'80s kits: Hensen M30, Magenta Tarragon, Carlton Commando

[Owain71]

I bought this fab 1984 tome in a bookshop for a couple of quid - it's great if, like me, you own 1980s cars as it covers how pretty much everything works:

 

 

There are some great period ads inside, including these:

 

 

^ Never seen one of these in the metal!

 

 

^ Nor this!

 

 

^ Now this I have seen! I used to see one regularly a couple of years ago when I was commuting from Bicester to Milton Keynes, always near Buckingham. Think it had a slightly different frontal treatment, though...

 

Anyone ever seen a Hensen or a Magenta?

 

 

[ShiteRider]

The commando looks quite smart. Is it sad that i know it's based on a mk4 cortina by the shape of the doors, without reading the advert?

(top front corner of the window frame has asharper angle than a mk5, the mk5 also has a flatter roof panel)

[Tayne]

There's a Hensen in Edinburgh, it's owner lives near a friend of mine.

I'll find some photos later.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I love these horrible old things, theyre all brilliant!!! The Hensen is particularly vile-looking but I believe they were quite a high quality effort at least. Amazing to think that someone can turn their hand to kit cars after a lifetime designing Muppets and Fraggles etc.

[Junkman]

 

There are no hidden extra bits to find, or parts required from other vehicles.

 

What? Not even Marina door handles?

[Hertz]

Yep I love them too, never seen the Tarragon before.

 

Shame most of these kit car makers came and went as if nothing else they were trying to be different. All that's left are copies (Cobra's and GT40's etc) or Caterham efforts.

 

Has anyone had one of these yet?

 

[ShiteRider]

There used to be a barbie pink starcraft in Bury, i nearly ran up the arse of a taxi when i saw it!

[Jim Bergerac]

There's a Hensen in Edinburgh, it's owner lives near a friend of mine.

I'll find some photos later.

 

There can't be more than one about round here, so would imagine the one I've seen was that one. The owner was amazed that I knew what it was!

 

[Ratdat]

I think I still have some copies of 'Alternative Cars' some where. If I can find them I'll bosh up some scans. They're chock full of ungainly plastic chod like this. Marvelous.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Those Filby 'alternative cars' mags are absolutely chock full of all sorts of oddball 80's shite, in fact i bet they achieved a 'shite density' that has never been surpassed

[Tayne]

There can't be more than one about round here, so would imagine the one I've seen was that one. The owner was amazed that I knew what it was!

 

 

 

Indeed.

 

I put these two pictures up on flickr a few years ago.

 

Hensen M30 by Tayne, on Flickr

 

Hensen by Tayne, on Flickr

 

This lead to a brief contact with the owner, his plan to put a 5.0 Chevy engine in the car and the fact that he owns this sand rail.

 

 

 

Also, there were only 16 Hensens built and at least three of them made it past the 80s....

 

1154038030-hensenm30-arty by Devalady, on Flickr

 

1154038207-hensenm30-nose by Devalady, on Flickr

[Tayne]

Only 16 or 17 produced and they cost £4600 for the kit back in the early 80s.

 

 

https://www.flickr.com/search?text=hensen%20m30&sort=relevance

[sheffcortinacentre]

that carlton has mk3 doors (long handle integral lock) like the starcraft only the cab & doors where used. both having fibreglass skins.

 

starcrafts have similar performance/handleing to a house.

 

only the mk5 saloon & series 2 P100 have the curved top frt corner to the door window frame.

[Junkman]

Shame most of these kit car makers came and went as if nothing else they were trying to be different. All that's left are copies (Cobra's and GT40's etc) or Caterham efforts.

 

 

There is a lot more going on, if what I saw at the Stoneleigh Kit Car Show is anything to go by.

I was most impressed by the Ultima GTR.

 

 

I had a lengthy discussion with its makers, simply because they very obviously know more about car technology, then a lot of people I met, who work for the so-called car industry, and for some odd reason unbeknown to me, considered me a worthy discussion partner.

Those were two really eye opening hours, lemme tellya.

The car in the configuration they used to hammer the Top Gear lap record would cost you around 50k to build, and it could win you the LMP2 class, with two number plates on it, mind, if you can get it ACO rules compliant, and hired some divers, that contrary to me, can actually drive.

 

Apart from that, there was a plethora of other very interesting stuff, some of which being a genuine alternative to the newfangled shit you get from the fascist corporations. A lot of it is truly innovative, made by people who really know their stuff, and thus wouldn't stand a chance among the full idiots employed by today's mainstream car makers, who are carefully selected for maximum incompetence by their outsourced HR hiring procedures, on which I enthusiastically shit.

 

When it comes to replicas, there were Alfa 3.0 V6 powered Stratos replicas, that looked and sounded better than the real thing, and a Lola T70 replica with a big bloody crate ZZ 572/720R Chevy, that made the ground and my rib cage vibrate when it was fired up. Nuff sed?

 

This annual kit car show, usually held on the May bank holiday weekend in deepest Countrybumpkinshire, of all places, is the biggest of the World! Plus, it's British, so it must be good.

Seriously recommended by yours truly.

[warren t claim]

I was a bit of a kit car fan back in the 1980s so this thread is pure porn to me. The Henson was a high quality kit but the factory support and even the build manual were virtually non existent. The KVA GT40 replica went even further by not printing any sort of instructions whatsoever, the kit maker believed that anyone who purchases one of his kits should have the aptitude to assemble it without assistance.

 

I've been toying with starting a shonky replicas thread for a while. Must get thinking cap on.

[mercrocker]

That white Henson looks like one of those old Practical Motorist composite car photo competitions...    I used to think 80s kits were as fugly as uck until the Koreans started selling their toss over here.   Now I am glad to see so many survivors, after all if they had stayed in business they would have been THE British motor industry!

[spike60]

Yep I love them too, never seen the Tarragon before.

 

Shame most of these kit car makers came and went as if nothing else they were trying to be different. All that's left are copies (Cobra's and GT40's etc) or Caterham efforts.

 

Has anyone had one of these yet?

 

As a sometime kit car and long term camper van owner this is my holy grail . Perhaps!

[anonymous user]

Useless information, the Hensen was produced in Milford Haven, the chap who did them is still down there and I believe still has one, but I haven't seen it out and about recently.

 

Edited to add

http://pembrokeshireherald.com/615/car-fire-costs-enthusiast-dearly/

Edited June 28, 2014 by anonymous user

[Jim Bergerac]

This annual kit car show, usually held on the May bank holiday weekend in deepest Countrybumpkinshire, of all places, is the biggest of the World! Plus, it's British, so it must be good.

Seriously recommended by yours truly.

 

I had wanted to check it out for some time and finally managed it this year. Can also recommend it. I spent the best part of a whole day there checking out the weird and the wonderful stuff that was to be found in the halls and the parking areas for the clubs and took hundreds of pictures. What surprised me most was the Cobra replicas. Now, having spent many years as an armchair kit enthusiast, reading the magazines and only being exposed to the odd Cobra replica on the streets, I wasn't much of a fan of them finding them quite boring. However, I was astonished by how much I liked some of the ones there. Beautifully dressed V8s under the bonnets and well trimmed interiors. I actually began to see the appeal of them.

 

... and if that wasn't enough, I spotted an Elswick Envoy driving round the showground.