A few months ago we published details of the history of an ambitious project to provide developing nations with a truly Go-Anywhere off-road vehicle that was cheap to build and easy to maintain.

Since then we have been contacted by an engineer that is still involved with the project and has plans to re-introduce a modified and updated version of the vehicle

The Auction of Assets following the jailing of Tony Howarth was well attended

THE AFRICAR STORY CONTINUES

I almost invested ALL my money in the Africar project, I was trying to purchase a 6 wheeler for myself and promote it in Canada as they have more timber than they know what to do with it.

At the time I was into kiln drying my own Ash timber for vintage car rebuilds such as 4,1/4 Bentley (brought to me in bits and pieces), Armstrong Siddley, Foden Truck, Rolls Royce, all aged between (1925-1945), I enjoy a challenge. I wanted a truck to be able to go across country and then go to the town. The Africar seemed ideal.

I am now a 3D CAD designer/draughtsman. (Computer Aided Design) Being an ex woodworker I have no problem in using wood/pressed plywood veneers/flax/carbon fibre.

The channel 4 programme got me hooked and I am still there, on the hook. When I went to the factory, it just didn't feel/smell right so I kept my wallet closed.

A few months later I had a letter from Philips the Auctioneers inviting me to the second auction, where the rights of manufacture and drawings where going up for sale.

I went to the auction. The rights to manufacture were withdrawn, right at the start of the auction. The reason I went was to form a company to reproduce the Africar.

I ended up with the flat bed 6 wheeler by mistake, which had no steelwork on it at all, I really wanted the half finished 6-wheeler pickup, (more about this later) however I made it my business to get the other interested people's names and addresses.

Some of the remaining cars at the Auction

About a month later a meeting was held at Phil Surttee farm where all the Africars took part in an overland trial, about 35 people turned up; we were comparing the Africar suspension and drive ability against ALL the other types of suspension layouts you can think of - very much the same as journalists do, with a new car.

Over the very rough ground i.e. a ploughed field, sand dunes etc, the Africar won hands down, unbelievable, however on tarmac it was dreadful, totally failing to match the competition. The Africar was built to drive in a straight line regardless of the terrain. On full lock the tyres where being scrubbed side ways so bad that they were being pulled off the rims and made the cornering extremely heavy for the driver.

We looked at the steering and found that the steering arms were from a 2CV. The Africar having a wider track than the 2cv this looked like the end. The steering geometry and the ackerman was shot to bits. If the steering arms were adjustable then would it cure the steering problem?

Being the only person with a woodworking/engineering background within this group of people I stupidly volunteered to try and sort it out. I enjoy a challenge.

Another month went by and we held another meeting at Mr Tony Best's design workshops in Bradford on Avon, to try and sort out the steering, however being a commercial business, he required paying. He did suggest putting a powered steering rack in place of the custom built steering rack. Quaiff engineering made the special steering rack and were owed a lot of money when Africar was closed. Why a standard steering rack was not used I do not know, as there is one available. Eight people turned up for this meeting.

I eventually found John Fitzpatrick the engineer who put all the steel together on the Africar. If you have the Africar book you can see him putting something together. He said the steering was cut, shut and welded together to suit what looked right. He was slowly knocking sense into Tony Howarth as far as structural engineering was concerned, however not fast enough. The plywood construction needed extra reinforcing along the suspension sills. There never was a 4x4 Africar.

From there three of us Paul Sweeny, Paul Satinoff the original Hungarian salesman and myself went to see Status the kit car industry regulators here in the UK, to try and get their help so that the Africar could pass all the safety regulations. Nothing ever came of this but I started to find out that sorting out the steering problem wasn’t going to be easy.

I tried to alter it; 2 years of my spare time went by. I gave up with the 2cv leading arm suspension system. I would like to know why the 2cv steering rack was changed to a custom built steering rack, the only thought I've had perhaps the 2cv rack was not strong enough when extra side forces are placed on it. The track rods connecting the wheel to the rack are much too thin to take the loading, as the Africar video shows.

