So.. Why did you buy a kit car?

['The Gaffer']

A resurrected thread from 3 years ago because I have closed a couple of boards and started some new ones since. This thread was of interest as it opened up a new discussion about why we bought kit cars - whats your story?

Heres a little history into why I got into the kit car market. For years I was interested in big fast Jap imports.

Skylines like this one were my major interest. (R33 GTR Twin Turbo)


I soon realised though that these cars are very expensive to run and maintain, and it also became apparent that I would not get as much use out of a car like this as I first imagined

As my own business developed however, I decided to purchase a sporty van, which actually turned out to be a bit sportier than I first envisaged .


So at that point, I thought should I keep my interest in Jap imports? or because now I have a quick road car (van) should I go for something completely different? There became my initial interest in the kit car market.

My thoughts were, I have a fast road vehicle that doubles as my work transport; Perfect . What I needed now is something for thrills that is so different to a 'normal' road car. Should I buy another bike?

I always was a bike fan and owned a few old Jap 2 strokes from the Kawasaki KH 250 to the insane KH750 (Not for long though, I valued my life too much!!).

Anyone remeber these? I survived the kamikaze Kawasaki (750 H2)


I also owned a couple of Suzuki GT250's, the GT380 and GT550's (Very reliable bikes)
Finally finished my bike phase with a beautiful Kawasaki 900 Z1B in showroom condition, which I kept for some time.

Now, years later, I decided that bikes were too dangerous to pursue again, and the interest in kit cars soon intensified when I realised I could get a car with a bike engine in. Wow!!

Much more wife friendly too, Speedy J, my wife, was not entertaining a bike at all, herself having suffered concussion plus a broken ankle and toes as a result of an accident riding pillion. (Not me driving I might add)

So the search was on. I'm a sucker for something unusual and after a while searching I discovered Toniq. At the same time I found out Toniq were selling their first demonstrator. Chassis number 1 no less. So after visiting the factory and having a good chat with Colin and Phil, decided to make an offer on the car, which was accepted. I realised the car had been the flagship of the company for some time and had been thrashed by the press etc so took a risk knowing the car would need a bit of work. As it turns out, it needed a little more work than I first envisaged

The Toniq R divides opinion on its looks but I like it. I particularly like the way the headlamps have been made. It looks like a grounded fighter aircraft as those black cylinders look like weapons. But they wouldn't be machine guns or cannons... They'd be lasers.

A few shots of my old car...







After spending some time with the Toniq, I decided to sell up and buy a Sylva Riot. Why?, well it was the first kit car that I sat in that I could fit in

On its way home..



So whats your story?

[mattsmev]

Great post, and a good question.  I'll dig out some pictures and try to give a proper answer.

Is the van outside your house?

Cheers

Mattsmev

[mattsmev]

Well, here goes.

Back in the day, when i was young, stupid and no better off than i am now i bought a Triumph Spitfire. 




I loved it, cherished it, worked on it.  poured money into it and drove it.  I met my wife in it, went on honeymoon in it. and still owned it when we had a child.  with money and time in very short supply this car sat in the garage for several years doing nothing.

Then, with solvency within reach i started to share an office with Ace Fettler, he had just bought is current kit car and the idea interested me.  I went to some shows and found the T48 Spyder Corsa, a kit car that used the Spitfire as it's donor.

So some years later, with help from Ace Fettler and lots of hours in the garage i ended up with this car.



You may recognise it, it's a regular in the club, and the current owner can be seen in the background.

From here I wanted a car that could do road trips, trackdays and did not look like a 'seven'.  New on the market was the MEV Rocket, the budget fitted and the deal was done.  I bought an 04 plate Focus as the donor and finished the car in 5 months (again with help from Ace Fettler) and i have owned it for 2 years now.




The car has been great and the owners club has been great with a good presence at most shows and a great internet site too.

So that is my kit car history, all very low budget and quit humble compared to many of the machines in this club but i can recommend the Rocket as good cheap fun, easy to build and fun to drive.

