Right, this is now very much a reality...yesterday I collected the Puma ;D
I left the house at 6am with Si (B8D) where we headed over the Santa Pod in the Teenage Dirtbag for the Retro Show. Brilliant day, lots of cool cars, lots of cool Retro Riders to meet and catch up with.
After a good time there, lots of sun and a very burnt head, Si and I headed over to Daventry to collect the Puma.
I'd bought it completely blind off eBay and was suddenly faced with the reality of driving an unkown car 130 miles home. Meh, I've done it plenty of times....what could possibly go wrong?
Pulling into the very run down housing estate I got a feeling that this 'buy it, drive it home and hope for the best' theory was going to let me down this time. The seller wasn't around, so his Dad appeared with the key and paperwork.
I tried to open the drivers door but the lock didn't seem to work (a great start!) so trying the passenger door, it unlocked and I opened the door only for the alarm to start going off. Brilliant!
The keyfob was covered in many layers of insulating tape which meant the buttons didn't work and no matter what we tried, the alarm kept going
Eventually I rang the seller and he told me that it had to be disarmed from the drivers door lock by locking the car and then turning the key to 'lock again' before unlocking it. This attempt on the drivers lock worked (I obviously didn't try hard enough first time) and as instructed, the alarm turned off. Hoorah!
I was very surprised when the engine fired on the first flick of the key. A fair puff of smoke appeared from the tailpipe and a quick rev produced even more smog! Oh dear...what have I bought??
The engine sounded sweet and I put the thought of a knackered engine behind me, plugged in the satnav and instructed it to head for home.
The car drove really well and when I gave it some beans it seemed to pull really nicely. Gearchange was very neat and precise...totally unlike my memory of other Fords I'd driven (Mk4 Escort where selecting cogs was very much a game of stir the gearstick and hope you get the right one!).
The car had covered 119,000 miles but it drove like a 20,000 mile car. Really tight, smooth and torquey. Not a single rattle, squeak or noise from the interior - just spot on. Even the AC worked really well, ice cold. All of the electrics worked and despite my initial fears, this car seemed very, very together. I just had to keep putting the idea of the smokey engine out of my mind
Most of the way home and I stopped at Michael Wood Services for a toilet break and a quick stretch of the old legs. Si informed me that the car gave out only two puffs of smoke the whole way...both times when I had booted it at the very beginning of the drive, then nothing after that. Nothing.
Leaving the services, on the slip road I nailed it through the gears again and headed home. Getting back to mine Si said that there was zero smoke this time, so the initial clouds were probably where the car had been stood up for a long time (3 months) and it just needed a clear out. Happy days.
I started the car this morning and not a hint of smoke, it fired up instantly and ran lovely and smooth, very quiet. Good old Yamaha engines heh?
Here is a shot of the car with the Teenage Dirtbag at the services yesterday.....another mini road trip and another blind blind purchase that has worked out well. It's a lot of car for £360 and mechanically it's exactly what I was hoping for.
As to the comments about keeping this as a track car instead of the Ka, I can see where you're coming from especially after driving it for a good few hours yesterday but I'll just leave these figures here which just confirms my reasoning for putting the Puma engine into the Ka.
Ka kerb weight: 871kg
Puma kerb weight: 1138kg
So the Ka is 267kg lighter than the Puma as standard. The 1.3 (cast iron block) engine in the Ka is nigh on the same weight as the all alloy 1.7 from the Puma so there won't be any loss or gain in weight there.
Ka power: 59bhp
Puma power: 123bhp
The puma engine is more than twice the power of the Ka. ;D
Now lets look at the power to weight of the two cars:
Ka standard: 68bhp per ton
Puma standard: 108bhp per ton
Ka with Puma engine: 141bhp per ton
If we can get the Ka weight down to 800kg (which I think is realistic) then we get 154bhp per ton.
I really can't see any way of getting the Puma anwhere near that kind of figure? This leads me back to my original plan of building the Ka...and in two weeks it arrives at Area 52, so I'd better get the Puma engine removed and the car out of the way before then. ;D