Donnington Park Kit Car Show 30th/31st August. Whose Going?
Discussion
AdiT said:
I'll be there Sat.
Posibly not in the Fury though, which would be the first since it's been on the road that I've reverted to attending in a tin-top.
Good to hear. What enthusiasts need is a thriving kit car industry. What the kit car industry needs is more business. The shows certainly help in both directions and I look forward to seeing both aims achieved successfully. The kit car business needs to grow and expand and that requires buyers. Come on chaps lets get to the shows!Posibly not in the Fury though, which would be the first since it's been on the road that I've reverted to attending in a tin-top.
Westyman said:
I'll be there - in a peugeot though not the stylus- on the look out for a full injection / management system - credit card primed & ready !
I have bought a lot of very cheap very good kit from shows over the years. There are excellent traders there such as Wollies who I have used for decades, SVC who are unbeatable for the massive stock they carry and umpteen tool sellers. Certainly worth a look.Currently I need a set of matching mats for my bright yellow Quantum. I am thinking really garish bright metalised mats could go well in this? The overall interior is Ford Gray fully fitted carpet and Recaro seats trimmed in a rather fetching lightly striped velour matching the light striped door cards. Door cars in a Kit car? Yes there are it is that well finished. Bit more colour would bring the whole together? Or over egg the pudding?? Probably but sports cars are there to bring looks? Admiring or otherwise? That's my excuse. Certainly bargains will be about.
qdos said:
Got the dog sitter sorted out so I don't have to excuse myself for having a dog who enjoys chasing cars that like to go round in circles all day. Also got myself a grubby fixer upper of a Midas Gold Coupe for a fun drive up. So all set for Saturday 
Excellent news and I am delighted to hear you will be about on Saturday. Subject to being able to find the right place to show my Quantum off for sale to all and sundry because it is most definitely for sale and depending how long this takes I will be footloose and fancy free. I do hope we can meet up and discuss kit cars, just for a change! It's great to meet up with someone with real detailed knowledge of the latest kit cars still at the workface daily and up to speed. I will PM my mobile number to you I will be around all day. Really looking forward to seeing how the show is going and enjoying the meet. Good news indeed.
v8yes said:
I will be there bringing my SBC supercharged ultima canam . Its open to sensible offers as looking for a new toy 
What a superb car! Many years ago I was privelaged to meet the man at Ultima cars. . Remarkably good products... This must be a real rocket when it's OTR good luck with your sale! Great to see the attendances are rising!Edited by v8yes on Thursday 28th August 22:30
Edited by Steffan on Thursday 28th August 22:39
Steffan said:
Subject to being able to find the right place to show my Quantum off for sale to all and sundry because it is most definitely for sale and depending how long this takes I will be footloose and fancy free.
There's a dedicated cars for sale area amongst the clubs. It'll be signposted so should be easy to find. AdamWilkins said:
Steffan said:
Subject to being able to find the right place to show my Quantum off for sale to all and sundry because it is most definitely for sale and depending how long this takes I will be footloose and fancy free.
There's a dedicated cars for sale area amongst the clubs. It'll be signposted so should be easy to find. I hope it is immaculate at ths one!
Toltec said:
Turn out seems pretty good, certainly had quite a crowd around us at times while we work on the Z3.
Indeed I thought there was a good crowd around the Show car areas and some very good stands in the main hall and indeed I watched the activities mentioned above and it all seemed well received. A pretty turnout too, there were at leat twenty Quantums there including my RSTurbo and a real plethora of Robin Hoods many of which were excellent kit cars. Must have been more than forty Italian Sports cars including a fair few pretty presentable famous name copies and I counted ten Lambo type cars. I Dropped my price on my RS Turbo at the show by a pretry good wedge because I do want the car sold. Amending my ads to the new price this vending because I am very hopeful it will sell at this new figure.
I think this is more or less the last kit car show this year and as it happens I was there and thank the Almighty it did not rain! Great for walking around on reasonably secure footings and it really made watching the track events and viewing outside the hall a real pleasure nice walk on a sunny day. Looking forward to tomorrow I hope it's dry again but this is England. Cant have the green countryude and no rain!
