The Puma Clubman sports car was conceived and designed by John Karnon and Neville Darwin in
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
based on
Ron Champion's book ''Build your own sports car for as little as £250 - and race it'' ().
Between 1998 and April 2014, John Karnon constructe
54 chassisand of those 30 have been completed and registered for road use.
John Karnon has continued to develop the Puma chassis design to make use of more modern available donor parts.
Early Pumas were built with
Nissan SR20DET
The SR20DET is a straight-four four-stroke Petrol engine, gasoline engine that is part of the Nissan SR engine, SR family of engines from Nissan Motors, Nissan, produced from 1989 to 2002. It is a Turbocharger, turbocharged version of the Nissan ...
S13 engines with later cars using Nissan SR20DET S14 and SR20DET S15. The S15 engine uses a six-speed gear box.
Two Pumas were constructed with non-turbo SR20DE engines with one having a unique "manual automatic" gearbox. Also, two Pumas are being built with non turbo Mazda MZR2300 engines.
Puma Clubmans have won the following design and construction awards:
2005 National Rally, Bright, Vic – 1st Place, Peoples Choice:
2011 National Rally, Barossa, SA – 1st Place, Peoples Choice and 2nd Place, Individually Constructed Vehicle:
2013 National Rally, Caloundra, Qld – 1st Place, Peoples Choice and 1st Place, Kit Build Category.
In April 2014 Puma Cars relocated to
Wamboin NSW after 15 years in
Blackwood SA. Under the transition arrangement production of the current ‘Series 2’ chassis and components migrated to NSW in 2014 with full chassis and component production expected to be NSW based by the end of 2015. Currently chassis numbers 55 and 56 are under construction in Wamboin for customer delivery in Sept 2014–09:40, 5 May 2014 (UTC)
Specifications
The engine specified by Karnon is the Nissan
SR20DET
The SR20DET is a straight-four four-stroke gasoline engine that is part of the SR family of engines from Nissan, produced from 1989 to 2002. It is a turbocharged version of the SR20DE engine and is a replacement of the CA18DET engine.
The SR ...
or the Nissan
SR20DE
The SR engine is a series of , or straight-four, four-stroke gasoline engines manufactured by Nissan. It has an aluminum head and cast-iron block with steel sleeves and has a DOHC 4-valve design, with variable valve timing on select models.
T ...
with donor parts fro
other sources Original donor vehicles were
Ford Escort Mk2, and
Ford Cortina TC.
Newer (series 2) Puma cars use donor parts from
Holden Commodore
The Holden Commodore is a full-size car that was sold by Holden from 1978 to 2020. It was manufactured from 1978 to 2017 in Australia and from 1979 to 1990 in New Zealand, with production of the locally manufactured versions in Australia endin ...
s including brakes and differential. Series 2 cars also have re-located suspension points in order to accommodate larger diameter wheels, and the seat position has also been altered in order to fit larger seats.
Performance
Turbo Pumas produce between 160 and 260 kilowatts at the rear wheels and weigh about 700 kilograms. 0-100 kmh time is 3.5 seconds. Top speed is approximately 245 kmh.
References
{{Reflist
External links
* http://www.pumaclubman.com/ Official Website
Videosfeaturing Puma Clubmans
Sports cars