Cheers

Mattsmev

['The Gaffer']

Nice one Mattsmev, I used to own a spitfire myself in sunny CA, great little cars.

Anyone else care to share their kit car stories?

[WALNUT]

I Also had a Triumph Spitfire !
But before that here's a pic of my Mrk 1 Consule



It was my first & last attempt at Panel beating ...I wonder why? I ended up turning it onto it's roof Nr Pensford but I drove it back to Bristol having to stop every now & then because of over heating. I was going to cut the roof off but at the time I was living with my mum & she said either the car goes or I do.
I have had a series of other cars since, One was quite a bit different, It was a Morris 1000 Pick up with the back of the cab cut off, A strip of metal about 2ft wide pot rivetted on the back, rivetted back on & a much shorter box put on the back.
Then came my Austin Princess, A lovely car to drive.


So you can see i've always liked something a bit different.
My first Kit car was a Robin Hood which I wrote off.

As you might know I have a Fiorano Corsa Spyder kit car & I love it 

['Mendip Wurzel']

Brilliant photgraphs Tony, your modifications are some of the best I have seen.

I notice your style of dress hasn't changed. Are you wearing the same cardigan in all of the pictures.

I'll have to see if I can dig out some of my old footage.

[David H]

I bought a kit car so i could have trouble free motoring. And I like the rain.

[andygtm]

Great reading your stories. Absolutely brilliant pictures. Is that Eric Bristow in the background with you Tony. Unfortunately my kit car story is short. Bought my GTM by chance. It was love at 1st sight so I had to buy it. Great little car, had some fun with it this year especially over the summer but my true love is for minis so it has to go. Wish I could keep it but cant afford to keep 2 toys. It did however introduce me to you guys so see you soon.

['Mendip Wurzel']

Like Phil I grew up on motorbikes and at the tail end of the British bike industry. I had a Triumph Thunderbird and when a few BSA A10's. Then came the Japanese bike revolution and I was lucky enough to have one of the early CB750 Honda's which were a revolution at the time. Then followed one of the first Z1 900 Kawasaki's to hit the road. I also had a Triumph Spitfire like most of the others on this forum.


Me on my CB750 Honda which was king of the road in its day, but rubbish by todays standards. This photograph was taken over 35 years ago. You will notice, by my youthful looks, that I havn't changed .......

More recently I wanted to re-live my youth and get a modern super bike.  The problem is my wife was having none of it saying that bikes were far too dangerous which I suppose is how I ended up with the kitcar. I have always loved the sound of the American V8 hence the attraction of my lesser Rover V8 based kitcar.

I actually had no intentions of purchase a kitcar until I was searching for a Fiesta for my daughter on ebay and noticed a Lotus Seven clone and thought wow that looks like fun. I ended up purchasing the kitcar before the Fiesta and before I had told my wife. My wife now loves the kitcar as she finds it much easier to encourage me to take her places.


My superbly reliable kitcar being towed home again!

['The Gaffer']

Fantastic reading guys and what great pics

Trying to find a pic of me in my youth on my Kawa Z1B, but its so old the paper must have disintegrated

Anyone else care to share their story?


Oh and Mattsmev, no thats not my house, thats just the gatehouse.

[YellaBelly]

......Oh and Mattsmev, no thats not my house, thats just the gatehouse.

PMSL

[WALNUT]

Kevin, Yes same jumper just a bit faded, bit like myself. everyone used to say whats that, meaning my handy work, so I wrote on it.This Is A Mudgaurd. stoped all the questions, and got a few laughts. I drove this car looking like this for over a year, and never had a pull by the old bill. That was the days before MOTs

Tony

[Grin-a-lot]

My car history isnt quite as long as those above so bear with me:

Got my first car while I was at Uni, A Fiesta 1.1L and man did that feel fast.  Unfortunately a thief that didn't share the same musical interests as me nicked the car, stole stereo and other odds and sods and left my CD collection.  The car wasn't in a good state so a write off ensued.