Was a good show for me. I wanted to learn more about kits, see them in the metal before making a decision on which car to build. I really fancy building a bike engined car but to start with a simpler project may be good. The mx5 based kits look hard to beat to be honest, both for build simplicty, cost, single donor which avoids the q plate. The exocet xs is my preferred choice atm, around 3k plus donor is a nice easy entry level, both in terms of skill and cost.
Came to look for you steffan, found your car but not you, next time maybe
Came to look for you steffan, found your car but not you, next time maybe
Edited by Igurisu on Saturday 30th August 21:31
Edited by Igurisu on Sunday 31st August 07:09
Igurisu said:
Was a good show for me. I wanted to learn more about kits, see them in the metal before making a decision on which car to build. I really fancy building a bike engined car but to start with a simpler project may be good. The mx5 based kits look hard to beat to be honest, both for build simplicty, cost, single donor which avoids the q plate. The exocet xs is my preferred choice atm, around 3k plus donor is a nice easy entry level, both in terms of skill and cost.
Came to look for you steffan, found your car but not you, next time maybe
Just got back from helping exhibitors I know atbtye show to upload and off. Excellent day at Donington superb sunny day and a really good time was had by all I hope. The weather makes such a difference and it really was quite balmy pretty well all day. Came to look for you steffan, found your car but not you, next time maybe
Edited by Igurisu on Saturday 30th August 21:31
Edited by Igurisu on Sunday 31st August 07:09
I did meet up with a few PHers including qdos who had made the journey from the wilds of Cornwall in his current Midas which from his description seems to possess most of the faults that old A seres cars can have. His accompanying travellers went in a rather less esoteric transport and sensibly travelled in front because the smoke was just too much. Those were the days! Amazing how youth proofs you against such matters. The A series is still my favourite engine although it s getting a bit long in the tooth now (like me!).
Stuart Mills was his usual breezy (and singularly focused and successful) self and demonstrated his latest Batmobile to me and other interested parties at rhe show and it really is a very interesting different vehicle. Battery driven Trike with two good seats and most unusual on board wind driven turbine charger and solar panel and regenerative power in braking and excellent range and battery performance.
I can only admire the ideas and the energy needed to enable the ideas to actually be created in real life. Another lovely Replicar kit car on the MEV stand looking absolutely lovely as these exceptionally well finished and detailed kits do. I have got to build one but I need to sell some cars first!
Had a couple of serious enquiries on my Quantum RSTurbo progressing these next week. I had a really good time and the excellent weather today did make this one of the best recent Kit Car shows I have attended. Great day out with a delightful drive there over country lanes and home at a steady 60 on the swooping curves of the M42 and the A5 bypas. Not a lot of traffic either. Great day out!
I got home from the show on Saturday just gone 11pm, I set off at 6.30am in the morning after walking the dog and dropping her off for the day at parents, and I'd have happily turned right round right and go and do it all again....I spent all day there and still missed talking to people I wanted to and seeing things. Definitely should have gone Sunday too!
OK perhaps my car is burning more than just oil and filling the cockpit with happy drugs or something after all the guy I bought the car off did have a lot of dreadlocks but I can honestly say I've not had a day with so much enjoyment of cars since I can not remember and I can tell you I've had some serious fun in cars
The show was great. OK it was no where near the numbers of people there as there used to be back in the good old days and there were nothing like the numbers of manufacturers and trade stands as there was in those days either I don't think there was any autotests going on either but it really was thoroughly enjoyable. For me this is a superb venue as not only do you have a hall for the display stands and plenty of parking with huge areas for owners to bring and display their cars (FOR FREE ENTRY TOO!) but you've also got a shed load of racing going on where you can wander round the infield and spectate with views of as much as 75% of the circuit it's brilliant. There's also an excellent museum you can go and have a look at F1 cars too if you want but I've not had the time yet to do that. What maybe was lacking in quantity was more than made up for with the quality in my opinion. I didn't go expecting the X Factor (God I hate that show anyway) just for some time out to enjoy a bit of automotive leisure and I couldn't really go wrong.
