Steve Hole tells the story of Haydn Davies’ Burlington Motor Company based in Leamington Spa and founded in 1980. One of the bigger players in the eighties UK kitcar industry.

The company was founded in Leamington Spa in 1980 by Haydn Davies. A very clever chap with a fine sense of humour who also had a penchant for the traditional roadster, particularly the products of Morgan Motor Company.

Burlington Motor Company founder Haydn Davies at the wheel of a Beretta

He’s been inspired to become a kitcar manufacturer by Roger Blockley of RMB, who produced the successful Gentry kit back then.

The first Burlington model was the SS. It not only looked like a Morgan Plus 4 but used the nosecone and flowing front wings from that car.

The first SS, the Mk1, was underpinned by Triumph mechanicals and featured a combi plywood and GRP body skinned in aluminium. Doors arrived with the Mk2 version in 1982. Popular choices were Triumph Herald or Triumph Spitfire, which could use the standard chassis, albeit modified, as the engine and gearbox were moved back by 7in. Davies could do this for the customer for an extra cost.

Burlington SS Mk1 – no doors was the visual giveaway

Burlington – and Dorian – offered their own chassis to incorporate donors such as Ford Escort, MGB and Morris Marina. Engines could be anything up to a 3-litre Triumph or Ford V6.

The project was taken over by Burlington Motor Spares (later Dorian Motor Company) in 1986, run by father and son team Brian and Martin Doran.

They had been asked by Haydn Davis to make a centre body tub mould for the car before eventually taking over completely when Haydn went off to live in Greece for a while. It was they who added the extra ‘I’ to their surname, calling the car – and their company – ‘Dorian’.

Burlington SS Mk2 with doors

Brian was an ex-Triumph test driver at Canley and held the honour of driving the very last Stag off the production line. The Dorans sold some 80 kits before ceasing trading in 1989 following the tragic death of Brian Doran.

Haydn’s friend Dave Pepper of AF Sports acquired the rights to the project, selling it to GRP laminator Neil Duncan of Dorchester in 1990. He resurrected it but wasn’t around for long.

Burlington Motor Company 1980-86

Burlington Motor Spares/Dorian Motor Company 1986-89

AF Sports 1989

Dorian Motor Company 1990

Approx 200 made (120 by Burlington Motor Company)

LITTLE ARROWS

Next for Burlington Motor Company was the lovely Arrow. The project was launched at the Santa Pod Kit Car Rally of 1982.

 If you were turned on by NG’s products in the early eighties but couldn’t afford one, but you were a dab-hand mechanically, then Haydn Davies could sell you a set of plans and patterns to build one of his Arrow roadsters.

Several companies had sold their products via sets of plans, although in the late seventies, John Cowperthwaite had made them famous with models like the Midge and Monaco under the JC name.

Using the set of plans you could set about creating your ally-skinned plywood body before fitting it to a Triumph chassis (either Spitfire, Herald or Vitesse) although an MGB-based version was available later. The customer was required to add 5in to the chassis, although Haydn could do this at an extra cost. The Triumph’s outriggers were heavily cut back to within the confines of the frame.

Burlington could supply radiator surround, scuttle panel, front wings, rear differential and running boards, while you had to buy their aluminium bonnet and dummy fuel tank for the rear. Incidentally, those GRP parts – the scuttle and radiator surround were supplied in gelcoat and were produced for Haydn by Peter Bird of Falcon Designs.

To produce the body panels, you needed an 8ft x 4ft sheet of ¾in thick plywood that required skinning in aluminium sheet. Burlington could also supply the panels pre-cut for you.

Haydn estimated that he sold around 6000 sets of plans at just £5.50 for the Arrow and Berretta, of which perhaps 10 per cent were built to anything resembling a motor car. Approx 600 made.

THE BERRETTA

The sister car to the Arrow, albeit this one had flowing front wings, was the Berretta, which was launched after Haydn had returned from his sabbatical in Greece.

It could be supplied in plans but this one was also offered as a kit package, and Haydn introduced his own chassis if you didn’t want to re-purpose an old Triumph one.

Although sales tend to be included within the Arrow’s total, there were many fewer Berrettas sold. Visually, it was slightly longer, it had a more sloping bonnet line, and more aluminium panelling was used over the Arrow.

A lesser-known Burlington model, also a plan and patterns set was the Chieftain. This looked like a WW2 US Jeep and you could have a short wheelbase one (Triumph Spitfire donor) or long wheelbase (Triumph Herald donor). Plan sets cost a tenner for this one and Haydn reckon he sold about 150 sets.

An even lesser-known Burlington was the plans-based swoopy sportscar kit called the Urba Centurion from America offered there by Quincy-Lynn Enterprises. They claimed to have sold some 80,000 sets of plans.

The UK version was intended to use a Triumph Herald donor including its chassis. Body was a sheet ply using the ‘eggbox’ boat construction method. This was then clad in 1in thick polyurethane foam over a sheet skin.

Some very hard-find componentry was required by UK customers, such as the Buick Riviera (1981 only model!) and rear light lenses from the Oldsmobile Vista. Plan sets cost £14.95.

Hard to know how many plans were sold and whether any customer builds – if any – were completed in the UK.