George Reed from Status made arrangement for me to visit the designer Mr Dennis Adams. Mr Adams designed the Marcus sports car (originally built with a plywood chassis) which is still going strong. He had a good look at the set-up and suggested I should change the suspension to very large wishbones.

Having totally wrecked the 6 wheeled flat bed in my efforts to sort it out, I ended up with only the floorpan. The new wishbone suspension called for a new steel front end. Another four years of my spare time went by but finally I had the wishbone suspension working to exactly the same wheel movements as the original Africar i.e. the same bump and return measurements.

It was worwhile checking the vehicles very carefully before buying them - many were never properly finished!

I rang Tony Best to ask him to have a look at this system, he agreed and I took it down to him. He was amazed to see two Africars in his workshops at the same time. Originally the 6 wheeled station wagon had been sold at auction to a Mr Alan Brown who used it for vintage car rallies/shows and the publicity he drummed up was staggering. However Alan died and the station wagon was put on the market and here it was at Tony Best's workshops. Rumour has it that a TV presenter bought it, however I have not found it yet. Tony Best MUST honour manufacturer requests of confidentiality agreements, to safeguard his own business.

Back to the "new" Africar with wishbone front suspension with trailing arms at the rear. Tony Best had a look at it and suggested I gave him the technical data, i.e. measurements of this new system, as he wanted to run it up on his suspension software.

The results were excellent, the steering problem had been cured. We kept the original Africar suspension movements and the original displacers with a full 45 degrees lock regardless at what height the wheel was at. We had light steering even on the 6 wheeler. All this from standard car components, i.e. wheels, steering hubs and steering rack.

More mechanical problems

So now the steering/suspensions system works and fits the Africar. The original Africar floorpan could never be converted into a 4 x 4 without punching a hole through the front and rear of the floorpan to allow the propshaft to get through, this was confirmed by the main engineer at Africar. However a 2cv 4x4 gearbox was started but never finished.

I have the original Africar/2cv gearbox/Subaru castings, where they tried to get the 2cv gearbox mated to a Subaru engine. The engine is not important any small powerful 2-litre engine will fit. It’s the gearbox that is the main stumbling block of the whole Africar project and still is. The reason for this is the position steering rack. You could have front wheel drive or just rear wheel drive.

Let me try and explain this

With 4 wheel drive I feel the Africar would be unbeatable, considering that we tested the 2 wheel drive Africars against ALL the competition, however this was a long time ago, and the advancement of 4x4 cars/trucks onto the market since then has been fantastic.

To get 4x4 or 6x6 you must get the power from the front wheels, backwards to the rear of the vehicle. The 4x4 gearbox must be above that steering rack. The drive shafts output from a standard gearbox is vertically high up compared to the centre of the wheel. The angles of the drive shafts (view from the front) are so steep that the shafts must change their length while being rotated, i.e. just like the sliding spline on 2CV drive shafts.

The original 2CV drive shafts will not clear the "new" suspension, especially going over rough ground. The 2CV inner joint is very weak and the sliding joint welds itself together when put under a lot of strain. Subaru made similar drive shafts with ball bearing sliding joints. If this drive shaft problem can be solved the whole Africar project will work.

So what are the options available:

1) Have special drive shafts made to suit.
2) Drop the gearbox output positions.

Option 1 The first option costs £800 per shaft i.e. 6 x £800 = £4800. This was the price about 5 years ago, totally out the question.

It has only been in the last 18 months that a new drive shaft has been put on the market which will take up the differences in the length of the drive shafts when the wheel moves from full bump to full return. The stroke of the drive shaft must be more than 70mm and take the torque of a powerful but small motor.

OK what 4x4 gearboxes are available to get over that steering rack. I have investigated the UK and other manufacturers 4x4 vehicles and not one is suitable to use in the Africar. The main reason they are mostly built for cars and not true off road trucks.

Option 2 The only gearboxes that I have found that stand any chance of working in the Africar are the Subaru and the Renault because they are "T" shaped looking from the top. However both these gearboxes have the rear output shaft, set at the same height as the front output positions, thereby producing the original drive shaft problem.

I have seen the Subaru rally car 4x4 gearbox, it's custom built at an approximate cost of £100,000 each. Well outside my price range! It's about the same size as the Renault UN5, and UN1 gearbox.

