Nelson Racing Scimitar
The Scim is dead - long live the Scim
It was a rainy Sunday in July at Spa Francorchamp when the car came out of Eau Rouge, clipped the curb at the top of the hill and pirouetted on the greasy surface and "gently" hit a concrete wall at 80mph (three times).
That was the end of our lovingly restored 6a. Not seriously damaged, but widely damaged on three corners; bodywork a mess, front suspension shot; gearbox wrecked, rear axle half shaft bent etc. etc.
So 3 options:-
1). Give up racing (not likely)
2) Rebuild the 6a
3) Start again with a new donor car.
As options 2 and 3 amounted to the same cost, a slight change of direction was decided. Find a half-prepared donor 5a from the 1960s and compete in the "Swinging Sixties" series of the Classic Sports Car Club. This was the plan then.
The challenge was set for Iain Daniels and John Louch to find a decent
5a and then take all the reuseable items from my 6a and "mate" them together.
Iain knew of a car that he had worked on that had been previously owned by
Ben Gough (Iain's co-driver in the Swinginging Sixties Series) and had changed hands a few times. The car had also been used for Hill Climbing by Ben and then Jonathan Allatt with some success, so some useful additions had already been made - it was a challenge to get the car out before the end of the race season, but a more reasonable one than starting from scratch.
Iain and John have done a great job - fortunately most of the race-prepared items (including the engine) had escaped damage in the Spa accident and with hours to spare was ready for a first outing at Donington.
1st outing at Donington, the car started and finished without incident (more than can be said for nealry 1/3rd of the other participants).
Matt and I were a bit off the pace but not a bad effort given that the first time we sat in the car was in Qualification.....and finished 24th out of 35 starters
