THE JOY OF SPANNERS:
BUILDING AND RUNNING MY KIT CAR.
My ‘ish’ copy of the classic Lotus 7 clubman’s sports car was bought as a large collection of
bits
from a firm in Mansfield Woodhouse (Midlands, UK) called ROBIN HOOD ENGINEERING in April of 1997,
when I was a mere boy of 25. I have learnt much since. I am wiser now.
I’d passed my car driving test the previous November, having been a keen motorcyclist for many years.
I wanted a fast and unusual car without having to spend huge sums and without too many insurance worries.
I was shy of classic cars and what’s often called their mechanical ‘character’, as I’d discovered with my first car,
a rare and funky 1971 Bond Bug.
I bought a useful looking book called ‘Build your own Sports Car for under £250’ by Ron Champion
- ISBN 0 85429 976 9.
It detailed how you could make a 7ish motor from scratch (plus a Ford Escort Mk2).
I read it from cover to cover several times before deciding to buy a ready made kit instead and so, hopefully, save my sanity.
I can now look back and laugh about this. I liked the simplicity and performance offered by Lotus seven style cars and so
went in search of the right one for me. A genuine
Caterham or
Westfield was well out of my price bracket,
so I looked at cheaper alternatives from Robin Hood Engineering and Tiger Racing.
In the end, I went for the then newly launched Series Three from Robin Hood because:
• It used a single donor (Ford Sierra, most early models would do. 1.6 or 2 ltr, 4 or 5 speed 'box. I used a 1986 2 ltr. GL, 5 speed)
• It came as a pre-welded Stainless Steal Monocoque body shell (No painting or rust and it looks great when polished to a mirror finish)
• Last (but by no-means least) it was just £1995 plus VAT @ 17.5%! For that price you got almost everything you needed to build the car,
less the donor, which you could buy for around £200. So let's get this straight. I bought a Robin Hood because it was cheap, ok?
Of course the so-called advertising blurb had a lot to do with my decision.
A work of literary art was sent to me in February 1997 in response to my ‘phone call to the
factory requesting more info on the RHE range. It outlined the features and benefits of the
(then) new model, the Series III. Also promoted was the EXMO (EXport MOdel) which was far cheaper but
suffered from what I think is an unattractive ‘buttress' front suspension set-up.
A line about ‘the wife’ particularly caught my eye. Priceless! Below: Just look at how
shiny that chassis is!
Specification of my 1997 Robin Hood Series Three:
Vaguely based on a Lotus Super 7, but somewhat larger, it uses many of the
oily bits from a common-or-garden Ford Sierra.
These are shoe-horned into a stainless steal monocoque chassis made by Robin Hood Engineering.
- Donor vehicle:
1986 (C Reg.) Ford Sierra 2.0 GL in red. Bought without M.O.T. or road tax in May 1997 for £300 with perhaps 52,000 genuine miles
(based on the condition of the seats, pedal rubbers and seatbelts, all of which were ‘as new’),
some light rust and just two registered owners from new. I made back over half the purchase price
through the sale of the front seats, headlights, tow-bar and other items I didn’t need via my local paper,
which funded new engine ancillaries such as alternator and starter motor. The ‘hood retained the Reg. number
(rather than getting a Q-Reg.) as it had enough Ford in it.
- Chassis/body unit:
RHE designed stainless steel ‘Series III’ welded monocoque. Yellow GRP cycle wings, rear wings and nose-cone.
Mild steel tube, back braced roll bar protection.
- Suspension:
Independent front featuring new Sierra lower forged track control arms, anti-roll bar and RHE’s triangulated tube wishbones acting on adjustable in-board coil-over-shock absorbers. The Independent rear features the original Sierra IRS differential, semi-trailing wishbones and bulky support tube. RHE adjustable coil-over-shock absorbers again.
- Steering:
New non power-assisted standard Sierra rack, extended RHE lower column with twin universal joints and Ford collapsible upper column. Mountney non airbag 11” steering wheel and boss. Approx. 3.4 turns lock-to-lock. Despite the 195 tyres and small steering wheel the steering is reasonably light, even when stationary. After being correctly set- up for £22 this is now very direct.
- Pedals:
Adapted Sierra pendulum type mounted on to the top of the fire wall via a strong mild steel plate. Not easy to arrange as I have size 11 feet and space in the RHE foot-well is fairly tight! (but much better than either a Westfield or a Caterham, both of which I have 'tried-on-for-size' in the past.)
- Braking system:
Servo assisted, non ABS, dual hydraulic circuit with front/rear split. Front ventilated 24cm discs and rear 9” drums. Modified handbrake assembly with shortened cable. Gives great feel and with the cars low weight and 195 tyres, awesome(ish) stopping power.
