STEVE SAYS – FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 2024

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

A warm WELCOME TO totalkitcar online …Very interested to hear about Ariel Motor Company’s new model. No, not a sister for the Atom or Nomad, but rather an electric bicycle called the Dash. Two versions are available – Urban and Adventure.

Before you wonder what on earth Ariel is doing producing a bicycle consider this. It was 1871 when Ariel produced the world’s first series production vehicle at the same time pioneering the bicycle (Ordinary or Penny Farthing).

Some 153 years later Ariel has returned to its beginnings with the Dash e-bike, which has been in development for five years and is a complete ground-up design.

As you’d expect, the Dash wants for nothing. The frame is a titanium and carbon-fibre combo and as a result, is strong and ultra-light. It is formed from 3D-printed titanium nodes welded to Reynolds titanium tubing and then bonded to carbon-fibre.

Cables, wiring and hydraulics are all hidden within the frame, forks and handlebars. Ariel is well-known for its attention to detail with their cars and that is the same here with the Dash e-bike.

Each Dash will be tailored to the customer and built from start to finish by one technician. Four sizes of frame are available, geometry is bespoke to each bike and wheels are carbon-fibre.

Options are available for items such as wheels, brakes, handlebars and saddle. The motor is a 100mm rear hub-mounted motor with a thru-axle interface. The battery is a 36-volt rechargeable lithium-ion with integral BMS. The gearset is a Shimano 12-speed GPX.

Urban and Adventure differ in certain key areas. Starting with the former. The Urban features a 208wh range extender and 250kW of power and 40Nm torque. The Urban’s battery produces 250kw and is driven via a Gates-toothed belt with a Mahle X35+ set-up.

Meanwhile, the Adventure has a 171wh range extender, 250kW of power 50Nm of torque. Similarly, the battery produces 250kW and is chain-driven with a Mahle X20.

Prices aren’t for the faint of heart starting at £10,000. Find out more from www.arielmotor.co.uk.

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.

I also recommend – well, I would as I am in it! – a video by Trevor Rolfe of the Oscar’s Garage YouTube channel in which he and I did a ‘walk round’ of the manufacturers’ stands at the show. The link is here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiQIjOyac6Y.

The JULY/AUGUST 2024 issue of TKC MAG is available for MAIL ORDER NOW with shop and digital availability NOW!

As usual plenty of good stuff to entertain you with.

How’s this for starters?

CRENDON CR427 & CR427-E – A look at the activities of Ralph Broad’s Birmingham-based operation of the sixties. Known to specialist car enthusiasts for the Broadspeed GT, there was much to them than that such as tuning packages and parts, Ford/BMC dealerships, the Bullitt Capri and a leading race team.

BURTON – THE 2CV SHOP – The 2CV Shop is one of the largest 2CV specialists in the UK and is also UK agent for giant French Citroën parts experts CASSIS. They’ve recently become the UK agent for the brilliant Dutch-made Burton, 2CV-based roadster, of which over 1800 have been sold around the world. We recently sampled The 2CV Shop’s first demonstrator.

INDUSTRY GREATS – TONY SOUTHGATE – Honoured to be able to cover the career of one of motorsport’s greatest designers – Tony Southgate. Who, amongst the iconic racing cars he’s designed, also raced a Sylva Phoenix for eight seasons.

MALVERN 2024 REVIEW – Second running of the National Kit Car Show at Three Counties Showground at Malvern. A brilliant showground and a brilliant show. Here’s what caught our eye.

INTRODUCING – STONER CAR CARE – No laughing at the back at the hippy name. US company Stoner has a great range of car care products that really do work. Here’s our round-up.

MARK & JAN SCARROTT’S TRIO OF MARCOS MANTULAS – NEIL WINNINGTON visited Mark Scarrott and his wife Jan who own not one but THREE superb Marcos Mantulas. Actually, as we closed for press they’d just acquired a FOURTH.

KITFEST 2024 REVIEW – North West Kit Car Owners Group (NWKCOG) were back at Santa Pod again in 2024 for another Kitfest. We were there to record it for posterity. Here’s our ree

ANOTHER SUPERB WILLIAM TROUT CREATION – RICHARD BIRD brought us a brilliant Z3-based William Trout-built kit called a Bandini, last issue. This time he’s back with another BMW-based corker from  William that is equally as stunning.

GOODWOOD 81^st MEMBERS MEETING 2024 REVIEW – Clashing with Kitfest, the Members Meeting is the third of Goodwood’s motoring events after Revival and Festival of Speed but as STEVE HOLE discovered still has lots to offer.

WHAT FRANK NICHOLS DID AFTER ELVA CARS  – Everyone knows that Frank ‘Father’ Nichols was the man behind ELVA CARS but post-Elva Nichols got up to all sorts including a boat company called LOCHIN MARINE. Read all about it here.

CLICK HERE to buy YOUR copy NOW.

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.

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 

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 the Newark Kit Car Festival

July 7	Kent’s All Ford Show	Aylesford, Kent
July 11-14	Festival of Speed	Goodwood House, West Sussex
August 15-18	British Motor Show	Farnborough, Hampshire
August 23-25	Silverstone Festival	Silverstone Circuit, Northants
September 6-8	Revival Meeting	Goodwood, West Sussex
September 8	Kent’s Classic Car Show	Aylesford, Kent
September 14-15	International Autojumble	Beaulieu, Hampshire
September 21-22	Newark Kit Car Festival	Newark, Nottinghamshire
November 8-10	Classic Motor Show	NEC, Birmingham

Our popular TRACKDAY CALENDAR is where you can find out where, when and how much by CLICKING HERE. Now updated to cover June, July & August 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.

