Manky Monkey Motors

I visited my big brother Steve, (Brock), in Wiltshire today. No other reason than just to say Hello & mooch around his workshop.
He & Scottie the hotrod haulier have been working on a joint project for a while now -a late 50s Nash Metropolitan. They're building it in nose-high gasser style, primarily for the drag strip, (they both race with the Wild Bunch nostalgia drag club), but it could just as easily be run on the street.
Mr Brock put together a box section chassis with ladder bars & coil springs at the back & hairpins & a 26" transverse leaf spring on a home built straight tube axle with Hillman Minx wheels at the front. It holds a 3.9 litre Rover V8 engine mated to a Chevy 2 speed PowerGlide auto gearbox, with a narrowed Sherpa 200 van axle at the other end, sitting on enormous racing slicks & Rover P5 wheel centres with suzuki vitara rims.
Metros have a bolt-on hard top roof, which will hide the bolt-in single loop roll bar. Being an early model, it doesn't have an opening boot, but has a recess for the spare wheel on the rear deck.
I love this. The only Metro gasser in the country?

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Steve, plasma cutting the rear arches.

cool, I do like me an unusual Gasser..

I LOVE IT !!!!!!!!!!!. More pics when you can. :)

strange, so do i!!!  ;D

After all the hassle getting my own project registered for the road I was determined to take a few days out & do something totally non auto related. So I went for a drive this afternoon. Just randomly cruising around the back roads of Hampshire & Berkshire, I found myself irrisistably drawn toward Wiltshire. So I ended up back at my brother Steve's place. He & Scottie were hard at work on the Metro, Steve adding outriggers to the chassis & Scottie welding sills to the body. Sorry for interrupting guys!  ;D

The chassis' being built to full drag race spec -because it's so short it looks super chunky.

Scottie's handiwork.

A heap of rare classic car debris. Maybe they could weld it all together & sell it to the classic brigade as repair panels. 

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Looks like it's going to be fun to drive.

Looking good mate.

A couple of snaps of the body propped in place, pinched from the Rods n Sods forum.

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its MAD !!!!

Yeah, it looked relatively sane till you put the body on!

perfect... bloody perfect...

Got to say it looks great, i had my doubts to be truthful, but now am embarased to say i ever doubted. Its just so right  8) And it shouldn't be ;D ;D ;D

heard on another forum that scottie,s putting this up for sale  :o :o

That's been the plan for a long time. It's being built with an eye to selling it, either for road or drag strip use.
Scottie has his own race car, the Pinto powered "Tiki Munki", feautured in Custom Car magazine last year. Loony's pencilled in to repaint it at some point.
Steve, ("Brock"), used to race The Black Pig, follwed by Black Pig Too which used the same small block Chevy engine. He's now sold the entire car minus the engine, which he's keeping for his next project. The new owner's commisioned him to fit & tune a brand new crate motor, imported from the States.
Steve says he prefers designing & building drag cars to racing them. He may build something new around the Pig engine or continue with his long term project, using a specially moulded single seater fibreglass Morris Minor bodyshell.
The Metropolitan is a joint project between Scottie & Steve for their own amusement really, either to race or sell. They've decided they've got too many other commitments between them to race it, so it's for sale, either complete, or as it is. Fancy it?   

Now for sale on Ebay.
They're looking for about £5,000.

Nash gasser (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Austin-Nash-Metropolitan-Gasser-Hot-Rod-/261231555099?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item3cd29d321b)

Photo and caption in this months CC  ;)

Yup, saw it this morning.
Scottie's got it advertised on Ebay at the moment. Several potential "buyers" had asked if they'd sell the rolling chassis without the body. Now it's advertised as such, they've had no takers.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hot-Rod-Gasser-Rolling-Chassis-Austin-100e-Anglia-Ford-Pop-33-Willys-/261241664564

brock hasn,t got a spare dragster lying around has he ?

Sold his old one, but ask him nice and he will make you one to your spec  ;)

Topolino bodied, Rover motored one in Custom Car magazine this month Mike. 3 1/2 grand. Brock's wondering if it's his old chassis, from Black Pig one.

what date is this months mag ,, anyone got a copy of the add, wouldnt mind seeing what it looks like and  wherabouts isit ,,
ta,,

It's got an orange Pop on the cover. Came out in the shops on Friday, (2 days ago).
Brock says if it's his old chassis, (he thinks it is), it wouldn't get a certification tag for racing cos it was Reynolds seamless tube -top quality old fashioned stuff but outside the regs . Could be run for Run What Ya Brung meets though & presumably lower speed racing? -I don't know how the regs work, but think you get different tags for different classes.

Nash now sold.
Brock writes:

The Nash went to a new home today. After being up at the crack of nine o'clock to be at the shed to meet the buyers, I managed to be late to see the people that had been travelling down from Manchestershire for four hours and was very surprised to see that it was our good friends Glyn and Elliot, ex Wild Bunch alchy altered racers looking for a diversion. They seemed quite pleased with the car and took it and very nearly a shed full of stuff to go with it. Look forward to seeing how it turns out.

Good evening all. This is Elliott who bought the little Met' off steve and Scott. Well, i'll rephrase, my other half actually bought! Im sorry to say that the original plan was to drop it on the deck with an IFS but i soon rectified that. Amanda didnt realise you could build a gasser and it be street legal, and we already have one tempremental race car! (soon to return!). So anyway, we are back on track. Progress is slow due to work commitments bit the rover v8 and powerglide are gone. I dont like rovers unfortunately and there was a spare 302 ford in our circle of friends. Ive got plenty of goodies for small block fords too!! I really wanted a four speed car so i found a toploader but its actually a truck box and 4th is overdrive for cruising. I dont want to make steve and scotts incredible work look bad so feel i have to make sure the rest of the car is completed to their standard!! It will be caged, and remain what appears to be its original colour, red, although it will be candy!!!

Our other car also bears an austin badge although its only a replica of an american austin bantam body on our altered chassis. Again small block ford but all aftermarket and running on alky!! Im also desoerately trying to get an Austin champ back on the road which only needs minor work!!

Hiya Elliott. Welcome aboard!
I'm Steve's younger brother, (the better looking one). Always nice to hear a project's gone to a loving new home. So when do we get to see some progress photos?