Welcome to totalkitcar online…Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend and by the time you read this we’ll more than likely be sitting in a traffic jam trying to get to Goodwood House. But frankly, who cares when an event is as spectacular as this one and this year theres kitcar industry attractions aplenty, as several manufacturers tell me they’ll be there while our colleagues at Complete Kit Car will also be exhibiting, too. All good news for the industry getting exposure to such a huge and knowledgeable crowd.

The totalkitcar LIVE!……….concept is one that we’re not finished with yet. We’ll look to bring it back one day, although we are dusting it down – sort of - on August 2 as we’ve been invited to exhibit at the ASDA ‘On Your Marks’ day at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground that regularly attracts a 10,000 crowd despite it being a ‘closed’ event.

This year, we’re delighted to be taking part, along with ten or so kitcar manufacturers, giving charity rides and basically letting the good times roll. We had some 200 free tickets that we gave away in the May/June 2009 issue of tkc mag…

Welcome to totalkitcar online...

JULY/AUGUST 2009 issue of tkc mag.......is out NOW. This time, as usual, we’ve got loads of good stuff for you to read, including EXCLUSIVES on the DNA 4THIRTY, EVO200 and SECMA F16 plus a guide to the GM LS V8 ENGINE and so much more…UK READERS CLICK HERE, EUROPE CLICK HERE and Rest of the World HERE.

Out NOW

Quickies, bits I forgot, sorries and I’ll get my coat 1…………Well-known Jaguar recreator's, Lynx Motors, founded by Guy Black and Roger Ludgate, way back in 1968, are now under the control of Tony Gott, after he acquired the operation from erstwhile custodian, John Mayston-Taylor, recently. More information from www.lynxmotors.com

Lynx Motors under new ownership

Quickies, bits I forgot, sorries and I’ll get my coat 2…………DON’T FORGET. Our secure online BOOKSTORE has just been upgraded to SagePay protection, meaning that you can shop securely with us for leading automotive technical books and of course, totalkitcar magazines and subscriptions, completely safe in the knowledge that our shop is totally secure. CLICK HERE to go there.

In NEWS HEADLINES this week………we have all the latest kitcar-related information and news for you. CLICK HERE.

Rally Replicas' new MR2-based RS200 replica in NEWS this week.

SNIPPETS 1……….at the recent Bromley Motor Pageant spotted this wonderful hot rod that dates from the early seventies. Known as Snake Pit the car took four years to complete was commissioned by California Show Cars and was an amalgamation of the talents of Harry Bradley, Joe Bailon, Jay Ohrberg and George Barris.

Amazing Snake Pit hot rod....now in UK

Barris, a hero of mine, who has been some of the most seminal hot rods of all time as well as some famous movie cars such as the original Bat Mobile, the Beverly Hill Billies Hot Rod and the Munster Koach. His team of craftsmen handbuilt the outer skin applying 30 coats of lacquer covering an orange over pearl white base coat.

The 23ft leviathan now resides in the UK and it was originally built to tackle a batch of international speed records, which it was well capable of doing, when equipped with six (yep, SIX!) Ford 351 Windsor engines totalling 2000bhp driving through two Ford C-6 automatic gearboxes.

Apparently, Snake Pit cost over $100,000 when built.

...complete with six, yep SIX, V8 engines! That'll be 2000bhp, then!

SNIPPETS 2………..Among the many automotive anniversaries this year is that of Ford’s Dagenham plant. And you though that it had closed when car production ended there some years ago! NOT so. It’s now Ford’s primary diesel engine manufacturing plant in the UK employing 4000 people with a staggering 1,050,000 units destined for engines for 28 models for Ford (obviously), Jaguar, Mazda, Peugeot, Citroën and Volvo, among others. They have a capacity to produce 1.4 millions engines.

Thanks to ten miles of rail network within the 475-acre complex and also a deep water jetty, the engines and all the pressings (15 millions bonnets, doors etc and two million alloy wheels per annum) can basically be transported anywhere.

