Ford Racing Puma: A postscript

A COUPLE of Life On Cars readers - specifically, some of the petrolheads who joined me on my adventures in Wales last weekend - were disappointed with my reflections on the Ford Racing Puma in the last edition of The Champion.

Their main criticism was that my piece suggested the fettled Ford was the superior car when compared to the Rover Metro GTi and the Volkswagen Polo G40, which also ventured into deepest Snowdonia, and the MK1 Mazda MX-5 which I was driving. All four, of course, are fabulous cars in their own particular ways, and proved more than capable of handling the challenging roads and the worst weather Wales could throw at them!

Life On Cars, while striving to be factually accurate on all matters motoring, is always happy to hear your feedback. Get in touch via the usual Champion channels or by email at david.simister@hotmail.co.uk

Why the Ford Racing Puma ruled the roost in Wales

TWO things surprised me in the wilds of deepest Wales, where a couple of car-loving friends and I ventured last weekend for a bit of full-throttle fun.

Firstly that everyone there, even when we had to ask for an extraordinary amount of help after a breakdown, is lovely. With the exception of a slightly surly barmaid in Aberyswyth each and every person seemed to bend over backwards for us - in fact one pub landlord, upon hearing we needed something to seal a punctured radiator, actually ventured up to his farm to fetch us some araldite. What a guy!

But the one lingering memory I'll have of enjoying the twisty mountain roads around Dolgellau and Llangurig won't be the relentless rain we had almost all weekend, or the stunning scenery. It'll be the Ford Racing Puma and the rally-bred buzz of its exhaust note. Most of you will have forgotten the Racing Puma even existed, overshadowed by the Escort Cosworth that went before it and the go-faster Focuses that followed.

Ford took a normal 1.7 Puma and gave it to tuning firm Tickford, who then rebuilt it from scratch at great expense, which is why it cost more than a significantly more powerful Subaru Impreza Turbo when it was new. As a result only a couple of hundred were ever made, meaning that it's not only spine-tingingly quick but incredibly rare these days.

Sure, its sharpened-up steering rack means it's a pain to park at Sainsbury's but in Wales it ruled the roost, even though it was up against my neat 'n' nimble two seater roadster, a Rover Metro GTi - don't laugh, it's much faster than you think - and a Volkswagen Polo equipped with a supercharger which cost more than the engine it was attached to. On the face of it, it's still just a Puma (which is itself a great little car) but it's only on really demanding roads that you realise where all the £23,000 asking price went. Every single component, from the splitter to the wildly flared arches, has been designed with devouring B-roads in mind.

It's a shame the Racing Puma's been almost erased from non-petrolhead memory, because it is a frantic future classic in the best fast Ford tradition. Oh, and the people of Wales all told us they loved it. See, I told you they were lovely...

The Rover 100 that'll give a Porsche Boxster S a run for its money

THERE are a great many new motors on the way later this year. Most of which, a mechanic mate of mine reckons, he can easily outrun. In a Metro.

Yes, you read that right; in a garage out in the flatlands of West Lancashire work is underway on turning what was a knackered Rover 100, the Metro's final fling before poor crash test results killed it off, into a bit of a supercar in minature. I know you're probably smirking now, but I'm looking forward to seeing it as much as I am the new 3-Series or the Toyota GT-86. Because it promises, for less than you'd think, to give ‘em both a bit of a run for their money.

The recipe's a surprisingly simple one; take a Metro, making sure it's one of the later ones, remove the Rover K-Series you'll find under its square-rigged bonnet, and then beef up the brakes and suspension. What you then do is fill the hole you've created with the much meatier VVC powerplant from an MGF or a Lotus Elise, which - because it's still a K-Series engine - will slot in perfectly. All you need to do then is finish it all off by fitting a roll cage and decorating it with a nifty paint job of your choice.

The end result might sound faintly ridiculous but consider this; the finished Metro will offer up somewhere in the region of 180bhp in something that weighs about the same as a packet of crisps. That means the final product will offer up a better power to weight ratio than a Porsche Boxster S, which in turn means it should be seriously quick.

Easily rapid enough, I reckon, to lose the pub bet with said car's owner to find something that'll offer the same sort of punch for anything like the same sort of money. I've honestly racked my brains to find a secondhand performance car bargain that'd outrun the modified Metro, and I can't think of anything.

A secondhand hot hatch wouldn't offer the same sort of pace, while you'd struggle to get a slingshot sports car, like a Caterham, without it costing three or four times what the Metro cost. As much as I'm a bit of a cynic when it comes to modifying cars, I honestly can't think of anything that'd match the muscular Metro. If, however, you can think of one, by all means let me know. Only serious petrolheads need apply!

I look forward to reporting later this year whether a Rover 100 that's more Brands Hatch than hot hatch is as bonkers as it sounds. Watch this space...

The Mini Metro: not a Mini

“WE know it isn’t a Mini. It’s a Mini Metro.”

I don’t know how many times I said that line last weekend, mainly to middle-aged men with hi-vis jackets and hi-vis frowns. The Metro has Mini subframes and Mini switches; BMW’s MINI isn’t even a Mini in name only, if you’re being geeky and case sensitive. Yet taking a Metro on a Mini-only run to North Wales is a cardinal sin.

Not that my friend and I – both Mini owners – cared, because we were still part of a 90 mile, 150-strong convoy that celebrates Britain’s bestselling car on a yearly basis. If you own an original Mini, you need to do this drive.

The Wirral to Llandudno Mini Run does exactly what it says on the tin; arrive under a steely grey sky at a car park on the Wirral at some unpleasantly early time in the morning, park next to every size and shape of Mini you can think of, and then follow them onto the A55. Even if you’re driving something which the organisers argue is emphatically not a Mini.

Who cares? Our contingent on the event, the Southport and Ormskirk District of seemingly millions of Mini clubs, didn’t, and once we’d decided to ignore pretty much all of the organisers’ rules we had a great time.



I’ll never forget watching a duo of the plucky machines drifting on the ice on the Great Orme’s car park – it was open to the public but off-limits to the Minis for “safety” reasons, but we went anyway. I’ll never forget lining up four of the tiny machines outside Britain’s smallest house, in Conwy, for a photo and a giggle. And I won’t forget putting a fiver’s worth of petrol into the Metro, but that’s because it runs on diesel.

Owning a classic car and not taking it on a run is like having a passport without going abroad. You’ve got to go, even if it’s just once, because you’ll never forget it.

Why didn’t I take the Life On Cars Mini? Simple – it’s in hibernation during the big freeze, and I’ve got a second set of wheels to join it.

What is it? Tune in next week and find out…