The best thing though is driving your car to and then from the show. Now mine is well and truly past it's best and it's been neglected for at least a decade or more I'd say from the sorry state it is in and I am certain anyone who has seen it will not hesitate to confirm this. But it's road legal and it runs. And, well I really and truly love driving this little car it's just mile after mile of smile smile smile. I went via all the motorways and dual carriage ways and thought I'd be bored silly as I usually am, especially as I don't have an onboard computer to play get the best mpg you can game. (In fact other than a rev counter nothing really works on the dash. OK needles point various directions but the bear absolutely no relation to speed, fuel, temperature and probably neither revs, as for miles on the odometer and trip meter well unless Donington is in Scotland now they tell pork pies too! by the way Steffan I'm in Dorset not Cornwall but only the width of Devon out there
) But I got out of the car on each of the many occasions en route, thanks to oil and petrol consumption making sure I stopped at every other service station to top up and be sure not to run dry, with a grin from ear to ear.
A handful of photos of my favourite cars of all time at the show plus a couple of interesting ones....
I could have bought a fair few items from the various trade stands and certainly made some good discoveries that I'm going to be investigating now. I did blow a fair bit more money than I'd intended spending on the day but I got myself a digital dash unit that will address all the useless instruments in my Midas and mean I don't have to rely on a head up display app on my phone.
On the return journey I gave the car some welly on the 10 miles of country lanes once I got off the proper main roads and seriously started looking for roundabouts so I could go back and do things over again. Being closing time on Saturday evening of course there were a fair few boy racers about about but I know they were well and truly blown away by this litle kit and how it could go round the curvy bits without so much as a sniff of the break pedal. Left them dumfounded and well and truly behind in the dust,,,, or perhaps it was the smog out of my exhaust any ways' I for one had a very very enjoyable day going to Donington today and I'd thoroughly recommend people get in their kit cars no matter what state they are in and get on over to the show next year. I'm thoroughly looking forward to Mini World Action Day at Castle Combe now for a bit of track time and then in November there's Total Kit Live at Brands. Still plenty of reasons to get out and about in those kits
Thanks to Complete Kit Car for putting on the show again!
OK perhaps my car is burning more than just oil and filling the cockpit with happy drugs or something after all the guy I bought the car off did have a lot of dreadlocks but I can honestly say I've not had a day with so much enjoyment of cars since I can not remember and I can tell you I've had some serious fun in cars
The show was great. OK it was no where near the numbers of people there as there used to be back in the good old days and there were nothing like the numbers of manufacturers and trade stands as there was in those days either I don't think there was any autotests going on either but it really was thoroughly enjoyable. For me this is a superb venue as not only do you have a hall for the display stands and plenty of parking with huge areas for owners to bring and display their cars (FOR FREE ENTRY TOO!) but you've also got a shed load of racing going on where you can wander round the infield and spectate with views of as much as 75% of the circuit it's brilliant. There's also an excellent museum you can go and have a look at F1 cars too if you want but I've not had the time yet to do that. What maybe was lacking in quantity was more than made up for with the quality in my opinion. I didn't go expecting the X Factor (God I hate that show anyway) just for some time out to enjoy a bit of automotive leisure and I couldn't really go wrong.
The best thing though is driving your car to and then from the show. Now mine is well and truly past it's best and it's been neglected for at least a decade or more I'd say from the sorry state it is in and I am certain anyone who has seen it will not hesitate to confirm this. But it's road legal and it runs. And, well I really and truly love driving this little car it's just mile after mile of smile smile smile. I went via all the motorways and dual carriage ways and thought I'd be bored silly as I usually am, especially as I don't have an onboard computer to play get the best mpg you can game. (In fact other than a rev counter nothing really works on the dash. OK needles point various directions but the bear absolutely no relation to speed, fuel, temperature and probably neither revs, as for miles on the odometer and trip meter well unless Donington is in Scotland now they tell pork pies too! by the way Steffan I'm in Dorset not Cornwall but only the width of Devon out there
) But I got out of the car on each of the many occasions en route, thanks to oil and petrol consumption making sure I stopped at every other service station to top up and be sure not to run dry, with a grin from ear to ear.A handful of photos of my favourite cars of all time at the show plus a couple of interesting ones....
I could have bought a fair few items from the various trade stands and certainly made some good discoveries that I'm going to be investigating now. I did blow a fair bit more money than I'd intended spending on the day but I got myself a digital dash unit that will address all the useless instruments in my Midas and mean I don't have to rely on a head up display app on my phone.
