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A very warm welcome to totalkitcar online …
Our March/April 2026 issue is available NOW in shops, mail order and also on all digital platforms.
Here’s just some of what we have for you this time…
DUTTON PHÆTON 5 – FIRST DRIVE – A brand new Phæton from Tim Dutton, 39 years after the last one. The new one is based on Mazda MX-5 Mk3 and is quite simply, great. Hard to miss in its eyecatching Lamborghini Verde Scandal lime green gelcoat.
INDUSTRY GREATS – HAYDN DAVIES AND BURLINGTON MOTOR COMPANY – We were delighted to catch up with Burlington Motor Co founder, Haydn Davies recently to talk about old times and remind ourselves just how important a marque his company was, firstly with the Sport Special traditional roadster and then the Arrow, Berretta and Chieftain plans and patterns projects. Add in some great old archive photos to round things up and it’s a winner.
CATERHAM CARS – Think Caterham Cars and the Seven and 21 will come to mind, but there has been plenty of other elements of the business over the years. We round them all up in this feature.
INTRODUCING WEATHERVELO – CYCLEV – Here’s a cool little electric three-wheeler that you can pedal but ddon’t have to? Curious. read this feature to find out more.
READER’S DRIVE – PETER VIVIAN’S MIDGE BOAT-TAIL – The JC Midge was a cracking little kitcar, another built from plans and patterns. TKC MAG reader Peter Vivian built a lovely example but after quite a few years decided that he’d like revise it to feature a boat-tail rear end. Here’s his story.
THE TKC MAG GUIDE TO SOLDERING – We all take the art of soldering for granted. An easy job to mess up, a tricky one to master. Richard Bird guides you through the process…
WACKY RACERS – A little feature looking at the first two years of the 750 Motor Club’s
KIT CAR CHALLENGE race series. It was great looking back to the mid-eighties for this one.
HUNTSMAN SPYDER – A forgotten one-off that surely deserved more success?
REMEMBERING THE TRIPLE C CHALLENGER – looking back at a classic kitcar that just happened to be a replica of the Jaguar E-type.
Hopefully, that’s plenty to entertain you with although you’ll also find regulars like book reviews, product news and more.
LATEST ISSUE OF TKC MAG – MARCH/APRIL 2026 – AVAILABLE NOW
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.
Classic Kit Cars & Specials has a new home at totalkitcar.com.
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 featured in CLASSIC KIT CARS & SPECIALS.
This time in CLASSIC KIT CARS & SPECIALS (click on the link and you’ll find the full list of features) we pay tribute to the late David Ogle DSC MBE and the work of his Ogle Design company. CLICK HERE to go there.
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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.
totalkitcar History File Series (in association with the Enwin Motors channel). Don’t miss out, subscribe for FREE now.
Search YouTube for the ‘totalkitcar YouTube Channel’ or follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/@tkcmag.
Our popular TRACKDAY CALENDAR is where you can find out where, when and how much by CLICKING HERE. Now updated to cover MARCH-APRIL 2026.
SNIPPETS 1 ……. Sixty years ago, “Cars so fast, they need parachutes to stop them” was a slogan Santa Pod Raceway used to advertise its unique arrival on the British motor racing scene. Oh … and parachutes remain vital braking equipment to this day.
Conventional brakes have improved beyond measure, but so have dragstrip speeds. Late-1960s dragsters astonished fans with finish-line speeds pushing 160mph. Today’s track record is 321mph – that’s 0-321 in 3.7 seconds, performance figures far exceeding the most fevered imagination when Santa Pod opened its gates as Europe’s first permanent dragstrip on Easter Monday 1966.
Santa Pod’s 60th Anniversary calendar taps a rich vein of motorsport and musical attractions. The dragstrip remains the heart of the matter, but Santa Pod has expanded to become much more than just a racing venue.
It is a busy place. Every weekend from the beginning of March to the end of October (except August bank holiday, a well-earned weekend off for the staff) yields an event of some kind.
Alongside the dragstrip, the Live Action Arena presents Monster Truck and stunt shows, fine family attractions, and a music stage often occupies the acres beyond. Across the strip, the vast, paved paddock can accommodate more than 300 teams at the big races – with their vehicles, transporters and trailers and weekend living facilities – and music stages, funfairs and all manner of displays at the venue’s lifestyle festivals. And there is space too for the regular midweek Public Drift Days.
