This car started life as a saloon car and the previous owner, Brian Emerson of Belfast acquired either the whole car or at least the important bits in order to build a Special which he would be able to drive to events under its own power saving the cost of towing a trailer on the Irish Ferry.
He succeeded; the car became extremely well known at VSCC trials throughout the UK and he won the short chassis championship in 2007, so this is potentially a winning car.
It came into the Twirp collection in 2013
The car has a shortened chassis which means that it enters the short chassis class. The engine was moved 15inches rearwards and the seating is very much to the rear. There are two large batteries behind the seating and a large petrol tank hangs over the back of the car with two spare wheels beyond that. So about two thirds of the weight is over the rear wheels.
This is us, showing-off at the 2014 VSCC Derbyshire Trial.
We deflate the tyres to about 12lb for muddy hills and we have a large capacity inflator to pump them up again.
2014 was our first real season and we are learning what trialling is all about. Mole is co-driver/navigator/bouncer and we have had a lot of fun. Our best result to date was at the Lakeland Trial when, if the ignition switch hadn’t broken we would have been awarded a second class honours.
