I've been looking for a while for a car to run in the Asia Classic Car Challenge organised by the HK Classic Car club. First challenge is that the series is run in Malaysia and races at Sepang, and I live in Hong Kong so finding a car meant trawling the internet and seeing what came up. Especially as until recently the rules were cars up to December 1988 and let's say they were not that many imported cars in Malaysia in the Eighties that would be suitable.

All the logic said buy something Japanese as the availability of parts and skill is well in favour of Jap cars. But then I saw this, it's an XR4i shaped collection of parts at the moment. The engine has been rebuilt but who know's what that means, importantly the chassis is very straight and clean. At first glance most parts are there including a lot of 'spares' the seller included, he'd been working on it for ages but needed the space.

It got delivered just in time for the long weekend in Malaysia. Inventory starts next week and then we start with the build. Need to get it registered first and then tested so that will be the first job. It needs to be registered for weird reasons that I don't really understand. The Garage that I'm working with in KL have some good ideas and are used to classic rebuilds normally

Once that's done we need to get it caged. Cage will be FIA approved multipoint out to the front turrets, and then gusseted into the A and B pillars.

Need to work out how to make it handle the best it can. Very open to ideas on this one. Suspension, ARB's, MT/MK Motorsport cradle, Group A parts. Need some expert assistance here.

Engine plan is to keep with the Cologne 2.8 V6 for a bit, then go either 2.4l Lima Turbo like the XR4Ti or 302 V8 from the XR8. Will need approx 300+bhp, I like the V8 idea especially as you can still buy them new from Ford Motorsport.

Will keep you posted. Lots of pictures below