Shortly after I replaced it with a Peugeot 306xl.  A staggering 1.4L engine this time and that made the Fiesta look tame.  Kept it for a good few years before flogging it to my Brother in Law.

I was earning at this stage which didn't mean I could afford it but meant I could get a loan for this:



At the time I was sold "Gap" insurance which covered the cost of the car in the event of it being stolen/broken etc.  Handy really because in 6 months time i did this:



Now missing a car, my outlaws emigrated to New Zealand and asked us to sell their car for them.  So I seized the opportunity to become the owner of a Citroen Picasso People carrier (I was 26 at this stage so not the car of choice but did the job nicely).

Saved my pennies hard, and eventually we needed a second car.  Convinced the significant other that investing in cars was a surefire way of not losing money and bought this:



Sold it after a year because we only needed 1 car and that was that.  I started to work away from home a lot and it seemed like a good chance to get a car tht could be just for fun with almost no practical side to it at all.  I'd always liked the Lotus Elise but could afford to spend that much money.  I then realised that perhaps a kit car was the order of the day.  Some investigation was done and I ended up with my Westfield SE.



Its not been without its problems but with the love and support  from you guys i'm pretty much in a position where its working really rather well.

[peterw]

Why did i buy mine? It seemed like a good idea at the time!!!!

Pete

[Bulldog Bri]

I got into kit cars purely by chance. I was looking for a new car. A friend at work mentioned them and brought in a few mag's (kitcar ones Tony and Pete  ) I knew nothing about working on cars but it looked easy enough 

After looking through them for a while noticed that there was going to be an 'Action day' at Castle Combe in September of that year so went along to have a look, I had already noticed Pilgrims Bulldog in the mag's and that what I was hoping to see, sure enough there was one going around the track as a demo car and a customers for looking around. Two months later I placed my order for one.



The kit arrived on time and I got stuck in,





8 months later my car was finished (and my dad could have his garage back)

[WALNUT]

Im glad you told us it was kitcar mags. lol

Tony

['Mendip Wurzel']

Kevin, Yes same jumper just a bit faded, bit like myself. everyone used to say whats that, meaning my handy work, so I wrote on it.This Is A Mudgaurd. stoped all the questions, and got a few laughts. I drove this car looking like this for over a year, and never had a pull by the old bill. That was the days before MOTs

Tony

Tone.
You had mudguard problems then, and you still have mudguard problems now, and in all that time the old bill have never managed to catch up with you, even though we have had some close shaves recently..... They say some things never change. LOL
     

[Daley Down Under]

Been rummaging around in the loft and found some photos of my early cars - I was never satisfied with off the shelf machinery.  1st car was a rally prepared '67 Mini 1000, which I had for a year or so in the early 80's.



I then built the majority of the components into a newer modified shell ('72 Mini), which I promptly rolled on the first outing (you can see the roof damage in the photo) - that was its only accident. 



After 4-5 years of road rallying the car, I built a 'new' 1340cc Mini based on an '83 Mayfair shell.  I did another couple of years road rallying with this car in the Central Southern and South Western championships.   



Finally the road-going Mini era ended and the Mayfair was replaced with an '83 Golf GTi (which I also road rallied). 



Then followed an '87 Sierra XR4x4, a '90 Citroen BX16v and two TVR's (one built up from a stolen recovered car with no front end).  During this time, me and my brother were autotesting a couple of non-road legal Mini saloons (not the prettiest cars but reasonably effective).



Marriage and kids put pay to competitive motorsport so I started doing track days (where I was lucky enough to get a passenger ride in a Westfield Megablade in 2004).  Bike Engined Cars - great idea - I had to have one of those.



After four years, the Megablade was replaced with the Marlboro Car. 

[WALNUT]

I like the idea of your first car being rally prepared. What was your insurance.

Tony

[Daley Down Under]

Tony,

Car cost £495 - insurance was £130 (TPF&T).

Adrian

[knuckle head]

My love started as a child.My father was always into cars and modding them up,He always wanted a  Lotus 7 repilca but living in South Africa it wasnt easy to get your hands on them. So in 1983 he decided to build one from scratch.

