All ready and waiting for the big launch! – FR Jones and Son Ltd

The Lion Rampant team have been busy making the final adjustments to the car and stocking up on supplies ready for the big send off tomorrow! We will be holding a launch party from 11am on Sunday 20th July at our main shop in Sydenham (Unit 3 Sydenham Industrial Estate, Kangley Bridge Road, London SE26 5BA) – any Lion Rampant fans are very welcome to come and join us in waving them off. There will be a BBQ fired up and drinks on hand!

The team get kitted-out at FR Jones and Son — Jake and Charlie help the boys to their car with all their goodies

The full FR Jones and Son kit-out

The boys came to visit us last week to go through some final arrangements and sort out what they might need for the journey. After we’d done all the serious stuff in the office, we sent them over to the shop for a supermarket sweep – look at all these lovely shiny things!

We can’t take all the credit, though – big thanks to Stein, Stihl, Draper tools and JetBoil who all contributed towards the team’s supplies.

Final car preparations

New shocks and springs

Apparently, the roads through the wilderness on the way to Mongolia are not highly-maintained, silky smooth rivers of tarmac. Who knew! Also, it would seem that the standard suspension on a Nissan Micra is not terribly suited to negotiating potholes the size of swimming pools, so it had to go. The team have replaced the standard shocks and springs with fancy new ones to allow them to adjust the ride height of the car in an attempt to reduce the impact of the terrain.

Wheels

The Micra originally came with alloy wheels, which is fine if you’re just popping to the shops for a loaf and some semi-skimmed, but not if you’re looking to rough it to Mongolia. If an alloy wheel breaks, it tends to shatter, which would render it useless, so they have been replaced with steel rims which can be persuaded (with a big hammer) into becoming useable again should they suffer an injury.

Sump guard

A sump guard is a metal plate that fixes to the bottom of the car to prevent anything coming up and damaging the oil sump and other delicates. After some online research, the cheapest the team could find was ~£300, which would make a serious dent in their modifications budget. As physics and engineering students, they weren’t going to let something like this hold them back, so they undertook to make their own. With a little assistance from the engineering department at their University, they produced a custom sump guard from 3mm high-grade aluminium alloy for ~£30 – much less than what it would have cost to buy; not too shabby! They have named it ‘Sumpy’.

Looking the part

If you’re going to drive all the way to Mongolia, you really should look the part. To that end, the Micra has been pimped out with sponsorship stickers (as all the best racing cars should be) and a team mascot, who has yet to be named. The team will also be sporting some very fetching lion onesies for the launch event, just to complete the look.