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Following a discussion amongst the staff about frontpage articles, Gary asked Ant to write something for the frontpage.
"Just write a bit about yourself or your projects".
This is what he sent me. It is a bit bigger than the usual frontpage article, but in my opinion very much deserves to be there.
"Just write a bit about yourself or your projects".
This is what he sent me. It is a bit bigger than the usual frontpage article, but in my opinion very much deserves to be there.
All about me…
Right well I’ve been asked to write a little bit about me for the site… it is an honour.
My name is Ant parker and I am 16 years old, I am from Wickford (near Chelmsford) in Essex. I am very interested in anything with an engine, that goes fast, handles well… or just clever engineering in general.
I am not too sure how I first found Turbosport.co.uk, but I am glad that I did, I think I may have seen a banner at my local car show (Battlesbridge, which always promises to be a good day out). I do have some distant memory of seeing Dave white’s Mk2 escort there, a truly inspirational car, and one that has influenced my build a lot. More on my build later.
I think I first found my passion for motors when I was about 8, way back in 2001 when during one of our holidays to Spain I managed to wangle a ride on the back of my uncle’s FJ1200. I was hooked, the noise, the speed, the excitement. I had to get me one of them, so on my return I started to trawl each weeks ‘trials and motorcross news’ but everything was out of my price range, but luckily Santa came to my rescue, Christmas 2001, he dropped off a shiny new Yamaha pw80, still got it in the shed today, she still makes me smile. From there I started to buy Back Street Heroes magazine… and I was soon inspired to build something, I have been welding since my 10th or 11th birthday, so I soon decided, I would have to build me a trike. I bought a donor bike and lots of bits… borrowed a pipe bender and got welding… this little beauty was born, my first ever custom bike, based around the bulletproof Honda C90 engine with a 250 front end. Lawnmower axle, for the diff, and go-kart wheels it was bundles of fun to build and to ride.
After a while I wanted to go bigger and better, I had seen a certain blue Mk1 cortina cossie in custom car mag, and I really liked the idea of something similar, but that I could use everyday. I bought classic ford, and soon spotted that Mk1 ‘tinas’ aren’t exactly plentiful, but It did have a feature on 2 angleboxes… but at the same time I really liked a trike I had seen in ‘back street heroes’ so some wanted adds later and I was offered a decent donor engine for the trike just down the road at a bargain price, just after this I get a phone call from a fella who has lost his lockup so his 105e is for sale at bargain price, even closer, so I flippin bought that aswell. Thinking ‘I should be able to get that trike built and sold in no time.’ Sell it on and make some money to build the car into a sensible daily drive.(I was only about 13 at this stage) Anyways the whole trike thing took a lot longer than I expected it to and by the time the MSVA had been sorted and passed it was 2008 and I was 15. the car over this time had been getting tinkered with and I was still really deciding where I wanted to go with it, it gradually evolved in my head, which in a way is good because its cheaper, but basically my thinking for the 105e went from everything to tuned 1200 pre x-flow to 1300 x-flow to rotary, back to x-flow then cossie, and from standard to neatly modded, to semi space framed with a 1.6 SE engine,
Through Turbosport I got talking to Gary (Mr Retromotorsport)
After many hours sat in the office at Retromotorsports, sketching plans and bouncing ideas around the final plan was to build a full space frame would be built from the ground up with bubble arches and the 1.6 SE.After looking into some wheel/tyre sizes I realised the type of bubble arches I wanted wouldn’t work due to how low I wanted to run the car. Then I thought about some pictures of the Zakspeed cars, and some of the Norwegian Anglias and I was in love, no they are not very pretty, but they are so different, there is nothing like them… in my mind they are the ultimate. After many more hours on the phone to Gary asking an unimaginable amount of questions, THE final solution was made. I was going to build a Group 5 Zakspeed inspired Anglia, and during a visit to Gary’s he showed me this, he’s a bit arty see:
I knew I had to do it… after some persuasion I managed to source some wheels from a fellow member of Turbosport (thanks again Andy) I soon realised that the 220bhp max that that sigma engine could produce wouldn’t be enough, so I am now going to build this chassis to take the legendary Cosworth YB engine.
The car will run on 16X13.5 and 16 x11.7 wheels with double wishbone front suspension and a 6 linked rear.
The main aim for the project is to build the ultimate Anglia…. Starting in here…
At the moment it is all stored away whilst a new garage is built (the old one was falling down) and I am still sketching more ideas and collecting parts. My other project is my daily drive mini, that won’t be anything to special, that really will be the ‘sensible road car’.
Lastly I would like to just say that I am completely self taught, everything, welding, turning, painting, panel beating, all of it, with no engineers, welders, fabricators, or anyone who is really into cars in the family. So if I can do it anyone can, just believe in yourself and anything is possible, patience is key, if your getting annoyed, just walk away for a while, go back with a fresh mind, and the answer will usually hit you in the face. When I leave school I Plan to do my A-levels and then go on to university hopefully to study either motorsport engineering or Mechanical engineering.
I Really love Turbosport, I am trying to pin it on one thing, but I really cant, I think it is just an excellent place where you can meet like-minded folks, whatever your doing, from racing a Vauxhall Nova through to putting a cossie turbo motor into a Mk1 Transit camper van we have it all, and it is all completely encouraged. People will freely tell what they know even if they did have to find out the hard way. The opportunities that have become available to me through this site are unbelievable, from helping out team ‘Pipe’ on race days through to making coffee over at Gary’s. They are such a friendly bunch, even down to the matter that I can’t drive yet, I wanted to get to brands hatch last race, Matt and Dave (who travelled over from Cheshire) travelled a good couple of miles out of their way to pick me up and take me over to Kent. It is just a big bunch of friendly mates who make up a large online community.
I often feel guilty that I don’t put enough back into Turbosport compared to what I get back out, so I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge Thankyou to everyone on Turbosport who has helped me out so far, be it advice, parts , jokes, inspiration, whatever, it is all here so thanks Guys ‘n’ Girls .
I wish everyone the best of luck in 2009
You cant paint aswell can you?? 
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