- Engine:
Unmodified 1993cc SOHC Ford Pinto as fitted to many Sierras with electronic ignition and fuel management. In-line Four cylinder, eight valve. Non turbo/super charged and with a single original (Webber?) carburettor. Approx. 110 bhp and 116ft lbs. of torque.
- Transmission:
Ford Sierra 5 speed manual gearbox driving the 3.62:1 ratio alloy Sierra IRS differ. via a RHE single section shortened twin universal joint prop. shaft. Puma style aluminium gear stick knob for that extra touch of class! Shortened gear stick to improve changing speed which works ok.
- Cooling system:
RHE supplied Cortina Mk3/4(?) radiator using standard Ford hoses and mounted on
three Saab micro rubber bobbins to move it closer to the thermo-viscous cooling fan and expose more of the front face to air-flow. It’s not yet been an issue with my ‘hood but I understand cooling is a common RH problem. I hoped my adaptation of the design would avoid these overheating traits, and it has so far.
- Exhaust system:
Non catalyst type. Drivers side exiting RHE stainless steel 4-into-1 manifold featuring equal length branches and fixed radius curves. Connecting to a single drivers side stainless steel (so-called) silencer box, mounted on four Mini exhaust bobbins. Loud but not criminal if I don't accelerate hard - which somehow seems desperately hard to avoid!
- Interior:
Standard RHE trim, originally with grey vinyl and yellow piped seats. Now with OMP Comfort bucket seats. Original RH grey carpet set with yellow edging. Packing-taped joints to avoid water ingress (good word). All ‘lightly’ sound proofed, including the under dash area being carpeted. Set of OEM/Ford instruments and switches. Carbon Fibre look (i.e. a roll of sticky-backed plastic, as they'd say on Blue Peter) dashboard and unchanged Sierra column switch gear. Ford Handbrake lever and arm rest box. RHE vinyl roof and 'doors'.
- Odds and ends:
Professionally fitted (£350! Ouch!) RHE wiring loom with adapted Sierra fuse box (mounted in the central foot of the dashboard) and connectors.
Modified Ford heater and wiper/washer equipment. RHE stainless steel eight gallon fuel tank. OEM lights plus Suzuki motorcycle front indicators
and aftermarket circular side repeaters mounted in the scuttle. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah...
Please move on to the interesting stuff! All this tech-chat is strictly for the nerds.
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Adaptation:
Part of building and owning a kit car is when to say, "No. I will not do it that way. I shall do it my way." I had many such moments,
not least because the original design was a bit iffy in parts. For starters, the nose
area features several changes from the standard kit. Gone was the Bar-B-Q style grill, replaced with a fine chicken-wire mesh.
This in turn has been replaced with 'professional' grill
material, very much like what you'd find on a sporty Subaru. The side lights are housed away from the main lamps in small side lenses
reminiscent of a Land Rovers. RHE’s bizarre ‘indicator on the end of a rolled-up bit of stainless’ is binned in favour of motorcycle
units from an old Suzuki. These are mounted on the firmly fitted nose cone side in-fill panels. Lastly, the top fixing bolts for the
front suspension upper rocking arm are hidden front and back by the plastic cups from the top of the Sierras front suspension struts.
Which is nice. I've also now fitted
twin Fish-eye spot-lamps in the nose-void (lovely phrase. I must remember to use it more often)
which really light-up my way for night-time blasts.
At the rear, the fog and reversing lights are moved to the back panel, leaving room on the lower area of the wheel arches for a chrome ‘GB’ and a
happy looking stainless steel shark logo. The number plate itself is used to mount a pair of number plate lights as the ‘double one’ in my
registration leaves enough room to fit them. Finally, the spare tyre mounting bolt is bolstered by a 1” square
tube mounted vertically from the level of the boot floor to the roll bar and seatbelt mounting plate under the lip of the boot.
This makes the back panel far stiffer and renders the number plate mounting ‘U’ cosmetic. If, as a non-Hoodie, that meant nothing to you, it’s ok.
It’s not supposed to. Relax. It doesn’t concern you.
Update! At about 60mph, on a bumpy bit of road coming back from work one day, the bolt holding the wheel on snapped and the spare went for a
bit of a trip of its own, into a field. I've since added an additional long bolt to hold the wheel more firmly and removed the 'U'
shaped number plate support.
Instead, I've moved the number plate back (or really forward) on to the bodywork.
This involved removing the fuel tank and spending three hours under the car in the rain. Men in white coats, anybody?
I also went my own way with the
dashboard, covering it in a mix of black matt fablon and carbon-fibre-look material.
Bare silver screw heads, aluminium and stainless details add to the overall look to the cockpit.
