Bowler's first competition car: a Defender-styled rally raid car on a fabricated chassis, with a glassfibre copy of the Defender body and Land Rover running gear taken from a Defender, Range Rover or Discovery.
MODEL LINETomcatBUILT BYBowlerPRODUCED1985–98OPERATED INUnited KingdomPRODUCTIONNot publishedLAYOUT4 wheels · 88″
The record
Drew Bowler modified and raced his own Land Rover in the early 1980s, other competitors asked for copies, and in 1985 he began building them on the family farm at Belper in Derbyshire. The Tomcat was the result: an 88-inch-wheelbase rally raid car with a spartan interior, a fabricated box-section chassis and a glassfibre body in the shape of a Defender, taking its axles, engine and gearbox from a live-axle Land Rover — Defender, Range Rover or Discovery.
The wheelbase was stretched to 100 inches in 1995, and the tubular-chassis Wildcat replaced the Tomcat at Bowler from 1998. The design did not end there: Tomcat Motorsport, founded in 2001 by Paul Williamson and Steve Wells, took it on and still builds Tomcats in 80, 88, 93, 100 and 106-inch wheelbases; it counts more than 700 built since Drew Bowler drew the first one.
ENGINEDonor Land Rover engine (Defender, Range Rover or Discovery); units not published
PRODUCTION RUNNot published (Tomcat Motorsport counts more than 700 Tomcats of all builders since the first design)
COUNTRY OF ORIGINUnited Kingdom
OPERATED INUnited Kingdom
STATUSout of production at Bowler; the design continues with Tomcat Motorsport
RECORD KINDBase model
MODEL LINETomcat
FAMILYTomcat
WHEELS4
NOMINAL WHEELBASE88″
BODY STYLERally raid
VARIANTS1
Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.
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