Leigh Lifted Vitara on 35s

[Rabid Rhino]

I'm about to lose the garaging of this thing as my mum has just sold her house so it has to sell or come out to the USA.
Therefore I'm putting this here to both list the mods and see how much interest I get.
I've been out of the country for over a decade & I have no idea what it could be worth?

Here's the spec list.....

1993 Vitara JLX to Chevy Tracker conversion. (Badges etc)
Chassis: 8" Leigh Lift. Built in 2003.............................................................£1,500
Engine: stock: 1,600cc with Safari Snorkel.......................................................£150
Gearbox: stock: 5 speed manual
Transfer Case 1: stock Vitara Reduction Box
Doubler Adapter: OTT Kicker 3. The original adapter & NA. In 2003 it was..............£500 as no exchange core to Canada
Transfer Case 2: stock SJ413
Rear Drive Shaft Disconnect (Trail Tough) Actuator Operated................................ £500
Drive Shafts: Custom made by LA SupaTrux......................................................£400
Front Axle: Rear Diff in modified casing. ARB. RCV Hilux IFS Shafts & Toy Hubs.........£2,100
Rear Axle: ARB. LAST Baleno Disc Brake Conversion & Hydraulic Fiddle Brakes..........£1,800
Front Suspension: Calmini A-Arms..................................................................£200
Old Man Emu 1.5" lift coils.................................................£150
Leda +2" Custom Rebuildable 5 Click Adjustable Struts...............£400
Rear Suspension: LA SupaTrux Lengthened Top & Bottom Links...............................£500
Dislocation Cones with axle captive coil springs.......................£100
Old Man Emu 1.5" lift coils.................................................£150
Leda +2" Custom Rebuildable 5 Click Adjustable Shocks..............£400
Exhaust: Custom Rear Twin with Chevy bow-tie tips.............................................£200
Wheels: 12x15 Eaton 16 Bolt Beadlock with 2.75" BackSpace. Powder coated..........£1,000
Tyres: 35/15.50/15 Interco Swampers TSL SX..............................................£1,500
Protection: Custom Front Bumper: Steel 3 piece modular & 8,000lb WinchPlus............£600
LAST Rear Bumper & 5,000lb WinchPlus. Bow-tie exhaust cut-outs..........£400
LAST Side Steps.......................................................................£200
Interior: Calmini Roll Cage...........................................................................£400
Vitara seats fully retrimmed in Red Leather...........................................£600
Red Protect-a-Kote.........................................................................£100
Stereo: JVC with loads of Shark speakers & a big amp in the roof............................£500
Twin Batteries..........................................................................................£100
Body Kit: Front: 2" Lengthened Fat Boy by FibreSports.........................................£100
Rear: Standard Fat Boy...................................................................£20
Removable Aluminium Extensions to cover tyres & pass MOT....................£100
Styling: Tracker Steering Wheel, Tracker Badges & Geo Tracker Grill........................£200
US Sidekick Rear Door Handle with Integral Number Plate Lights..............................£30
Dixie Air Horn...........................................................................................£30
C2 UKY Personalised Registration..................................................................£400
Total modifications...............................................................................£15,180

Then there's the labour which LA SuperTrux (LAST) liked to charge... A lot for. I'm sure my SJ435 Pickup, LJC160 and this went towards funding most of their Bigfoot 17 Monster Truck.

Details
For those that don't know what a Leigh Lift is, it's a body off re-manufactured chassis to lift the body 8" by welding new stronger 2x4 box section 4" above the old chassis: rear, middle and front while maintaining the stock suspension/geometry. Once the new box section is in place and cross braced with new steel from front to back, the old lower chassis pieces are cut away. It's a glorified body-lift that strengthens the chassis with much thicker box section steel and allows for clearance of 35x15.5x15 Swampers on 10" rims.
It's done by Leigh Catherick who's been modifying Suzukis since the late 80s. At the time this conversion the cost was about £1,500.
The tyres have about 300 miles on them still with the bristles.
I think there's room for 37s which I have and will put on if it doesn't sell as I will bring it over to the US.

After the Leigh Lift it went to LA SuperTrux who built Bigfoot 17. LAST installed the longer articulated rear links which were leftovers from an old project of mine. They compensate for the lack of front suspension travel. To make the most of the rear links the coils were made captive on the axle and the top coil locating cones drop down 6" when unladen.
LAST & I also made the one off rear disk brake conversion using Baleno rear calipers with handbrake to keep it all Suzuki, at the time. LAST also installed the custom made Leda shocks. Leda were local to me in Essex & in those days you could just call them, specify what you wanted and a few weeks later they were done.
The Rear Drive Shaft Disconnect lever would have come up through the passenger seat, hardly ideal, so it's operated with an electric actuator triggered by a dash mounted switch.
LAST had both ARBs installed by ProDrive (the rally team) so you know it's a good job.