As should the yellow 'performance' pedals, whatever that might mean! There's also an ignition cut-off switch,
which I think also adds a race feel. I've fitted the Sierras arm-rest handbrake box to give a little in-cockpit storage.
In April 2003 a pair of suitably racy bucket seats came my way. I'd never been 100% happy with the standard RH ones,
as they had no head, neck or side support/protection. On the upside, they were very lightweight and the yellow pipping looked good. The new ones,
OMP Comforts,
only just fit and took a bit of jiggery-pokery to get positioned to my liking.
Ironically, only a month or so before, I'd made my
original drivers seat adjustable, by the application of adapted low-profile
(about an inch) runners from a Renault 5. I swapped them over, so that I could narrow their spacing and re-use the
original adjustment leaver. Smart eh?
I mounted the exhaust on a
two stage mini-rubber-exhaust-bush-thingy which looks very neat.
Extra ironwork in the cockpit keep the side panels convex, the chassis number is on a brass plate,
two fisheye driving lamps are in the nose-cone, the under dash area is carpeted....
etc, etc! The list really does go on. One area of the original design I've yet to tackle
is the front suspension, which I've never been happy with. I will be doing away with the
Sierra's anti-roll bar and locating the lower suspension arms with tie-rods, when I get the time.
Observations:
Biggest problem about owning a Robin Hood:
It's a shite name, even after all these years of getting used to it.
Also, getting into it with the hood on takes the sort of bodily manipulation usually restricted
to the sort of bendy Fakir you see on television once-in-a-while. Never to be attempted if you really really need a wee.
Most painful moment:
Slicing my finger on a sharp bit of engine bay (the plasma cutting gear they use to make the RH chassis leaves edges
like you wouldn’t believe) while fitting the engine. As dusk was drawing in I had to press on and so used a splint and
parcel tape to protect the injured pinkie. I now have a nice little scar to remind me to be more careful.
Biggest kick:
Driving it quickly on my favourite back road towards my fathers house. It’s been resurfaced to a silky-smooth standard and ducks, dives,
climbs and jogs left-right like a rollercoster... Bliss! It's a hot summer night of the ‘Meat Loaf’ kind. The roof is at home.
I’m humming ‘Let me entertain you’ by Robbie Williams and the engine is singing at 4,700 rpm...
Here is an extract from ‘The Winter Market’ by William Gibson which, if you don't know that feeling, may give you an insight into the experience:
There is a segment on Kings of Sleep; it’s like you’re on a motorcycle at midnight, no lights but somehow you don’t need them,
blasting out along a cliff-high stretch of coast highway so fast that you hang there in a cone of silence, the bike’s thunder
lost behind you. Everything, lost behind you... It’s just a blink, on Kings, but it’s one of those thousand things you remember, go back to,
incorporate into your own vocabulary of feelings. Amazing. Freedom and death, right there, right there, razor’s edge, forever.
Or am I quite mad? Perhaps that’s why I built one of the least practical cars known to Man.
The Great Robin Hood Video Debate:
They're total crap. End of debate!
When, on the first ‘build video’ of the three I was supplied for my Hood, they described it as an amateur production,
a million amateurs revolved in their graves. The sound quality is appalling, the editing is, is... words fail me about the editing.
The content seems to follow no known law of organisation that I can detect, instead jumping from one half covered topic to another,
then, two hours later, leaps back to half cover the first topic again. That’s not a different half of the subject, the same half again
in a different room! Then, on another video, a gem of info is dropped in.... which runs contra to all Richard (for it is he) said in the
first video! Anyway, you get the picture viz. the RHE build videos.
The Secret of a Shiny Car:
Being Stainless Steel, my Robin Hood is a nightmare to keep shiny. Every hand print is a greasy mark on it,
and washing it inevitably leaves the car smeared and looking as dirty as before I began. After much experimentation
I have discovered the one product that brings the body to a beautiful, mirror-like finish. It's... Wait for it...
Windolene!
Practicality Shmacticality:
I've heard it said that my Kit is wildly impractical. Well, while I agree it's not ideal for moving furniture or
taking the wife and three kids shopping, it isn't without some flexibility. Take the tricky job of
transporting a plant in an upright position,
which I handsomely solved with a simple common-or-garden bungy cord and a little applied thought.
Ingenuity is only an elastic strap away.
Kit Car Show Delight:
On Star Wars Day (May the 4th) 2003 I went to the Royal Showground near Stoneleigh and there
I saw many many many Hoods.
Little ones, big ones, some as big as your 'ed... It was interesting to see how other peoples cars differed from mine.
There were a lot of 2B's there, and quite a few older models too.
A set of bonnet catches were picked up for a mere £9.30
(all the change I had) and I found some cheap cable tidy wrap too. Happy days.
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