I was tempted to buy it back but resisted...

I've been entitled to that for the last 20 odd years, but like Wasso I've never taken advantage... My wife works for the local council and most of her team regard sickness entitlement as annual leave and see nothing wrong with that.

I'm having a cr@p day swearing at 'data' suppliers and that's just made me laugh out loud "Request granted"

Was that an instruction or an observation I wonder?

SpursMadDave's encounter with a truck a while back finally provoked me into getting a RoadHawk camera a while back. This is what it (and I) saw earlier this afternoon... Quite how they managed that when the islands on that roundabout aren't insignificant I have no idea. But I'm glad I didn't arrive a few seconds earlier!

and you're welcome to Crawley too!

Sorry to hear of your misfortune on 2 wheels; hopefully it wasn't a SMIDSY? Like a few others I've got 2 wheels too, mines a Fazer Thou which I've had for a few years now (and has also been lightly tuned...). There's loads of info on here about what to look out for on the Zed, but they're almost bulletproof with very few 'gotchas'... Your budget should net you a pretty recent example of the latest of the 3 'versions' - an HR engined car (bonnet bulge and 2 air intakes hiding underneath it) - and you're right on the doorstep of Abbey Motorsport for the services of a well respected and known Zed specialist. As a couple of others have mentioned there's several local meets a year nearby, with one coming up in about four weeks. I'm over on the east side of Crawley if you want to peer at a Zed, although my roof stays put! cheers TImFF

That's 2 of us today - I passed Will and Rosie about 1330 on the A25 at Gomshall, he eastbound, me westbound. I had my window down listening to my exhaust combo but it's a 30mph zone and I bet neither of us could hear the other - I could barely hear mine... Pity it wasn't just under the railway bridge where you can at least get a blip of throttle in! You must have done a few miles now Will?

Hi Simon No, I don't - my video gear is rooted in the Hi8 tape era and I haven't done anything about recording the Zed on anything that can record a decent sound. Must admit I'm curious to hear what it sounds like from the outside myself... cheers TimFF