Music is an integral part of the Santa Pod programme, whether as night-time entertainment at the multi-day race meetings or on a grander scale at the festivals, with leading artists often featured.
Santa Pod’s 60th Anniversary celebrations will focus on the two FIA/FIM European Championship events, The Main Event (22-25 May) and the European Finals (10-13 September), and on the venue’s historic drag racing centrepiece, Dragstalgia (26-28 June).
NOT JUST DRAG RACING AT SANTA POD. EVENING ENTERTAINMENT IS KEY, TOO
Of the two major automotive lifestyle weekends, Bug Jam 39 is just one year short of its own significant anniversary. The massive Volkswagen festival (24-26 July) has been a Santa Pod staple for almost two-thirds of the venue’s existence. A week later, USC-Ultimate Street Car (31 July-2 August) bills itself as “the largest, loudest, hottest and fastest modified car festival in Europe.”
To mark the 60th Anniversary, Santa Pod will release an exclusive branded FIA Championship clothing range and a limited edition anniversary jacket. A special bookazine will celebrate the venue’s entire history on a year-by-year basis, and a range of limited-edition paintings will be issued.
Some 400,000 spectators a year pass through Santa Pod’s gates to experience the exceptional and varied programme of events offered by the Raceway.
Visit https://santapod.co.uk/events/ to see the full programme.
Tickets for all events may be booked online at https://santapodtickets.com/ or by telephoning the Box Office at 01234 782 828.
PS: Ever wondered how the venue got its memorable name? It’s an amalgam: ‘Santa’ to evoke the spirit of Southern California, the cradle of drag racing; ‘Pod’ for Podington, the WW2-surplus airfield on which it stands. Imaginative fellows, those brave business types who launched the venture on a wing, a prayer and a derelict aerodrome, six boisterous decades ago.
SNIPPETS 2 …….The British Motor Museum has a basket full of cracking activities this Easter from March 28 to April 12. Find mischievous rabbits on the Great Big Bunny Hunt, get stuck into a crafty challenge, and join one of the interactive family tours. Visit over the Easter Weekend, between April 3-6 and embark on a traditional Easter Egg hunt searching for eggs around the Museum!
The Great Big Bunny Hunt takes place every day. Children will need to find the cheeky group of Easter bunnies hiding around the cars and note down the name of each rabbit they find – there are six to discover! What’s more, every day during Easter you can Hatch your own Car, where you’ll try your hand at hatching a car from a paper egg base and decorating it with a host of craft materials.
The Egg-straordinary Family Tour runs from March 28 – April 2, 7 and 12 when families can join the costumed explainers for a family-friendly tour exploring some of the eggs-traordinary vehicles in the collection. Along the way you’ll discover fun stories behind the cars and learn about the clever bits of technology that helped get them on the move.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the Easter holidays, at 11am and 2pm, visitors can see some of the car collection in their natural habitat: on the road! A range of Museum cars, including a 1971 Lotus Europa, 1985 MG Metro 6R4 Clubman and 1997 Mini Hot Rod, will be on the move around the Museum grounds. Which one will you see?
Easter Access Day, which takes place on Thursday April 9, is dedicated to highlighting accessibility for all who visit the Museum. There will accessible activities and initiatives, including hands-on crafts, tours, SEND resources and sensory bags.
Emma Rawlinson, Lifelong Learning Officer at the British Motor Museum, said: “Join us this Easter when we have a basket of cracking family fun activities for our younger visitors to enjoy, along with our traditional Easter egg hunt around the Museum over the Easter weekend!”
Museum entry is just £18 for adults in advance or £21 on the day, £16 for concessions in advance or £19 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 Easter activities please visit the website at www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/whats-on/easter-holiday-activities
NOTE: *All activities are included in Museum admission and are suitable for 3+ years with adult supervision unless otherwise stated. To avoid disappointment please check on arrival with the Family Station as places are limited and are subject to availability.
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So, that’s about it from me for this week, so I’ll bid you a great seven days, with plenty of enjoyable driving and I look forward to welcoming you once again next Friday – MARCH 27, 2026
Best regards
Steve