The first bit of turf to be dug at the Dagenham plant was by Henry Ford’s son, Edsel, in 1929, which Ford had purchased for £168,000 in 1924, which is equivalent to a bargain £5 million in today’s prices. 

Ford's Dagenham plant celebrates its 80th birthday this year.

SNIPPETS 3……..Paul Gray from the NG Owners Club has been in touch to inform me that the club are celebrating the marque’s thirtieth anniversary this weekend at a campsite near Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire where they hope to have around 60 NGs in attendance on Sunday, July 5.

More from www.ngownersclub.org.uk

NG Owners Club celebrating thirty years of the NG marque this weekend at their national rally.

IVA UPDATE……… Here’s our list of manufacturer’s who we know have had a car PASS IVA. We’ll add to this as we are advised of more passes…

 You can now access the past five weeks NEWS HEADLINES. Just click on the relevant link below…     

In BOOK REVIEWS this week………….we have a superb new title from hot rod publishing meisters, Motorbooks, by Tom Cotter called ‘Dean Jeffries – 50 Fabulous Years in Hot Rods, Racing and Film’ – A cracking read. CLICK HERE.

Here’s a quick glance guide at upcoming kitcar-related events for 2009. We’ll add to the list as we get the dates, so you can update your new diaries:   

We love TRACKDAYS at totalkitcar………and as ever we have the latest up-to-date trackday calendar for you, which lists ALL the events taking place in the UK in July and August 2009. Just CLICK HERE to go there.

Tax disc theft.........is a real and growing problem in the UK. Earwig road tax dodgers will, if they see an exposed tax disc, steal it. Stop these scumbags by fitting a ‘totalkitcar’ tamper-proof tax disc holder. We’ve done a deal with the UK’s leading manufacturer of these items and as a bonus to wear yours with pride, if we see them in your windscreen at a kitcar show, we’ll select a winner at random and give you something nice (er, well, something, anyway!) from the totalkitcar box o’ shite.  

The holder sticks simply and neatly to your screen. The totalkitcar tamper-proof tax disc holder costs just £1.95 including POSTAGE (UK only). BUY YOURS HERE.

Stop scumbag tax disc thieves nicking your tax disc with our tamperproof tax disc holder.

If you’ve just discovered totalkitcar magazine….BACK ISSUES are of course available, although the issues marked accordingly are SOLD OUT. Apart from that we can supply all the copies you’ve missed out on. CLICK HERE to find the issue you’d like to buy or give us a ring.

Most back issues still available.

Have a great week and I look forward to welcoming you back here again on Friday July 10. Take good care out on the roads…

Don’t forget that Planet Rock digital radio station is a great source for classic rock music and very often I’m to be found writing my features and this column while listening to it. More from www.planetrock.com - See Ya

Best Regards

tkc mag – low volume, high octane motoring!

Welcome to totalkitcar online….taking pride of place on the totalkitcar stand at Newark show last weekend was the Sylva Spectre, the latest design from kitcar-design guru, Jeremy Phillips.

Jeremy Phillips (left) with his new Spectre, giving a potential customer a run-down.

To say the car was well-received is an understatement and comments from visitors to the stand included: “This car is just what the kitcar industry needs right now” and “Jeremy always makes good cars, but this one must be the best yet.”

I’d definitely agree with both of those comments actually and this overly modest man’s roll-call of great affordable kitcars is impressive featuring such as the Leader, Striker, Phoenix, Fury and Mojo. Indeed, we celebrated the Sylva legacy in tkc magazine  acouple of years back when we commemorated the company’s 25th Anniversary.

Specially priced back issues including P&P (UK only) cost just £3.49.

CLICK HERE (UK ONLY).

A couple of years ago we celebrated the kitcar design genius that is Jeremy Phillips....special offer for UK readers at just £3.49 in case you missed it.

