RE: Phantom Vortex GTR

[jpf]

Wasn't there something in EVO recently?

GB, when are you going to write for them?

[ricola]

I'm pretty sure you can still buy kits, but it has gone fairly low key recently. Virago cars are trying to get capital to launch it as a production model so be quick before it gets to £50k+!

Rich

[grahambell]

jpf said:

Wasn't there something in EVO recently? GB, when are you going to write for them?

Hi jpf,

Offered to do reports on various kit cars including the Phantom when evo launched, but editor Barker was too fking ignorant to ever reply to me.

Know it all went quiet with Phantom due to very low sales and having to move premises - again.

As ricola says, Virago are planning to produce a production car based on the Phantom's styling (but with various changes underneath). Not sure were that will leave Phantom. Plan did seem to be to continue selling kits, but if nobody's buying them maybe they'll finally decide to call it a day. We shall have to wait and see.

[Aprisa]

You can (sort of) still buy a kit although it will be sub-contracted out due to lack of current premises, there are two in progress as we write.

You cannot order a Ford based car as the loom designer has refused to make another loom for these cars as his expertise lies with Honda.

Another three cars have been finished (one on the Isle of Wight) and one recently toured Germany and maintained speeds in excess of 130! until his radiator froze due to lack of sufficient anti-freeze

Two cars are in progress in the Midlands and Ken swears his car will be ready for Stoneleigh, although he may be sitting on deck chairs and steering with a pair of Mole grips

My car has so far been mechanically 100% reliable and starts first turn after weeks of neglect! in fact I have come to work in it today to play with the headlining. I have said it many times - it's a beautiful car let down by a combination of lack of funds and professional marketing, I hope it survives in one form or another.

HTH
Nick

[kenmorton]

As the advert goes:
"These won't be just ordinary deck chairs, they will be the finest 3 posistion reclining stripey nylon Recaro deck chairs and that wont be just a common pound shop set of mole grips but a full race Snap On mole grip !"

[Wacky Racer]

Aprisa said:

it's a beautiful car let down by a combination of lack of funds and professional marketing, I hope it survives in one form or another.

How often have we seen that in the Kit Car industry over the past twenty years...

Thank god for professional oufits such as Ultima, Westfield, Tiger and the like..........

[Tony427]

I saw one of these in Candy Apple Red at the Birmingham DVLA office, in Spring 2004 when we were both, me in a Cobra, getting our pre SVA inspections done. I thought then that it was a fabulous looking car and the fit and finish was superb. I was very surprised to be told on chatting with the owner that it had a Rover 827 engine in it but was assured that it went extremely well.

As regards limiting the engine/donor choice 'cos the loom designer only knows Honda stuff, get a new loom designer or a competent auto electrician in or even make a new loom from scratch..........

Sensible pricing and a better choice of motive power and the market will be there.

Cheers,

Tony

[cymtriks]

Wacky Racer said:

Aprisa said: it's a beautiful car let down by a combination of lack of funds and professional marketing, I hope it survives in one form or another. How often have we seen that in the Kit Car industry over the past twenty years... Thank god for professional oufits such as Ultima, Westfield, Tiger and the like..........

By professional do you mean lucky?

The Phantom is well made, by all acounts, and looks stunning next to most other kits. Perhaps that's the problem, they spent too much on a very high standard that simply wasn't expected by their customers. Other kits are successful with much lower standards of kit.

A colleague of mine has been trying to fit a heater to a well known traditional kit sportscar. The heater was the recommended type. First it wouldn't fit so he sent it to the manufacturer for fitting. But it came back fitted higher than the header tank. Raise the header tank? No way, the header tank would need a power bulge! Lower the heater? Not much room. Put it in a different position or fit a different heater, Mini or electric? Most of the build has been like this. He's sold a part or recommended a part only to find that it won't fit and that there are a dozen ways to make it fit all with their own "issues". Is the company bothered? Not really, as far as they're concerned its business as usual, their customers just have to muddle through, all part of the fun. A quick look through internet sites reveals several different combinations of fittings for each bit he's had trouble with.

Ultima and Caterham don't give many options. I honestly think that this is the main reason for their percieved quality, they don't give builders any option but to build it the right way.

[Aprisa]

Tony427 said:

I saw one of these in Candy Apple Red at the Birmingham DVLA office, in Spring 2004 when we were both, me in a Cobra, getting our pre SVA inspections done. I thought then that it was a fabulous looking car and the fit and finish was superb. I was very surprised to be told on chatting with the owner that it had a Rover 827 engine in it but was assured that it went extremely well. As regards limiting the engine/donor choice 'cos the loom designer only knows Honda stuff, get a new loom designer or a competent auto electrician in or even make a new loom from scratch.......... Sensible pricing and a better choice of motive power and the market will be there. Cheers, Tony Tony, its not that easy, a one-off loom for a car with this many options (air-con, mirrors, windows, central locking etc) is not cheap - say £2000 and unlikely to be faultless on the first attempt. Not many good electricians would want to risk their reputaion for such a small return. As stated above, reliability and cost saving comes from a limited range and avaialabilty of the donor parts. To get a good Duratec and box on a budget is not easy (although I am looking ) trouble is to get a real adavantage over the rover engine you are looking ata twin turbo setup which raises the bar another notch! Also I for one would not have been interested in the kit had it not had such a high quality of design and build, I'm not paying £25K for a car that looks like a dog's dinner! I would have gone with a cobra or Ultima instead. Nick

[CaseySimon]

I too was interested in some information in this car. I tried repeated attempts to contact Phantom in early 05 to no avail. I managed to exchange a few e-mails with Nick Hatton who gave me a few good bits of info. Here is the response I received from Phantom.


