I sent a message to the seller and am trying to organise going to check it out with a view to making him an offer, that'll probably happen on Tuesday. But in general terms it appears to be an ideal compromise, especially as the Cord has a conventional boot opening and this FRA type has a hatch, so I'd (just) be able to get the electric chair in the back of the thing. The plan would be to try and sort a price which would leave the seller with the cage to flog on as he sees fit, with these door bars where they are, I couldn't get into or out of the thing and that - I find - although a great way to save fuel, would sort of get in the way of enjoying the finished car. There'd be no need for them in any case since this shell came with substantial box section steel punt sections that exceed the stiffness of a factory mini's structure and also, I've put a GRP bodied car upside down before now and drove that one home afterwards so a simple 1" perimeter pillar to roof frame would be better and then only strictly necessary as a means of tying in some decent shoulder level belt mounts. The idea - easier to execute as this isn't a Cord so I wouldn't need to stick to a factory front subframe - would be to fit the Mercedes OM660 Diesel in 71bhp/140Lb/ft flavour along with its 5 speed manual transmission complete with the clutch and selector solenoids from the donor Smart. This combination is some 18Kg lighter than an A series and the all-up weight should be around 530Kg assuming a pair of 7 gallon mini tanks were fitted and full at the weighbridge during testing. That would take it below PLG and into heavy quad territory.
I have pretty much every other bit I'd need to do this apart from a shell so in that way, this would make more sense than continuing to try and get the Cord back to the UK. The Clubman front end helps too, since this would allow for a front mounted battery and the Smart's original a/c kit, its huge intercooler and still wouldn't need the bulkhead to be cut back, which would leave lots of space for a massive glove hole and an array of interesting but ultimately non-essential extra instruments.
I'll be travelling to view with a colleague who
has just been volunteered to help, we'll be taking a Transit pickup - courtesy of the highway maintenance department, ah, the joys of one of my employers being an LA function
- and plenty of strong webbing straps so that there'd be no need to travel all that way twice if the guy were to accept my offer.
There's still a chance that I can get my Cord back over here too
if the agencies currently involved in attempting to organise surface travel back to my exchange placement are successful in sorting things. If they aren't, then I get to stay in the UK, take a hit on the expenses so far and sub let my digs over there which will only take a few years to cover the costs to date.
Some you win? Aye, whatever.
I had thought that only one of those was ever made, at least that was the impression that the then-owner of that green FRA mini that appeared in a mini mag some years ago was claiming at the time!
