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Post by reddawg on Oct 31, 2005 15:45:52 GMT -5
i aquired a terrapin chassis about six years ago with the intent of restoring and racing it. i already had a race proven engine from my slightly bent Mini Moke so it should have been easy. but work time and family have forced the terrapin project to take back seat. we are now revisiting the terrapin project and rsearch has shown that the car that i have may very well be the "Bizzy" Williams race from Barbados. the same car that is seen in the photos on some terrapin sites. more research will have to be done to confirm this. i have contacted Mr. Williams and asked him for information as to the whereabouts of his car. I am a motor sport magazine photographer and the entire rebuild will be chronicled in the magazine so photo's will follow.
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Post by Jawfish on Nov 6, 2005 8:55:58 GMT -5
Hi there,
Yes keep us posted, on your progress. I am interested to some pistures of the car and it's restoration process.
Fred.
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Post by reddawg on Apr 6, 2012 16:25:06 GMT -5
Hi guys, It has been quite a while since I have been on this forum After much time, three job changes and one divorce I am here sitting in my new garage (unfortunately the old garage was attached to the house that the exwife got) I am looking again at the Terrapin chassis and I have decided that as long as the BMW has to sleep outside, I might as well restart this project. So I will keep you guys informed as to whats going on with the rebuild. First thing is to have the chassis blasted down to a bare metal to determin is viability. Let you know whats happening.
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Post by reddawg on Apr 17, 2012 11:31:59 GMT -5
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Post by reddawg on Apr 17, 2012 12:23:55 GMT -5
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Post by reddawg on Apr 19, 2012 2:19:35 GMT -5
Thanks to our facebook page we have been able to trace our car back to Barbados. It turns out that car was owned and driven at one time by Mike Atwell.
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Post by MiNiTiCi on Apr 19, 2012 4:03:56 GMT -5
Hope you can restore the Terrapin to how it was run by Mike Atwell. Great looking car.
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Post by reddawg on Apr 20, 2012 5:09:13 GMT -5
We now that Mike Atwell purchased his Terrapin from Bizzy Williams in Barbados. Here is Bizzy in the Terrapin.
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Post by reddawg on Apr 20, 2012 11:48:10 GMT -5
We are on our way to the media blaster. We can better assess the condition of the chassis after everything has been stripped off. So many colors
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Post by reddawg on Apr 24, 2012 22:13:43 GMT -5
Got my chassis back from the media blaster today It is great shape considering that it has been around since 1974. I also got an email from Mike Atwell who was the original owner of the car, here is what he had to say. Hi, The car was built in Barbados for the 1974 racing season by Terrapin Racing and Developements Ltd. It is a Terrapin Mk8 having one inch suspension tubes and completely adjustable wishbones. It was originally powered by a 1293cc Mini Cooper S engine which had been extensively modified with an 8 port head, 4 Amal mono bloc carburetors, 649 Camshaft, Steel billet 9000 RPM balanced crankshaft, close ratio garbox, pre oil pump filtering of the oil coming from the gearbox, ete, etc. I won the Formula Caribbean championship in 1974 and 1975 with the car and then sold it to Marshall Gill from Trinidad. After that, I lost touch with the car. The car held the 1300 cc record of 44.00 seconds at Bushy Park in Barbados for many years and also the Short Circuit record at The South Dakota circuit in Guyana for many years.
regards Michael Atwell
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Post by reddawg on Jul 12, 2012 19:15:50 GMT -5
Hey guys Its been a few week since I last reported on the rebuild. We have got quite a bit done since we got the car back from the media blaster but there is still alot to do. After the frame was blasted we found that only one tube needed replacing, this is amazing since the frame is almost 40 years old. We also managed to get our hands on a 2001 Suzuki GSX-R 750, so we will be using that engine for the build, later on we will probably switch to a 1000cc engine which should be a straight bolt in swap. Our facebook page continues to attract new fans daily and has enabled us to trace the history of the car and has even attracted a few potential sponsors. Here is my engine freshly removed from the wrecked Gixxer Here is the engine mounted in the frame We built the exhaust system using a combination of new tubes and the original bike parts My design for the shifter, absolutely smooth and fully adjustable
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Post by reddawg on Jul 12, 2012 19:24:01 GMT -5
The next step is to work on building the Chain Drive Differential. I know that these are built from front drive differentials but I have found a rear drive differential from a Subaru that is more than suited for the task. The side covers of the Subaru diff carry both the bearings and the seals. The side covers eliminate the need to make my own pillow block bearings, I just have to replace the roller bearings with a sealed bearing and mount the side covers to some flat stock to build my diff. Best of all these diffs are available with or with out LSD.
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Post by reddawg on Sept 17, 2012 21:15:36 GMT -5
Here are the Subaru Differential Side Cover with the old bearings removed and sealed bearings fitted.
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Post by reddawg on Sept 17, 2012 21:21:19 GMT -5
I was lucky enough to acquire an LSD Subaru Differential which is fully enclosed with the exception of four holes in each end. The material is also not so hard that it can not be easily machined. With all the holes filled we cut a small centering ring and drilled five new holes for the sprocket.
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Post by reddawg on Sept 17, 2012 21:23:16 GMT -5
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