Calling Messrs Chaseracer & Dollywobbler please.

[GJR 11L]

Today, I have mostly been down in that Leeds place where, standing in the Kirkstall Abbey car park, I spied this:

 

Question for the above named members; is it known to you and does it have the extra engine I expect in a Sahara replica-ish jobbie?

[dollywobbler]

Other 2CVers are available. Sadly I think it's just the one engine.

[GJR 11L]

Just as I was editing the post to include your good self, you were busily beating me to it. Sorry.

[dollywobbler]

That's ok. I happen to know there are a few 2CVers lurking about the place too...

 

As far as I know, there's only one Sahara replica in the UK. This one.

 

Had a ride in it in 2005. Great fun sitting just above the fuel tanks (note the fillers in the door!). Fitted with twin 602cc engines, unlike the original, so quite brisk. It might even have 652cc engines. I haven't seen it or the owner for quite a while now.

 

Incredibly, they built almost 1000 Saharas back in the day. Bonkers.

[Spiny Norman]

Isn't there some arcane C&U law that prohibits twin engined cars from being used on the road in the UK?

That aside, that Sahara is a bonkers piece of kit.

[dollywobbler]

I thought there was - that team that built a two-engined Taxi fell foul of it on Scrapheap Challenge Scrappy Races. That said, this Sahara replica is far from the only twin-engined car on UK roads. There are quite a few Saxos and Golfs that have undergone that sort of a conversion.

[GJR 11L]

*Adds 2cv Sahara to fantasy garage contents list...*

 

Being a conscientious lover of anything car-shaped whose sell by date has been and gone, I did sit in my car for a while longer in case the Deuche's owner came back, but after listening to my entire collection of different versions of "Willie the Pimp" and then some yellow snow-themed songs from the great man, still nobody came to the little Citroen and I had to be somewhere else.

 

Isn't there some arcane C&U law that prohibits twin engined cars from being used on the road in the UK?

That aside, that Sahara is a bonkers piece of kit.

Probably, this country's funny that way.

 

I thought there was - that team that built a two-engined Taxi fell foul of it on Scrapheap Challenge Scrappy Races. That said, this Sahara replica is far from the only twin-engined car on UK roads. There are quite a few Saxos and Golfs that have undergone that sort of a conversion.

 

Also, didn't James May's Saab 9000/Alfa 164 "Pushmepullyou"-style hybrid, as built for one of Top Gear's amusing challenges, have an engine at both of its front ends and a new MOT certificate at the time of build?

[Spiny Norman]

Also, didn't James May's Saab 9000/Alfa 164 "Pushmepullyou"-style hybrid, as built for one of Top Gear's amusing challenges, have an engine at both of its front ends and a new MOT certificate at the time of build?

 

I thought about that one myself, but maybe the law just says you can't have both engines running and supplying power at the the same time*. There was also a rather brisk Mk2 Scirocco with 2 1.8GTi lumps in it a few years back.

*Probably also says something about steering wheels not coming off in your hands too....

[Rocket88]

Isn't there some arcane C&U law that prohibits twin engined cars from being used on the road in the UK?

That aside, that Sahara is a bonkers piece of kit.

 

 

Don't think so..........Twini Moke was road legal

[Jack_Harpers_Teeth]

I cannot add anything to this other than saying what a top spot that is!

[HillmanImp]

Not seen this around as that is very local to me. Will keep my eyes peeled for it.

[GJR 11L]

I cannot add anything to this other than saying what a top spot that is!

Yeah, I was genuinely excited by it. Is it OK to say that?

 

Not seen this around as that is very local to me. Will keep my eyes peeled for it.

Leeds has changed in so many ways since I stayed down there in the mid to late '80s, mostly thanks to road building [and destroying] projects like these new "high occupancy" lanes which, if what I saw yesterday is anything to go by, are designed for large 4x4s with only the driver on board!

BUT... I've never seen so many interesting older motors in one city on a January day before in my life.

Apart from the A-series Citroen in that picture, I spotted a lovely black A35 which I followed almost into town from Armley. It turned off into a side street near the shopping centre in Bramley, I didn't have the phone in its windscreen holder or I'd have had about a dozen images to post. Also saw an equally sound-looking Toyota Cressida on a '78-'79 T plate, I thought that they'd all been minicabbed to death in the '80s. A mini Clubman estate was turning left to Pudsey from Stanningley Bottom as I sat waiting to get into the traffic from a parking spot and loads of other interesting stuff was out & about.

I'm planning to go back in the next few weeks, purely to take pictures of old motors.

 

I have to say though, seriously, the general standard of driving in the city was far higher and much more polite than it is up here. Apart from the single crewed, big 4x4s in the high occupancy lanes that is.

[Six-cylinder]

This drove into a show in Holland in May 2011, with 2 engines.

 

P1050906.jpg broad by the_cvsmith, on Flickr

[GJR 11L]

Oooooh. Now that I would find space for! The Mehari's one of those "so utterly bonkers it should be available on the NHS" sort of motors to begin with, IMHO. But add an extra engine and it's the stuff of dreams.

[dollywobbler]

Meharis are great fun. The French military had 4x4 ones from the factory, but with just the one engine.

[GJR 11L]

Meharis are great fun. The French military had 4x4 ones from the factory, but with just the one engine.

That would almost make me wish I were French and a soldier. Almost.

[chaseracer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEk_o4Gmgv8

 

Enjoy...

[GJR 11L]

Wow! Impressive. Thanks for that.