Had the privilege this week………….of visiting the Moto Lita operation at Thruxton as part of our Made in England series for tkc mag. The company is now in its 53rd year and going great guns, still run by founder, Simon Green.

Travelling around the country we’ve had the chance to highlight all the great products that are made right here in blighty. Having experienced at first hand the passion, care and love for their range of steering wheels and Irvin flying jackets (marketed under their Aviation Leathercraft brand) not to mention the fabulous skill levels of their artisan craftsmen ('woman' in the case of Rose who beautifully stitches the leather steering wheels), we were quite simply blown away. An absolute joy and if you’re building – or indeed own – a kit or specialist car then you really should take a look at their range of steering wheels as they will add that perfect finishing touch. Unbelievably, prices start at just £109.50…..

....Moto Lita are now in their 53rd year of continuous trading

JULY/AUGUST 2009 issue of tkc mag.......is out next Friday (July 3) although our subscribers will be getting their copies as you read this. This time as usual we’ve got loads of good stuff for you to read including EXCLUSIVES on the DNA 4THIRTY, EVO200 and SECMA F16 plus a guide to the GM LS V8 ENGINE and so much more…UK READERS CLICK HERE, EUROPE CLICK HERE and Rest of the World HERE.

It's in the shops from Friday, July 3rd. You can get your copies from us POST-FREE (UK only), NOW.

Quickies, bits I forgot, sorries and I’ll get my coat 1…………DON’T FORGET. Our secure online BOOKSTORE has just been upgraded to SagePay protection, meaning that you can shop securely with us for leading automotive technical books and of course, totalkitcar magazines and subscriptions, completely safe in the knowledge that our shop is totally secure. CLICK HERE to go there.

In NEWS HEADLINES this week…….we have all the latest kitcar-related news and information. CLICK HERE

New Tiger Aviator in NEWS this week.

SNIPPETS 1………. Spotted this cracking ‘special’ at Newark last weekend. Having started out on a magazine called ‘Kit Cars & Specials’, I’ve always had a soft spot for people who homebrew their own cars from scratch. The majority are passable, some are nailed together by maniacs, but very few float the boats of anyone other than the creator. This one is very different, however…

The Motaleira is the handiwork of a Locost Car Club member, and is in my opinion superb. Clearly inspired by the exo-skeletal theme, some of the engineering is highly innovative, with the Bilstein air-suspension system that can be raised and lowered depending on road conditions – and speed bumps.

Motaliera 'special' grabbed our attention at Newark last weekend...

Power comes from a Yorkshire Engines-supplied Yamaha R1 engine delivering serious shove.

A hearty congratulations to the builder of this car…

SNIPPETS 2……….One area of the motor industry that has been suffering of late is tyre manufacturing. Less new cars being made means, funnily enough, a dip in requirements for tyres. Outside of the original equipment ‘big boys’ are the rest – there are over 250 tyre brands on sale in the UK, would you believe? – and even they have been hit as people hold on longer before buying new tyres until they are a distress purchase. A downside to this is the rise of nasty cheap ‘wooden’ brands that may be £20 per corner cheaper than a known quality cover, but we'd always advise buying a quality make as they will help your car handle and grip better, while their benefits in wet conditions might be priceless…the best selling ultra high performance tyre sizes in the UK last year were:

The biggest selling tyre size for kitcar use is 195/50R15, incidentally.

Extreme Cars debuted their Mercedes DTM-CLK replica at Newark last weekend.

SNIPPETS 3……….Telford has been crowned the UK’s most car-friendly town edging out competition from St Helen’s, Southend and Sunderland, new research from Virgin Money Car Insurance shows.

The Shropshire town was rated the best place for motorists for the second year in a row by Virgin Money researchers in the nationwide project, which has been monitoring how car-friendly the UK’s towns and cities have been since 2006.

