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.

Vintage Thing No.22 - Siva Llama

Unlike previous Vintage Things, I've actually got one of these. I've had my Siva Llama for a few years now and it's currently awaiting removal of the body to allow the chassis to be shot blasted. It's a van variant - would you believe - and I've got all the hardtops and doors. It's just that it wasn't very well put together when it was built and somebody cut windows into the van sides. This wouldn't have been a problem if they'd got the measurements right. On one side they cut the hole too big and riveted in a strip to fill a gap of about 2 cm. They must have got this strip out of the bit they'd just removed. I bet the language was choice. I'm not sure how I'll deal with this when respray time beckons.

Anyway, I never bothered with the doors or hardtops. It was always sunny wherever I went and the people always smiled and waved so I never felt the need. Don't judge this claim by the accompanying photos. Some of them might look overcast but they're just under exposed. If I look wet it's because I'm simply sweating a lot in my waterproofs....

The Siva Llama was designed by Neville Trickett and uses the running gear of a Hillman Imp. It has a separate steel chassis and the body panels continued the Siva in house utiliy style established with the Mini based Siva Mule. These are even rarer at 12 produced against the 50 or so Llamas they made.

Llamas were made from 1973 to 1976. There were great plans for them. Many light field cars came out at about this time expanding on the concept established by the Mini Moke, which could be made cheaply abroad but also attract the trendy Bohemian set in Knightsbridge.

In my guise as a throwback Bohemian living in Cornwall, I established contact with Neville Trickett about a year ago and he told me what killed the Llama was Chrysler's decision to end production of the Imp in 1976. They announced this in 1974 just as the car was launched, despite previous re-assurances over the Imp's future. Investors immediately withdrew their backing and Siva went out of business after producing a wide range of kit cars that epitomise what Peter Filby - doyen of alternative motoring - called The Fun Car Explosion.

Besides my own car, there are three known survivors. The first one I ever saw was in a scrapyard at Carharrack in Cornwall but it was binned before I knew what it was and could mount a rescue attempt. When another came up for sale, I leapt at the chance.

I subsequently kitted it out with a 998cc engine and entered it in the 1999 Land's End Trial. We got a Finisher's Certificate so it has a competition history but it wasn't really competitive. To make it more suitable for trialling would entail drastic alterations and because it's so rare, I don't want to do that. And that 998cc engine never breathed properly as it only had a 1 & a 1/4 inch SU carb. Apparently this is a demon tweak for trialling but it limits top speed to about 65mph, as I found out.

I also did the Testing Trial in Somerset in 1999. My bouncer let me down so I turned up with a question mark over my entry but fortunately Bee Hayes volunteered. She needed a certain amount of persuading. Her husband is a demon trails sidecarist and she had sworn never to ride with him on a trail. One look at me and my Llama and that vow went out the window. I later discovered she had once been a backing singer for Arthur Brown, as in "I am the God of Hellfire and I bring you.. Fire!" and the Crazy World thereof.

So the plan is now to take the body off and shotblast the chassis and rebuild it as something with more power. My example had not been built very carefully and I feel that it deserves some time and effort to turn it into a sow's ear.

Not too much, mind. I wouldn't swap its cheap and cheerful demeanour for something dear and dreary.

I'm not under any illusions about my Siva Llama. It'll never be a thing of beauty but it's definitely a fun car. It suits summer life in Cornwall and as I write this I realise how much I miss not being able to drive it. I'm glad it got built and mean to have more fun with it dreckly.

Neville Trickett is still designing and building interesting automobiles. An even earlier creation of his was the Minisprint and he is producing these again nowadays from his base in France.