Factory built 2078cc Puma engines

Posted on 2002-03-08 by wrm

Armand Botha sent me the following information:

“On South African Pumas there was an option of a Puma engine of 2078ccs.

I own some blueprints dating from 1972/73 which detail a 78.4mm stroke crankshaft. I also have details on conrod modification, casing and crankcase modification. There are also details on bigger valves and port modifications (exhaust). I deduced from conversations that the cylinders were 92mm and valves were 40mm intake and 35.5mm exhaust. The port modifications follows Bill Fishers book ‘How to hotrod Volkswagens’.

The other interesting blueprint details the addition of a dry sump kit and remote oil cooler. The cooler was mounted under the left front bumper with the oil lines going through the tunnel. The oil tank was mounted opposite the battery in the lefthand side of the engine compartment.

The carburettors were Solex 40mm (similar to Kadrons except aluminium manifolds with puma stamp and different links and air filters.

I could not ascertain whether a different cam grind was used although it was possible.

The distributor was a fully mechanical unit (Bosch 010).

The engine sheetmetal was also painted hammer finish silver and a badge was fitted to the fan housing (yellow with puma badge and ‘PUMA MOTOR’ written underneath).

This engine was reportedly very potent and at least 2 examples left the factory.”

If you have a picture of one of these engines please send me a copy…

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The story of my Puma (#129)

Posted on 2000-09-21 by wrm

I wanted a Puma ever since I got my driver’s licence. At that time (1986) I was under the
impression that the Puma was a kit car, so I mailed Mr. Wijker asking about buying a
Puma in kit form. I got a very nice letter back, pricing a kit at R 3 200. At that stage a
complete car sold for R 15 600.

Fortunately (for me, but unfortunately for my dream of having a Puma) I was given a car by a relative. A second-hand Citroen GS1220, but that’s another story. I drove the Citroen until I had the money to buy my own car, which was… a second-hand Puma. (never should have got rid of the Citroen, damn, those were nice cars)

[Puma VIN plate (175K)]

I first thought my Puma was built in 1971, but when I removed the VIN plate and cleaned it, I could see that it reads

MODEL:			1974
ENGINE No.		134259
PRODUCTION No.		129


[Puma dealer plate (32K)]

I bought the Puma in February 1994 for R 10 000. By then the original upright engine had been replaced by a fairly tired Type III flat engine. I bought a totalled Variant, and rebuilt the Type IV engine completely. I paid ~R2500 for new pistons, bearings, valves, and seals, and the machining of the case, barrels and heads ran to another ~R2500.

When I swapped the engines I replaced the wiring from the engine bay to the dash. (people who use 15 amp mains wire for 12V feeds should be shot) After driving around with wires all over the floor and hanging out under the dashboard I finally decided to fix it. That was somewhere around March 1997.

I rewired the dashboard — this is a bigger job than it looks — but I still have to rewire the front lights and indicators. (Did I mention my incipient shipfitters disease?)

I parked the Puma in February 1998, the gearbox was jumping out of first and the brakes were, erm, interesting, to say the least.

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