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This site details the build of my Sylva Mojo kit car to SVA, subsequent modifications after SVA, and trackdays and events that I have attended. The kit was ordered on 12th July 2003, collected on 11th October 2003, and SVA passed on 3rd September 2004. Since then car has been in daily use on my commute to work, all year round! The record of the build is intended to be of benefit both to myself and to others who are building (or thinking of building) a Mojo, or indeed any kit car. I've also included a section to give tips to those who might be considering building a Mojo, which should help explain some of the options available, and a history of major changes to the Mojo design over the years. LAST SITE UPDATE: 18th May 2011 News: 3rd May: What a great Stoneleigh show! Apart from the brisk wind the weather was great, and the turn out on the JPSC area was fantastic on the Sunday:
Other news is that the Mojo project is now going to be produced & marketed by Typhoon Sports Cars, details should shortly appear on their website. 19th April: With the Stoneleigh show fast approaching (1st & 2nd May), it was time to neaten up a few rough edges (there are many!). The rear arches in particular have taken a hammering, with hundreds of stone chips and some small holes right through the gel coat. I had experimented with some carbon-look material a few years ago, but it didn't stay attached for long. This time I've tried out some 3M Di-Noc Carbon film, and ended up using it in a few extra places too... Read more about it in the updated section HERE. 15th February: I recently swapped broadband provider to Plusnet, they are currently offering 3 months free broadband for referred signups (and I get 3 months free too!). Click the banner below and follow the instructions, stating my username (neileverett) as your referrer:
1st October: The airbox is fitted and working! See another update HERE. 20th August: There seems to be an unprecedented number of second hand Mojos for sale at the moment! I am aware of at least 4 currently, including the Meggt demo car mentioned previously. I know the owners of all the cars, so can encourage you to go take a look if you are in the market for a Mojo! (Click pics for links to pistonheads classifieds)
The airbox project has made a bit of progress over the last few weeks, see the updated page HERE. The dampers were recently returned to Protech for a bit of a rebuild, 1 of the dampers had some pretty severe damage to the damper rod which had caused lots of oil to be lost. The other 3 dampers had some rod damage, so all 4 were rebuilt with new rods, new seals and new oil. The bill came in at £120, which I don't think is too bad given they are now as good as new. The damper rod damage is a bit unusual, but a chat with Kevin at Protech revealed that some cars seem more prone to it than others, e.g. MX5s seem to give problems whereas TVRs don't. It must be simply related to the position of the shock relative to the wheel, I think. I am looking into some kind of shield or boot to protect the damper rod a little better from flying debris... It was money well spent, as the car is now feeling much tighter, but riding better too. Great stuff! 27th May: Meggt are selling their Mojo demo car, see ad below: Sylva Mojo SE, with a 1250 Ford Sigma Engine Car featured in the June edition of Complete Kit Car This car was built by Sylva Autokits as a demonstrator, and completed by Meggt. It passed IVA in October 2009 and has done less than 300 miles since. Specification: Based on a 1996 Ford Fiesta with age related registration number. Fuel injected 16v 1250 Sigma engine and 5 speed gearbox. From the Fiesta it also utilises the catalytic converter, wiring loom, instruments, ECU, fuel pump, and pedals. Ford hubs with disc brakes all round. 14” wheels with new A539 Yokohoma tyres. This car has been used as a demonstrator and show car by both Sylva and Meggt. The car is for sale at £8500 o.n.o Please contact Meggt via their website: www.meggt.com and mention where you saw the ad!
