Welcome to the build

Well, first let me introduce myself. My name is Ben, I'm 31 and a Heavy Vehicle mechanic from Newcastle NSW. My interest in mechanics and engineering type things started from a fairly young age with my dad being a Mechanical Engineer. He had a business designing and building specialized machines for companies, and this got me interested in everything mechanical. The interest in cars itself happened a bit later on when I bought my first really good car. I bought a VS Series 2 SS Commodore back in 2001. It was fantastic, and its the car that I wish I had never sold.

So why the interest in a Clubman type car? I think it has something to do with the fact I've always liked them ever since I saw one driving down the road. I'll always remember it. So the dream was put into my mind. One day when I was doing my apprenticeship, a friend said to me "It's not about having a ridiculous amount of power in the engine, its all about the power to weight ratio".

So I was a bit sceptical about this, being the owner of a car with a stonking great V8 in it. Then I went for a ride in his Datsun 1200 ute. And it really made everything clear. Power to weight was the answer!! Small weight with reasonable power. Easier and cheaper to make an engine reliable with reasonable power. But the weight was the difficult part about it.

Enter the book "Build your own sports car for as little as £250". What an inspiration. I bought it and the Chris Gibbs book "Build your own sportscar on a budget" and well i was absolutely hooked. So now I'll get on to the saga of how it's taken me close to two years to really make a start on the construction.

And the main reason is REGISTRATION AND NSW REGULATIONS.

Let me tell you, if you've ever wanted to build your own Locost or clubman in NSW, it seems that everything is against you from making it able to go on the road. So this blog will outline how I have gone about attempting to meet the ADR's (Australian Design Rules) and the attempt I'm making to get a folio ready to take to an engineer to try and involve them before the build starts.