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A warm welcome to totalkitcar online … Crikey, Castle Combe Circuit has always been close to the kitcar industry’s hearts as it was the birthplace and home to the kit car Action Days starting in 1985 and running until 1998. Those events ‘sold’ lots of kitcars, put lots of people on the industry ladder.
The early concept in 1985, 1986 and 1987 was particularly great. Public day on Saturday, but Friday was a closed test day. Blimey, Kit Cars & Specials magazine bagged half of its yearly editorial content on that one day of the year. For those three years, the magazine sponsored the event.
Ever since then, the Wiltshire circuit has always been special for me. So, when I heard recently that two of the venue’s favourite sons had been honoured with corners named after them, I was delighted.
If you know anything about Combe’s history then the ‘Strawford’ name will be familiar to you. Indeed, the family still own it. Have you been lately. It is looking spectacular. Anyway, Howard Strawford (1935-2013) saved the circuit from closure in 1976 and owned and ran it for the next 35 years. He transformed it.
Anyway, ‘Hammerdown’ the fiendishly fast left-hander after Old Paddock Bend, has been renamed ‘Howard’s Way’ which I think is only right.
Another well-known Combe ‘name’ is that of the late Rodney Gooch (1946-2019), a lovely man, who served as Sales and Marketing Director for 22-years. The former motorcycle racer had previously worked for John Webb at Brands Hatch (crikey, Rodney told me some stories …) and advocated some significant bike events at Combe, including the ‘Grand National’ motorcycle race meeting.
He was also behind the introduction of dedicated trackdays and was also heavily involved with the kitcar Action Days in the nineties and was very supportive to the industry.
Tower Corner, the tight right-hander after Hammerdown/Howard’s Way is now known as Gooch’s.
The two Castle Combe luminaries will be remembered at the Aytumn Classic meeting on September 12-13 that will also feature a 1976 themed display. More from www.castlecombecircuit.co.uk.
TKC MAG – MARCH/APRIL ISSUE – AVAILABLE NOW
Here’s this issue’s menu, or at least some of it.
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.
COMING SOON
NDUSTRY 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 head back to the groovy sixties and a classic beach buggy, a British designed one at that. Roland Sharman’s lovely Bugle. Like, yeah, baby, CLICK HERE to go there.
THE STORY OF THE BUGLE BUGGY IN KITCARS & SPECIALS THIS WEEK
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SNIPPETS 1 …….. A little press release pinged in this week concerning EU motoring regulations. If you live in the European Union (and plenty of totalkitcar.com readers do), as of now new cars aren’t allowed to have front numberplates mounted off-centre. They must be mounted centrally.
Staying in Europe. A superb new French Toll Road Optimum Route Calculator (website currently, app to follow, I believe) that helps you work out the difference between to take a toll road/Péage or not to take a toll road/Péage.
It will help you work out, in a advance how much a journey will cost you via tolls, but will also give you an alternative route showing how (where possible) you can join a Péage further on.
If you regularly use French Péages, this new website could help you plan an optimal route
I tried it out on a route that I take fairly frequently – Calais to Sélestat in Alsace. I actually worked out an alternative route via Châlons-en-Champagne a few years ago. It takes a bit longer, saves 64km and is a more picturesque and interesting journey. I like it because it saves us over €34.
Anyway, as the image shows, I punched this into the website and was delighted to see that it ‘knew’ my favoured alternative route. Recommended. I will look forward to the App arriving because the website isn’t set up for mobile phones and you’ll really need a PC or MAC for optimum use.
Visit https://french-tolls.undiscoveredlatitudes.com.
SNIPPETS 2 ……. For the first time in the UK, the unique world of Forza Horizon is stepping off the screen and into the real home of British motoring.
The British Motor Museum has announced the launch of ’Forza Horizon 6 The Experience’, a bold new exhibition, running from May to the end of November, where digital car culture meets real-world motoring, created in partnership with the critically acclaimed West Midlands-based developers of the Forza Horizon series, Playground Games.
