Day of the Trifids

Empty house, and in need of a good long rest, instead I woke up "normal" time. Oh well.

Hmmm. Still - pre-Archers Omnibus, Mark calls and I roll the old Sedan over to meet him for a party. The kind of party that involves spanners, oil, petrol and booster batteries.

Always a surefire bet, I jack up a wheel on my T, to make it easier to turn over. Added a battery and couple of pints of gravity fed petrol. Despite standing a while, full retard, handful of throttle, choke on, four priming pulls, choke off - ignition and.... well, about third crank in the end, but she's away. Took her for a quick bibble down the lane, across the field and back in time to run out of fuel a car length out of the garage.

Meanwhile, Mark's been priming the first Trifid.


Ah, the Trifids.

Sometime, a long, long while ago, myself and Mark built the original Trifid from an old Mini. We cut it down to just the floorpan, and built our "superlegerra" (steel tubes covered in sheet steel) body onto to that. A rear subframe was fabricated from a narrowed rear subframe with a tower to carry a single front rubber cone. Total construction time from Mini to MOT - three weeks of evenings and weekends.

Too much fun! We had to build more...

The "production" model came about after a six month on/off process of carving foam, wood, old doors and filler to make the plugs, some 2-part moulds for the wings and body were made. Four bodies were pulled before we moved on to other things. The glass tubs were a monocoque with plywood diaphragms. All but one (rolled WAAAAYYYYyyy out into a field) still survive although I've lost touch with the owner of my one, as I sold it a few years ago.

These things went like crazy with a whole string of standard engines in them. I eventually put my 100hp 1380cc engine into mine with a 2.9:1 final drive ratio. I have no idea how fast it may have been, but with an all up weight of around 370kg it felt like it was flying especially that close to the ground...

So. After all this time, how was it? Thrill still there?

Oh yes! In spades. To drive a Mini in anger, foot to the floor, chucking it around - brilliant fun. Now. Throw away the heavy tin shell, sit in a tupperware box with a castor holding your arse about four inches from the road. Big 1400 engine, wide open throttle, wheelspin in first. And second. And still a hop and a skip in third too! Squealy tyre corners. Pea shooter exhaust note, tyres scrabbling on grass fields, broken tarmac and gravel rattling underneath.

The second Trifid - fired up, so I had to try that one too. Similar build, smaller engine, bigger exhaust note. Builds to a howl through the back roads in the woods.

Used to run mine as a daily for ages in all seasons and all weathers. Love to do it again.

Reality though? My back would never stand up to it all! But - as a bit of escapism back to the past, perfect.