1st May: Added some new photos of the Mojo to the galleries pages, to reflect what the car now looks like after the wheel change and the updates to black mesh. The changes have made lhe car look a fair bit different, I'm very pleased with the facelift! You will hopefully notice that the Mojo is looking particularly clean in these new photos, and that's because it's had it's annual full-on clean in preparation for the Stoneleigh show, which opens tomorrow. In true Stoneleigh fashion, the weather looks like it might cause a few problems...! 21st April: Had the misfortune of having someone drive into me on the way home from work! I was stationary in a queue of traffic at the time, and the chap behind decided it was time to go. Claimed he didn't see the bright red sports car with the high level brake light glaring him in the face... I was NOT amused! Thankfully it was a low speed bump and the flexy plastic bumper of the car that hit me took the edge off things, and no damage was done! Phew! Bit of a scare at this time of year, as I always try and get the Mojo looking at its best in time for the biggest kit car show on earth! 17th April: Only 2 weeks to go until Stoneleigh! I'll be there both days, please come and say hello if you are passing. The Mojo will be parked in the JPSC club area. Completed the updates to the mesh around the rest of the car. Also stripped down and repainted the cycle wing stays and front top wishbones, as they were starting to suffer after 5 winters of abuse from salted roads. 12h February: The Mojo passed 30,000 miles on the way to work this morning! 8th February: Used the new mesh to redo the nose aperture. At the same time I bonded in a couple of small radiator blanks inside the nose, to help ensure the bulk of the airflow is forced through the rad, improving cooling efficiency. Just have the rear arch intakes, engine cover intake and rear end vents to do now...
You will notice this was taken just after the first wash of 2010, completed with a little assistance from a willing helper:
Also received the small badges I had ordered to disguise the holes in the engine cover (from the old bonnet pins). I think they are in keeping with the Mojo...
25th January: I'd been on the lookout for some black mesh to re-do the grilles around the car (radiator, rear arches, engine cover, rear vents) as the car is developing a bit of a black and red theme after the wheel swap last year. However, I've had issues with the current aluminium expanded mesh fracturing over time, and also thought that the black painted stuff that you can get would inevitably look tatty once if started getting chipped. So, I hadn't bought anything, until I found myself in Halfords on Friday... They had a clearance section with all kinds of goodies reduced to silly prices, including 2 large sheets of black plastic mesh, one with slightly larger holes than the other. At £2.50 a sheet I bought both! Hopefully this should be a bit more resistant to vibration, and change the look of the car a bit too. Add it to the (long) list of jobs...
18th January: 2 more test videos, first one another dark, snowy morning with a bit of opposite lock required whilst trying to drive in a straight line at about 10mph... and this time with no brake or throttle input to trigger the slide! Second one is the first daytime test of the MD80, the mount (speedily achieved with 1 zip tie) could do with being a bit more secure and position needs tweaking up or down to avoid the windscreen header rail being right in the middle of shot, but overall I think the quality is pretty good for £20... 12th January: Bought one of these Mini video recorder gizmos for in car recording! £20 + delivery from a UK ebay seller (there are loads of imitation imports available for about £13 delivered, however these are plastic rather than alloy cased, and seem a bit hit and miss). Mine is essentially identical to a Veho Muvi (current cheapest price £40 at tesco direct). Very neat little unit...