On the return journey I gave the car some welly on the 10 miles of country lanes once I got off the proper main roads and seriously started looking for roundabouts so I could go back and do things over again. Being closing time on Saturday evening of course there were a fair few boy racers about about but I know they were well and truly blown away by this litle kit and how it could go round the curvy bits without so much as a sniff of the break pedal. Left them dumfounded and well and truly behind in the dust,,,, or perhaps it was the smog out of my exhaust any ways' I for one had a very very enjoyable day going to Donington today and I'd thoroughly recommend people get in their kit cars no matter what state they are in and get on over to the show next year. I'm thoroughly looking forward to Mini World Action Day at Castle Combe now for a bit of track time and then in November there's Total Kit Live at Brands. Still plenty of reasons to get out and about in those kits
Thanks to Complete Kit Car for putting on the show again!
qdos said:
I got home from the show on Saturday just gone 11pm, I set off at 6.30am in the morning after walking the dog and dropping her off for the day at parents, and I'd have happily turned right round right and go and do it all again....I spent all day there and still missed talking to people I wanted to and seeing things. Definitely should have gone Sunday too!
OK perhaps my car is burning more than just oil and filling the cockpit with happy drugs or something after all the guy I bought the car off did have a lot of dreadlocks but I can honestly say I've not had a day with so much enjoyment of cars since I can not remember and I can tell you I've had some serious fun in cars
The show was great. OK it was no where near the numbers of people there as there used to be back in the good old days and there were nothing like the numbers of manufacturers and trade stands as there was in those days either I don't think there was any autotests going on either but it really was thoroughly enjoyable. For me this is a superb venue as not only do you have a hall for the display stands and plenty of parking with huge areas for owners to bring and display their cars (FOR FREE ENTRY TOO!) but you've also got a shed load of racing going on where you can wander round the infield and spectate with views of as much as 75% of the circuit it's brilliant. There's also an excellent museum you can go and have a look at F1 cars too if you want but I've not had the time yet to do that. What maybe was lacking in quantity was more than made up for with the quality in my opinion. I didn't go expecting the X Factor (God I hate that show anyway) just for some time out to enjoy a bit of automotive leisure and I couldn't really go wrong.
The best thing though is driving your car to and then from the show. Now mine is well and truly past it's best and it's been neglected for at least a decade or more I'd say from the sorry state it is in and I am certain anyone who has seen it will not hesitate to confirm this. But it's road legal and it runs. And, well I really and truly love driving this little car it's just mile after mile of smile smile smile. I went via all the motorways and dual carriage ways and thought I'd be bored silly as I usually am, especially as I don't have an onboard computer to play get the best mpg you can game. (In fact other than a rev counter nothing really works on the dash. OK needles point various directions but the bear absolutely no relation to speed, fuel, temperature and probably neither revs, as for miles on the odometer and trip meter well unless Donington is in Scotland now they tell pork pies too! by the way Steffan I'm in Dorset not Cornwall but only the width of Devon out there ) But I got out of the car on each of the many occasions en route, thanks to oil and petrol consumption making sure I stopped at every other service station to top up and be sure not to run dry, with a grin from ear to ear.
A handful of photos of my favourite cars of all time at the show plus a couple of interesting ones....
I could have bought a fair few items from the various trade stands and certainly made some good discoveries that I'm going to be investigating now. I did blow a fair bit more money than I'd intended spending on the day but I got myself a digital dash unit that will address all the useless instruments in my Midas and mean I don't have to rely on a head up display app on my phone.
On the return journey I gave the car some welly on the 10 miles of country lanes once I got off the proper main roads and seriously started looking for roundabouts so I could go back and do things over again. Being closing time on Saturday evening of course there were a fair few boy racers about about but I know they were well and truly blown away by this litle kit and how it could go round the curvy bits without so much as a sniff of the break pedal. Left them dumfounded and well and truly behind in the dust,,,, or perhaps it was the smog out of my exhaust any ways' I for one had a very very enjoyable day going to Donington today and I'd thoroughly recommend people get in their kit cars no matter what state they are in and get on over to the show next year. I'm thoroughly looking forward to Mini World Action Day at Castle Combe now for a bit of track time and then in November there's Total Kit Live at Brands. Still plenty of reasons to get out and about in those kits
Thanks to Complete Kit Car for putting on the show again!
