The Murtaya - TVR Alternative?

[Chris71]

JR said:

RichB said:

scotty_d said:

it looks to kit car at least TVR hide it a bit

Maybe that's because since the late 60's TVRs have not been kit cars?

Always amuses and irritates me this - when talking about Morgans people go all gooey eyed and say how wonderful it is to see English craftsmanship making hand built cars, yet with TVRs, because they used GRP instead of wood they call them kit cars. Odd...

Just a footnote but the last TVR kit was in the 70s ('74?) and TVRs do use wood...

Built in '72, sold in '73 I believe.

It's this one:

[Frankthered]

Hiryu said:

Pooh said:

JonRB said:

Was the Murtaya originally the Delfino Feroce ("ferocious dolphin", FFS) or was that another roadster based on Impreza running gear?

It was originally called the Minari and was based on the Alfa boxer engined 33 or Sud.

In the beginning, Adrenaline Motorsport got the rights to the Delfino and wanted to start building those...However, they started realizing that there were a lot of changes that they wanted to make on the original Delfino design, and they eventually started over. Using both the Minari and Feroce as inspiration, they came up with the Murtaya. I think AMS is also planning to re-release the Minari with an updated powertrain (AMS also has the rights to the Minari).

Or at least that's how I've gathered the history over the last few years...

Mike

Not quite! The Alfa Sud / 33 based Minari started life in the early 90's.

After several years of production, Minari Engineering developed the Delfino Feroce with some overseas investment (around 1999?) using the existing kit and Subaru mechanicals as the basis. The design ended up being a little cluttered, to say the least.

The Minari ceased production in 2000 and the original, Alfa based project was sold to Adrenaline in 2006. AFAIK, the Delfino still belongs to the guys who developed it and/or the foreign investor.

Adrenaline took the Minari design and tried to redevelop it to accept the Subaru mechanicals, but came to the conclusion that it would be easier to completely redesign the car. Although the overall shape is similar, I understand that the only thing that is the same is the screen.

Adrenaline originally intended to market the original kit too, but got too busy with the Murtaya and sold the project on to Peninsula Sports Cars in 2007 - Peninsula are now considering redevloping the Minari to take more modern running gear.

Although I would agree that the Murtaya is completely different to a TVR, I would say that it is a hugely fast, capable car that deserves respect and does not deserve to be dismissed as a mere "kit car".

Cheers