Jet One Replica

In this blog I thought I would talk a bit about the Jet One replica we built for
Jools Holland. This car was a strange one to build as I didn’t like the car at first and hated the engine choice but it ended up being one of my favourite cars we built.

When Bernie came back with the green Rover 75 the first thing I thought was: 'Great. We can make a superb hot rod out of this car.'
My idea? Make it look old school but with modern parts and running gear. But Bernie then told us of the plans to make it look like the Jet One car in the Science Museum.

But to be honest all I was interested in was what engine we could put in it. He said the car must be able to hit 150 MPH which got all sorts of engine ideas in my head. Me and Shaun thought of a Japanese engine as you know you're going to get cheap, easy power. So we went round to our local breakers who happen to be Japanese specialists. The owner also races a 700 Bhp Skyline so he knows his stuff.

So we went round there and spoke to him and he said he could get his hands on a tuned Toyota Supra engine for very reasonable money. So with very happy thoughts of 300+ Bhp  being slotted in, we went back round to Bernie who then dropped the bombshell. No Japanese engine:  we were to use an old jag engine. So we weren’t so happy.

Instantly I thought: 'No way will it do 150 Mph'. Fitting the engine caused so many clearance problems but as usual with a little bit of logical thinking we got over these issues. One major problem was fitting the Jag independent suspension to the Rover chassis which Julian done an amazing job of.

It wasn’t until we started fitting up the freshly painted chassis that I could start to see what a great car this was going to be.

And the more times we met up with Jools his enthusiasm for the project made us more determined to make it a great car.

While we were doing the build for Jools, the London Motor Show at the Excel in Docklands was on just round the corner from the Chop Shop. And it just so happened there was a music festival being held in the show... and it just so happened that Jools and his band was playing in. Neat eh? He asked us if we would like to go back stage and see the show so we took up his offer and had a great night. We listened to some good music, met some great people (including Mark Almond) from Soft Cell and got to see some great cars including the new Ford Focus RS.

But then it was back to work. Towards the end of the project, after many late nights, seeing the car come together was a great feeling. And after going for a ride through London in the car I knew straight away from people's reactions on the street that we had built a great car. I also think that even though the 4.2 Jag engine only made 150 Bhp it drove so smooth and suited the cruiser style of the car with its lazy auto box.

Jools loved the car and it was a great privilege to build him the car he had wanted since he was a boy. Just goes to show, first impressions aren't always right when it comes to modding. In the end, Bernie and Jools were right. Bloody annoying. But true!