This coupe is not to be confused with the estate car SE5 series of Scimitar GTEs.
Made from 1964 until 1970, and fitted initially with the 2553 cc straight six Zodiac mark 3 engine and usually having wire wheels, it later received the 3 litre V6 Zodiac Mark IV engine and disc wheels. A few, out of the total of 1005, were fitted with the 2.5 litre version of the V6, but performance suffered noticeably.
The glass reinforced plastic body was designed by the styling house Ogle, originally intended for the Daimler SP250 chassis. This chassis bore a remarkable similarity to that of the TR3A, and the Reliant chassis had similarities at the front, using the same Alford and Alder steering setup and suspension as the TR2.
At the rear, the Salisbury axle was located by both Watts linkage and a Panhard rod, resulting in excellent traction off the line and out of corners, unlike a certain Ford product using the same V6 engine.
Speaking of the Capri V6 mark 1, it was about 150 pounds heavier than the SE4A (ie weighing about the same as the Scimitar GTE), but had slightly better acceleration and less top speed, due to the difference in final drive ratio. Laycock de Normanville Overdrive on top gear was standard, resulting in relaxed high speed cruising, well before the advent of motorway speed cameras thank goodness, ahem, yet I experienced the ability to travel from West Yorkshire to London and return without having to refill the tank in my SE4A which was retrofitted with the RS3100 motor.
My car was ten years old with 45K miles on the clock when I purchased it from the first lady owner. I had to do considerable repairs to the car during my ownership, far more than with any previous or subsequent car (so far). Apart from the engine change which was done for performance rather than maintenance reasons, I had to replace the entire front suspension and brakes with those from a TR6 because the original swivels were at the time unobtanium. The chassis outriggers were rust weakened and were then braced with homemade metal work riveted in (welding there would have been too close to the floor), the front lower wishbone mounts were on the inboard side of the chassis and suffered metal fatigue and new sheet metal and tubular mountings had to be saturation welded in place. The overdrive required work, and it was done; these units solenoids apparently had a history of causing the body to ignite and I wasn’t taking any chances! A failed heater hose took me nearly 5 hours to replace as access was, to put it mildly, difficult.
The GT was a great looking car in its gleaming metallic gold paintwork with slotted disc wheels, and was sometimes mistaken for a Bristol by those that thought they knew cars. When running it was a fine touring car, and despite its size, fun to chuck about the Yorkshire lanes
I had to buy an old Honda 90 motorcycle during my Scimitar ownership to guarantee getting to work, and to run around buying parts for the car. When I had to refill the motorcycle fuel tank (the only maintenance I did to the bike) , I realised that it was time to sell the car and buy something more reliable yet that I could develop for motorsport, so I bought a Lada, and apart from a points failure when flat out, it never let me down, despite many competition outings..
Submitted by: Anthony Parker
