Classic Kit Cars - The Filby Files. Now with Stevens cars on P4

[garethj]

Kit cars are always interesting, even if it’s to wonder what the actual fuck they were thinking of.  Peter Filby has had his fingers in many fibreglass pies but the writer is Chris Rees who seems to know all the stuff.

I got this book from Amazon, second hand for a fiver.  I’ll put some of the pages up here, I’m sure you’ll recognise a few of the cars.  I put the first one up mainly to show what a complete two and eight some of this stuff is, what a complete waste of self tappers.

 

[garethj]

[garethj]

[garethj]

[bunglebus]

Cool book. I'd like a Covin with a totally inappropriate engine to piss the Porsche purists off, and now I want a Bloata purely for the comedy name.

[Christine]

I built a Burlington  SS  in my yoof. !

[garethj]

I love the Burlington, I’ve got a half arsed plan to design my own.

The Covin looks convincing, better than the Pulsar ?

[garethj]

I put the Stevens Cipher in here because @Bfg was involved in the development 

[Alan_Green]

Great stuff.  The Bonito was my favourite when I was a kid.

[bunglebus]

Always fancied a Nova - the VW based one, not a Vauxhall.

[sierraman]

I’d forgot how terrible some of those kit cars were.

[inconsistant]

Crikey. That's some challenging reading.

[jonathan_dyane]

Butterfield Musketeer for me please 

[Snipes]

Beaujangle Can Am! What a name!

[Steve79]

Quite fancy a beaver - snigger!

[quicksilver]

I've never heard of most of those so I need to get myself a copy of that. Makes me wonder if any were actually built or the buyers got fed up of how crappy the kit was and just chucked the whole lot in the skip. Those names though! I'll have a Butterfield Musketeer, or maybe a Grantura Yak or a Beaujangle Can Am.  Or perhaps a Sheen Imperator GTS.

[Crusty Sills]

I'd happily roll in a Cavallo Estivo. Looks a bit TVRish. 

[garethj]

There’s a fair chance lots were part-built and then scrapped, some were never started and they occasionally come up for sale even 3 or 4 decades later.

It’s great to see what people come up with, some are really very good indeed compared to contemporary production cars (not very well made either)

[Crusty Sills]

Look at the state of the Magenta TXR.  Fuck me!     

[quicksilver]

Just now, Crusty Sills said:

Look at the state of the Magenta TXR.  Fuck me! 

It looks like an Allegro estate with a droop snoot! I've actually seen a Magenta Sprint, based on an MG 1100 and it's no looker either.

[anonymous user]

I have a box with some of the original  Kit Car magazines, occasionally dig them out for a reminisce 

[Bfg]

On 9/7/2019 at 9:49 PM, garethj said:

I put the Stevens Cipher in here because @Bfg was involved in the development 

yep (hands up) I did it !   

Interestingly there's a later one on Ebay at the moment < here >.  This one Tony re-engineered it and built in conjunction with "the Russians" using Lada 1300 Samara mechanicals.  There's only one, so if you're in the market for a unique small sports car, with readily available parts, then all you've got to do is to win the bid.  There are however eight (I think) Ciphers built, using four different power trains. 

And at the time of the (above) magazine listing I was partner to and running Lomax.  The prototype used the Citroen flat-twin engine but was on its own chassis.  I developed and marketed it as a kit-car package on the Citroen chassis.  In terms of sales and as a business it was "too successful,  too quickly"  for my level of experience. 

On 9/8/2019 at 12:36 PM, quicksilver said:

Makes me wonder if any were actually built or the buyers got fed up of how crappy the kit was and just chucked the whole lot in the skip.

I don't recall how many were sold but hundreds were built and many owners became great enthusiasts. 

After being ripped off by Nigel Whall, who created the Lomax's concept, I moved across to building the (also A-series Citroen based) Falcon S and its 3-wheeler version the LX which were styled along the lines of a Lotus Super-7.   It's noteworthy to remember that Colin Chapman started off in the kit-car business.  His prototype was for built for hill climbs, and the Lotus seven he sold as a kit was originally based on the Austin-7.  Only later did he progress to Ford.  Nevertheless, he sorta did OK for himself.

Bfg

 

[Mally]

My poor mans impression of a Lomax/Falcon.

  Mallinson 002

 

[Asimo]

Do tell us more,  I have always been interested in these "Morganesque" tricycles.

[vulgalour]

The ABC Tricar isn't as horrendous as it could be, keeping the best part of the Mini's design means it's actually fairly smart.  The Boler T-Bone, on the other hand, is probably best left not discussed.

[Mally]

56 minutes ago, Asimo said:

Do tell us more,  I have always been interested in these "Morganesque" tricycles.

 

There is some mention and photos here.

I built two at a cost of around £350 each. Sold the first for a grand, Couldn't get shut of the other, it went for £400 eventually.

[Bfg]

.

Here's a couple I built . .

^ Yes that's me. 

My first 'kit' was called a Stevens Sienna.  I had been working for Tony Stevens for a year (1979 - 80), helping him create the Cipher - which was intended for low volume production, and we'd just got it through limited-production Type Approved when Hesketh motorcycles and then Delorian crashed.  The latter was especially big publicity at the time because he had government backing ..to create jobs in Ireland.  As a result our financial backers took fright - The car business was too high risk.  

