RE: YKYWT... Northern Kit Cars Hornet

[Ferg]

I think the big problem with this car in this context is two-fold: one, that people tend to forget that back in the days it was marketed there was little choice for standing out from the crowd in automotive terms. Stick flames on your Anglia? I bet a lot of those cars fell victim to the Leopard Print too!! Secondly, people have always enjoyed the idea of having a 'special'. Countless Bentleys have been turned into specials and some of those aren't pretty, I assure you! Building cars is something that a lot of people enjoy. Sure Top Gear go for a 'built-in-a-shed' stereotype, but I see that largely as a sneer brought on by the simple, time-honoured, fact that if you can't do it, be-little those who can.
PH is full of people who can't work a hammer, let alone a spanner, so I'm sure the idea of driving a car you built yourself is alien if not abhorrent.

The comment on here that pigeon holes 'kit-cars' is a telling one. Are all kit-cars ugly? Badly built? Dangerous?
Sweeping generalisations are meat and drink on here!

PS
THAT is an ugly car.

[leghorn]

Dusty964 said:

Oooh, nice Merc, always fancied a classic.

Nice 944 over there too look- quite affordable now as well, perhaps worth looking at......

Wow.....458, amazing.

That one? Thats an MX5 love, yeah, nice enough, cheap to run, good fun to drive and a soft top.

Whats that? erm, its a crappy fibre glass home built car. Yes, it does look like something you would see in a 70's porno...................

Sorry, but the difference between a classic merc and that other contraption is huge.

Two different conversions I fear.
We're talking nostalgia. Boyhood dreams of exotic looking cars and Farah Fawcett.
We all know the reality of it is the car is tosh and Farah is sadly no longer with us.
But please let us have our dreams...

[SWoll]

Dusty964 said:

Oooh, nice Merc, always fancied a classic.

Nice 944 over there too look- quite affordable now as well, perhaps worth looking at......

Wow.....458, amazing.

That one? Thats an MX5 love, yeah, nice enough, cheap to run, good fun to drive and a soft top.

Whats that? erm, its a crappy fibre glass home built car. Yes, it does look like something you would see in a 70's porno...................

Sorry, but the difference between a classic merc and that other contraption is huge.

Exactly Dusty, that's where a number of posters have taken issue. 300 has a very differing view, which he is obviously entitled to. I would just prefer not to be branded as shallow or uneducated because I dont agree with him.

Ferg said:

The comment on here that pigeon holes 'kit-cars' is a telling one. Are all kit-cars ugly? Badly built? Dangerous?
Sweeping generalisations are meat and drink on here!

PS
THAT is an ugly car.

Couldn't agree more Ferg, of course this is not the case and there are any number of quality kit car manufacturers out their who design and engineer genuinely interesting and high quality vehicle kits where the emphasis is on the vehicle as a whole, rather than just a flashy "look at me" bodyshell and nothing else. But there are also companies who clearly don't...

[anonymous-user]

300bhp/ton said:

SWoll, Yonex, The Crack Fox and a few others.... you guys taking note here?

Taking note that you think your opinion is far more important than that of others? Perhaps in the 70's the Nova would cut it as a design, now it just looks a bit sad TBH.

[SWoll]

leghorn said:

Two different conversions I fear.
We're talking nostalgia. Boyhood dreams of exotic looking cars and Farah Fawcett.
We all know the reality of it is the car is tosh and Farah is sadly no longer with us.
But please let us have our dreams...

What do they say about "never meeting your heroes".

There are plenty of cars from that period to still dream about leghorn, I just don't think this is one of them...

[SWoll]

yonex said:

300bhp/ton said:

SWoll, Yonex, The Crack Fox and a few others.... you guys taking note here?

Taking note that you think your opinion is far more important than that of others?

Yeah, he does that.

[300bhp/ton]

Dusty964 said:

Sorry, but the difference between a classic merc and that other contraption is huge.

In terms of head turning????

[Dusty964]

300bhp/ton said:

Dusty964 said:

Sorry, but the difference between a classic merc and that other contraption is huge.

In terms of head turning????

In terms of wanting to own one, and not being seen dead in the other.

[300bhp/ton]

Dusty964 said:

In terms of wanting to own one, and not being seen dead in the other.

Wanting to own has little to do with head turning. As for your other comment, don't be so daft, it's a large and varied world out there. And at such shows you get a bit of everything on display.

Lets face it, some wouldn't want to be seen dead in a BMW 3 Series, but that's hardly conclusive evidence that they are rubbish cars.

[ktm301p]

Im just trying to imagine what the typical driver of this car would look like

[SWoll]

300bhp/ton said:

Dusty964 said:

Sorry, but the difference between a classic merc and that other contraption is huge.

In terms of head turning????

No, in it's ability to sit next to a 458 Italia without being jarringly out of place, which is clearly what Dusty's point was and what you demonstarted with your earlier photo post.

I'm sure my 7 year old sons reaction would be "is that an old Ferrari next to the 458 italia dad?", but once I had explained to him what it is he would respond "well what is it doing there then?". Even he would appreciate the difference.