So he got hold of some pics of the colin chapman classic and drew up some plans and so the build started.Back in those days there were no 7 repilca in SA so everything had to be made from scratch. chassis ,wheel archs, nose cone everything.From what i can remember it wasnt a easy build but he pulled it off.He fitted a 2l alfa motor as that was the best thing going around in those days.

When I was born in 1984 he found out that I was a boy and painted the car royal matalic blue in celabration of having a son.Years later and many mods he sold the car to design and build he own aircraft...

When the 7 was sold I was at that stage where I could just remember few things about the car.From then on I just wanted a 7.I collected pictures of 7's that filled the walls.In 2000 my father passed away and the thought of buying my fathers 7 back stuck in my mind but after many thoughts i Decided to keep those memories and get my own 7.So 27 years later I Finally got my own Lotus 7 replica...

[DaveA]

havn't spoke for a while so thought I'd give my story. my first real car after the testwas a midget which i promptly wrecked,rebuit it as a stage 3 racer and kept it for a good while.marriage and two kids started me on bikes(wife had the car).After a cb 750, virago 750, during which I had an eagle jeep and kept it going for 11 years, i  moved to a series 2 mr2 (which I still run) THEN I came across my dream bike a 2000 full power vmax in a garage in bits BLISS. Rebuilt it and ran it for 300 miles before a lorry put me in a wheel chair for 2 months. Hence the bikes gone,and the v8 locost was a compromise with my wife.  Its being a bitch for now but it won't beat me.

['The Gaffer']

Thought I'd resurrect this interesting thread that started 3 years ago. Some of the older pics have disappeared but hey ho.

Anybody else wish to contribute?

[Daley Down Under]

Good idea Phil - I'd forgotten I'd dug out those old pics and scanned them for the forum.  Came across the originals the other day in one of the boxes we hadn't unpacked.  They're now hanging in the garage next to the Moke and the Spire.

Cheers Adrian

[fullpint]

  I did post at work but I guess I failed to hit the post button..
Ok Ive always had a bike and a car (man needs his toys). But when I started TPCS in 2010 my bike just sat in my unit. My 300BHP Fiat Coupe 20VT  sat in my garage and my daily runner (Caddy van) was my main transport. So in 2011 I felt the need to change so I sold the bike and the Coupe  .
It was then that I felt the need to try a kit car but being a biker it had to be a BEC hence why I purchased the Mk Indy Blade. Being new to the kit car market I thought best to buy a mid level.. Nearly went for a Westfield Megablade which was £9K but ended up with the Mk for a mere £4.4K. NO REGRETS at all. And even after 2 years it still puts a smile on my face.
So I joined two kit car forums but I must say the BKCC is the best.
Friendly, great meets and you are also treated as an equal.. Thank you Phil and also thanks to all members.
I don't intend selling the Mk (well not yet) so you guys will have to put up with the 'fullpint' for another year 

[Moleman]

I got interested in Kitcars when I went to a friends house to help him put a few doors up only to see a westfield parked in the drive next door. I got chatting to the owner & from that day I always said to myself I will own one of them one day.

Well 2 years later I had finally had enough money saved & paid a visit to the same guy for advice on what to buy? He had moved but left a forwarding adress which after a few minutes of searching for it, it turns out he lives a not far from me. 

I went around to see him & he had just sold his but still had it as they wasn't picking it up for a few weeks. So he showed me around the car & said he would keep a look out for a good one with all the toys as he put it. 

I emailed him a few times with a few I liked but he replied with why he wouldn't get that one.  It didnt take long for him to email me with one in my price range with all the toys as he put it! 
It was a 3 hour drive away but borrowing his car trailor which had to be back that day as his buyers was taking his westy & trailor away the next day.

Well as you know I bought it & have never looked back. 

From club meets.


Trackdays.





Car Shows



Trips out



To organised club outings.

[chrislandy]

I didn't buy mine, I built it...

