Covin Owner Builder Dr Paul Van
Zuilenburg "South Africa"
Herewith the
story of my car so far:
I bought the car in
2001 from a guy who had it since 1990. These cars were the first 'covins' to be
built in South Africa. Unfortunately the whole thing went financially bust and
this guy had been contracted in to build the first 5 chassis. He however never
saw any money and as compensation got given a body and a chassis.
I got the car with the
chassis as you have on the website running on type 3 (we call it variant 411)
suspension with some funny Porsche 912 rims! At the back was a Rover V8
subassembly mated to the variant gearbox. Body was 911 turbo 1989 look.
I had spacers made up and fitted replica Turbo Cup 17'' rims 245 back and 235
front. I plan on widening the back ones about 2 more inches to get the RS 3.8
look I'm after. I replaced the bumpers and tailgate with 965 items, the wing
being a Carerra RS one and front bumper some special racing cup variant. I
managed to fit the tail lights but the engine lid seems not to fit properly with
the new mist light cluster so I will have to get a replica 964 one in the
future. I got hold of the side sills for a 964 as well and instrumentation is
912 recalibrated and white faced. The V8 was discarded and replaced with a Golf
Gti 16v unit with Alfa Romeo 2.0 Weber sidedraft carburettors. The conversion is
quite easy with a specially made inlet manifold out of aluminium. Radiator sits
behind motor and we will see if this actually works! Seats are real Porsche
items and the brakes-well we'll see what that's going to be! I have most of the
interior but am still short of a rear windscreen. Was
thinking of using plastic! Side shafts are from a combi as is the clutch. Pedal
cluster comes out of a 993 and fuel tank is beetle with Mazda pickup 3000 high
delivery fuel pump for the sidies!!
Check out the bull bar that I put behind the front bumper! You cant be to
careful here in South Africa!! Anyway That's it for now
Cheers
Paul