Hello Casey

Thank you for enquiry regarding the Phantom Vortex GTR. Please accept
our apologies for not responding to you sooner.

We receive many enquiries each year such as yours from countries outside
our home market. Unfortunately, as we are a small manufacturer with
limited resources, we are usually operating at our full capacity just to
meet demand for the Vortex in the UK. So much so, that we have decided
that until we can increase the size of the company and create a
dedicated Export Department, we cannot even consider exporting or
marketing overseas, or even quote shipping or vehicle costs to enquirers
in other countries.

In the meantime we would ask you to visit our web site at
www.phantom.uk.com from time to time where you will find full details.
And we plan to regularly e-mail a news update to worldwide enquirers.

We would like to continue to register contact details in order to
maintain our relationship with you in the future. And for future
reference, we are also interested in hearing from companies who would
like to introduce themselves to Phantom Automotive as potential
investment partners.

Please let us emphasise that we value your enquiry and please be assured
that we will strive to make this superb product and its successors
available in your country at some point in the future.

We look forward to contacting you again.

Kind regards

Phantom Automotive

This response really turned me off and got the car scratched off of my serious list. I have still not committed to my next car, but some of the latest conversations tell me I have not made a bad decision.

I was looking at possibly a Mitsubishi 2.0 liter power plant (350 HP) or possibly a nissan maxima combination which with a little boosting could be in the same power range. I agree for the price of the kit, the car needs more than 7.0 0-60 performance.

[Aprisa]

"working to full Capacity"
Nick

[EddyP]

Aprisa said:

"working to full Capacity" Nick

ah but nick, when you think about it is actually true theres only so much Norman can do

[whythem]

Just found this on Ebay. I wonder if it is the same car as on this thread. Looks a lot of car for what it is.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Phantom-Vortex-GTR_W0QQitemZ...

[Ozzie Dave]

I was contacted by Chris only a few weeks ago saying things will change later in the year but until then its available in kit form, they have the Duratech & Volvo units also as well as electric servo assistance. Not so sure about the new rear under spoiler, but the new front is neat and a few i've seen photos with HID lights inset look fantastic. A no-longer new car that I think will not date. If all goes well then there will be one here in Aus.

[EddyP]

The car on ebay is actually half of the green car in the background of the photo of the red car, it's a car that was rebuilt by a chap called Rich, you can see the rebuild on www.ricola.co.uk

Vortex Autmotive are still active, new website (www.voretex-auto.com), there is a review in Complete Kit Car this month, of the Ford Duratec powered car, of which two more are currently being built by customers, this car will be on the Vortex stand at Stonleigh.
There is also a Volvo T5 engined car in development delivering around 350bhp, which hopefully will also be at the Stoneleigh show, you can also see the build of the T5 car in Practical Performance Car mag over the next 8 months starting in this months issue.

[Moogle]

Looks like www.vortex-auto.com is now down

That's the GTM Libra and Vortex GTx now gone, such a shame, great looking cars. Very nearly lost the Murtaya as well.

[Ozzie Dave]

Was over at their office a month or so ago looking at a chassis and the car- can safely say it is not for short of spectacular, suspect its more likely a hosting problem than the company.
I spent the day with Chris going over things that were likely to be a problem for me (export order) and came away most impressed. (3L duratec engine, auto box etc). They may be low key but the quality of the chassis and everything else was nothing short of first class.

[Moogle]

www.vortex-auto.com isn't available on the Way Back Machine, perhaps if you or anyone else who is in contact with them you could let them know their site is down.

It's a lovely car, it would be a shame to let it drop off the face of the planet!

[EddyP]

I can confirm Vortex is most definitely not out of action.

Not sure why the site has gone down, but will have a word with Chris and we'll get it sorted ASAP.
There are many new developments going on at the moment, including a new Ford Ecoboost powered car.
You'll be able to see some of the latest work at this years Kit car show at Stoneleigh where we'll have a stand.

[Moogle]

EddyP said:

I can confirm Vortex is most definitely not out of action.

Not sure why the site has gone down, but will have a word with Chris and we'll get it sorted ASAP.
There are many new developments going on at the moment, including a new Ford Ecoboost powered car.
You'll be able to see some of the latest work at this years Kit car show at Stoneleigh where we'll have a stand.

Excellent! Fantastic news, looking forward to it!