After racing at Brands Hatch last year well aware the car I’m racing is my transport home I decided I should really look into finding a way of transporting the car for the coming season. The thought of a sheepish call to the AA explaining I need recovery after an accident in a tyre wall, on the public road of course, isn’t something I particularly look forward too. Since Her Majesty’s Government had deemed anyone who passed their driving test after 1997 was incapable of towing a big trailer or driving a small lorry my options were to either take a towing test, buy a tow car and trailer, or buy a van that was converted into a car transporter. Buying a 4×4 and a trailer was the better option, but also the more expensive when you take into consideration towing lessons and test. A van up to 3.5 tonnes it was then.

Looking around I had narrowed it down to two options. A 1985 Ford Transit with a king cab and some long ramps to run the car up onto the back, or a 1999 Iveco TurboDaily 35-10 which had been converted into a car transporter and allowed the car to sit inside. This looked quite appealing because the Iveco van is based on a truck so would be really sturdy, it was newer, and the car would be inside. As the MR2 is made from steel so thin you can read through it this made it a no brainer. I didn’t really want to come to the car one day to find a pile of rust sitting on the floor. The only potential problem here was the van was in Eastbourne. Luckily Ian was up for a bit of a road trip so the plan was to drive down in his car and put it in the back of the van for the journey back. What could possibly go wrong?

The first thing to go wrong (you just knew this wouldn’t be all plain sailing) was the small issue that Ian’s car didn’t fit in the back. It would have been fine except the rear doors where they had been modified were just a bit too narrow to let the front pillars in on Ian’s car. Bugger #1. He’d be driving home then.

The second thing to go wrong, and this could be considered a bigger issue is the MR2 didn’t fit on the width either. The previous owner stored a stock car in there which is much narrower. Bugger #2.

Not all was lost though as where the MR2 was hitting the doors was some metal sticking down as part of the original doors which was no longer needed, so was easily removed with the help of an angle grinder. Back to the car storage place to get the MR2 in and it’s about 6 inches too long. Bugger #3. This was a bigger problem, a much bigger problem. And a rather annoying one too. The previous owner had told me he had a VW Golf mk1 in there which as I can believe, but he also had a Ford Capri in there too. If you know cars you’ll know the Capri is a large car, and significantly longer than the MR2 too. So just how big of an accident had this Capri been in to fit?

The options left were to either sell the van and buy something else, but selling it just sounded a pain, or get the tape measure out. Behind the front seats were some rear seats in quite a large area. After some tape measure waving I discovered that if the rear seats were removed along with the wooden partition, tyre rack and shelves then the MR2 would fit. Bingo. I just needed someone to do it. I tried a number of places from body repair shops, coach builders, horse box builders and even people who modify vans but none of them would take the work. Maybe because of what I was after, or the quality level I was after. That’s functional and cheap, rather than looking nice to you and me. What I needed was a man with a large hammer, a welder and some steel.

This is where the helpful people on PistonHeads.com came to the rescue. I was pointed in the direction of a fabricator who builds stock cars and has previously converted some vehicles. I told him what I wanted, dropped the van off and it was done the next day. With baited breath I winched the car into the back of the van and let out a huge cheer when the rear door closed with the car inside. Hallelujah!