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THE STORY OF THE ELAN-BRM AND THE SPENCE SPECIFICATION CARS
Sep 29th
ELAN-BRM by Steve Hole Photos by Carol Hardy
There have been a large number of special variants of the Lotus Elan over the years including the IWR Elan, Willment Elan, Shapecraft Elan, Starley Sprite (the second was Elan-based) and a pre-knighted Sir Stirling Moss’s S.M.A.R.T Elan.
However, my favourite of them all is the Elan-BRM. At first glance, it might appear strange that Lotus and BRM, rivals in F1 back in the day, would collaborate on anything but collaborate they did.
In any case, BRM had already supplied tuned engines for the competition Elan, the 26R and also for Type 47 Europa.
The men More >
GREAT FOR ALCANTARA-TYPE FABRICS
Sep 22nd
These two products were new to me until recently having been recommended to me by a couple of readers.
One picked up on my comments about the filthy Alcantara steering wheel in the Caterham Seven 420R in the last issue and reckoned this product was a surefire way of bringing it back to health.
While he also praised the Nano Fabric Protector, too and he wondered whether it would help keep Alcantara-type products from getting dirty in the first place. Good shout.
My VW Golf came with seats with Alcantara centre panels and although nice and comfy I know that these suede-style fabrics More >
UNDERPINNINGS – ARCH MOTOR & MANUFACTURING
Sep 22nd
THEY MAKE STUFF – ARCH MOTOR & MANUFACTURING CO LTD by CAROL HARDY
For over sixty years, Arch Motor has been the go-to company if you want a chassis for your racecar or specialist road car. They have been making Caterham and Lotus Seven chassis for over sixty years and during the sixties every F1 team bar Honda and Ferrari used their services. The great news is, this story isn’t a retrospective per se as Arch Motor still exists and although times have changed greatly, they are still very busy, as STEVE HOLE reports. By the way, I haven’t missed an More >
LENHAM MOTOR COMPANY
Sep 15th
LENHAM HEALEY [L25]
Lenham Motor Company was founded by Julian Kingsford-Booty and David Miall-Smith in 1962 (February 9, to be precise!).
Best known for their variety of GRP panels most notably for Sprite and Healey, and motor-racing activities, Lenham also produced the Lenham Healey being one of them.
Came about after a London-based businessman commissioned them to make a pre-war Alfa lookalike basing it on a Triumph TR6. Customers liked the car and it competed at the Brighton Speed Trials in 1977. Motor Sport magazine did a feature on it and other people then wanted one…
The commercial version was reminiscent of the Healey-Silverstone, More >
A VERY SPECIAL ‘SPECIAL’
Sep 1st
CAROL HARDY tells the story of the Harold Biggs Special – colour photos by CAROL HARDY
A very warm welcome to CLASIC KIT CARS & SPECIALS online … I have always had a soft spot for ‘specials’ be they beautiful coachbuilt efforts with aluminium bodies on Derby Bentley chassis or lock-up garage-built homebrew. All have an attraction in equal measure for me.
Sadly, there aren’t that many new ones being built these days as I suspect that IVA regulations have put paid to many of them. It took a true, hardcore enthusiast to take on a scratch-built car project. In the depths of Winter, More >
STING IN THE TAIL – TOM KILLEEN’S SCORPION K19
Aug 31st
The Scorpion K19 was created by serial specials builder, and ex-Jensen engineer, Tom Killeen and derived (funnily enough) from his Rycam Mirage K18 creation (qv) although it was 3in longer
Rycam Engineering marketed the kit package although in 1973 they went into liquidation. Innes Lee, part of Innes Lee Industries of Lutterworth, took over and launched the car at the Earls Court Motor Show in November of that year where it was part of the Tudor Safety Glass Campaign.
Powered by – and based on – Hillman Imp with the 875cc engine hanging out back, with a fibreglass semi-monocoque and pressed steel floorpan More >
THE STORY OF LYNCAR – INCLUDING WILT ‘THE STILT’ CHAMBERLAIN’S ‘SEARCHER 1’ PROJECT
Aug 25th
Most specialist car enthusiasts of today won’t have heard of a company called Lyncar, as they appeared on our radar for a very brief period nearly 30 years ago, but as STEVE HOLE reports there was quite a story behind the business.
Lyncar Engineering was based in Slough, Berkshire and run by a very clever engineer called Martin Slater, born in Windsor in 1936. Back in the Sixties, the motorsport enthusiast had built – and raced – his own Formula Junior and F3 cars.
Lyncar was debuted in kit form at the 1992 National Kit Car Motor Show
Slater’s first car build, the More >
NYVREM NIRVANA
Aug 17th
Created by a chap called Mervyn Edwards who was based in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.
As often happens he was disillusioned by proprietary kits on the market so decided that he could do better himself. I’ve heard that one time and time again.
With commercial aspirations, he decided to offer ‘replicas’ and spelt his Christian name backwards to get Nyvrem! So, NYVREM Cars was born in 1987.
The car featured Ford Cortina running gear and was the culmination of a lifelong dream by Edwards to build his own car.
Mervyn managed to obtain a grant from the Department of Industry, while a local Somerset businessman, Bob More >
THE BIG SHOW – THE SILURIAN (DEFINITELY ‘A ONE THAT GOT AWAY’)
Aug 11th
The Silurian story by Steve Hole
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BRIGHTWELLS
The men behind the remarkable Silurian project were Mike Phillips and his business partner, Jack Orwin. They ran a classic car restoration business called MGP Restorations and were based in the wonderfully-named ‘Brassknocker Street’ in Magor, Gwent.
The company specialised in the restoration of Bentleys, Bugattis and pre-war limousines. Phillips and Orwin had intended to build a high-quality petrol-powered children’s car and came up with detailed drawings and plans. Sadly, when they costed the project it was clear that it would be more cost-effective to build a full-size vehicle.
Phillips was a very keen More >
SPLENDID ISOLATION – THE IMPERIAL ROYALE
Aug 4th
[title] SPLENDID ISOLATION – THE IMPERIAL ROYALE DOUBLE SIX
Here’s a photo taken at Stafford kit car show back in the early nineties.
The Imperial Royale was a real bit of specialist car grandeur that took its influences from the vast neo-classics that were so popular in the USA in the eighties.
A chap called Terry Marshall was the man behind the Royale and worked at Callington Motors in, er, Callington, Cornwall. The company was known back in the day for the interesting work they got involved in so Marshall clearly learnt his trade well there.
Here’s an image of the same car taken More >