It started for me with my dad, he built a jago jeep when I was about 5/6 years old, we then rebuilt a landy when I was 12ish, I bought my first landy at 16 to get on the road for when I passed my test, initially replacing the petrol engine for an oil burner, broke it, rebuilt it, broke it again, rebuilt it again with a 3.5 V8, had a couple of mini's in the interim, blew the landy engine a few times off roading, rebuilt it again with a 3.9 V8 EFI... then when I was 23ish I was looking for something a bit different from landys so looked at the boxster & elise when my dad said why don't you look at kits again? so hunted around the mags and t'interwebnet and found the Shelsley T2, bought the box of bits in '02 and SVA'd in '08

So I've got the Shelsley project still going as it went swimming on the driveway in last years storms but also got my dads old Burlington Arrow to finish or break (tbh it's been rusting in peace for about 6 years so not sure what's actually salvagable!)

[garry h]

As a few of you may know I'm quite new to the kit car scene but as with alot of you it all started way back with the usual story of growing up with the likes of Cortinas, mk2s  mainly, Escorts,Capris etc. At the tender age of 14 bikes took a hold and  by the time 16 came around test passed and a cb175 was the choice of poseing transport,(oh dear how times and tastes have changed).
Next came the usual suspects,z 650, 750, Hondas cb750 RD400 etc.
As the years rolled on wife, kids and morgages arrived and priorities change so bikes and cars change for more sensible modes of transportation, although always kept one bike.
Always wanted to build a kit car of some sort or other and with the help of a bottle of wine and the excuse of my fiftieth birthday the Scorhill was purchased.
So today sees me with one Spartan and a Scorhill magic car plus the odd bike or three  .

[Sprint 7]

Sorry chaps ,I haven't any photos but I thought that I'd try and remember all of my previous  so that you can say ,"Oh yeah, I remember those" or "Blimey, fancy owning that". Here goes.

803cc Morris minor (Later heavily modded with a Sprite engine)
Mini Van
Mk 1 Escort Super
Mk4 Lotus "7"
Mk1 Escort RS16009 (Ex-works demo car. Alloy lumped Flying Machine)
Series 1 XJ6
MG 1300
VW baywindow camper
Mk1 Granada
Austin maxi
Mk2 Escort
Mk4 Cortina Ghia
Mk2 Granada
Series 2 Daimler Sovereign
Mk5 Cortina
Montego estate
Series 3 Stage 1 Land Rover V8 (used to climb walls in low box)
Range Rover Vogue
Ford Galaxy
3No, Vauxhall Meriva's (cause they do what it says on the tin)
And finally ,Robin Hood S7 with Dolly Sprint running gear which you all know about
Hope this gives you all a good chuckle.
See you all soon 

[Moleman]

I'm starting to notice a patern of either fast cars or bikes of some kind in alot of our previous past ventures? & we all have a passion for all sorts of motor sports. 
I never put down my pass cars but needless to say I have always been a boy racer! And still am really!   

[fullpint]

They do say that boys never grow up  .

[Iancider]

A simple story of surging hormones....

I remember a confusing age where the Testorone began to surge and I got into airfix KITS and loved the sound of POWERFUL ENGINES.  I could enjoy any day that a car passed burning METHANOL.  These urges were POWERFUL THINGS in the age of the Austin MINI. Then I saw a PANTHER KALLISTA! PHWOOAAAHHH!
http://www.classicandperformancecar.com/front_website/octane_interact/carspecs.php/?see=3657 

I was smitten until I saw a MINI and some nice legs and she walked like a PANTHER. I discovered ALCHOHOL and girls that wanted dispense with their KIT and we are talking seriously FAST women here.  This met with POWERFUL URGES, PASSION and STEAMY WINDOWS and a love of COMFORTABLE SEATS, THE BEST POSITION IN THE CORNERS, what the girls called a RACING START and a good ROLLOVER BRA....

Okay okay ...so I lost it for a while and de-focussed.  I was young, distracted, confused - you know - didn't understand what being grown up was all about. 

And so it came to be - a boy turned man and built a KIT CAR.  BURNING RUBBER has an altogether different meaning now!