As with every Forza Horizon game, players are participants of a ‘Horizon Festival,’ a celebration of cars and music taking place at various locations around the world. Forza Horizon 6, which will be released on the 15 May, is set in Japan and highlights the country’s famous JDM car culture along with its stunning scenic locations.
To celebrate the release of the globally anticipated title from the Xbox Game Studios, the British Motor Museum will transform into the UK’s first real-world Horizon Experience. The exhibition will open on May 23, with a special one-day festival – full of beautiful cars, iconic music and live demonstrations.
From a showcase of stunning Japanese cars, a choreographed drift stunt show by precision stunt driver Tessa Whittock, to gaming vans where you can play the game with your friends. For younger visitors there is a Didi car arena allowing them to get behind the wheel, as well as ever-popular face painting. The festival atmosphere continues with street food trucks and live music straight from the game.
The Horizon Festival and Experience will be opened by Craig Duncan, Head of Xbox Game Studios. Expert developers from Playground Games will also be attending the festival day to talk about the games creation and answer any questions. A team of highly skilled developers from RobocodeUK will also be running workshops to teach future coding experts the basics of creating new games. Booking workshop attendance in advance, via the British Motor Museum website, is essential as there are a limited number of workshop spaces available.
The new vibrant exhibition, is located on the mezzanine floor of the British Motor Museum, displays the machines themselves – a line-up that spans generations, geographies and genres of car culture.
From JDM icons like the Nissan Skyline GT-R and Honda NSX-R, to rally legends including the Lancia Stratos and Subaru Impreza 22B STI, the exhibition celebrates the heroes of the road and the screen. Hypercars such as the Jaguar C-X75 sit alongside cult favourites like the Peel P50 and track-focused machines including the Ariel Atom 500 V8.
Modern performance and luxury are equally represented, from the Bentley Continental GT Convertible and Lotus Emira to the latest Toyota Land Cruiser. Together, they tell a story of speed, innovation and identity, connecting digital racing to the real-world machines that inspire it.
Alongside the cars will be the Xbox interactive zone where you can play Forza Horizon 6 on state-of-the-art racing simulators. Visitors can choose to either take a cruise through the stunning scenery in Japan or compete in a Forza Horizon competition. There will be exclusive Forza Horizon 6 merchandise up for grabs for the most skilled drivers. For a bit of fun, youngsters can play ‘find Tank’, a well-known mascot from the game, on the Tank Trail around the museum.
This collaboration positions the British Motor Museum as more than an exhibition space. It becomes a platform where heritage meets innovation, and where the future of car culture is explored and celebrated, as much as its past.
Peter Armstong, CEO, British Motor Museum said: “The British Motor Museum has always been a place where stories of motoring come to life. This exhibition allows us to take that further than ever before; to create a space where digital and physical car cultures meet, inspire one another, and are shared with new generations. Partnering with Playground Games enables us to connect with audiences in entirely new ways, and to position the Museum firmly at the centre of this evolving cultural Landscape.”
Trevor Williams, Studio Head, Playground Games said: “Launching Forza Horizon 6 is a huge moment for our team, and we’re excited to open a new chapter for fans with The Forza Horizon 6 Experience at the British Motor Museum. The museum is a true home for motoring stories and it’s the ideal partner to help us showcase the craft, artistry and engineering that sits behind every great car, both on the road and in-game.
“We look forward to welcoming everyone to the exhibition, whether you’ve played every Forza Horizon game or you are discovering it for the first time.”
Whether you are a lifelong gamer, a car enthusiast, or a family discovering Horizon for the first time, The Forza Horizon Experience offers a new way to enjoy car culture and there will be no better place to see it first than the British Motor Museum.
The exhibition is open to visitors of all ages and is designed to appeal to gamers, families, car enthusiasts and curious newcomers alike.
Further information and ticket requirements for the launch event can be found on the British Motor Museum website: https://www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/whats-on/forza-horizon-6-the-experience-launch-event
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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 week on Friday, April 30, 2026
Best regards
Steve