Perhaps this thread is turning into a Stevens love-in, but just look at this Desauto Stevens GT
It’s a Le Mans prototype car designed and built by Tony Stevens in 1967, whilst working at Rootes Group Engineering (Chief Engineer).
Rootes were concentrating on their Sunbeam Tiger V8 entry for Le Mans, and his design and plans were not considered by the board of directors, so he undertook a home build based upon an aluminium monocoque and powered by two 4-cyl Hillman Imp engines mated together to form a 2.0litre, 8 cylinder.
There is not a lot of information to be found about the history of this prototype, but hopefully its still out there some where waiting to be found.
The car never raced at Le Mans but took part on the race circuit and hill climbs.
Tony Stevens writes: The GT started with me realising that an Imp powered lightweight GT could take the Index of Performance at Le Mans.
Rootes did not have the money to do it so I designed and built it at my own cost.
The original was a 998cc Imp powered car, but when Rootes then said that even with the car in existence they could not afford to take it to Le Mans I started using it for club racing and hill climbs.
I then built the engine, which was actually a parallel 8. Two Imp engines moved by half a bore so that they nestled as close as possible.
Chained together with Reynolds racing chain, then an AP formula 2 racing clutch and a porsche gearbox, upside down to suit a mid engine. The first ever fuel injection system, from Tecalamit, which we never got right. We could leave the Ferraris etc behind for one lap of Silverstone, then it died.
I eventually sold the car to someone who just wanted the 8 for powerboat racing. The car without engine then appeared in an auction, but after that nothing.
following on from my earlier post < here > re. my time and experience with Lomax kit cars . .
I was well n’ truly upset that he betrayed us. The lads were loyal by way of being good employees and generally nice people ..they didn’t deserve that. And I was confounded because I couldn't believe just how dumb-arsed stupid Nigel Whall was. He had this young but energetic, enthusiastic and proactive business, which was breaking its balls to make his concept a success ..and he just dumped them ! Had he stepped in with his broad experience to guide us - then things might have been very different ..but he didn't.
I might only assume his actions were not thought-through but were prompted by impatience &/or greed, insomuch as he had given me an equal partnership of his sibling & part-time hobby-business (ie., essentially selling nothing but a body kit) ..and within this first year - the concept / one-off prototype had developed into a marketed product, it had been featured on BBC's Top Gear and in every kit and sports car magazine, some of which were popular across Europe, and to most every UK kit-car show ..And lucrative orders were pouring in faster than we had the capacity to complete them.
Being still wet behind the ears - I didn't know what, if anything, we might do about it. In retrospect, perhaps that was really very fortunate, because I just moved on ..rather than trying to fight a messy legal battle. After that show weekend - my responsibility was to work out what were the options ? and to implement the best way forward. Of course, as we didn't know in advance, then nor did any customer ..so we had half a dozen outstanding Lomax orders in hand. Nigel reluctantly agreed we could complete those we had, so that would give us a few weeks of work and possibly as much as a couple of months before the brown mucky stuff really hit the fan.
The thought of thereafter closing up shop was never more than a wispy brain fart. I was tied into a lease on the rented workshop and didn’t have another job to go to ..and neither did any of the guys. So it was a matter of finding another product to make and sell.
So, as the lads got on with work in hand., I sat down with a pile of classic car magazines.
We were in the kit car industry now so it was obvious that was the direction to look. . . .And we had a few things in our favour : Firstly ; I had capable employees and the facilities ready and waiting. We also had good working relations with our suppliers. We knew something of the kit car business, what the public liked (or rather : paid money for) and what the press would feed on.
Financially, we had been knocked clean off the road ..but we were not yet in the ditch : Most all customer enquiries, since I had taken over running Lomax, had been / were coming to us. It would take a month or so lead-in-time for Nigel to get his new business address into the magazines. And in the meantime, we would be there sell the Lomax ‘options’ that people came back for once they’d started building their basic kit. As it turned out ..there were a few more new orders already in the post to us too.
