• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.

    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Rat on road

aeronca65t

Great Pumpkin
Offline
Here's a short video that shows my latest "Little Red Rat" project. The car is sort of a mess with crappy paint and taped-up seats. But who cares? It's also been a lot of fun.

I bought this Midget for less than $300 only for the purpose of yanking the 1275 engine and trans (for use in my Austin sedan race car project).

After the engine was out, it seemed a shame to cut up this RWA car. It was quite solid and only has 19,500 miles total. But it had a different colour left fender, a rotted hood (bonnet), a dreadful convertible top, awful seats, etc. On the other hand, I had all these parts, plus an unwanted 948 engine that ran OK, a spare gearbox (with noisy 1st gear), a clean fuel tank (to replace the one in the car that was full of mud), etc.

In total, assuming the car was "free" (after pulling the engine) I have less than $200 in the car. I did spend another $230 for four tires, but I can consider them as rain tires for the race-Spridget. And even if I include them, I'm barely up to $400 for a running Spridget.

The wiring is bodgey and dodgey, the steering wheel is funky and the horn button is under the dash. It has one of those ugly DGV carbs, used plugs, old points and a mix of plug wires that all look pretty bad. Cap, rotor and fan belt are all well worn. So is clutch and throwout bearing. But it all works and drives quite well. Brakes are decent and I have fitted decent used parts in the front end (ball joints, etc).

ps-ignore the "bending widshield". That's what happens when you let youtube "fix your shaky image". I should have left it as is.

R04713E" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"> </embed></object>
 
aeronca65t said:
ps-ignore the "bending widshield". That's what happens when you let youtube "fix your shaky image". I should have left it as is.

Dunno, Nial - kinda reveals the incredible torque that engine produces!
 
the best of the best award goes to you for having fun and saving money. This is a car that can be parked anywhere, driven anywhere, and let for days in the weather with out a second thought
 
Kinda along the lines of Bill M's "Orange Crate"! A ratty car is usually more fun that good one, just a little embarrassing!!
My rat is languishing with trans problems and since it is I haven't been doing much driving.:(

Kurt.
 
nomad said:
A ratty car is usually more fun that good one, just a little embarrassing!!

Kurt.

I prefer a car that looks like it was painted with a hammer.
 
Back
Top