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 take a look at a very talented and notable motorsport engineer called David Lazenby, who worked for Lotus (race team and Lotus Components), founded Hawke Racing Cars and Pace Products. CLICK HERE.

SNIPPETS 1 ……. The British Motor Museum is to open a new, groundbreaking exhibition. ‘From Sketch to Street’ will open to the public on July 19 and will run until April 2025. This unique feature exhibition explores the art and engineering involved in historic British car design while inspiring hope for the industry’s future.

From ’Sketch to Street’ will showcase the creative and technical processes behind iconic and innovative vehicles across Britain’s motor manufacturing past through five key themes: interior design, exterior design, functional design, materials and trim. Visitors will be able to unpick the processes and people behind the cars and see how their own design ideas could shape the future.

Highlights of the exhibition include designers’ initial sketches, items on loan from luxury car brands and even a highly anticipated modern clay model. There will be hands-on interactives, inviting visitors to solve design problems or think about what would matter to them when designing a car. This all comes together to form a memorable opportunity to discover the artistic and engineering visions that bring together beauty and function.

Cat Boxall, curator at the British Motor Museum said: “We are thrilled to bring this unique and groundbreaking exhibition to the museum. It will celebrate the rich history of car design and look at the innovative and creative spirit that continues to drive the industry forward. We look forward to seeing what our visitors think as they join us on this fascinating journey and uncover the treasures of this new exhibition.”

Access to the exhibition is included with standard museum admission tickets. Museum entry is just £43 for a family in advance or £49 on the day, £16 for adults in advance or £19 on the day, £14 for concessions in advance or £17 on the day, £9 for children (5-16 years) in advance or £10 on the day and under 5s are FREE. There is also the option to Gift Aid or donate your entry fee and get an Annual Pass in return at no extra cost.  To find out more information about the exhibition, please visit the website at www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/explore/from-sketch-to-street

SNIPPETS 2 …….. The 2024 Le Mans 24 Hours was one of the closest and hardest-fought iterations of this iconic race in recent years. The fight for honours was intense across each of the three categories: Hypercar, LMP2 and LMGT3 – the latter of which replaced the LMGTE category that had been in place for more than a decade. Motul-lubricated partner teams, using the brand’s legendary 300V engine oil, took victory in both the LMP2 category – with the number 22 United Autosports car of Oliver Jarvis, Nolan Siegal and Bijoy Garg – and the LMGTE category, with the Manthey EMA Porsche of Yasser Shahin, Morris Schuring and Richard Lietz.

Motul’s flagship 300V lubricant was inspired by the aviation industry, Motul used vegetable esters to produce 300V – named in honour of the brand’s 300 race victories – and thus the world’s first fully synthetic motor oil was introduced into the market in 1971. Motul has refined the range over time and it now boasts four different variants, each tailored to specific needs: Power, Competition and Le Mans, the latter designed for maximum reliability.

In this year’s Le Mans, the removal of tyre warmers to heat tyres meant that all the of the cars struggled periodically for grip at what was a colder than usual, and often wet, Le Mans, during the race. Long Safety Car periods meant that most of the cars ran incredibly close across all the categories, so it was a flat-out race to the chequered flag in every category.

Motul’s long-standing support of United Autosports bore fruit again this year as the team took its second Le Mans 24-hour LMP2 category victory. It was followed home by another Motul partner team, Inter Europol Racing. All the LMP2 cars are powered by the same 600 BHP 4.2 litre V8 Gibson GK428 engines. As longtime technology partners of Gibson, this means that 300V is the oil that all the LMP2 cars leave the factory with.

LMGT3, with its wide selection of manufacturers – nine in all – is one of the most competitive of all endurance categories and this lead of this year’s race constantly changed. At the end of 24 hours, it was the Motul lubricated #91 Porsche 911 GT3R LMGT3 of Manthey EMA racing that took the category honours, as it had done at the previous round of the WEC, in Spa.

“Le Mans is an incredible test of man and machine every year, but this year’s 24 Hours was so incredibly competitive, it was really going to take something special to win,” enthuses Motul UK Sales and Marketing Manager, Andy Wait. “Huge congratulations, therefore, to all our Motul teams who won, made the podium or indeed made it to the finish. To have come away with victories in both LMP2 and GTE is more than we could have hoped for and is testimony to the huge efforts of our partner teams and their drivers in writing another chapter in the long history of Motul motorsport success.”

More from www.motul.com.

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

Designed to plug the gaps in motor insurance, this multi-car package for you and your family sits alongside your insurance and gives you vital extra services, including:

UK-wide accident recovery

Approved accident repair

Like-for-like replacement car

Private treatment for injury

Specialist legal support

Saves you from paying any excess

Helps protect your no-claims

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 TIP – WANTSUM BREWERY – FORTITUDE

 

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.

Sure, it’s good fun trying some of the latest novelty-sounding beers and ales but it’s also good to look at some good, traditional bitter. One such comes from Birchington, Kent-based, Wantsum Brewery. Their Fortitude bitter (4.6% ABV) is the one that started their journey and is still a corking pint.

It’s their flagship product and is a combination of four different types of malt to give depth of body and uses a combination of English and American hops. It all worked out very well.

I am slightly upset to see that they don’t produce my favourite called Incubus anymore. I thoroughly recommend this brewery. More from www.wantsumbrewery.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 – July 5. La vie et belle!

Best regards 

 

 

Steve