Vintage Thing 22.3 - Siva Llama

Some black and white publicity photos of the Siva Llama turned up on eBay a few weeks ago. I watched them after being tipped off about them by Graeme Pearson the editor of the Imp Club magazine. I didn't bid but they've found a good home though because they now appear on Franka's site.

The registration of the car depicted is a new one on me. I have a short list of known cars and hope that this one is an unknown survivor.

There's something that inspires camaraderie between the owners of obscure motor cars. At the ARCC (Association of Rootes Car Clubs) Rally at Blenheim Palace in 2000, I met an affable chap from the Clan Crusader owners club called Jim McEwan. I was attending with my Siva Llama at that particular show and he was fascinated by it. Jim was the club historian for the Clan Crusaders and we had a long and enthusiastic talk. Over the next 18 months or so, he sent me a number of articles that featured a Siva Llama. These weren't just photocopies -- they were the original pages from ancient and long-forgotten magazines such as Car & Car Conversions, Custom Car and Hot Car. This full page image came from some seventies car magazine that he'd plundered on my behalf. I think it originally appeared in Custom Car but isn't adorned by naked women so I could be wrong. It shows the saloon version of the Siva Llama and I hope that this one is another undiscovered survivor, too, that will soon emerge into the lime light and be properly recognised.