But what would we do then ? We needed a new product.
The potential customers, who saw us at shows or had read the magazines and were writing to us for a brochure, already knew our kit-cars were based on the Citroen A-series. So if I were to capitalize on our company name and the enquires we had coming in - then it would have been daft to swap to another ‘donor’ vehicle. Citroen A-series it would be then.
And because we needed to compete - I had the advantage in knowing their product inside out ..including its many shortcomings. We also knew of the issues in producing them.! And I knew their prices ..and what was hardly profitable. Geez., we musta had insider information !
Of course any customer’s step towards buying a Lomax suggested they either wanted a fun little bug-eye beetle, or else a sorta vintage style car. Certainly their consumer profile didn't point toward the exotic end of the market.! Those customers were looking for something easy / quick to build, and then cheap to insure and fun to drive .
So., I was looking for a Classic but cheap sports car style.. Something the buying public would instantly relate to, rather than anything too modern or new (which may or may not click with them). I didn’t want anything too close to the Lomax ..which was Ok because the Citroen's engine is positioned well forward of the front axle - so it ruled out most other kinds of pre-war styles.
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Naturally I knew something of Colin Chapman, not least because the Stevens Cipher shape had been likened to the Lotus Elan (..which btw happens to be purely coincidental because Tony's inspiration for the Cipher was his passion for Ferrari's, and in this case the styling of the Daytona). Anyway, from scanning through my magazines I'd honed-in on the Lotus 7.
I could visualize how that shinny shape might sit well enough on a Citroen chassis, how its slab sides and separate wings could be made as a kit-car (..cheaply), and could even related the crude but brilliant 602cc Citroen engine to the humble 750cc Austin-7 of his original hill climber ..with its spindly 15" wheels. The basic concept of that car was ; minimal weight to make the best use of the power available. And I thought a kit car of a kit car was a nice irony.
And then by chance I came across a classified ad, from another would-be kit car manufacture - selling a crappy set of Super-7 wings and nose cone. I think they’d hastily tried to rip-off an original Lotus 7, but the panels had distorted. In any case I bought them cheaply ( I’d need to cut them up anyway).
It then only took a matter of days to strip a donor and lower its rolling chassis (lowered in the same way as I'd done on the Lomax) and to rough out a new floor pan and build a body-tub in plywood.
Within the first week (between managing the business and dealing with Lomax enquiries) the new car had taken shape with nose cone, front wings, body tub with windscreen (off the Lomax) and seats. I had panel-pinned and then fiberglass bonded the plywood together ..a technique directly derived from the Mirror dinghy I had built as a school boy, but instead of wooden battens had used steel tubing to strengthen its top edges (including door cut-outs). To these I welded a beam across, under the dashboard, to support the steering column and handbrake. The bonnet and scuttle-top were in sheet aluminium (again like the original Lotus 7).
The mock up wasn’t tidy enough to photograph for advertising, but it showed it would work. Instead I did a sketch and sent it to the magazines to announce our new model. The company's name (since making fibreglass panels a lifetime before) had been Falcon Design, so the new model was simply called the Falcon S .
So that was it really, it just took another few weeks to turn those panels into moulds. . .
^ Earl helping with Clive Bailey (leaning forward in Left photo) looks to be taking a bulkhead and scuttle mould off the first body tub I'd made. Clive Mounce (right photo) helping us out, is making heaven knows what again (!) with the Falcon's wing moulds behind him. If you hate your job.. just look at this working environment !
