“Big Cat was the brainchild of rally racing legend Pete Littler”
for thinking this is a very ordinary Disco, but on closer examination you can sense it’s altogether more capable. The winch and full roll-cage are a bit of a giveaway and there’s something about its stance that tells you there’s an off-road racing set-up tucked away under the Disco bodyshell.
But it’s when it’s moving that the difference becomes obvious, because this 1996 Discovery’s workaday 300Tdi diesel has been replaced with a 4.2-litre supercharged V8 Jaguar petrol engine, tuned to produce 500 bhp. Big Cat is a very mean predator, all right.
Big Cat was the brainchild of rally racing legend Pete Littler, who built it in 2009 to compete in the Gumball 3000 – the trans-american race that was inspired by the 1976 movie The Gumball Rally and which has more than a hint of the cartoon Wacky Races about it. But he never got around to it and, instead, it languished in his barn in Anglesey for about five years before it was bought by Niall and James.
Niall explains how it all began: “I’ve always loved cars. My earliest childhood memories are of growing up on a farm, aged about four, and sitting in the cab of a red Bedford lorry. What nowadays gets called a ‘petrolhead’ was in my blood from an early age. My ambition was to be a vet so that I could drive around the countryside in what was then my dream car – an Austin Champ with 3.0-litre Rolls Royce engine!”
As Niall grew older, he decided to become a doctor instead, but his passion for cars and speed grew even stronger. “My first foray into car ownership was with a Morris Minor. I still recall the look of astonishment when I undertook a Jag driver on the A1 on a long descent into Edinburgh, doing an estimated 90 mph – estimated because the speedo needle was jammed against the end stop. Following that, I purchased a Traveller version of the Morris Minor, in glorious Snowberry White. Costing all of £750 for a last year of manufacture model (1971) in 1978, this was the only car I have ever sold for more than what I paid for it – achieving £2300 three years later.
“It wasn’t until about 12 years ago that I finally allowed myself the dream of Land Rover ownership: an M-reg P38 Range Rover in Biarritz Blue. Since then, I have never been without at least one of Lode Lane’s finest.
“Everything that could go wrong on my P38, did – and always cost at least a grand to fix. Overheating, air suspension, electronics, overheating again, turbo, brakes and so on. It should have cured me, but didn’t. After 30,000 miles in my ownership I replaced this with a 2003 L322 Range Rover in Zambezi Silver with dark blue leather and only 48,000 miles on the clock when I bought it. After 120,000 miles, three gearboxes, two turbos, numerous disc brakes, front differential, injectors – and this time most items costing three grand a time – I was still in love with the marque. That was replaced four years later by a low mileage 55 plate Disco 3, this time relatively trouble-free.
“I got into off-roading about ten years ago, when James Woods became a neighbour and close friend. James and I quickly established that we had each been infected with the petrolhead virus, and he encouraged me into faster road cars and off-roading, introducing me to former rally driver Noddy Jenkins who owned Beast Motor Sport and from whom we together bought Mega Beast, a 1986 Ninety, and spent many happy days off-roading with local clubs and on greenlaning outings. As we did so, my skills at diagnosing multiple mechanical failures and lashing together get-home fixes increased, but so did my reliance on Noddy’s expert skills.
“An engine rebuild was soon required, and Noddy patiently allowed me to assist him in his workshop, wincing at my ham-fisted tightening of crankcase bolts. No less than three winches were added, and the SU carburettors ditched in favour of an EFI conversion and including a Megajoult setup, using four Ford twin coil packs to deliver twin sparks at higher voltage – and effectively allow for a waterproof V8 setup. Mega Beast became Aqua Mega Beast after one particular river fording where the bow wave was halfway up the front window, and I had to wait until the water in the cab was halfway up my legs to allow sufficient traction and reduce the buoyancy that threatened to sweep the truck down the river. That a mighty petrol V8 did successfully
cross (leaving behind five other diesel trucks not brave enough to try) was testimony to the thoughtful design put into this truck, with the ECU relocated high up on the middle bulkhead.
“Sadly, Mega Beast bit the dust after eight glorious years. On a journey to Cornwall from our homes in Somerset, one coil pack gave up with 30 miles to go. Despite fitting a spare the engine refused to run on more than six cylinders. A new coil pack bought from a local garage brought the same result, and, foolishly, I opted to drive the 170 miles back home on six cylinders, compensating for the reduction from the usual 300 bhp by giving it more beans. It was only later, ten miles after I had got home, that the crank shattered, courtesy of a seized cylinder, and I learned of the phenomenon of bore wash –unignited petrol washing the essential lubricating oil from the cylinders and depriving them of their essential sparks, resulting in catastrophic frictional overheating.”
