Fisher Fury As so many of my posts will be about my car, I thought I’d better write something about it. It is a Fisher Fury kit car, with a 4.3L V8 engine.

Background

I used to have a Lotus Elise Laser Blue S2 Elise with black wheels which was a lot of fun (even though I crashed it due to running out of talent). However I found it frustrating to own. Although I’m a software engineer, I find software unsatisfying as it’s ephemeral. There is nothing to touch, there is nothing to point at and fiddle with physically. I wanted a car to tinker with, but the Elise wasn’t it. Access was poor and I knew I’d break it and lose a lot of money in the process.

One day, I drove over to Harlow for a DJ Sportscars Open day. They made the Dax Rush Dax promo image and wandering around the factory I saw a rolling chassis, basically the car with no bodywork, no interior and no engine, but with suspension and wheels so it can be rolled around. It struck me that it really looked like a large version of a Tamiya R/C car. I used to have a Saturday job working in a model shop selling R/C aircraft & cars. Some customers wanted us to build the kits for them so I got £10 for every car I built. I lost count somewhere around the 50th. This realisation took a lot of the ‘mystique’ away from the car and it made me realise that it was something I could probably do.

Then Sheila got pregnant, I lost my job and I sold the Elise.

I still kept thinking about it. I originally liked the Rush as it had a V8, but it was a very expensive kit. I then started looking at the MK Indy. They were intriguing as many were powered by bike engines from Yamaha & Honda. Going down the BEC (Bike Engined Car (yes,there is also CEC for Car Engined Car)) route I ended up seeing the Fisher Fury. This car was sexy. Vitally it didn’t look like Yet Another Lotus 7 clone as it had a full body with doors. Practical Performance Car Magazine was running a series of articles following the build of a black one with a bike engine.

I was hooked. This was the car for me. Unfortunately, Kate was a toddler now and the 250-400 hours build time meant I knew I wouldn’t finish it and it would end up depressing me and getting sold off at a loss unfinished.

Despondently browsing the Fisher website one day I saw a Fury being sold second hand on behalf of a customer. It was affordable, and it had a V8! I felt I’d come full circle back to the original engine I wanted, but also in the car I wanted. It was fate, it was meant to be, and so it became mine. I was the third owner of SFL525R. It was originally built to compete in hill climb competitions and then it was sold onto a banker as a track day toy. I got it in October 2005.

It came with a 3.5L V8 running on a 36DGAS carb from the Ford Capri that was the primary donor. The engine & gearbox came from an 1984 Rover SD1. Other associated donors were Ford Escort, MG Miget and a Bedford van!

Current State

The major projects I’ve done to it over the years are :-

  1. Rewire as the original builder thought mains flex and chocblocks were acceptable for automotive use.
  2. Convert to fuel injection using a Megasquirt ECU and EDIS-8 ignition
  3. Use it as a test mule for MSDroid development
  4. Replace the 3.5L engine with a 4.3L that I rebuilt myself having never touched the inside of an engine before
  5. Replace the Megasquirt ECU with a Speeduino one for reasons
  6. Squeeze a bigger fuel tank in
  7. Add several computers to it over time such as Gumstix, Raspberry Pi, and many ESP32
  8. Various different security systems playing with Bluetooth, GPG, and fingerprint sensors.
  9. Better brakes

What I haven’t done is drive it a lot. It was on 2000 miles when I got it, and it’s now about 7500. That is something I’d like to fix, but first I need to make it more reliable