Trying to get technical information out of the main manufacturers is a nightmare. The best ratios seem to be 4.111, which Subaru, Renault and Jaguar use - however the splines inside the sun gears on every differential are different.

It has taken me the best part of 3 years of my "spare time" to design and engineer a 4x4 gearbox that will get over that steering rack. This will also allow standard length drive shafts to be used and the Africar project to move forward.

I assembled the lower differential on the small 4x4 today and it almost went together first time, it needed a little bit of adjustment, now that I have sorted out the design, and proved it works. It should be a lot easier to make another one. The output shafts can be made to suit different drive shafts, i.e. Subaru, Renault. As far as ratios are concerned the Renault 5-speed gearbox has a good spread of ratio's which almost match the original Africar 2CV gearbox. The lowest ratio is 26.0:1 and the highest 5.0:1.

I'm now on the look out for some Subaru drive shafts to finish the job off. The large 4x4 box is a runner, thereby a 6x6 is possible. The very first prototype works well but the manufacture needs to be easier. I need to prove that the 4x4 gearbox works well first, before I start designing it into a 6 wheeled pickup truck. How hot the gearbox will get nobody can tell me, it's a "suck it and see" job.

With a 6x6 gearbox, this opens another possibility, an amphibious Africar. The drive from the rear axle can be made to take a propeller and the shape of the original Africar body would be ideal to make it watertight, thereby turning the floorpan into a amphibious vehicle would be relatively simple.

I have about 10 patterns and castings to make. I have been quoted prices for the first casting of "each" pattern of £2500 down to £1500 but thereafter about £50-20 each depending on the size. This could total up to £25,000 then you have the machining afterwards. I don't think so.

Question? how can I make these castings cheaper, answer; have your own furnace. Total price of the whole kit including the safety equipment £500. The furnace in no bigger than a dustbin and is fired by propane gas, it takes about 1.5 hours from cold to the first 2.5 litre pour but from then on a pour is ready every 20 minutes, only just enough time to set up the next pattern. This method is ideal for one off/small batch prototyping. Your patterns and shapes can be adjusted very fast with the results in your hand within 20 minutes. Anyway this should keep me amused for a while; it's better than watching TV.

As the whole idea of the project is to build a safe, cost effective, very light weight truck of one tonne but also able to carry a heavy load of two. A carbon fibre prop shafts sounds a good idea until you find out the retail price of the Renault Espace propshaft is £900. I know GKN make these.

The whole story was well reported in the press at the time

As far as the bodywork is concerned, there are 4 options of manufacturing available; all require a woodworking router. I am lucky enough to own a very large 6 axis woodworking router.

1. Copy the original Africar concept but using CNC machinery and mass produced flat panel plywood. This could be made as a kit. The overall production numbers would be very low because each vehicle would be treated as a one-off special.

2. Machine up 3D moulds to press veneers into bigger shapes, this would have fewer joints to bond together; thereby the chassis would be even stronger. This would also enable compound curves to be introduced.

3. GRP can be used instead. This would increase the numbers.

4. Just this year flax and carbon fibre has been used to produce a rear panel of a luxury coach, which is being mass-produced.

Recycling is becoming more and more of an issue in Europe; thereby I'm investigating the use of carbon fibre with flax and balsa wood. There is no reason why this method cannot be used for the Africar.

I have modelled the 6 wheeler in full solid 3D. This should make the mould/tooling that much easier later on.

All the original Africars that I know of are still going strong. One has been used on a farm for the last 15 years and the only fault that has been seen in the bodywork is a crack in the bonnet. The 2 floorpans that I have, have been exposed to elements for the same period, the woodwork is still in very good condition but the steelwork is showing signs of rust.

The small pick up is in a museum being driven straight from the auction. Bessie has just been moved to a new home. I have just lost track of two Africars as they have just been sold. The 4 wheeled station wagon and the 6 wheeler pickup. Both of these Africars were taken straight from the factory in lieu of full payment, just before the liquidator got his hands on them.

