Guy Croft Lada Riva Twin Cam replica
Posted: November 16th, 2011, 11:28 pm
Hi everyone
I was speaking to Guy this afternoon, and he's prompted me to introduce myself and start a thread on what I'm doing...so here it goes.
My names Ian and I'm a HV Engineer working For The National Grid. I've also had a Hobby/obsession for making Lame cars look and go better for years. I've got a good CV or retro and performance classics under my belt,Lotus Cortina's and GT's a Vauxhall Viva HC C20XE 16v and a Rotrex supercharged Citroen BX 16v to name but a few of recent years.
Now Going back almost ten years now most of you will know or remember the Top Gear 'Lotus Lada',This is a car which has intrigued me for years it stands for everything I believe in as it proves that the one of the most unreaputable, undesirable and unrefined cars of the last 40 years can, with a little hard work and know how be turned into a Legend.
Now I always promised myself I'd copy it when I had the time and space to do so,now with hindsight this may have been a bad idea as finding a suitable donor car had proved much more difficult than I expected!. I actually bought 2 cars blind off an internet auction site which turned out to absolute Sheds and weren't even worth working on. Now as it turned out the £300 purchase price of the first one actually turned out to be worth the money for the laugh I had with it,as the vendor I bought it from was a very funny elderly Russian gent called Nicolai who had many a tail to tell. However it was simply just too rotten and poorly worked to get the quality of finish I was looking for so it was broken up for parts. The second car was better but the boot floor and inner sills and wings where shot so that was sold on for 10 pound more than I pay'd for it. Now severely disheartened over this and in the mean time looking at several others over a 6 month or so period I'd almost gave up so in a last ditch attempt to get this project underway I made enquiries to the VAZ factory in Poland that still makes the 2105 Riva,I considered buying a brand new left hand drive shell delivered for about £800 plus Vat but that would have meant buying yet another car to get all the parts I needed,as I didn't keep everything from the first car which i broken up. Luckily however my long term associate had spotted a Lada Riva 1300 for sale in 'Buy and sell' whilst working in Nottingham which turned out to have done 9500 miles from new and had never been welded and had been wax oiled at the dealership before it was put on the road.The only issues with it was minor panel damage to the front of the wings where the old gent had crashed it into his garage whilst trying to ark it, I'd struck gold parted with £500 and I even drove it 150 miles home on a 3rd of a tank.
I've been steadily doing various modifications and just playing around with things mainly on the wheels/suspension and stance, trying to get the wheel and body relationship where I want it as well as rebuilding a standard 2.0 131 supermirafiori engine but doing the rest of the installation I.E Oil,Exhaust, Ignition and cooling systems ready to cope with One of Guys engine's at a later date so I can simply just swap it over. I've also fitted GM EPAS assist from a Vauxhall Corsa and moved the steering column by 5 inches as I plan to mount the seats further back.Ive also ordered a full bolt in Safety Devices cage from Chris Birkbeck as well as sexy bucket seats and harnesses.
I've included some pictures,sorry they're a little small but I'm having trouble getting them to the required size.
I'd really love your thoughts and advice.
catch you all soon
Ian
I was speaking to Guy this afternoon, and he's prompted me to introduce myself and start a thread on what I'm doing...so here it goes.
My names Ian and I'm a HV Engineer working For The National Grid. I've also had a Hobby/obsession for making Lame cars look and go better for years. I've got a good CV or retro and performance classics under my belt,Lotus Cortina's and GT's a Vauxhall Viva HC C20XE 16v and a Rotrex supercharged Citroen BX 16v to name but a few of recent years.
Now Going back almost ten years now most of you will know or remember the Top Gear 'Lotus Lada',This is a car which has intrigued me for years it stands for everything I believe in as it proves that the one of the most unreaputable, undesirable and unrefined cars of the last 40 years can, with a little hard work and know how be turned into a Legend.
Now I always promised myself I'd copy it when I had the time and space to do so,now with hindsight this may have been a bad idea as finding a suitable donor car had proved much more difficult than I expected!. I actually bought 2 cars blind off an internet auction site which turned out to absolute Sheds and weren't even worth working on. Now as it turned out the £300 purchase price of the first one actually turned out to be worth the money for the laugh I had with it,as the vendor I bought it from was a very funny elderly Russian gent called Nicolai who had many a tail to tell. However it was simply just too rotten and poorly worked to get the quality of finish I was looking for so it was broken up for parts. The second car was better but the boot floor and inner sills and wings where shot so that was sold on for 10 pound more than I pay'd for it. Now severely disheartened over this and in the mean time looking at several others over a 6 month or so period I'd almost gave up so in a last ditch attempt to get this project underway I made enquiries to the VAZ factory in Poland that still makes the 2105 Riva,I considered buying a brand new left hand drive shell delivered for about £800 plus Vat but that would have meant buying yet another car to get all the parts I needed,as I didn't keep everything from the first car which i broken up. Luckily however my long term associate had spotted a Lada Riva 1300 for sale in 'Buy and sell' whilst working in Nottingham which turned out to have done 9500 miles from new and had never been welded and had been wax oiled at the dealership before it was put on the road.The only issues with it was minor panel damage to the front of the wings where the old gent had crashed it into his garage whilst trying to ark it, I'd struck gold parted with £500 and I even drove it 150 miles home on a 3rd of a tank.
I've been steadily doing various modifications and just playing around with things mainly on the wheels/suspension and stance, trying to get the wheel and body relationship where I want it as well as rebuilding a standard 2.0 131 supermirafiori engine but doing the rest of the installation I.E Oil,Exhaust, Ignition and cooling systems ready to cope with One of Guys engine's at a later date so I can simply just swap it over. I've also fitted GM EPAS assist from a Vauxhall Corsa and moved the steering column by 5 inches as I plan to mount the seats further back.Ive also ordered a full bolt in Safety Devices cage from Chris Birkbeck as well as sexy bucket seats and harnesses.
I've included some pictures,sorry they're a little small but I'm having trouble getting them to the required size.
I'd really love your thoughts and advice.
catch you all soon
Ian