Cool car with a rare engine

Car fanatic Nick Truman was driven to set out on a supercar project after striking lucky on an internet auction.

He is now busy building a replica of a coveted Zonda worth over $1 million in the showroom.

Nick explained: "I was killing some time on ebay and found a 1978 Jaguar V12 5.3-litre engine on sale for a penny and I just thought, 'I'll have some of that'.

"I'd been thinking of doing a project, some little hobby, for a while, so after I won the bid for the engine for a mere £85 (BD52), I thought I'd make a car to put it in."

After one of the other ebay bidders pleaded with Nick to sell it to him, curiosity took over and after a little research, Nick found out that the engine was one of the rarest ever built by Jaguar.

Nick said that because of the rarity of the engine, he thought it deserved to have a rare body to match.

"Lots of people make Lamborghini kit cars and I thought it would be much more fun to make something totally insane."

After further research, Nick discovered that building a do-it-yourself Zonda was a project no-one had previously attempted. He was inspired to take on the challenge after watching the model featured on hit TV motoring show Top Gear. He decided it was 'a cool car' and that cemented his decision to put the wheels in motion.

Zonda is a mid-engined Italian sports car produced by Pagani. It debuted in 1999 and currently fewer than 20 cars a year are manufactured. Some of the early Zonda engineering was done by Formula One champion Juan Manuel Fangio and as of June 2009, just 206 Zondas had been built.

The $1 million 2002 Zonda C12 S 7.3, on which Nick's model is based, accelerates from 0-100kmph in 3.7 seconds. However, thanks to his Jaguar engine and some fine tuning, Nick projects his model will do it in 2.9 seconds and be able to reach a mind-blowing top speed of 300kmph.

When the engine arrived in 2008, he began work on the first phase of the project.

"I got on the floor in my garage and drew the floor plan of what the Zonda should look like ... you know, wheels go here, wheels go there, put the engine roughly where I thought it was supposed to go and it started from there.

"The trouble is there was no blueprint so I was working on the design off a model Zonda (1/16th scale) for a lot of it. Then I went on the Pagani website and they very nicely give you the dimensions of the car - wheelbase, height and loads of other useful bits of information."

Sourcing the parts for the project was a big challenge for Nick, who currently drives a 1994 BMW 325 convertible and also owns a 1978 Ferrari Dino GT4. He said that he wanted to make his own sports car 'out of scrap, for nothing ... or as next to nothing as physically possible'.

The challenge of only using old parts quickly became a compulsive pre-occupation with Nick spending hours looking for parts online, in scrap yards and even from his own kitchen.

"It's easy to buy new things, but it's much, much harder to buy old rubbish and make it good again," he said. "So far I've spent about BD1,200 making this car. It's a kind of a Frankenstein because all the parts are from different models. I've even got bits of a moped, part of a speed boat and a saucepan from my kitchen built into this car!

"Even the 'donor car', a 1994 Ford Granada, which donated its brakes and steering, was scrap when I got it. Everything was on its last legs before I fixed it, which made everything a little bit more fun to do."

With all the information to hand, and a long road ahead, he diligently started welding, machining and designing the vehicle at every spare moment he had.

Just as his car project was nearing completion, able to drive out of the garage but not fully kitted out, Nick was offered a job with the TRA (Telecommunications Regulatory Authority) after top officials saw him present a speech on internet child safety in Bahrain.

So, the Trumans moved to the island and the 'Zonda' was left in the garage back in England. After a few months Nick felt like he had left a member of the family behind and started looking into shipping his beloved car to the kingdom.

However, there were several obstacles to overcome before the reunion. The biggest issue was getting the traffic directorate to allow a right-hand-drive car into the kingdom. Nick called on the Bahrain Motor Federation (BMF) for assistance and after the organisation gave him its backing the Traffic Directorate issued a licence to allow the vehicle to land in the kingdom.

"When the car turned up in Bahrain, customs valued it at $40,000 and I thought they must have opened the wrong container, bearing in mind I'd already written a list of parts I used to make it.

"I laughed when they told me I had to pay BD750 import duty, which was almost as much as it cost me to build the car!"

Further correspondence followed and the green light was finally given when officials were informed that completing the project here would benefit Bahraini businesses, because Nick still needs to buy parts for the car and will need to enlist some help to complete the carbon fibre bodywork.

It was agreed that he pay the duty which will be returned when he eventually goes back to the UK.

The car is now registered as a track car and awaits the time it can be put through its paces at the BIC. It should not look out of place because the 12,500ml injectors in the engine burn through six litres of fuel a minute at full throttle.

"Part of the joy of living in Bahrain is that it only costs BD2.500 to fill up the tank ... this is one of the only places in the world I would be able to afford to run it because it literally drinks fuel!" said Nick.

"This is the first car I've built from scratch and I it will probably be the last. I'll be very glad to get this one completed. I can't wait to take it to the BIC and see how it fares because that's what I set out to do, build my own super car and drive it!"

Car body part specialists are urged to contact Nick on 39339537 or email zondav12@btinternet.com