More Build Resources - An Extra Helping Hand?

As i've gotten a bit further down the line now, I thought I would share some of the resources i've found to help me build my Tiger Avon. As i'm sure you are aware if you've started building one of these cars, there is no factory supplied build manual. There is a book written by Jim Dudley (The owner of Tiger Racing) detailing construction of the car from scratch. While this is an excellent read, and would be invaluable if I were welding my own chassis and forming the GRP, i'm not quite at that level, the book can only help so far.

The Book

If you aren't familiar with it "How to Build Your Own Tiger Avon Sports Car For Road & Track" is available in the Speed Pro series from Veloce publishing. You can pick it up on Amazon or Tiger will give you a copy of the book free when ordering your kit. Amazon Link

Forums

Forums are an excellent method of discovering information about problems with your kit. Easily searchable either using the sites own search facility or by search engines such as Google, a wealth of kit car experience can be found from expert builders to first time builders, such as me, many of whom have had to deal with the same issues. Everyone is usually very friendly and helpful, often providing pictures of their own vehicles to illustrate a point.

The three main forums I have found useful are:

• http://www.tigerownersclub.co.uk/
• http://boardroom.wscc.co.uk/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi
• http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/
  

The Tiger owners club also provides information and ways to join a regional Tiger owner club near you.

Email Lists

Email lists are another great way of interacting with other Tiger or Lotus 7 owners. The format is slightly different to that of a forum. You subscribe to an email list server and you then start to receive emails from everyone subscribed. You can ask questions or simply interact on a social level via asynchronous email. There is again a wealth of experience out there.

I use this list server, and am a member of the Cam7 list for the Cambridge area.

Pictures

I've found the best source of research when solving a problem or trying to understand how I should attempt to do something on the car, is to see what someone else has done. Fortunately several like minded individuals have created websites with gallery sections. The best two are:

• http://www.avon-kitcar.co.uk/
• http://www.mytigeravon.co.uk/

Builders notes

Builders notes are a bit few and far between, however I did find one Avon builder who jotted down a quite careful build plan in a word document. Unfortunately the site this belonged to doesn't seem to exist anymore (www.thetigeravon.co.uk). Fortunately I was able to save the word document, which is now available here. Hopefully the author won't mind me hosting it on his behalf.

Which Kit Car

Back in January 2004 'Doc' Watson was charged with building an Avon, and documenting his experience in a build guide. You can send away to Which Kit Car for this guide on CD. Its comes in a series of 5 articles in PDF format. Again I found this guide quite useful. Ian Stent (the Editor of Which Kit Car magazine) took the car for a spin after it was finished with nothing but praise.

Give Which Kit Car a call, the CD costs £9.99 and is entitled "Tiger Avon Build"

Ultimate Kit Car DVD

Ian Stent put togther an Ultimate Kit Car DVD, featuring the cream of the crop of Lotus Seven replicas. Among the cars tested by Brans Hatch racing instructor Bill Sollis were: MK Indy, Westfield Sport 2000S, Raw Striker, Quantum Extreme, Dax Rush and of course the Tiger Avon. Curiously most manufacturers opted to take their flagship model, Tiger on the other hand took a base run of the mill Avon with a standard 1800 engine on original injection. For comparision he also brought along an Original Lotus S3 with Jim Clark spec Lotus twin cam, and a Caterham Classic 1600.

The Avon was completely outclassed, having the least amount of horsepower, but Bill had nothing but praise for its on track performance (ahem... aside from the standard brakes), its time wasn't too shabby either, only 4 seconds slower around Curborough sprint circuit than the Westfield (with twice the horsepower).

Tiger, not to be outdone took along the Z100 twin engined bike car, just to show whose boss. This is a throughly entertaining DVD, great for seeing the Avon in action.

Duke Video Link

Mark Evans - A Racecar is Born

Somehow it always seems to end up with Mark Evans... "Its All His Fault" can be heard up and down the land. I think by now he must be single handedly responsible for the entire British kit car industry. His video A Racing Car is born follows his exploits in building a Westfield SEi 1800. The first part of the DVD concentrates on the build, the second half of the DVD shows his attempts at trackdays, auto tests, hill climbs, modyfying the car for racing use and culminates in a round of the Westfield Champsionship.

His quirky, comedic style, with the ever faithful "Pete mate" in tow makes for an entertaining couple of hours. This DVD was a big inspriation in my desire to build a lotus 7. Although Westfield is a little too costly for my means, the DVD is very pertinent to the Tiger build as well, with many shared components.

Amazon Link