STEVE HOLE tells the story of Christopeher Neil Lotus and their CN Sprint kitcar and CN Cabriolet +2 conversion.

While doing some research on a Caterham Cars feature recently I was looking at their current list of agents and my eyes stopped at ‘Caterham Oakmere’. Further delving piqued my interest further.

This CN Sprint was built by Neil Shepherdson and was used as Christoper Neil Lotus’ demo car

Their address in Northwich, Cheshire seemed familiar and then the penny dropped.

The company was originally known as Christopher Neil Lotus and like companies such as SpyderSport, they were equally well-known among the Lotus fraternity.

Let’s quickly get one thing straight. There wasn’t a chap called ‘Christopher Neil’ even though a couple of books in my collection written by so-called experts also fall into that trap.

Neil used all-new parts on his CN Sprint including beautiful Dunlop D1 wheels

The company was founded in 1972 by Christopher Dunscombe and Neil Shepherdson. They originally dismantled poorly Lotus’ and sold the parts, until they realised that they could restore the cars andf thus sell them for more than the sum of the parts.

Their first base was an old woollen mill in Bredbury, Stockport before they moved to more suitavle premises on Manchester Road, Middlewich, Cheshire, which is when the business really took over.

In a nutshell, that’s really how the CN Sprint model came about as it was effectively a restoration kit for the Lotus Elan. To be honest, I drove a CN Sprint in (gulp!) 1987 and it was so much more than that. Beautifully built with an identity all of its own with all the best bits of an Elan. I used to speak to Neil and Chris fairly regularly when I worked on Kit Cars & Specials magazine back then. They were always very helpful and friendly to deal with.

The demo car I drove was built by Neil Shepherdson using all new parts and a Ford CVH (XR3i-spec) engine. It had Dunlop D1 wheels on it, which looked great. I think it was sold in 2019 and fetched circa £22,000 and at some time it had lost the CVH and had a Ford Zetec 2-litre in its stead.

As well as the restoration aspect with the CN Sprint, it came about when Neil and Chris noticed that Lotus Elan prices were tipping the £10,000 barrier (crikey, I’ll buy one for ten grand if you can me one!).

This prompted them to launch the CN Sprint. Some Elan purists can be a bit scornful about it and there’s no doubt that it allowed people who were desperate to own an Elan to build their dream car. As a result, some were built on a budget and therein lay a problem for Elan owners.

However, if, like Neil Shepherdson you used the right parts and/or brand-new components, you could end up with a really great example.

The car was underpinned by a galvanised Lotus Elan S4 initially produced by Spydersport in Peterborough before it moved to Jago Automotive. Those two companies did a lot of chassis production for other companies in the eighties.

If your Elan had a good enough original chassis you could also press that into CN Sprint service and you could use your original engine, too. I’m also pretty certain that a popular engine choice was none other than the Fiat Mirafiori 2’litre, which when you consdier that it was a twin cam like the Lotus ‘Twink’ it wasn’t a bad choice. A lot of customers went Ford Crossflow route.

The gearbox could be Ford 2000E or Ford Type 9 (with a suitable bellhousing conversion plate).

The company’s current sales manager, Steve Jeavons was a salesman back in the eighties and he was heavily involved in devising the CN Sprint idea. About twenty were supplied in fully built guise, although there could have been over 140 restoration kits supplied.

Talking of those kits, they were pretty well appointed and good value at £2500 plus VAT (allowing for inflation that equates to about £5618 today) and the company claimed on their sales flyer that you could build a budget version form £4500.

You would still need to source a few extra parts (quite a few) to complete your build that weren’t in the kit package.items such as various suspension and brake components, interior trim parts, engine ancillaries, brightwork, exhaust system and electrics.

You could source them yourself or, of course, they were all available off the shelf from Paul Mac in Christopher Neil’s parts department. He still works for the company, as does another Paul, the workshop manager.

A second model came along in due course, prompted by customer demand really. Don’t forget that the company was a very successful and well-respected Lotus specialist, who bought and sold cars as well as repaired them. Ironically, although people assumed they were Lotus dealers, an official frnachise didn’t come along until 2002, described as ‘a dream come true’ by Neil.

The CN Cabriolet was based on Lotus Elan +2 and turned the fixed-head into a convertible. It is better regarded by Lotus aficionados as they say that it isn’t trying to be a Lotus as it is one and is merely a revision. Prices started at £995 but customers could also choose to have a new chassis fitted and/or upgraded CN parts added, for an additional cost. Perhaps as many as 80 CN Cabriolets were supplied.

I was looking through my old magazine archive recently and I stumbled across a whole page advert for Christopher Neil Lotus in late 1981 advertising the imminent launch of their new National Kit Car Centre, a 10,000 sq/ft showroom intended to be a sales emporium for selected secondhand kitcars.

One thing that definitely did happen was in late 1987, when Christopher Neil TVR was added to their portfolio. They quickly rose to become big players in TVR sales and not just in Cheshire. They’d source cars from all over the country.

In 1990, Chris Dunscombe decide to leave the business, although it was a very amicable parting. The company continued to trade as they had. In 1992, however, Neil Shepherdson took on a Toyota franchise and built a brand new purpose-built showroom just down the road, still on Manchester Road. As Chris no longer involved in the business he decided not to use the Christopher Neil name. Oakmere was chosen because it sounded right to everyone involved.

In time they also began specialising in selected Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Ferrari and Aston Martin sportscars. I know a chap who bought a car from Oakmere and he reckons the whole experience was great, from buying the car to the aftersales experience. His new car was supplied as it would be by a main dealer he said.

In time, a Mazda dealer business was purchased and relocated to the Oakmere showroom.

In 2013 tragedy struck. Neil Shepherdson was diagnosed with cancer compounded by the devastating death in a road accident in a Lotus Elise of Neil’s son, Ben.

Understandably, this hit Neil very, very hard and he decided that he didn’t wish to have any Lotus representation of the Lotus brand on site. Despite a very brave fight against his cancer, he died in 2014.

The staff rallied around and the business carried on. Indeed, it is still thriving. After discussions with Neil’s widow, Louise and his family, the decision was taken a year or so after his death that the Lotus brand should return to the Oakmere Group’s portfolio of Toyota, Mazda, VW servicing and TVR. They now longer act as a Lotus dealer but with fifty-plus years of classic Lotus experience, they continue supplying expertise, parts and servicing for the marque, while they also buy and sell modern Lotus models.

They are also one of five official Caterham Cars dealers as well as representing Morgan and Norton motorcycles. A proper specialist – and mainstream – car emporium.

I hope you have enjoyed our look at a really great, long-lived specialist sportscar company that is now over 53-years old. Nicking an advertising strapline from another un-related brand – it’s as good today as it always was!

Many thanks to Oakmere Group’s sales manager, Steve Jeavons for his help with this feature.