Keith's red S1

[myatt1972]

As some of you may already know I recently purchased a red 1978 SA22C that was advertised for sale in south Wales. After a conversation with the seller, a great guy called Jef, I thought I'd better go and have a look at the car. So on Monday 30/4/18 I drove for 3 hours, spent 15 mins looking at the car, did a deal then drove 3hrs home, getting in at 1am on a school night ! The car was pretty much as Jef described it, tatty on the body with the odd hole here and there but still quite a solid car. I arranged to pick the car up on the following Saturday.
So Saturday arrived and as I have quite an understanding boss I borrowed the beaver tail truck from work and collected the car.





Great to eventually get home with the car, it was a long slog as the truck was limited to 56mph!



The car was imported from South Africa in 1981 by a friend of Jef's brother (they were in the forces) Jef's brother bought the car off his mate and later sold it to Jef. As an import it it has no sun roof and air conditioning fitted, it is also an auto but is still right hand drive.
Ive had the car on the lift and I'm amazed by the condition underneath for a 40 year old car.





Thats pretty much all I have done for now, this will be a very slow restoration as Ive got too many things on the go right now !

[KYPREO]

Very nice, especially being 78 model!

Do you know what spec level it is? Japan had 4 levels: Custom, Super Custom, GT, Limited. I think they had badging to indicate the level - it might be that one to the lower left of the rear panel between the taillights. I know that Custom and Super Custom didn't have side mouldings from the factory and had a 2 spoke steering wheel.

[TOOL]

Looks awesome from where I’m sitting.

[richrx]

Cracking project! Really can't be many s1's around these days!

Looking forward to the slow updates

Rich

[A7RXY]

Weldone Keith, looks to be a great project and its red.
Dibs

[myatt1972]

Very nice, especially being 78 model!

Do you know what spec level it is? Japan had 4 levels: Custom, Super Custom, GT, Limited.

It's badged as Limited, but I have no idea what the different spec levels mean.

[KYPREO]

Very nice, especially being 78 model!

Do you know what spec level it is? Japan had 4 levels: Custom, Super Custom, GT, Limited.

It's badged as Limited, but I have no idea what the different spec levels mean.

Limited was top of the line. Came with the 13" waffle iron style alloy wheels, 4 spoke steering wheel, tartan interior and from electric fender mirrors. Only the Limited came in mach green. Unfortunately i can't read Japanese but here's a page from the brochure...

i-img1200x900-1525479025afjbhr552824.jpg (107.58 KiB) Viewed 4005 times

I can dig up more info from AusRotary. I'm sure it's on there

[KiwiDave]

Wow. As you say, impressive condition for it's age. And looks like the original exhaust system too.

And A/C

And auto! A lot of haters for auto but the rotary engine is quite suited to it.

I'm so looking forward to project updates.

[ian65]

what are great project this will be when you get around to it. Is the plan to keep the slushbox or stick a manual in there? Was the car red originally Keith?

[myatt1972]

what are great project this will be when you get around to it. Is the plan to keep the slushbox or stick a manual in there? Was the car red originally Keith?

I think the auto box will have to go, although I might just chuck an engine in it and see what its like to drive as an auto. The car was originally red but a darker red than it is now, I'll probably go back to that colour I quite like it