Derek Buckler is the ‘father’ of the UK’s kitcar industry – here he is (far left) proving the strength of one of his Space Karts!

HAPPY 75^TH ‘BIRTHDAY’ TO THE UK’S KITCAR INDUSTRY – 1949-2024 

Welcome to totalkitcar online …

A warm WELCOME to totalkitcar online … Only a week to go until the Kit Car Festival at Newark. We look forward to seeing you there.

Just over a week to go until the Newark Kit Car Festival

Really pleased to hear that Great British Sports Cars has been involved – via their ATR division – with the development and certain parts supply of the new TOCA Junior Championship car, the Chevron B1417 developed by TOCA as a one-make series for drivers aged between 14-17.

Among the suppliers for the Chevron B1417 TOCA Junior car are Great British Sports Cars and Team Dynamics wheels

The car itself is a bespoke hatchback built around a spaceframe chassis powered by a 1.8-litre engine (not identified) with a five-speed gearbox. Weighing in at 850kg it sounds like it will be a lively enough performer.

Control tyres for the series will be supplied by Goodyear. The use of the Chevron name is interesting as there’s always been some conjecture over it but a chap called Dave Beecroft controls the rights and use of the name.

Founded by Derek Bennett, Chevron was once right at the forefront of British motorsport and I’ve always been a fan of the marque and was capable of some seriously good giant-killing results. A B24 F5000 big banger single-seater driven by Peter Gethin won the Race of Champions season-opening race at Brands Hatch in March 1973 beating a field of 34 packed with F1 cars and he beat Denny Hulme (McLaren) and James Hunt (Surtees) by 3.4-seconds.

Let’s not forget the brilliant B8 sportscar, just one of a great lineup of Chevron models over the years.

The new B1417 championship kicks off in 2025 and will be one of the support series for the British Touring Car Championship.

TKC MAG – Sept/Oct 2024  issue of TKC MAG is OUT NOW. You can CLICK HERE to order your SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 copy NOW.

AVAILABLE NOW

We have loads more with which to entertain you, dear reader  – indeed, this one is jam-packed with good stuff

Look Who’s Back – Tim Dutton – the grandmaster kitcar seller – he’s back with a brand new Series 5 Phaeton – now based on Mazda MX-5 Mk3

Industry Greats – Barry Treacy – Delighted to be featuring Barry Treacy in this issue. If the name isn’t familiar Wolfrace wheels, Sonic six-wheeler and Evo locking wheel nuts might be! A marvellous career oh … and a wondrous collection of cars that includes Ferrari F40, F50 and Enzo!

Reader’s Drive – Ian Deakin’s superb EXO Rocket

Tomcat Motorsport – Neil Winnington recently spent a day with some owners of Tomcat Motorsport’s product. He had a great time and an ideal feature to reacquaint ourselves with these fun, capable off-road kits

Two Scamps tackle St Leonards to Frankfurt and back – Scamp owner, Chris Westgate and his friend Jonathan went off to Germany in their Scamps (a Mk1 and a Mk2) to visit the brilliant International Mini Meeting. They had a joyous time. Chris tells us all about it.

WMT Oldtimer – Steve Hole was on holiday in the Black Forest area of Germany this summer and visited a beer market to collect a few supplies and saw this unusual-looking, very specialist, electric car parked outside

Plus lots more …

Alternatively, you can CLICK HERE to pre-order your SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 copy NOW.

Search YouTube for the ‘totalkitcar YouTube Channel’ or follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/@tkcmag. NEXT VIDEO TO DROP IS A LOOK AT THE CAREER OF RICHARD OAKES

NEW RELEASE
Richard Oakes career profile video on the totalkitcar YouTube Channel

A little plug (well, it’s my website and I have good things to make you aware of!) for the digital version of TKC MAG. If not having a hard, paper copy of the mag in your mitts doesn’t bother you then may I recommend the digi edition.

An EXACT replica of the paper version it currently costs just £23.99 for a TWELVE MONTHS DIGITAL subscription to TKC MAG ANYWHERE in the world. Visit Pocketmags.com and type in ‘TKC MAG’ and all will be revealed. Alternatively, you download our APP on your mobile and download single issues or a subscription on your phone or tablet.

We are getting a lot of new subscribers on the totalkitcar YouTube channel. If you like this website, you are sure to find something you like on the ‘totalkitcar YouTube channel’? In addition to our usual monthly video upload, we now have a weekly series called the ‘totalkitcar History Files Series. The latter isn’t rocket science. We verbally look at old kitcars with photos added, but we seem to be capturing peoples’ imaginations.

Why not visit the ‘totalkitcar YouTube Channel’?

As the name suggests we look at some of the classic marques, great cars, not-so-great cars, plus the personalities, events and designers who have graced this wonderful industry over the last 75 years.

If you don’t already subscribe to our channel (just search ‘totalkitcar YouTube Channel’ on YouTube) please do, as it’s free and if you click ‘all’ you’ll be notified every time a new video drops. Finally, may I ask you to hit the thumbs-up button please as that helps the channel greatly.  THANK YOU, dear reader.

History File Series, in association with the Enwin Motors channel. Don’t miss out, subscribe for FREE now.

