Vintage Thing 22.1 - another Siva Llama

It seems that just by writing about something I really stir things up. If you follow my Anarchadia book blog you'll know that real life is starting to follow the fictional world of The Horsepower Whisperer and The Wormton Lamb and probably rejoiced to hear that - from now on - all my books will feature brilliantly sunny weather. Well, now I'm stirring things up with Vintage Things. I blog about them and more come out of the wood work.

This Siva Llama belongs to a doctor who has owned the car from new. He’s commissioned Tony Suckling in Kent to get the car going again and, through the wonders of the interweb, Tony found me to ask a few questions about Siva Llamas. It’s a 1975 car so a few months younger than mine and it looks like it’s the same colour. Mine’s been resprayed but I’ve seen a couple of others in this bright yellow.

It’s been on blocks for the last 30 years and has only done about 6,000 miles. So far the wheels have been shot blasted and powder-coated, new tyres and drive couplings fitted, the brakes have been overhauled and, after a certain amount of aggravation, the electrics have been sorted out. Tony has made new bumpers and outriggers and mended various small items such as the fuel sender unit, windscreen wiper wheel boxes, ignition switch and handbrake. He’s also fitted new seat belts, finding Securon a good source for the non-inertia variety.

Its first road test provoked only a slight leak from the water pump and the clutch was free despite all those years of storage.

Tony initially asked me if the Llama was worth doing up so I obviously said yes. This brings the total of known survivors to 4.

Besides this latest discovery, there’s my own 1974 van version, the blue one that used to belong to Colin Valentine and the camouflage one that used to be owned by Richard Murtha but has now gone abroad.

Tim Morgan was once given a Llama, many years ago, sight unseen, that was in Cornwall somewhere, possibly Launceston but he didn’t have time to pick it up. There was also the one I spotted in a scrapyard at St Day in Cornwall about 14 years ago that got baled up before I new how scarce they were becoming.

According to Chris Rees in his book Classic Kit Cars, Siva made around 50 Llamas. No owner’s club exists but an informal network has grown up over the years as enthusiasts and fellow owners let each other know whenever anything new crops up. Leading light in all things Siva is William Jansen in Holland who has a Siva Moon Buggy - like a beach buggy but Mini powered. Between us we know people with Ford Pop-powered Siva Edwardians, VW based Siva Salukis and crazy Raceabouts and even the amazing V8 Siva S530 that was nearly made by Aston Martin.

Popular Siva lore has it that the Llama killed the company but I recently made contact with Neville Trickett who exonerated the little car of all blame. The fault lay with Siva’s financiers. As the Imp was 10 years old when design work began, Neville obtained assurances from Chrysler UK that Imp production would continue. However, Chrysler abruptly announced that Imp production was to end and Siva’s financial backers pulled out.

I asked Neville if the Llama was ever resurrected abroad under another name. He said overseas Llama production had been planned but it never came to fruition. I explained that Patrick Neckles in Grenada had a car that looked like a Moke from the front but a Llama from behind. This car is a Hustler built by Arawak Motors but Neville had never heard of these names although he added that he wouldn’t be at all surprised if there was a link.

This sort of thing happens a lot with kit cars. Neville’s design for the Siva Parisienne, a pastiche of a veteran Renault based on a 2CV chassis, popped up wherever it was sunny after going out of production in the UK. And another of Neville’s designs, the VW based Siva Saluki, morphed into the Charger and then the Eurocco - without him having to lift a finger.

It's interesting that this car is owned by a doctor as the most famous Siva of all time was Bessie, which belonged the most famous doctor of all time – Doctor Who. “The Doctor” (Tony's mate) has this to say about his Siva.

“You may wonder why I purchased a Llama car. I attended the 1975 Motor Show at Earl’s Court wishing to buy a four seater convertible and - believe it or not - there were only three available, the Llama, a Morgan that had a ten year waiting list and a Bentley Continental, which was somewhat out of my price range so I attended the garage in North London where they were selling them. I was a young GP at the time with a wife and young daughter so I needed four seats. The Llama was our only car for two years, but was not very practical with the side screens up. There was nowhere to lock my medical bag or other things and with the roof down the maximum speed was only 55mph with no acceleration at all.

“I put in more comfortable seats for the driver and front passenger as the original seats were unsafe and uncomfortable, especially on a long journey.

“Once I had bought another car I stored the Llama in a lean-to at my mother’s house where it remained quietly rotting away. A friend of mine who had just retired was looking for a project, hence the rejuvenation of this unusual car.

“Tony is one of those chaps who can turn his hand to anything and is also a very good snooker player. I personally cannot even bang a nail in straight.

“One of the little car’s claim to fame, apart from being owned by me, was that on two occasions attended Broadstair's carnivals carrying carnival queen and her companions.

As there are so few Llamas in the world I intend to keep it unless there is a multimillionaire whose greatest desire is to add this car to his/her collection. Then for a suitable fee I would be persuaded to part with it.”

I must say that I have never considered my Llama as an alternative to a Bentley Continental or a Morgan but I can relate to the restriction on top speed. My car had a 998cc engine but it wore a 1¼ inch SU carb to enhance low speed torque for trailing. It wouldn't rev like an Imp engine should and only managed 65mph at best. I put this down to the lack breathing ability but it could be that it was more a question of aerodynamics. I never went anywhere with the hardtops so can't say if the top speed improved with them on. I do know that there was terrific turbulence in the passenger compartment at speed and once had twenty quid sucked out of my shirt pocket during a jaunt over Dartmoor.

I’ve asked Tony Suckling if he can identify what headlamps “The Doctor's” car has got. When arch-enthusiast Colin Valentine had his blue Llama, the origins of its headlamps were a big mystery. His car had unidentified lamps that fitted. My headlamps are believed to have originated from a Mk1 Escort but they just don’t fit. Colin sent me some codes and serial numbers written in the lenses but we never found out what they were from. They had proper adjusters and we suspected a Continental or Scandinavian origin. The headlamps on my car are so deep the bulb fouls the wheel arch panel behind it. Whoever put my car together solved this problem by the simple expedient of fixing them to the outside of the bodywork, thereby ensuring that the headlamp cover panels wouldn’t fit properly and that the Llama’s sleek styling was compromised - some would say even further.

I’m sorry to say that this sort of lash up typified my car. My door hinges pins are obviously old nails welded to the windscreen frame. Whoever put the side windows in the van sides cut the apertures too big on one side but then riveted a strip back in the make the hole smaller. The front seats hinged on bent pieces of metal when I got my car with the inevitable result that the material hardened and fractured. At this point, the seats became infinitely adjustable and the occupants became unhinged in both senses of the word. I made up some better seat brackets and hinges to restore peace of mind but Timo Rumary still took the mickey out of them. Apparently he was a welder fabricator in a previous incarnation.

It sounds like “The Doctor's” was better built than mine and will probably be MOTed by the time you read this.

As for the great Llama headlamp mystery, answers on a postcard please.