CLASSIC KITCARS & SPECIALS
These features will take you back in time with fascinating articles on old kitcars, personalities and generally interesting companies that 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.
A lot of classic clubmans 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 and David Ogle. The sort of companies and individuals that our specialist and kit car forebears from the sixties would have been very familiar with.
CKC&S 1 – YOU CAN READ A NEVILLE TRICKETT CAREER HISTORY BY CLICKING HERE.
CKC&S 2 – YOU CAN READ THE STORY OF THE BONITO, SERAPH AND EXCALIBUR BY CLICKING HERE.
CKC&S 3 – YOU CAN READ THE STORY OF THE FLEUR DE LYS RANGE OF VINTAGE KIT VANS CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
CKC&S 4 – HERE YOU CAN READ THE CAREER STORY OF HOT ROD KING – Eddie ‘Mr Ed’ Wimble.
CKC&S 5 – HOW IS YOUR KITCAR’S WINDSCREEN MADE? CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT.
CKC&S 6 – A FEATURE ON THE LITTLE HILLMAN IMP-BASED NYMPH BY PETER BOHANNA AND ROBIN STABLES. CLICK HERE.
CKC&S 7 – CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT PHILIP COLES’ NOVA BUILD STORY
CKC&S 8 – YOU CAN READ A NEWARK 2022 SHOW REPORT HERE
CKC&S 9 – HERE’S A BLAST FROM THE PAST – THE IMPERIAL ROYALE – CLICK HERE TO GO THERE
CKC&S 10 – A LOOK AT A REAL ‘ONE THAT GOT AWAY’ IN THE FORM OF THE MGP SILURIAN TOURER – CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
CKC& S 11 – This time we take a look at the ill-fated Nyvrem Nirvana CLICK HERE to find out more.
CKC & S 12 – This week in CKC&S we have the fascinating story of Lyncar Motor Company including Wilt ‘the Stilt’s’ Searcher 1. CLICK HERE to read that one.
CKC&S 13 CLICK HERE to read a story about Tom Killeen’s Scorpion K19
CKC & S 14 – CLICK HERE to read the story of the beautiful Harold Biggs Special
CKC & S 15 – This time we have a look at the history of Lenham Motor Company – CLICK HERE to read that one
CKC&S 16 – This week’s feature takes a look at chassis fabricators par excellence Arch Motor & Engineering Co Ltd better known as ‘Arch Motors’. CLICK HERE to read that one.
CKC&S 17 – One of the best of the Lotus Elan ‘specials’ built over the years has to be the ELAN-BRM. STEVE HOLE tells the story – CLICK HERE
CKC&S 18 – CLICKING HERE will take you to a feature on sixties motorsport engineering supremos, Jack Knight Developments, who also looked after a lot of specialist car manufacturers of the day, too.
CKC&S 19 – This week in Classic Kit Cars & Specials I’m delighted to say that we have a lovely little look back at a delightful three-wheeler called the D.R.K and its wonderful back story. CLICKING HERE will take you there.
CKC&S 20 – A little story on a historic little marque called Alexis Cars and their intriguing and very pretty, Alexis GT. CLICK HERE for that one.
CKC&S 21 – When Colin Chapman’s Team Lotus team were flying high in F1, they didn’t really have the resources to devote fully to their F2 and F3 efforts, which were run by a ‘junior’ squad called Ron Harris Team Lotus. A fascinating man with a fascinating story. CLICK HERE to read this one.
CKC&S 22 – CLICKING HERE will take you to CLASSIC KIT CARS & SPECIALS and a look at the incredible yet ultimately ill-fated Jem Futura that first saw the light of day at the Racing Car Show in January 1971.
CKC&S 23 – If you CLICK HERE you’ll be transported to a feature on one of the sixties’ foremost motor racing schools, MOTOR RACING STABLES.
CKC&S 24 – This week we take a look at the intriguing story of the MAYA GT and its CAMBER GT brother. Ill-fated projects with an intriguing story. CLICK HERE.
CKC&S 25 – CLICK HERE this week to visit the latest feature in CLASSIC KIT CARS & SPECIALS which looks at the Rudolph Classic Roadster, known in the UK as the Evergreen Roadster, a very tasteful replica of the VW Typ 14 Karmann-Ghia convertible.
CKC&S 26 – Delighted this week to pay homage to a very influential company of the sixties that produced alloy wheels, steering wheels, driving gloves, sill kick-plates and countless other go-faster parts! CLICK HERE to visit that one.
CKC&S 27 – A nice little profile of a very talented designer called Alan Ponsford. Best known within the bus and coach spheres he also just happened to design the brilliant AVA K1 back in the mid-eighties – CLICK HERE to go there.
CKC&S 28 – Although we’ve probably all heard of Allard Motor Company and their cars like the J2X it’s the company’s lesser-known activities that have always interested me. They did offer a couple of their cars in kit form, the drag racer Dragon and the subject of our CKC&S feature this week, the Ford Anglia conversion kit, the ALLARDETTE. Read all about it HERE.
CKC&S 29 – This week’s feature in Classic Kitcars & Specials takes a look at a very important accessory from the sixties that every wannabe boy racer wanted fitting to their engine – the Shorrock Supercharger.
We take a look at the company’s history and also the involvement of Sydney Allard. CLICK HERE to go there.
CKC&S 30 – Not a kitcar of course but the Citroën Bijou was an incredibly low-volume car for a mainstream manufacturer and had a fascinating story that we think you’ll enjoy. CLICK HERE to go there.
2023
CKC&S 31 – This week’s subject in CLASSIC KIT CARS & SPECIALS is the industrial designer David Ogle. We’ve surely all heard about the company’s design work and of course, the Ogle Mini but the founder’s history is lesser known. An amazing chap, he tragically died in a road accident in May 1962 in the prototype Lightweight GT version of the Ogle SX1000. CLICK HERE to go there.
CKC&S 32 – This week in CLASSIC KIT CARS & SPECIALS we take a look at the work of the talented engineer, Geoffrey Rumble who was the man behind Dastle racing cars and later on, RaceBox trailers with his son, James. CLICK HERE to read that one.
CKC&S 33 – A perfect example of core CLASSIC KIT CARS & SPECIALS subject matter this week in the shape of trials king, Mike Cannon whose cars dominated that scene in the UK for many, many years. The majority of his cars were sold in kit form too. Even now you’ll see Cannons competing on the hills and although maybe not be as competitive nowadays they are still being enjoyed.
Cannon hated fuss and detailed information is very hard to find even on the ‘interweb’ so sit back and enjoy this look at a very underrated and modest engineer who delighted in describing himself as ‘a bit of a dabbler’. CLICK HERE to go there.
CKC&S 34 – This week in CLASSIC KIT CARS & SPECIALS we turn our attention to a gifted artisan of GRP called (‘the other’) Jim Clark who worked within our industry for many years and who built his reputation in top-line motorsport in the sixties and seventies when he worked for Lotus (where he was given the ‘other’ Jim Clark nickname and then Specialised Mouldings. CLICK HERE to go there.
