Heres something I researched for the Peugeot Club magazine last year.

This month it’s the one built and raced for a number of years by Bob Nicoll who was in Nelson at that time. Bob has now moved to New Plymouth and I spent a fascinating hour or more talking with him and about his exploits.

The car turned up in his yard outside the workshop, and sat there for a while until some enthusiasts turned up and told him that 203s were being raced in Europe and he should do the same. Lead a horse to water – it will likely drink, and so life began anew.

The first steps were to strip it out a bit, and then he bought a brand new pair of 175 Strombergs, blended some “chunks” of exhaust tube into the blanking plate side of the engine with “bog” and a steel plate; one stage down! Bob replaced the 2 by 6 volt batteries with a 12 volt in the boot and also bolted a “lump of pig iron” to keep it company, he reckoned this made a big difference. Then he had a modified camshaft made up and “let the race begin”. The car was run in almost anything the Nelson and Canterbury Car Clubs ran from the Tahunanui Beach races to Wigram, Ruapuna, night trials, grass track, hillclimbs, etc, etc.

It ran this way for about 2 years, with various minor changes each event until it was decided that it could be taken a lot further. First step was to “cut off the roof and channel” it. Bob did explain this, but I fail to quite understand how it was done. In the end he had a 203 that was lower than a Mini! The back end was cut off from immediately behind the rear wheel arch and had a flat panel that went up to where the leading edge of the boot would have been. All the window glass was the same as original and there was 6 months of solid work to achieve it. He said it took “lots of weight out”. Looking carefully at photos I believe that the height was taken from below the window line as the wheel arches reach almost to the bottom of the windows RN.

By now it was quicker in almost any event than most minis. It now had 13” wheels and 2” wider than original. A few “discussions” took place with scrutineers over the 3 stud wheels and this, along with gearbox ratios lead to him grafting a Ford gearbox and back axle into the car. It still used the coils (there was no car to support leaf springs), and a set of radius rods on the top of the axle, and an A frame from the bottom running forward, as the torque tube location was now not possible.

Sometime around 1968 the car no longer appears in many results although around this time it had a 504 motor. It was known to be as fast as a very well modified Valiant Group 5 car, and the fantastically quick A40 of Pat Pascoe. Perhaps the “burnt orange” in colour bodywork and a very fine example of the abilities of the South Island special builder’s art did the trick.

The family last knew of the car somewhere near Cust, and would really like to find it for old time’s sake. In a way it lives on, as it appears in the film shown at the WOW museum motorsport section in Nelson.