The two men had considered transplanting the engine from a Lexus 400 into Mega Beast, along with the front end of a Jeep gearbox to achieve even more power from its 32-valve race engine. But in March 2016 Niall stumbled across an advert for Bad Cat on ebay. Expert mechanic Noddy joined him on the long trek from Somerset to North Wales to inspect it.
He recalls: “Racing legend Pete Littler, who at the time owned several companies supporting race cars including those driven by Colin Mccrae, had commissioned this oneoff to compete in the US Gumball Rally, but had never got round to doing so and only put a couple of thousand miles on the brand-new Jaguar 4.2-litre supercharged engine.”
The spec of Bad Cat was truly special. It came complete with Pectel F1 racing ECU and bespoke strengthened ZF four-speed auto gearbox, with lock-down gears and manual button shift on the Momo steering wheel.
Stopping power was provided by AP six-pot racing calipers at the front, and traction aided by KAM electronic lockers and hardened halfshafts front and rear, to cope with the enormous torque from that supercharged engine. Cobra race seats trimmed in light grey leather to match the rear provided comfort, while the external roll cage was an important safety feature.
“When Noddy and I test drove it, it had been sitting in a
barn in Anglesey for five years” say Niall. “We knew that it would cost more than the purchase price to restore it to fully operational, but I was hooked.”
Back in Somerset, Noddy spent four months recommissioning it. Niall explains: “We decided to further enhance matters by replacing the seized centre diff, which had been taken from a Range Rover, and install instead a Quaife torque-biasing limited-slip central differential to allow the 500 bhp to be properly connected to the ground via all four wheels – although even with this it is possible to spin all four wheels on dry tarmac from take-off!”
The stereo system required replacing too, as the highpower amp had been placed under the rear seat where a combination of overheating and damp Welsh air had caused it to succumb.
Bad Cat’s cockpit bears more resemblance to a fighter plane than a humble Disco, with £1200-worth of top-of-the-range Stack dials monitoring oil pressure, oil and water temperature, fuel pressure and engine revs, changing from green to white when optimal conditions apply, and with the potential to change to red if pushed too far. Unfortunately, this is just what happened on Bad Cat’s first serious off-road excursion two years ago, when disaster struck, as Niall explains: “One of the few unmodified components were the original Tdi rubber engine mounts – and an over-enthusiastic jump caused these to shear. As a result, the sump made contact with the front axle, the oil poured out and the oilstarved engine seized solid.”
The engine was wrecked and it took eight months and an expensive engine rebuild by experts at Causeway 4x4 before the big Jag engine roared again. After that it required its ECU to be re-programmed by another specialist, Roland Marlow of Automotive Component Remanufacturing, who had originally mapped the engine for Pete Littler back in 2009.
Back at Beast Motor Sport, Noddy fettled and checked every component before Bad Cat was finally reborn with only a couple of its nine lives lost .
The vehicle had certainly been re-invigorated by its comprehensive overhaul and also looked better thanks to Noddy replacing the steel parts of the bodywork that had rusted away, just like they do on all Discovery 1s.
The end result was nothing short of spectacular. Says Niall: “Bad Cat is my dream car. It’s the ultimate Land Rover, combining power, capability, comfort and a deceptive retro guileless look.
“One of the joys of my work as a consultant psychogeriatrician is that I get to visit many of my patients at home. I take special delight in turning up for Mental Health Act assessments at police stations in this glorious, burbling V8 extravaganza, turning heads wherever it rumbles. Nothing quite compares with this unique beast.
“You can see why Pete Littler had the Gumball Rally in mind when he created Bad Cat. I would love to participate in an event like that, but other priorities make this a distant dream. I have also toyed with the idea of a Moroccan off-road adventure, but currently I’m looking to sell Bad Cat – and off-roading will have to be constrained to my other hobby of mountain-biking for a while.”
Rest assured that Niall will be enjoying some on-road and track action in his other V8, a 320 bhp TVR Griffith, currently undergoing a rebuild. He is also toying with the idea of breathing new life into the original Mega Beast by installing a 300Tdi engine to turn it into an off-road weekend warrior.
The asking price for Big Cat is £45,000. That sounds like a lot of money for a 1994 Discovery 1, until you realise that an estimated £100,000 has been spent on parts alone in this unique vehicle, which has been modified and tuned by professionals at the very top of their game. Anyone brave enough to want a test drive can contact Niall at drniallmoore@aol.com or Noddy on 07751 491353.