It scored well across the board on the criteria used by researchers including petrol prices, the cost of parking for two hours and the number of speed cameras on main roads into the town or city. The Virgin Money researchers, who assessed the UK’s 65 largest towns and cities, also took into consideration the number of car parks and the level of car crime, weighted to reflect the population numbers.

However London, Cardiff, Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh were all rated as unfriendly for drivers with Cambridge, Leicester and Reading also scoring badly.

Grant Bather of Virgin Money said: “The UK’s 24 million motorists are often driven to distraction by the frustrations of driving with parking problems, petrol prices and speeding tickets among the biggest issues. But not all towns and cities are the same and many local authorities do their best to ensure drivers aren’t treated like second-class citizens. Cars shouldn’t rule the road but motorists’ views need to be taken into consideration.

“Of course everyone will have their own definition of driving hell whether it is hunting for a parking space, being stuck in a traffic jam or being caught by a speeding camera. Our research attempts to show which cities and towns are best and worst for drivers.”

Also seen at Newark was this lovely Piper P2 in the cars for sale area. You don't often see these for sale. Seemed like a steal at £8500.

IVA UPDATE………with IVA tests well under way up and down the country, there’s no doubt its advent has caused controversy. Some manufacturers are really not happy, while others are getting on with it. We can moan and groan about SVA’s replacement as much as we like BUT IVA is here to stay. There isn't another industry as resilient as the UK kitcar industry, we get knocked down we get back up again, so let’s get on with it. Here’s our list of manufacturer’s who we know have had a car PASS IVA. We’ll add to this as we are advised of more passes…

Gardner Douglas is the latest company to tell us that they’ve had a car pass successfully through IVA.

Kirk Silver Wing also seen at Newark...

You can now access the past five weeks NEWS HEADLINES. Just click on the relevant link below…     

Newark is GREAT for all sorts of rarities...

Here’s a quick glance guide at upcoming kitcar-related events for 2009. We’ll add to the list as we get the dates, so you can update your new diaries:   

We love TRACKDAYS at totalkitcar………and as ever we have the latest up-to-date trackday calendar for you, which lists ALL the events taking place in the UK in July and August 2009. Just CLICK HERE to go there.

MEV tell me that they have now had a Sonic pass IVA, too.

In BOOK REVIEWS this week……we have a great new title from Motorbooks called ‘The Big Book Of Barris’ by George Barris and David Fetherstone. CLICK HERE for more.

Tax disc theft.........is a real and growing problem in the UK. Earwig road tax dodgers will, if they see an exposed tax disc, steal it. Stop these scumbags by fitting a ‘totalkitcar’ tamper-proof tax disc holder. We’ve done a deal with the UK’s leading manufacturer of these items and as a bonus to wear yours with pride, if we see them in your windscreen at a kitcar show, we’ll select a winner at random and give you something nice (er, well, something, anyway!) from the totalkitcar box o’ shite.  

The holder sticks simply and neatly to your screen. The totalkitcar tamper-proof tax disc holder costs just £1.95 including POSTAGE (UK only). BUY YOURS HERE.

Stop scumbag tax disc thieves in their tracks.

If you’ve just discovered totalkitcar magazine….BACK ISSUES are of course available, although the issues marked accordingly are SOLD OUT. Apart from that we can supply all the copies you’ve missed out on. CLICK HERE to find the issue you’d like to buy or give us a ring.

Missed a copy? Most back issues still available.

I think that’s all from me until next Friday and hope you have a great week. Great weather means great evening drives, but do take out on the roads.

Spinning on Stevo’s Classic Blues Rock CD Player this week has been Charlie Daniels’ Live Record album. This bastion of southern rock and country music might be 72-years old nowadays BUT in addition to his classic songs of yore such as ‘Devil Went Down To Georgia’ et al, he and his band can still crank out some seriously heavy rockin’ tunes, take opening track ‘Road Dogs’ for example. More from www.charliedaniels.com - let the good times roll, see ya.

Best Regards