Project Tomcat, The Finale

Like all good things, my ownership of the Tomcat wrapped up today.

Long story short, after much back and forth, the Tomcat was sold to a collector in Australia who is looking to import this to Australia and add it to his rather sizeable collection of other Rovers.

As he still resides in Aus currently, he managed to arrange for a friend to come to collect the car from me and store it until he can make the trip over to arrange the export.

It’s bittersweet really. I’ve put so much time, money and effort into this car, to take it from the hunk of junk it was when I got it (thanks previous owner), to the solid, reliable and mechanically sorted car it is today. It’s still got a long way to go in terms of cosmetics and things like suspension, but the foundations are there for one of the best examples around; with a gearbox that is just a joy to use and a diff that pulls you around corners like understeer doesn’t exist.

On the flip side, I didn’t get a chance to drive it much (I prefer to use the Swift, and the Honda is the daily) so it only came out occasionally, and I could really do with the space it was taking up on the drive.

Hopefully the new owner gets a chance to put some decent miles on it, because it’s only done something like 1000km since it was imported to NZ from Japan back in 2016 (says a lot about the condition before I got it then if no one drove it). It deserves to be used and driven hard, now that the gearbox can handle it!

So, after a 2 hour bus trip for the chap collecting it, the car was picked up today

I’m sad to see it go; the noises it made on boost were just so intoxicating. Nothing I have owned had quite the same sound. Once the suspension is sorted, that thing will be a real weapon, just chewing up corners flat out.

I have put the feelers out for a potential new project, but no details will be revealed on that until I know the outcome (since it’s likely a no), but we will see how it goes. In the meantime, I have two other cars that need my attention.

Goodbye Tomcat