The Super-7 panels had been modified to fit the width and shape of the body tub sitting on a standard Citroen chassis, but with lowered suspension. Trailer mudguards had been found for the back wheels. The bonnet and nose cone were made as a single GRP panel (so always a neat panel fit) which like the Triumph Herald hinged-up from the front. The headlamps and front indicators were attached to that. The body tub (in marine plywood and painted), reinforced with steel, was wrapped in aluminium ..which retained its polished finish. I added a roll over bar, very similar to that used in the Stevens Cipher, which was bolted through the floor to the chassis. That provided upper and outside-lower seat belt mountings. Seating became 2+2, plus a 30" deep luggage box between the rear seat back and the rear of the car ..which had the spare wheel mounted on to it.
But it was all a little too late. We'd been booted out of Lomax in June '84 and had ongoing bills to pay. I worked (..and for once earnt good money) as a design consultant with Tony Stevens on the Darrian rally car, and then again at GKN. I ploughed everything back into the business, but with a three to six month lead-in time for a road-test in the national motoring magazines, and kit-car sales dropping off through the winter - it wasn't enough.
Even though the mock-up was really quick in the making, it took two months to take a set of moulds, and panels out of those, and get the car built. Things like the roll cage, and interior trim needed to be designed, ordered, supplied and then fitted, to turn it into a show car. Bear in mind that I was out at work all day, and then running what was left of the business and building a new demonstrator inbetween times. We only just got the car ready for the last kit-car show of the year (Olympia) that September. I can't remember when things finally came to a head and there was no money left, but I had to lay everyone off. I think it was probably the singular most horrid thing of my career.
Our workshop in Livery Street, Birmingham (in the arches under Snowhill Station) was cleared and closed and its contract defaulted. I again wrote to the magazines to advise the change of address, this time to my home ; #24 Handsworth Wood Road. The Bailiff came to visit, but he was a really nice chap and, after a cuppa tea n' biscuit, didn't take a thing, not even the television or the car. He said our TV wasn't worth selling, and that I needed a car for getting to work didn't I ? It was really kind of him.
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I sub-let our down-stair's utility room (quickly converted to be a bedsit) at home to help pay bills and now worked in a back bedroom and in the single garage. despite whatever else i still had a mortgage and in those Thatcherite days the rates rocketed. I very nearly lost everything. I wrote the build manual which evolved into plans. And then the first Kit_Car magazine article on the Falcon-S came out .. we had enquiries again. The warmer weather came back and potential customers came to our home to see the car. Over the next year Jacquie & I re-established the business (working from home) and developed the three wheeler. The production fibreglass work was subcontracted out, and I'd cut the wood and aluminium panels for the kits in my garage or on the front garden lawn. We were always limited for space, and sometimes our home looked more like a factory's office, but we and the business survived.
The Falcon worked out well ..as an easy to home build and dirt-cheap, somewhat tongue-in-cheek but still great fun 'sports car'. It had unexpected spaciousness and numerous practical features that the Lomax (our competitors) didn't have - like the cooling engine fan and ducting, and its heater still in place. The steering column was through-bolted to a steel cross beam (whereas the Lomax was bolted to a flange of fibreglass), and the upper and lower seat belt mountings were on the roll over cage, and that beam was itself securely bolted through the car's chassis. The 2+2 seating might have lacked rear leg room but the padded shelf (with standard Citroen fuel tank under) was useful for our dog (a half Labrador) or else bags of shopping, and the rear parcel hinged up to reveal a deep (down-to-the-chassis) boot space. A decent hood made it sensible enough for touring. And because the car was so lightweight, with an unusually low centre of gravity.. it had a good turn of speed with exceptionally handling and steering.
^ "Big selling features" of the new car, versus the Lomax's beetle bum. You might happen to notice the background is snow. If I recall this was taken when Peter Filby came for the first road test (I wrote of that in a previous posting). Anyway things progressed, the business' new direction was led by : lowest possible overheads. We went to shows, and otherwise enjoyed the cars and customers. We never grew as big as Lomax once was, but we eventually did quite nicely for ourselves. I for one was glad to not work in a fibreglass workshop in a damp railway arch, and equally pleased to not have a sleeping (but verbal) senior business partner. In my spare time (..that was a luxury) I offered my services as a freelance Product Designer, this was inbetween being a shop keeper for Falcon design. So, if your family bought pots and pans at this time from one of the big brands, then you might well discover I had designed its handles.
