We had already had this Boxster in to build a stainless steel sports exhaust. The customer then wanted his brake pads upgrading and some lowering spring fitted. True to form for German cars over engineering was evident everywhere. Half the suspension needed to come out to to get to the springs but the results were worth the effort as the slighgtly lower stance really improves the look
In truth it’s less of a barn find and more of barn remembrance. The car is owned by Kev Leaper of PPC Magazine who we do various work for. This is a westfield XI, a copy of the Lotus XI. This car has been graced with bigger arches and a bonnet bulge to accomodate it’s vauxhall XE ‘redtop’ engine. It’s a fair deviation from how Lotus intended it to look but I thiink it looks like a rolling work of art, assuming that is you can see past the dust, rust and cobwebs.
The plan id to get it race ready, no mean feat but one we’re all set for. So far we’ve got it running and resolved a few cooling problems. The next obstacle was freeing off the brakes which wasn’t too hard, but then found that they wouldn’t bleed back up again. The master cylinder had seized so once that was replaced and several tight bleed nipples freed off it had brakes once again. Now we’re down to the nitty gritty of getting it set up and all those little details that take so much time but I can’t wait to see the car back on the race track
It’s amazing that a car built in such relatively low numbers and with such striking styling should still be so cheap. The Scimitar was such a departure for Reliant and has carried it’s age well thanks to the fibreglass body. There may be nothing groundbreaking about the mechincals but thanks to some very strong parts being carfully borrowed from other manufacturers they are tough and pretty reliable as classics go. This car was bought for only a few hundred pounds but since then we’ve done some serious work done. Cosmetically it’s had a full respray, new carpets, the seats have been leathered and the headlining replaced to match. On the mechanical side of things it’s had a rare South African motorcraft 3.4L engine fitted. We’ve added some custom stainless exhaust manifolds and a full stainless system. It took 6 exhaust boxes in total to quieten everything down! It’s had lot’s of other bit’s a bobs like a dose of waxoyl and a full brake strip and reseal. Parts aren’t available for ars this age so everything had a clean up and new seals. In the end the master cylinder was modified to take one from a transit. I’m sure there wll be more improving to be done soon.