TKC MAG – WHY NOT CONSIDER A SUBSCRIPTION THAT LASTS A WHOLE YEAR? – ACTUALLY, IT LASTS LONGER THAN THAT IF YOU USE THIS SPECIAL OFFER, AS IT WILL LAST FOURTEEN MONTHS. WE’LL ADD AN EXTRA ISSUE TO THE STANDARD TWELVE MONTHS PACKAGE. https://bit.ly/3RxuLgU 

SUBSCRIBE NOW!

By the grace of Royal Mail – if you live in the United Kingdom – we can pretty much say with confidence that you will receive your copies at least two or three days before shop or digital publication dates.

WHAT’S ON 2024 – A POTTED GUIDE!

A quick look for you at some of the key automotive events for 2024 for your diary.

PLEASE NOTE the new date for Newark Kit Car Festival

Our popular TRACKDAY CALENDAR is where you can find out where, when and how much by CLICKING HERE. Now updated to cover September, October and November 2024.

IF YOU LIKE CLASSIC KIT CARS & SPECIALS you are in luck. Clicking that button will take you back in time with features on old kitcars, personalities and generally interesting companies who worked within the specialist car and sixties motorsport movements. I really hope you are enjoying them. Not all of them are kitcar-related per se but they all celebrate the underdog and often feature the wonderful world of sixties motorsport.

Classic Kit Cars & Specials has a new home at totalkitcar.com

A lot of classic clubman motorsport features highlight underdog artisans that we hope will appeal to you dear reader, the sort of companies that we’ve often all heard of but on whom detailed information is often hard to find. Shorrock, Wade Turbochargers, Jack Knight Developments, Cannon Cars, Tom Killeen, David Ogle the list goes on and on. The sort of companies and individuals that our specialist and kitcar forebears from the sixties would have been very familiar with. You’ll find these subjects contained in CLASSIC KIT CARS & SPECIALS.

This week in Classic Kit Cars & Specials we look at the Guyson E12 and the other considerable motorsport activities of the company behind it GUYSON INTERNATIONAL. CLICK HERE.

Guyson E12 features in Classic Kit Cars & Specials this week

SNIPPETS 1 …….Hedley Studios has announced a Ferrari Testa Rossa ‘J livery’ available for immediate delivery. Designed in collaboration with Ferrari’s Centro Stile department, this livery combines the best of Ferrari’s history to present a design that will not fail to capture the attention and admiration of all those who set eyes on it.

The body colour is finished in Celeste Met, a shade of pale blue that has been in Ferrari’s colour palette since the 1950s and 60s, where a number of GT cars could be finished in an early version of this colour. Updated for the modern day, this metallic paint captures the light, emphasising the beautiful, curved bodywork of the car.

Piercing the middle of the car is a Bianco Cervino racing stripe, designed to accurately mirror the racing stripes found on racing Ferrari’s of the same time period. Inside the cockpit, this Ferrari is adorned with a Sabbia interior hide, beautifully complimenting the Bianco Cervino stripe and resulting in a cohesive colour palette throughout the livery.

More from www.hedleystudios.com.

SNIPPETS 2 ……..Up at 5am this morning (Thursday 12) and down on Eastbourne beach at 6.30 to meet Ian ‘Krafty’ Kraft and Mick Audritt. Mick last saw his beach buggy over 35 years ago and he asked me to put a shout-out in the mag to see if anyone knew of its whereabouts. Within a day, the name, Ian Kraft was put forward as the current owner. Two weeks later and we are all together enjoying a glorious morning in Eastbourne.

Ian is a serious watersport enthusiast and competitor and has a permit to use a section of the beach and the sight of a grand old beach buggy at sunrise was something very special. As for Mick, he was delighted and he and Ian spent a long time going over the car, which was originally thought to be an EPC Hustler but is in fact a model produced by Beach Buggies of Southport.

You can read the feature – and watch a video on our YouTube channel soon – in the November/December issue of TKC MAG.

SNIPPETS 3…….. SPECIAL OFFER: 12 months FREE Total Motor Assist for all totalkitcar.com readers!

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24/7 UK-based helpline 

Trusted by thousands of members and over 150 organisations, we’re delighted to invite you to join free today at https://tkc.assistprotect.co.uk.

Now with free cycling support and property damage repair as well when you join!

STEVO’S BEER OR WINE TIP – FURNACE BROOK – FURNACE ALE

CHAMPIONING THE BEERS OF THE UK’S BRILLIANT CRAFT – AND MICRO-BREWERIES.

Nothing like enjoying a beer after an afternoon in the garage or following a drive out. OBVIOUSLY, we don’t condone or promote drink driving at totalkitcar.com/TKC MAG but once the driving is done there’s nothing like a quality drop of real ale.

I’ve been amazed at some of the low-volume craft beers that have been appearing. The names of some of them are crazy enough, some of those I have tasted have been off the charts. A recent one that tasted like Battenberg or breakfast pancakes springs to mind.

Local beer this week. Furnace Ale from Trolliloes, East Sussex-based Furnace Brook. This one is a ruby black ale of 5.3% ABV. I could sense a liquorice aroma with an initial flavour of hops which mellows in the finish. The microbrewery is tucked away but it’s well worth seeking out their onsite taproom – Well worth a try. More from www.furnacebrook.co.uk.

So, that’s about it from me for this week, so I’ll bid you a great week, with plenty of enjoyable driving and I look forward to welcoming you once again next Friday – SEPTEMBER 20 – La vie et belle!

Best regards

Steve