Rear diff on the front. Yep. It's called a SideKick BackFlip. This is 1 of only 2 ever made by a guy over here in the USA. I paid a fortune to persuade him to part with his second and only production one. It takes Toyota Hilux IFS Front shafts. I used RCVs shafts to keep it non-Toyota. It does have Toy Asin hubs which are stronger than Warn or MileMarker, apparently. The hubs are the only non-Suzuki item on the vehicle. This was installed in about 2012.

The car will cruise at 70mph on the motorway and rides really softly.

Finally, flame decals for added power and improved handling. Product decals increase performance of all modifications by at least 10% and as much as 100% depending on their size and placement. Rebel flag gets you free entrance to Southern states, potentially worth thousands in toll savings if you ever drive it to the USA.

The intention was to keep it for my UK wheeler but I hardly ever go back so I've never used it. It was only finished after I moved to the USA. It just gets taken out every year or so for a check over and MOT. Garaged since Jan 2008
I don't really want to sell it but the steering wheel is on the wrong side for me to bring to the US.
However I'm not going to give it away so I may still keep it as I'd rather ship it out here for a few £ more than lose a bunch of money selling it off cheap.
If I keep it I'll get Leigh to do a Steering wheel flip at the expense of my mum's LHD Vitara from Europe that she no longer drives.
While the front is off for the firewall, dash & steering wheel swap I'll get Leigh to push the front forward 2" for better approach angle while keeping the engine in the same place. Then it would be more prepared to wheel out here.
Bonus would be those 37s will fit under the front easily.

Hmmmm I'm talking my self out of selling it.

I do have a set of 37 Dirt Grips with my initials in the treads. Hmmmmmmm. Even more.

Contact me through here if interested.

Pics to follow.

[ScottieJ]

For those that don't know what a Leigh Lift is, it's a body off re-manufactured chassis to lift the body 8" by welding new stronger 2x4 box section 4" above the old chassis: rear, middle and front while maintaining the stock suspension/geometry. Once the new box section is in place and cross braced with new steel from front to back, the old lower chassis pieces are cut away. It's a glorified body-lift that strengthens the chassis with much thicker box section steel and allows for clearance of 35x15.5x15 Swampers on 10" rims.
It's done by Leigh Catherick who's been modifying Suzukis since the late 80s. At the time this conversion the cost was about £1,500.
The tyres have about 300 miles on them still with the bristles.
I think there's room for 37s which I have and will put on if it doesn't sell as I will bring it over to the US.

Has this vehicle had an SVA/IVA test, I'm afraid Vosa would class this as a radically altered chassis and it needs an IVA test to be road legal in the UK. One fussy MOT tester or one that is clued up on the rules regarding chassis modifications and it would be removed from the road until it has had an IVA. It would also end up on a Q plate as it wouldn't have enough points to keep its original identity.

It sucks but they are cracking down on this kind of thing so you need to be careful with how vehicles have been or are modified now, even the way Leigh converts LJs to the vitara power steering isn't legal without an IVA test, I had to scrap a chassis modified by him because of this.

Times are changing, many modifications that people used to do to vehicles are not just acceptable nowadays.

[Rabid Rhino]

One fussy MOT tester or one that is clued up on the rules [/quote]

"We must take our vehicle to a savvy MoT tester !" has been said by me, never, nor my friends in the last 25 years of owning modified vehicles.
However I have no idea nor control on who's tested it in the last 11 years when like I said its passed every time.
I haven't done the work myself, its been garages (who give me bills) that are putting their work on the line & they don't seem to mind chancing their liability.

SVA/IVA
It had a VIC test in 2007 when I got it back from LAST as it was low catagory insurance write-off due to bent rear axle & broken bumper. I drove it to the proper Chelmsford DVLA center. Not an ordinary MoT station.
At the end the VIC tester came out to me and made some unnecessarily negative comments about it. After I had the pass certificate in my hand I asked him if he was a LandRover owner. His face confirmed my thoughts. Much as he would have liked to, he couldn't fail it. I'm sure he knew what he was looking at & was "clued up on the rules regarding chassis modifications" & would probably have loved to have it "removed from the road" recommending an SVA/IVA or classed it as a kit but didn't/couldn't so I'll take that as a safe bet its OK. I presume it would have been his duty to do so.
DVLA probably has photos of it in the bay looking pretty much like it does now so can't say its been changed since then so I would argue the case its not changed since you passed it.

Is the SVA/IVA a retro active thing ?

[Anton]

The SVA/IVA rules are not retroactive, but the radically altered vehicle rules are. https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-registration ... d-vehicles

Before I get going, I want you to know that I'm really not trying to be a buzzkill here. Just telling you what the law says.

The problem (as I see it) is that even if it's been to VOSA and they didn't remove it from the road, if it doesn't conform to current standards then the insurance is automatically void if an accident inspector notices that it's been modified in a way that doesn't conform. It's like the MOT rules - if your vehicle is unsafe to drive, even with time left on your current MOT, then you must not put it on the road. In the event of an accident, the driver of the vehicle will be done for driving without insurance, there will be no payout (even if you're not at fault) from the insurance company, and you could be prosecuted for dangerous driving. Or manslaughter if someone dies.