This whole headturning thing needs to be taken into context as it is too vague a term. eg I'm sure Vanessa Feltz in a luminous catsuit walking down Kings Road would turn more heads than Heidi Klum in jeans and a t-shirt, but do you really think the 2 stand comparison? Or would turn heads for the same reasons?

ktm301p said:

Im just trying to imagine what the typical driver of this car would look like

I'm sure 300 would forward you a photo if you asked him nicely

Edited by SWoll on Wednesday 28th September 11:57

[300bhp/ton]

ktm301p said:

Im just trying to imagine what the typical driver of this car would look like

Is there such a thing for any car?

[Dusty964]

300bhp/ton said:

Dusty964 said:

In terms of wanting to own one, and not being seen dead in the other.

Wanting to own has little to do with head turning. As for your other comment, don't be so daft, it's a large and varied world out there. And at such shows you get a bit of everything on display.

Lets face it, some wouldn't want to be seen dead in a BMW 3 Series, but that's hardly conclusive evidence that they are rubbish cars.

But....buy your own criteria, its a large and varied world, so can i not just have my opinion that its ugly and not for me??
Im sure you get a little bit of everything at the aforementioned shows, but that doesnt make it correct to park that thing next to a 458 and be held in the same regard.

[SWoll]

300bhp/ton said:

Is there such a thing for any car?

With more niche cars such as this I think a similar driver profile is likely, but could be wrong.

[Stu R]

[J4CKO]

I can see what 300 is getting at, there is room in the motoring landscape for everything and I rebel against the perception that motoriing nirvana is only available via the price lists of german manufacturers and directly related to how far up it you go, I have seen beauty and value in many strange places, this may actually be quite good fun but I suspect mostly its a leaky shed that smells like a garden shed on a hot day. I am not that into image if I am honest but this is a wilfully odd and pretty ugly, despite my lack of ego I would rather be seen getting out of a Sheep.

This car needs a mad seventies uncle to be brought forwards in time in a kind of "Life on Mars" Scenario, he will arrive replete with brown cords, rally jacket and a British Airways shoulder bag, rocking a mad hairstyle and some shades he could fight crime in 2011, criminals rendered unconcious by one look at that interior, "Fire up the Hornet".

[smash]

Mark-C said:

I'm with you on this one. Surely every village had a nutter back in the 70s with a Cortina\Herald\beetle based kit car that looked overwhelmingly glorious to an 8 year old?

Nova anyone?

I will always have a soft spot for the Nova but yes, as has been pointed out already in this day and age the body is writing out cheques that the drivetrain can't cash.

Still, to be fair, it's had a good few cinematic outings - Cannonball Run 2, Death Race 2000 and Condorman (with Michael Crawford!). If you can get your blinkers off long enough to forget about the Beetle floorpan...for a 40 year old design (yep largely unchanged since 1972) it's still a very pretty shape.

P.S. The Sterling, as it's known in USA, is available over there with tube chassis and Scooby mid engine power...




An early 70's car needs an early 70's colour though - Yeah baby!

Edited by smash on Wednesday 28th September 12:40

[SWoll]

J4CKO said:

I can see what 300 is getting at, there is room in the motoring landscape for everything and I rebel against the perception that motoriing nirvana is only available via the price lists of german manufacturers and directly related to how far up it you go, I have seen beauty and value in many strange places, this may actually be quite good fun but I suspect mostly its a leaky shed that smells like a garden shed on a hot day. I am not that into image if I am honest but this is a wilfully odd and pretty ugly, despite my lack of ego I would rather be seen getting out of a Sheep.

This car needs a mad seventies uncle to be brought forwards in time in a kind of "Life on Mars" Scenario, he will arrive replete with brown cords, rally jacket and a British Airways shoulder bag, rocking a mad hairstyle and some shades he could fight crime in 2011, criminals rendered unconcious by one look at that interior, "Fire up the Hornet".

You make some very valid points. The flip side of your argument may be true here though, that certain people will automatically defend/praise awful rubbish like this with the sole justification that it is "different" or "special", and deride anything from major manufacturers as being "bland" and "derivative".

It would be nice if everyone judged things based solely on their relative merits rather than being motivated by some personal agenda, something I think we are all guilty of to varying degree's.

[SWoll]

smash said:

Mark-C said:

I'm with you on this one. Surely every village had a nutter back in the 70s with a Cortina\Herald\beetle based kit car that looked overwhelmingly glorious to an 8 year old?

Nova anyone?

I will always have a soft spot for the Nova but yes, as has been pointed out already in this day and age the body is writing out cheques that the drivetrain can't cash.

Still, to be fair, it's had a good few cinematic outings - Cannonball Run 2, Death Race 2000 and Condorman (with Michael Crawford!). If you can get your blinkers off long enough to forget about the Beetle floorpan...for a 40 year old design (yep largely unchanged since 1972) it's still a very pretty shape.

P.S. The Sterling, as it's known in USA, is available over there with tube chassis and Scooby mid engine power...




An early 70's car needs an early 70's colour though - Yeah baby!

Edited by smash on Wednesday 28th September 12:40

Love the high quality cinematic references, pretty much tell's you all you need to know TBH. I assume it was used as at the time as the shape of it was "WOW", but it was very cheap to buy and replace if crashed.

The shape itself is not all bad, but is in reality just a load of idea's pinched from other famous cars of the period in an attempt to illicit the reaction "How does Ken from the Post office afford that Ferrari", and hope no-one notices the Q plate and 4cyl drone in the process.

[cliffie]

I love it to bits and would snap that up if I had a spare grand. What an epic Le Mans car.