Great to hear of your adventures in the name of classic kit car enjoyments and I can well understand your love of the A series Midas cars they are undoubtedly the best, indeed probably the only glass fibre monocoque cars still being made in the UK as you must know because of your interested therein! The excellent and informative tome above really does underline the way some cars just supercede their ordinary status.OK perhaps my car is burning more than just oil and filling the cockpit with happy drugs or something after all the guy I bought the car off did have a lot of dreadlocks but I can honestly say I've not had a day with so much enjoyment of cars since I can not remember and I can tell you I've had some serious fun in cars
The show was great. OK it was no where near the numbers of people there as there used to be back in the good old days and there were nothing like the numbers of manufacturers and trade stands as there was in those days either I don't think there was any autotests going on either but it really was thoroughly enjoyable. For me this is a superb venue as not only do you have a hall for the display stands and plenty of parking with huge areas for owners to bring and display their cars (FOR FREE ENTRY TOO!) but you've also got a shed load of racing going on where you can wander round the infield and spectate with views of as much as 75% of the circuit it's brilliant. There's also an excellent museum you can go and have a look at F1 cars too if you want but I've not had the time yet to do that. What maybe was lacking in quantity was more than made up for with the quality in my opinion. I didn't go expecting the X Factor (God I hate that show anyway) just for some time out to enjoy a bit of automotive leisure and I couldn't really go wrong.
The best thing though is driving your car to and then from the show. Now mine is well and truly past it's best and it's been neglected for at least a decade or more I'd say from the sorry state it is in and I am certain anyone who has seen it will not hesitate to confirm this. But it's road legal and it runs. And, well I really and truly love driving this little car it's just mile after mile of smile smile smile. I went via all the motorways and dual carriage ways and thought I'd be bored silly as I usually am, especially as I don't have an onboard computer to play get the best mpg you can game. (In fact other than a rev counter nothing really works on the dash. OK needles point various directions but the bear absolutely no relation to speed, fuel, temperature and probably neither revs, as for miles on the odometer and trip meter well unless Donington is in Scotland now they tell pork pies too! by the way Steffan I'm in Dorset not Cornwall but only the width of Devon out there
) But I got out of the car on each of the many occasions en route, thanks to oil and petrol consumption making sure I stopped at every other service station to top up and be sure not to run dry, with a grin from ear to ear.A handful of photos of my favourite cars of all time at the show plus a couple of interesting ones....
I could have bought a fair few items from the various trade stands and certainly made some good discoveries that I'm going to be investigating now. I did blow a fair bit more money than I'd intended spending on the day but I got myself a digital dash unit that will address all the useless instruments in my Midas and mean I don't have to rely on a head up display app on my phone.
On the return journey I gave the car some welly on the 10 miles of country lanes once I got off the proper main roads and seriously started looking for roundabouts so I could go back and do things over again. Being closing time on Saturday evening of course there were a fair few boy racers about about but I know they were well and truly blown away by this litle kit and how it could go round the curvy bits without so much as a sniff of the break pedal. Left them dumfounded and well and truly behind in the dust,,,, or perhaps it was the smog out of my exhaust any ways' I for one had a very very enjoyable day going to Donington today and I'd thoroughly recommend people get in their kit cars no matter what state they are in and get on over to the show next year. I'm thoroughly looking forward to Mini World Action Day at Castle Combe now for a bit of track time and then in November there's Total Kit Live at Brands. Still plenty of reasons to get out and about in those kits
Thanks to Complete Kit Car for putting on the show again!
Reminds me of the two I still have waiting patiently for attention but I am over kit car'd as SWMBO confirms weekly. I personally still love the A Series Weslake/BMC engines they can eat the K series for breakfast in the robust, reliability and unbreakable stakes and I love the sounds these cars make especially in the throatier Mini Cooper S series of engines. I have two Metro Turbo engines about somewhere but getting around to rebuilding them is up the spout because it would be a winter job and I am abroad in Italy every winter.
Great to hear of your experiences and maybe two days next time. Mind you we all have to be aware of costs these days and I would not choose to be anywhere near the Castle Donnington at night or early morning because the flights start at 5.00 and continue all day as some of those statyng over explained to me in pretty descriptive language.even in ther Motorhomes!
But well worth while as a show and good to hear of your experiences and the excellent photos. Subject to the show being on again next year, which I very much hope it will be but the margins must be tight at best and this was the best weather the organisers can expect. Let's hope so. We need better attended KIt Car shows and I do think this was an excellent show.
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