Tiger Racing boss, Jim Dudley, has been in touch to tell me about his new ERA 30 Lotus 23 replica package.

The standard version is available fully built only and features an all-new Ford engine and Hewland Mk9 gearbox, a glorious thing but one with a price ticket of circa £42,000 inc VAT.

On the other hand, Jim’s new ‘lite’ version can be built, he estimates, for about the same price as the cost of that Hewland ‘box, which is about 10 grand. The bulk of the savings comes from the fact that you use an early nineties Audi 80 donor vehicle, which gives up its four-cylinder engine (circa 120bhp) and gearbox plus a few other items.

The cool part is it looks just like the more expensive version.

The venerable Audi model is still relatively abundant, reliable and can be bagged from around £500. To this you’ll need to allow for dampers, wheels, tyres and the like, but Jim’s estimate is going to be pretty close, I should think.

Alternatively, Tiger will build you a turnkey example from £24,000 inc VAT.

More information from www.tigerracing.com or 01945 466 200 ENDS.