Passing a VIC test doesn't mean you're safe. I've spoken to many people at the DVLA who didn't even know what the 8 point system was, and I had to show them the .gov.uk page about "radically altered vehicles" when talking about my SJ, as they were giving me information that I already knew to be wrong. As in, one jumped up little madam tried to tell me that my SJ was illegal and therefore wouldn't give me a V5c. But she was just trying to cover her ass, as it she'd already admitted she'd thrown away my application because I put it in an envelope with another document (the SORN) - she claimed I wasn't allowed to do that, so when I showed her the .gov.uk website where it said I *HAVE* to put them in the same envelope, she started arguing that my vehicle was illegal anyway.

She tried to get security to throw me out of the building, but the security guard was a nice guy and just sat me down with another person, who also knew nothing about the 8 point inspection, but was totally willing to give me a V5c.

Seriously, I spoke to about 6 different people that day, and not one of them knew anything about radically altered vehicle rules.

It's not VOSA's responsibility to check your vehicle under the radically altered vehicle (8 point system) rules just because it's on their premises for another reason. It's your responsibility to book such an inspection if you know the vehicle is altered in any way that might violate the rules. You should only drive a radically altered vehicle on the road without an 8 point inspection if you know for a fact that you'd be able to successfully argue in court that you had more than 8 points. Technically even then you should get an 8 point inspection. None of us do, but technically you should.

If you know for a fact that you won't pass an 8 point inspection, then an IVA/Q plate are mandatory. And you cannot use ignorance as a defence, it's UK law that you should know what the law says about any activity you partake in. I.e. "ignorance is no defence in the eyes of the law".

[ScottieJ]

There have been a few cases where MOT testers have refused to test 'radically altered' vehicles like Zcar converted minis and 4x4s with major chassis mods. I've read many articles on specific cases over the last 10 years or so.

Dave, the guy that started Bits4Vits also ran into issues and had to take his Grand Vitara (Stumpy) off the road, it was called in for a VIC check to have a cherished number plate tranfered onto it, at which point they saw the chassis had been bobtailed. They declared it as 'radically altered' and referred the vehcile to VOSA for an SVA test, this was before the even stricter IVA came in.

Sounds like you got lucky with your VIC check as it was back in 2007 that Dave ran into his issues and that was a minor chassis modification in comparrison.

It’ll probably be fine and never cause an issue, I was just curoious as it’s a questionable modification with regards the the legality and pointing out that laws are tightening up so you need to be careful now with how vehicles are modified if you want to keep using them on the road legally. Some people get lucky and some don't, if it ever did get pulled up you do have the advantage of being able to argue the case that it was done a long time ago but it's VOSA so who knows what they would decide.

[Rabid Rhino]

Anton...…
All mods have been declared to the same insurance company along with photographs over the 15 years or so of ownership.
8 point system. That link was amazing !!! What an eye opener. Thanks

Scotty... voice of reason as always. Cheers.

So...…

Its "Coming to America"

When I was doing the list the other day I was thinking that I was going to lose too much money. I was kind of talking my way out of selling it. Didn't take long & this really sealed the deal. Plus it fills the 40' container with 2 other vehicles of mine coming out.
Its going to Alabama where they don't have inspections except a VIN number check on change of owner. God bless the South !!!!

Before it goes over I want to try & blow my only 3 points by getting a 2.0 but in it & fitting a PSC Hydro Assit Box from an old project.. (if it mounts to the right side of the chassis once its been converted to LHD) Then I can try to fit the 39.5" Boggers off my pickup in the avatar that I brought out here last year.

Photos still to follow

[Anton]

Great! I doubt you will regret keeping the beast. And I yes, give us pix!!!

Not that it matters now, but just for the record: the insurance thing is a legal loophole for insurance companies. It does not matter how honest you are with them, they write it into your policy that a vehicle that is not compliant with VOSA rules (or develops a fault that VOSA would determine makes the vehicle unroadworthy if they saw it) then your insurance policy is automatically voided from the moment the vehicle is noncompliant.

And the police will do you for driving without insurance even if they know you paid for insurance under those circumstances.

Harsh, imo. But that's the law.

Also, I think that VOSA changed its name to the DVSA. We keep mentioning VOSA, but I think VOSA is no more.

[ScottieJ]

Voice of reason or just that annoying bloke who always says stuff you don't want to read/hear

Tbh it sounds like the right choice to me, there's no way in the UK market anyone would want to pay close to what has been put into it, I've put over £10k into my blue SJ over the years and i'd be lucky to see £3k for it in the UK market, hence why i doubt i'll ever sell it, people just don't want to pay for suzukis over here, stick a Land rover or VW badge on it and tyhey'll pay 5x what it's actually worth though

Gotta love that about the US, well a lot of states anyway, some are even stricter than the UK with regards to vehicle mods.

[Rabid Rhino]

Anton.... Spoken like a guy in the insurance industry.

[Anton]

Sorry mate, but at least you get to keep her!

Not in the insurance industry, but my uncle was after he left the RAF.