Brian Mumford, who was now supposed to be running Lomax never seemed that interested, and I'd guess Nigel had to organize the grp mouldings because Brian to my knowledge never had the facilities. Certainly Lomax seemed very quiet for a few years ..perhaps they needed to redesign all the brackets, and trim, and weather gear, and suspension conversion - so as to not infringe my copyright.! After a while Nigel found new partners and Lomax moved again. Their product line seemed to diverge away from the halcyon days of the shiny black beetle and the quirky fun 3-wheelers. They became more "sophisticated".
By that time Jacquie and I couldn't care a damn about Lomax. We went down to the 2cv World Meeting in Portugal in a Falcon ..where the sun was so hot that we had to have the roof up. It was fun though when driving through quiet French villages.. The old gents sitting out on their benches would stir at the familiar fan-whine of the 2cv engine as it approached, and then stand and cheer and applaud as this little English sports car drove by.
^ These were the cover shots I used for our brochure. The photo on the right is from a trip down to the Octoberfest in Munich.
A Kiwi fella who was camping nearby (at the Octoberfest), came across to have a look at the car and we got chatting. A while later in passing he mentioned that he was hungry after all the beer drinking and singing. I said something to the effect "I know a good place for a pizza but its a little drive from here".. It seemed like a good idea at the time, so we jumped in the car and went to Italy and had a pizza, an Italian ice cream, and a cappuccino ..and were back in time for the evenings' festivities. ..True story. Here you go, I found a couple of piccies . .
For the three wheeler ; I conceived single rear wheel conversion by linking the two (cut-short) rear swinging arms with a welded-in cross beam, and then just one of those swinging arms, with its brake hub, was welded to the cross beam. Having built and tested it on my own car, I offered this as a service to customers. I think the photo below is of its debut at the Stoneleigh kit-car show. NB. the prototype and my Lomax 3-wheeler demonstrators were actually 4-wheelers with their two rear swinging arms switched from one side to the other so they came inwards.
Apparently the end of day, with Martin Newell talking to a potential, and Jacquie in the background taking the tonneau-cover off the wall.
^ These photos were taken by one of the kit car magazines in 1985 (I guess), when it was first introduced. Personally speaking - I think it looked great and it certainly drove exceedingly well. Top speed was a little over 90mph above which the aerodynamics of those front 'wings' made the steering go rather light.
The fuel filler pipe was in reinforced rubber and long enough to flex, so the boat-tail (hinged along its front lower edge) could be lifted like a big clam shell. Within this boot space, the single rear wheel had a mudguard over it, fibreglassed and sealed to the boot floor - so it was a usable dry space. The car's aluminium fuel tank was sited across wise, under the boot's floor, just above the rear axle. This car's rear end was light enough for me to lift and slide sideways.
The three wheeler configuration of two wheels at the front is nothing at all like that of a Reliant Robin or Rebel which has a tendency to roll over its single front wheel. No the configuration we used, albeit with a much longer wheelbase, was that of the Morgan 3-wheelers which are pretty formidable contestants on the race track. The above car is now (unfortunately) painted blue, and (last known) belonged to a former work colleague of mine, Mr John Stott, Harkstead, nr Ipswich.
We also had an agent in Europe.. Felix Hurter, in Switzerland - who ordered a number of kits from us. The following piccies are of his Falcons . . I don't recall many 4-wheel Falcon's with the boat tail. . To my eyes it looks odd with that size of rear mudguard.
So there we have it. After being hung out to dry we had made a comeback.