We were just a two man anyway + a part-time fibreglasser business so our overheads were minuscule. To bide time, while Tony was looking for a new source of venture capital, I proposed using the moulds from his prototype Sienna (the red car seen above) to create and market a kit-car.  The original Sienna had originated from his building 1920's style light-commercials as working advertising platforms (..United Biscuits : Taxi chocolate bar,  etc).  Anyway he simply said "get on with it then", so I bought a scruffy Triumph Herald, took a mould off the floor pan and extended a set of Sienna mouldings (sized for a Reliant Kitten) to sit over this four seater chassis.  It was comfortable and very easy to drive, reliable, and pretty quick with such a lightweight body, and things like the Triumph's wooden dashboard looked a treat.  Alas money ran out before I had a chance to get it to any kit-car shows, so only the one was made and it was sold through the local (Warwick, Leamington Spa) newspaper's classified ads ..to pay the bills.  No more money so I was laid off. 

These are the first two Ciphers we built.  The one in the background was the first, which was our development hack and the car used for the first press articles in Autocar and then Motor. Because of the publicity from those magazines, Tony managed to talk our way into exhibiting at the 1980 National Motor Show (first time held at the NEC if I recall) - Normally the organisers wouldn't allow any car that is not already in production or from an established manufacturer.  The second car (in the foreground) Tony had painted the same colour so there would be continuity between the magazine articles and the car actually on the stand in the show.  Subsequently it was repainted metallic blue and sold to a garage owner in the village of Deddington. Literally selling one to pay for the next two sets of mechanicals from Reliant. But as I say.. venture capital never materialised.

Only a few years later when the venture was laying financially stillborn, and I had my own fibreglassing business and was partner to Lomax, did I try to re-introduce the Cipher as a kit car. The kits were offered with all new mechanicals and mostly assembled.  The hope was that with the MG Midget and Triumph Spitfire by then out of production, there would have been takers, and those sales might in turn might attract venture capital.  Unfortunately, a new car was too expensive for 'kit car' punters.   I was building one car on Reliant running gear ..as per the original, and then a second car using Mk1 Ford Escort mechanicals,  but we were inundated with orders for the Lomax, so they sat unfinished in a corner of my workshop.  Then I met a chap whose business was building kit-cars for clients. He offered to finish the two Ciphers according to my spec. and we agreed a price.  He collected the two cars and then disappeared.  I got ripped off.  There ended my attempt to introduce the Cipher as a home completed new car. 

 

Anyway it's time for my supper now,  but ..if its of interest, I'll come back tomorrow (or whenever) and share a little background to the demonstrators I developed and built for Lomax and Falcon kit-cars (during the 1980's).

Bfg

     

 

[Alusilber]

I've seen a Cipher in the flesh once, at the end of a row of Scimitars at CarFest North 2013. As I'd never seen one before, I took a photo...

[AnthonyG]

Re the ABC Tricar, I struggle to see how a Mini with only one rear wheel, even if mounted like an early Morgan, would ‘handle better than a Mini’.

I had a Matchox model of a Siva S160, never even knew it was an actual car!

[Bfg]

On 9/10/2019 at 11:24 PM, Alusilber said:

I've seen a Cipher in the flesh once, at the end of a row of Scimitars at CarFest North 2013. As I'd never seen one before, I took a photo...

Making cars is not just about engineering, style and trim, to be successful you need to know the market and cater for it.  And Tony is a pretty smart cookie insomuch as he knew most new car manufacturers trip n' fall even before they get on two feet  ..simply because their customers expect (and need) a servicing and spares network where they are,  ie. spread throughout the country.  Tony then was focused on attracting a dealer network.  Within a month of the Motor Show he had some two hundred dealers interested in selling Ciphers, of which he sought to shortlist 100 who would provide really good customer care ..particularly Scimitar dealerships with proven trading relations with Reliant.  Part of the marketing 'ideal' was that a family might have a Scimitar, and then a Cipher for the wife or their college age kids (it had been designed to attract low insurance premiums).

Naturally their dealers selling Scimitars and the Reliant-based Ciphers would have been very good for Reliant.  As you can see in the photograph (above ) of the green Cipher the styling was pretty cool for a fibreglass car. This was car # 5. The first two you've seen in my piccie, and the next two were built at Reliant by their staff as a feasibility study.  One was white over black, and the other was red.  The builds went fine but Reliant's in-house unions griped at everything and used the exercise as lever for more money, less hours, better pensions, and redefined job allocations.  Reliant's management liked the idea of a small sports car but decided to go with Ford mechanicals and a Michellotti shape (possibly his last ?).  So they spent four years and their children's inheritance in developing and getting type approval for the wedge shaped SS1.  Introduced in 1984,  this was two years after the 1500cc Fiat X-19,  and 10 years after the TR7 - either of which might have be seen as a competitor, so the Reliant had to compete with used car sale prices, the TR7's rally successes, and the TR8, plus a broad array of  "Hot hatches" that came onto the market at that time.  All things considered their car did surprisingly well.