Sculptural Engineering – Larini (and Opus)

This month’s OTGA focuses on a recent company that appeared and disappeared very quickly, despite having a brace of extremely promising kits.

This first prototype displayed at Exeter in 2000 showed promise

I know not why it ultimately didn’t happen for them, but I do know that in November 2000 at that year’s Exeter Show there was quite a bit of excitement caused by a Lotus Elise-esque type sportscar of original, modern design that was the work of two boat-building brothers Simon and Jeremy Crowther, based in Ringwood, Hampshire.

Although the yellow car they displayed at Exeter was a bit rough around the edges with indifferent shut lines and panel gaps, the guys were the first to admit it, and as Simon told me, “Boats don’t have doors like cars”. Quite! They also pointed out that this was their prototype version.

It greatly impressed me however, with its sexy lines and oozed sex appeal and star quality, while going by the moniker of the Larini, nicked from their favourite racing driver – Nicola Larini, who drove in Formula One for a time and became a test driver for Ferrari, while also winning the British Touring Cars championship in the early nineties when partnering Gabriele Tarquini for the Alfa Romeo squad.

The first demonstrator was a big improvement.

The brothers rather refreshingly avoided the usual Ford Sierra donor option and went for the abundant and bulletproof VW Golf/Jetta mk2 resulting in a solid underpinning, although it was in the GRP and chassis areas where their boat skills really came to the fore. The Larini featured an ultra-lightweight GRP tub, with a high-density foam core weighing just 70kg, to which was bonded the GRP body. At the rear was a sub-spaceframe from which the Veedub engine, suspension and inverted coil-over dampers were mounted.

Suspension all round was unequal length double wishbones, a mixture of their own components and VAG, and they even used the Golf engine mounts, while any Golf/Jetta unit could be used including the GTi.

The starter kit cost £3800, with a carbonfibre body option at £5700 and there was also the choice of a more comprehensive kit at £4950, which for a modest additional outlay did a lot of the nastier jobs for you.

Sexy lines are hard to ignore.

Ultimately I don’t know why the Larini didn’t survive. The Crowther brothers seemed very nice, and also enthusiastic. Perhaps the prospect of being fully-fledged car manufacturers didn’t appeal to these young and carefree boat-builders. More likely they underestimated the colossal cost of making cars.

Apart from the yellow development ‘hack’, there was also a much better blue demonstrator, which was a huge improvement, plus one definite customers car sold to the late Phil Allen of bike tuners Allen’s Performance R&D, who not surprisingly built a lightweight version powered by a bonkers Suzuki Hayabusa engine.

Incidentally, they also started work on a Lotus Seven-inspired sportscar called the Opus, which I saw, and heard run, powered by a Honda Fireblade unit. It followed the same novel approach of a lightweight body bonded to a monocoque tub, but used the Sierra as a donor vehicle. It only weighed 350kg I remember, and I saw the sheets to verify this claim from the weighbridge. This kit cost just £2500, with turnkeys priced at just £7500. If you know the whereabouts of this car or any other Larini then please let me know.

I did hear from another boat builder called Paul Cheetham of MPR Marine Engineering of Lymington, who told me that he had acquired the Larini project (Not the Opus) and intended to bring it back to the market, with several amendments and improvements. He too sounded full of optimism. I have heard nothing from him since and the phone number he gave me at the time doesn’t appear to work anymore.

Sadly I fear that the Larini has gone the way of the much-missed Cyclone.

Words by Steve Hole

Photos form the TKC archive.