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| London taxi graveyard |
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| Chop that Cavalier |
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| Turn on a sixpence |
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| Ramping up for the test |
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| Anybody order a cab? |
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Chaos Crew's Diary
 In the beginning ...
Push-me-pull-you
One engine or two?
The birth of the 'Chaos Cab'
In the beginning ...
When the Chaos Crew (brothers Andy and John and dad Ray) were approached with the idea for Scrappy Races, the brief was to build a weird and wonderful vehicle to go on a race around the UK.
It had to be modified along the way for speed, off-road and water challenges. We got together and thought that the obvious choice of vehicle to base it on was a Land Rover but the rules said no four-wheel drives with transfer boxes were allowed, so we thought of a Transit instead. They are too big and not daft enough, however, and our budget for the project was only £1500, so we eventually came up with the idea of a Vauxhall Cavalier with two engines.
We managed to find a cheap example for sale locally but somewhere along the line decided to use an FX4 black London taxi as well (as you do ... Ed). We decided if we were having two engines, we would also have two bonnets, so off we went to London – and came back with our taxis. This was the start of what would become known as the 'Chaos Cab'.
Push-me-pull-you
We decided to have our cab with two bonnets, looking like a 'push-me-pull-you', so we set about cutting the cabs in half and welding them together. Also, to be any good we needed to make our own four-wheel drive system. As the taxi was rear-wheel drive, this would be difficult, so we decided to use the Cavalier engine, gearbox, front suspension and bulkhead. This not only sorted the problem of the four-wheel drive, but also sorted the steering, wiring, brakes and even a radio and a heater, which proved very useful.
One engine or two?
With the front end complete, it was now time to concentrate on the back. We decided to use the back axle of a Cavalier mounted to a frame that could be removed using only eight bolts. We built a replica frame around an automatic, two-litre Cavalier engine, gearbox and suspension so we could interchange between engine or axle in about 40 minutes. We would not be able to run both engines together legally on the road but they would give us extra power in the challenges. We could make the vehicle two or four-wheel drive, depending on whether we ran one engine only or both at once.
The birth of the 'Chaos Cab'
The fourth week was a challenge in itself. Our vehicle was not so much a cut and shut as a cut and cut and cut and shut but we were informed that if we followed the Vehicle Operator Services Agency (VOSA) manual, we would be all right.
With one or two visits from the man at the vehicle inspectorate behind us, it was time to get our cab inspected to make sure it was safe to go on the roads. It failed!
After a bit of extra welding and smoothing off of some rough edges, it went through. The VOSA test station was an 80-mile round trip, so it proved we had a reliable vehicle and it was not slow.
Now it had to go for an MOT, which it passed. Then it had to get a log book and a tax-disc. We finished with one day and £30 to spare! Or not quite, as we realised we could have a problem on the off-road challenge because of insufficient ground clearance so we replaced the original Cavalier springs with stiffer Land Rover ones. That was still not enough, so with only hours to spare before the cab was to be taken away to a secret location by the film crew, we converted a set of Land Rover wheels to Cavalier centres. As for the water challenge, we decided to worry about that when we got there. That's the story of how the Chaos Cab was born!
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