Firstly, an explanation of what a Road Rat actually is.
The Road Rat is a kit car designed and produced by NCF Motors
Ltd, a small kit car company based in the North East of
England. It is a space frame chassis panelled with galvanised
steel sheet and utilising Fiat Panda MK1 mechanical components
to produce a distinctly unusual fun vehicle which is fully
road legal. The chassis can accept either Panda FWD or 4x4
running gear and my particular car was orginally built using
the parts from a 1986 4x4.
The first Road Rat prototype and company demonstrator was
built sometime in early 1994 using FWD Panda mechanicals and
was reviewed in the June '94 edition of Which Kit? magazine.
At the time of the review six orders had been placed for kits
but actually only five were ever produced, including two company
demonstrators, making these something of a rarity now. The
pictures below are of my car (the red one) and the first demonstrator.
These are scanned from the Which Kit? June '94 review. The
obvious differences between my own car and the original demonstrator
are that the demonstrator is a 4 seater open top design, where
mine is an enclosed two seat cab with rear load area, mine
also having extra bracing between the roof and the rear chassis
rail.
These pictures give a good idea of what mine will look like
when it's complete. I intend to modify mine slightly to attempt
to make it better looking and give it a more rugged, off roader
style look. Modifications I have in mind are:
| • |
Cinquecento Sporting alloy
wheels with off-road tyres. |
| • |
Rear bumper placed further
back and additional metalwork welded in to carry a towbar. |
| • |
Twin round headlights instead
of the square ones. |
| • |
Spotlights on the roof. |
| • |
Half of the load area made
into a lockable storage box. |
| • |
Aluminium chequer plate panelling
as you see on some Land Rovers. |
| • |
Bucket seats and three-point
harnesses. |
| • |
Sump guard. |
| • |
Black and silver paint scheme. |
This project will necessarily take quite a long time to come
to fruition as I don't get to work on it very often, me living
in South Wales, and the kit being located in County Durham.
As a result, this site will see infrequent updates on the
progress of the actual rebuild, but I am also trying to discover
what happened to the other four Road Rats so will post my
progress on that as well.
Please check the navigation links at the top of the page for
more information on my car and progress reports on the search
for the missing Rats.
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!!
INFORMATION WANTED !!
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|
I
AM ACTIVELY TRYING TO DISCOVER THE STATUS AND WHEREABOUTS
OF THE OTHER FOUR ROAD RATS. IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION,
NO MATTER HOW TRIVIAL IT MAY SEEM, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH
WITH ME.
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:: Site last updated September 2008
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