The first test was a bit of a challenge for the little MD80, given it was completely dark! But the amount of snow on the roads meant it just had to be recorded! The mount was a quick cobble together, hence the jaunty angle and some vibrations. OK the quality is not great, but night time filming is a real challenge for any equipment. I hope to see much better results for more normal conditions! The whole journey was 'entertaining', the first 100 yards or so the most so! The first couple of minutes can be viewed below: This is the Mojo parked up at work, once we had some daylight:
It was a tad slippy! 5th January: Happy New Year! Managed to grab a bit of garage time over the Christmas break, such that I have now uploaded 2 small new sections to the mods area: Headrests & bonnet hinges Also added a very small update to the airbox project pages And just to prove that the Mojo gets used in all weathers, here's a quick clip of my (early) journey home this afternoon. Yes, that is an inch of snow on the nose! 13th November: Added some extra pics of me driving the Mojo at Llandow (courtesy of Ian & Adam at Complete Kit Car magazine) to the trackday report. Also added a pic of Simon Winn's recently SVAd Honda powered Mojo SE to the galleries. 16th October: I have started to source some bits for 2 longer term Mojo projects - airbox & dashboard update. More details in the mods section. 14th September: Updated header graphics to give the site a bit of a facelift and to reflect the new wheels! 9th September: Added a report on the trackday at Llandow 21st August: Scott Davies is selling his unstarted Mojo SE kit, see the ad below: I have a Sylva Mojo SE which I have owned for a number of years. Due to changes in circumstances I never got chance to start the build and now with a little one on the way money, space and time are near non existant. I have got lots of bits and pieces including a 1.6 Zetec SE engine and gearbox, Radiator, Driveshafts with brake discs and pads, front brake calipers (New) with pads, steering column and rack and plenty more!!! I will make a list and post it later. If anyone is interested or knows someone who may be interested then please let me know. I would recommend coming and seeing the kit to understand how much of it is there. I would like £3000 for the whole lot!!! Thanks Scott If you are interested and want Scott's contact details, either drop me an email or find Scott's post on the Sylva chat list. 28th July: Lots to report! New radiator now fitted, so I've completed the write up. Secondly, I was on the lookout for some new tyres (the Yoko A539s were getting towards the limit after about 22k), but ended up with a complete new set of tyres and wheels! I've written a little about 'why?' here. 8th July: Booked to do the JPSC / CKC trackday at Llandow on 5th September! This will be the first trackday for quite some time. Looking forward to it, but will give the car a thorough once over beforehand! Want to get my new radiator fitted before then too... 18th June: Added some photos from the Wheels event that took place on 17th June. See the misc galleries section... 28th May: Have reformatted the site so that all pages are 200pixels wider. When I setup the site I formatted it such that it would look ok on a 800x600 resolution monitor, but I figure that most people have a lot more than that now! Tweaked the header images to suit, hope it all works ok... Also added some pictures of Kevin Crookes' Mojo to the gallery section. 20th April: Received a complementary copy of the May 2009 issue of Complete Kit Car, complete with article on a trio of Mojos, one of them mine! As well as the main article, I also get a mention inside the back cover, including a mugshot... Doh! Completed the section relating to the side bolsters for the driver's seat. 1st April: Added a new section to the galleries, with pics from the Complete Kit Car photoshoot. 25th March: A couple of weeks ago I was invited along to a small gathering of Mojos to meet Adam Wilkins from Complete Kit Car magazine. Matt Beardshaw from Meggt had arranged for the meeting to take place to get some coverage of his plans for the Mojo project, and invited Tom Clarke and myself along to give our input and so our cars could be included in the photos. The article should be appearing in the next couple of months, so keep a lookout on the shelves of your local stockist! I should also be getting copies of the photos, with permission to publish them on here, which is great - thanks to CKC! Ed's Mojo SE passed SVA first time on 24th March - congratulations to him! Looks as though he is very likely to make Stoneleigh this year, mighty impressive since he first sat in a Mojo at Stoneleigh last year, and only took delivery of his kit in August! Talking of Stoneleigh, it is now less than 6 weeks until the biggest and best kit car show in the UK. This last year has really flown by... I will be there as usual, hopefully on both days given how local it is for me. Should have cracked 25k miles by then! It should be a good year for Mojos at Stoneleigh. Meggt will be there making themselves known, Ed should be there in his new SE (hopefully along with a couple more SEs) and Keith has let me know he is coming down from Aberdeen in his zetec '2', and I'm sure there will be a good few more turning up. Keith also sent me some more photos of his car - see the gallery for the updates. I have also started working on some side bolsters for the driver's seat, very blatantly copying Matt Beardshaw's idea! In fact, Matt very generously gave me an offcut of his foam for me to use. I have started a new page in the mods section... 20th January: Well another year is upon us! The main news in Mojo circles is that Sylva have sold the Mojo project on to Meggt, a new company run by my good friend Matthew Beardshaw. I've updated the links page to reflect this. Ed is also making good progress on his Mojo SE build, with the engine started for the first time a few days ago - congratulations to you! For previous news updates, see old news... Please note: This site is in no way affiliated with Sylva Autokits or Meggt Ltd |
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