The Falcon was a very much more practical car, but the quirkiness of the Lomax still attracted many punters. But I really don't mind. I was happier, healthier and earnt more from the Falcons anyway. I sold my demonstrator for a tidy sum and so built another. And I entertained myself by developing tuning add-ons, and even imported Nitros oxide kits from the US of A.
As a matter of product development I first tuned the engine on my 'LX' (three wheeler) with (new) 650cc barrels from the Citroen Visa , a lightened flywheel, electronic ignition, tuned exhaust, and twin carburettors .It was fun. I recall taking her to a kit-car track open day at Castle Combe. It was all out down the straight ..which with the low frontal area was quite respectable (for 652cc flat twin) and then just a pip on the brakes before the hairpin.. at which time the wide eyed track marshals ducked ! But I'd screw the steering across and scrub the speed off on the tyres. My "braking" to that corner was later than almost anyone else, so on one lap I even manage to tuck under and ahead of a real Lotus-7 ! But then it was a lead foot hard to boards and ...I was left behind in the dust. LOL
I also built a demonstrator on the Ami-super chassis with its 1015cc flat-four OHC engine (originally used in the Citroen GS). That was quick and very smooth. And if I'd wanted more then I could have used their 1300cc motor ..but it didn't go around corners half as well as the lightweight twins.
Similar to Haydn Davies had done with his Burlingtons, I sold the Falcon as dimensioned plans in a 100 page (single spaced typing) build manual, plus however much of a kit + options the customer wanted. We bought a brand new (and decent spec) office photocopier and printed our own manuals, selling over a thousand of those ..perhaps closer to one and a half thousand.. whatever, we had a service contract on that machine and were on first-name terms with their service engineer / repair man. And then, over a few years, we had hundreds of orders for actual parts.
I went on to design and produce the first replacement chassis using box section tube. These fitted the kits (both Lomax and Falcon) as well as the standard 2cv and Dyane. This sideline became a business in its own right.
In the course of events my lady and I split up to go our own ways, and I sold the business in two parts.. the kit cars to the Frome 2cv Centre if I recall, and then the chassis business. Even then, I fell foul of someone trying to cheat me. Clearly I'm a shit judge of unscrupulous businessmen. I don't know why but those who bought either aspect of the business didn't do anything much with them. Perhaps Somerset wasn't where the customers were.! Nothing to do with me, as I'd gone to work in the United States. But perhaps because the business fizzled out, so did the long term enthusiasm of Falcon Owners.? I saw one a few years ago at a classic car show in Norfolk, but they are few and far between now. The 'Mod-Cons' Registrar of 2cvGB has the Ami-Super (never completed) in green with yellow livery ..which we used for a static display at kit-car shows. But I don't think he'll ever put it together as he has 'other' projects on the go.
So there we are .. The End
Bfg.
I've been volunteering at Cardiff Transport Preservation Group in Barry for a couple of years.
Plenty of old vehicles here-I generally fix the electrics on them.
Here's the website if any ones interested.
https://www.ctpg.co.uk/
If you want a few more photos of the buses and the work we've carried out-let me know.
A few photos
Evening all. My name’s Glen, and I’ve been lurking for a short while. 😀
My fleet is quite eclectic, the mainstay is a much modified Land-Rover Series 2 that I’ve had for the last 30 years. I’m currently in the process of purging several long running projects that I have come to the decision that they’re not going to get finished, so I’m not going to waste everyone’s time going through them on here.
The main bit of “autoshite” that I possess, and the reason why I’m here, is a Waaijenberg Canta LX, purchased earlier this year from a certain @grizz of this parish, that you may already be familiar with. 😀
I suspect that it’s a suitable chariot to gain me entry into this hallowed forum as a contributor?
Anyway, presumably there’s going to be some interest in 11hp worth of flyweight Dutch automotive lunacy, so I’ll start a thread shortly to sum up what little progress I’ve made since collecting it.
CreepingJesus reacted to garethj in Classic Kit Cars - The Filby Files. Now with Stevens cars on P4
