This week we serviced a French car! That being the this 1955 Citroën Traction Avant with the 9-window Familiale body.
The Traction Avant dates back to 1934 and was notable for using a front-wheel drive system combined with a steel monocoque chassis.
This particular car was purchased from Chicago, but appears to have spent much time in Europe.
Today Hamish Crawford stopped by in his new monochrome MG TC speedster.
It has a distinctive checkerboard pattern in the radiator that was original to the car and was typical mod from the 1960s. Long gone are the sweeping fenders, replaced by simple cycle fenders. This config is seriously waxing nostalgia, as Hamish did up a similar car when he was a teenager.
Under the hood is a the full monte; that being a blown supercharger that eschews the obligatory twin SUs for a setup more akin to a Blower Bentley!
We have had quite a few BJ8 Austin Healeys in the shop, but this on is distinctly different as it was delivered new to Germany.
It has numerous detail differences, the most notable being small behive signal lights where the North American federalized cars got the large plastic lights. This is possible with BJ7 fenders and a completely different front shroud with small light beds that would be very difficult to replace.
Other detail differences include rear BJ7 fenders with behives where the reflectors normally are, fitted steering lock, hexagonal wheel nuts and a slightly revised chassis tag that lists the weights.
Just recently this Austin-Healey ‘Bugeye’ Sprite surfaced from the deep Cowichan and into our shop. It has recently passed on to a new owner with almost enough pieces to make another car!
Anyhow, it has been outfitted with a roll-bar the stronger 1098cc engine from a Sprite MkI or Midget MkII. This probably indicates some sort of motorsports use, so if anyone has images or knows of a white Bugeye, with red interior and a Brookland Race Windscreen that use to race back in the day please let us know.
The absolute easiest way to distinguish this car is the Fred Deeley badge on the back. Sometime in the 1970s it appears the car was refitted for road use. The original Moto-Lita wheel is a real treat.
Had the nice opportunity to join some friends and visit an old shop, tucked away far in the BC forest called A&A Chassis.
Out in the wilderness of Highlands, BC, A&A is an impressively stocked shop dedicated to metal fabrication and chassis construction like the type you would find in a sprint car or motorbike.
Keith showed us one seriously badass 1964 El Camino known as Roadstourmino which only a silhouette of its 1964 beginnings.
The reason we visited A&A was to pickup Jan Hoel’s incredible Esprit S3R which is a completely re-envisioned Lotus Esprit. A&A chassis welded up an entirely new frame which has an all-new suspension, but retains a Lotus Turbo engine. I can’t even begin to recall all the mods made on this incredible project, so if you’re interested, here it is on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/F1-Motorsports-Lotus-Esprit-S3R/
