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STRADA 4/88 – THE ITALIANATE SOUNDING TWO-SEATER FROM SUFFOLK
Mar 7th
STEVE HOLE tells the story of the STRADA 4/88. Pix courtesy of www.adrianflux.co.uk
A real curiosity this one. It wasn’t a kitcar but was very specialist. The Strada 4/88 was the brainchild of a Suffolk carpet shop proprietor called John Hillier, from Woodbridge with vital input from his engineer friend, John Brighty.
The two had met in the late sixties and Brighty had ‘form’ as he’d previously worked at Bill Last’s Trident Cars, a marque that Hillier supplied Wilton carpeting to.
Between them, they developed what became the Strada 4/88 with design from none other than BMC designer Harris Mann (Austin Princess, ZT More >
THE STORY OF TRIPLEX & PILKINGTON AUTOMOTIVE
Feb 15th
STEVE HOLE TELLS THE STORY OF TRIPLEX SAFETY GLASS & PILKINGTON GLASS
Founded in 1912 by Reginald Delpech who was based in Kent. He devised a method of producing toughened and laminated glass for aviation, rail and automotive uses. He was ahead of the game and a real pioneer.
If you’ve ever suffered a broken windscreen, did you ever wonder how the broken glass seems to hold itself together like a windscreen-shaped jigsaw puzzle? That is what Triplex invented and the so-called ‘triplex’ adhesives which is the result of bonding more than one sheet of glass together. usually via polyvinylbutyric (PVB) membranes. The glazing More >
MARCOS CHECKER MINI COOPER MK1 TRIBUTE
Feb 8th
STEVE HOLE tells the story of the Marcos Checker Mini
A relatively little-known model from Marcos Sales was this Cooper S Mk1 Tribute. It was commissioned by Marcos’ dealer in Japan, Checker Motors in 1995.
A claimed limited edition of 100 cars – although I don’t think they made anywhere near that number – in either BRG with white roof or white with a BRG roof.
They were nicely built and were powered by special Richard Longman-tuned 1300 A-Series engines, with big valve cylinder head, gas-flowed inlet manifold, Kent 285 cam, twin SU HS4 carbs and a performance exhaust.
Exterior featured 10in steels or More >
THE STORY OF CARTUNE (TEESSIDE)
Feb 1st
MEET THE ‘BEETLES’ – CARTUNE TEESSIDE by STEVE HOLE
Photos from www.cartunevw.co.uk – Apal Corsa image from totalkitcar archive
Although only having a limited impact on the UK’s kitcar industry (they marketed the Belgium-made Apal models, Buggy and Corsa, in the UK in 1971-72), Cartune was once the UK’s leading Volkswagen Beetle specialists, which means they would have supplied many thousands of parts to owners/builders of Beetle-based kitcars.
Indeed, the company still exists, today.
Mike Griifin (centre),Leeds & England footballer Jackie Charlton (left) and Cartune (Teesside) branch manager, Peter Raybould
Let’s wind right back and trace the company’s history, though. The Cartune name was first registered More >
SIR STIRLING MOSS’ ELVA BMW MKVII S
Jan 18th
By Steve Hole
The Elva marque is a well-regarded one in specialist car terms producing some great roadcars and some superb racers. They produced the first Courier in 1958. Elva boss, Frank Nichols was regarded as a real character and sat at the same table as other industry mavericks such as Chris Lawrence, Jem Marsh.
Lambretta Trojan took over production of the Courier (the roadgoing Couriers basically) and moved production to their site in Croydon, Nichols cracked on with the development of a string of Elva racecars between 1963-65, in the shape of the Elva GT160 and a string of other BMW-powered More >
POSITIVELY BALTIC! EXCITING NEW KIT FROM LITHUANIA
Dec 28th
Exciting new arrival from Lithuania, no less and what’s more the makers claim that it is the Baltic State’s first original kitcar design.
Thanks to totalkitcar’s friend in Lithuania Arunas for the tip off
Called the RR01 from Rhino Racing the very styling sportscar with a lightweight GRP body and gullwing doors and is underpinned by an aluminium alloy monocoque fabricated from 6061 T6 and features a built-in rollover-bar (from 25 CrMo4.
Power comes from a reconditioned Audi R8-spec 5.2-litre V10 engine complete with Audi R8 (which means at least 550bhp is on the cards!) intake manifold. The kit contents are of very More >
DANNENHAUER & STAUSS’ BEAUTIFUL SPORT-KABRIOLET
Dec 22nd
Steve Hole tells the story of the glorious DANNENHAUER & STAUSS SPORT-KABRIOLET their take on the Porsche 356 theme
by Buch-t – Own work, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16822660
This Stuttgart-based company was run by Gottfried Dannenhauser, a VW Beetle specialist and his son-in-law Kurt Stauss, a skilled panel-beater. They had worked with well-known Stuttgart-based coachworks Stuttgarter Karosseriewerk Reutter pre-war on the KdF Wagen.
by Buch-t – Own work, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16822660
Reutter is also a very interesting company founded in 1906 by Wilhelm Reutter and soon joined by his brother Albert. For many years they built bodies for Porsche, culminating with the 356 from 1949.
By 1954 they More >
CHRISTMAS PRODUCT REVIEW – VAX SPOTWASH HOME CORDLESS
Dec 21st
£200 well spent. You get several attachments and mine came with various cleaning and treatment products although you need to check as VAX seem to have regular special offers that give added value
VAX UK asked us to try out their new SpotWash product …
Crikey, not sure about you but back in the seventies I remember my dad proudly spending half of his week’s wages on a big old ‘wet’ vacuum cleaner. A massive thing. He’d grown fed up with the lounge carpet being filthy and he was too tight to buy a new one, even though one of his mates More >
NOT KITS (OBVIOUSLY!) BUT THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL CHRISTMAS CRACKERS!
Dec 7th
The new Speed Six Continuation Series has begun its main testing phase before customer builds begin, after the completion of the final Blower Continuation Series customer car.
In period, the two cars raced as friendly rivals; the Supercharged 4½ Litre ‘Blowers’ were prepared and entered by the Hon Sir ‘Tim’ Birkin’s private team, while the Speed Six was Bentley’s winning works entry for Le Mans in 1929 and 1930.
Today, the build and preparation of both cars come under one roof in the workshops of Mulliner – Bentley’s bespoke and coachbuilding division. With all customer Blowers now complete and delivered, Mulliner’s focus More >
A TRIBUTE TO TONY HILDER, RIP – 1936-2023
Nov 30th
TRIBUTE TO TONY HILDER b April 1936 d October 2023 by STEVE HOLE
RIP TONY HILDER. Sitting in one of his ‘greatest hits’ the glorious McLaren M1A
I am very saddened to hear of the death recently of gifted designer, the gentleman that was Tony Hilder, aged 87.
The son of the renowned landscape artist and book illustrator (he also did some stunning wartime posters), Rowland Hilder OBE, once described as ‘the Turner of his generation’.
From a young age, Tony was building Austin Seven specials and he was always going to follow an artistic type of career with that pedigree and gained a first-class More >