The rest are not mobile due to the lack of running gear and suspension. 40 original Africar displacers where taken to a scrap yard two years ago. The displacers are no long mass produced and harder to get hold of. I've had a word with the manufacturers and it would not take much to put them back into production if the numbers were there.

There are two shapes I like, the new Honda SUV 4x4 5 door, I like the front bonnet styling, and a new pick up from the states that will be coming out in two years time, it's called the SSA. The only difference from the original Africar 4 wheel pick are, the wings are curved, with a curve bonnet, very similar to the new Volks Wagon Beetle, it also has running boards. It's the silly details, like door handles, that make all the difference, just have a look at all the different type there are.

I had an e-mail from a guy in USA; he has information on the Africar and comments. "In thinking back and looking through my notes I see a reference from Tony Howarth that there were at least 7 (or 5 - he mentions both) deliberately introduced "errors" in the Africar prototypes which he intended to keep others from getting the cars and copying the designs". Perhaps this accounts for the steering issues. I know that a "white" book was produced, I guess this was the business plan.

Well I've had a word with the man on the inside of the Africar set-up, i.e. the main design engineer. The seven "errors" were the errors Tony Howarth would not have any idea how to cure.

There was a turbo charged Subaru pickup, which had round front leading arms, which Tony Best made, I saw them when I went to the factory, they looked extremely good. There was a film made by North West News showing the total collapse of these leading arms. Why did they collapse? Tony Howarth ordered them to be machined out to lighten them.

As the council was sponsoring Africar, when they saw this happen, the plug was pulled.

The money was spent on the engine; it was a total flop, scrap. I also heard the engine was crap from other sources - the crank even rotated the wrong way when it was first run. I have had the engine tested by Recardo engineers since; it is a load of scrap. This is when this engineer walked out.

Does the name Charley BEST mean anything to you? you can see a photo of him in the Africar Book.

If you can recall one shot on the video, it's shows the Africar being driven in a car park near a factory, you will see that the Africar is leaning over while being turned into a very sharp corner.

I have made contact with a guy who has invented a self levelling system which senses the level of the vehicles body and then pumps the suspension up and lets the suspension down via the displacers. This keeps the body on the level; this would be perfect for an injured person inside an ambulance. In fact if you set it too much, the Africar will act like a motor bike, i.e. leaning into a corner.

Having been to Africa I can quite understand why Tony Howarth wanted to build a "car for Africa". There is still a market there for an Africar type vehicle. Another market/country that would suit the Africar is China. According to my contact, the spares infrastructure is just not there, they do not have scrap yards full of bits. They hardly have any main dealers. The terrain will treat any vehicle very harshly i.e. 1 European mile equals 5 miles in these countries therefore the Africar must be able to take this type of punishment all the time.

I am concerned about falling into the trap of encouraging people at this stage by saying that the Africar is going back into production.

Without help from other engineers, working on all the different aspects of the Africar and a lot more financial help, it's going to take, all my "spare time", spread over many years. Building an Africar that is safe, strong enough and cheap enough to sell at a price people will pay takes a lot of thinking about. As I said before I enjoy a challenge.

I would be interested talk to anyone, who was involved with Africar or anyone who would like to more information. As far as I am concerned it's great having someone else to talk to and share the trials and tribulation of car/truck design.

Yes I would like to put a Africar type vehicle back into production however without a lot of input from other people I'm not sure where the Africar is going to end up. If there is enough interest who knows.

Contact me by e-mailing Adyegood@wskisoft.co.uk

ADYE is currently looking for the following components. If anyone can supply these parts please contact him. I have now sorted out some of the parts and their part numbers that I require to go into the new Africar 4x4 gearbox. They are taken from a Range/Land Rover LT77 transfer boxes. The LT77 transfer box has three different input gears from the main gearbox they are FRC5428 13D-22D Suffix B, FRC8917 22D-Suffix C, FTC 4188 from MA 1995. Most of these transfer boxes where fitted to a 4 cylinder engined vehicle. If anyone has any smashed up Range/Land Rover LT77 transfer boxes, could you let me know, when I say smashed up as long as the gears have teeth, I would be interested, stripped out splines, that is not a problem.