Speedster buildup

What a great build, and thread. May have to "borrow" the Morris Minor shock idea for my speedster...hope it's still tearing up the roads...

 

Very tasteful build. Didn´t you use machines to bend an roll the frame for the boattail rearend???

Regards Andreas from Denmark

 

Well what happened next – where did it go?

Archie’s first proper shakedown run in it was to the A-Bombers in Sweden . He and a friends son set off from Stonehouse, Lanarkshire in it. They drove to Newcastle to get a ferry to Amsterdam for its maiden journey.

They drove across to Keil in Germany and it poured down the whole time. The speedster drove excellent and never missed a beat. From Keil it was onwards to Gothenburg and Uddevalla. A few days later they turned round and did it all again. It’s a long way.

Archie said “It was a real blast to drive all the way and back with no problems, no roof, sodden wet map and cross-ply tyres. We got a lot of strange looks on the German motorways as we looked like a pair of fighter pilots with leather helmets and goggles lol”.

After a while Archie needed funds for another project so the speedster was acquired by a gent named Neil Bennett – who amongst other things owns a car called the Batten Special which is a serious piece of kit – if you google Neil Bennett 1935 Batten Special there’s lots about it.
Neil is very tall so some surgery was required to the bodywork so he could fit. He planned to retro fit a Model A four banger in it but that never happened. Neil kept the car for a long while using it mainly for pottering around – although it did have a run at Pendine on the sand.

L4/M 63 Neil Bennett SV8711 - photo by Retro-Motoring

I acquired the car in 2018 at auction on a bit of a whim and went through the brakes, steering, suspension and alignment. I spent a lot of time getting the castor right replaced the front axle which had been bent . I then turned my attention to the look of the car but I didn’t want to stray too far from Archie’s original vision.

I had the seats and interior reupholstered, removed the mudguards – but it’s a 5 minute job to put them back on, chopped the screen, and re-did the grille. I also re did the dashboard as the gauges had mostly given up, replaced the fuel tank, refurbed the shocks, new clutch, and lightened the flywheel.
DSC00172 by andrew atherton, on Flickr

DSC00171 by andrew atherton, on Flickr

Car is currently getting steering box refurbed and am waiting for a new front spring from the States but car should be back on the ground and running around again next week.

I use the car very often if it’s not pouring down – mainly just for transport – but have done the odd hill climb and rally/treasure hunt type thing.
EM1X0167 by andrew atherton, on Flickr

In a nice postscript, I’ve become good friends with Archie. I made contact with him when I bought the car and he’s been incredibly helpful when I get stuck and just generally a great sounding board.

We’re on the South Coast of England and the last two years he’s popped down in his camper van to check on how I’m looking after the Speedster. Last year he borrowed the car to tour the New Forest for a day which was great fun.

Will update with some better pictures of how it looks now, once current bit of work is done.