totalkitcar LIVE!
Graham Bell reports on Brands Hatch’s first kit car event
Brands Hatch
As any petrolhead knows, seeing high performance cars sat idly on static display just doesn’t compare with being able to see, hear and feel them being driven in the manner for which they were intended.
Combine that with the current boom in both track days and kit cars designed for track day use and you have the ideal market conditions for an event enabling manufacturers of kit form sports and track cars to showcase the dynamic abilities of their cars on track.
That was pretty much the thinking behind last Saturday’s inaugural totalkitcar LIVE! at Brands Hatch, co-organised by Brands owner Jonathan Palmer and totalkitcar magazine editor Steve Hole.
Of course there’s nothing new about letting kit car manufacturers demonstrate their cars on track. There were regular kit car ‘actions days’ held at several tracks in the 1980s and use of the track is an established part of the Donington Park kit car show.
However, at Donington the track is open to anybody who pays the fee, so mixed in among the kit cars you get family saloons driving round looking like they got lost trying to find the car park.
Kits on Track
Things were rather different at totalkitcar LIVE! where the track was reserved purely for cars being demonstrated by kit car manufacturers, with nearly all of these being the types of cars people might buy with trackday use in mind.
That basically means lots of lightweight Lotus Seven inspired cars and their full bodied derivitives, some thundering V8 powered Cobra replicas, a few bike engined Radical style cars and a smattering of other track-oriented specials.
Still, in all, around 40 manufacturers were in attendance, including a few manufacturers of kit cars not really suitable for track day use who just put on static displays in the paddock.
Of course the weather can prove to be a make or break factor for any event like this, so the mixture of blue skies and light cloud on the day will no doubt have been welcomed by organisers, exhibitors and public alike.
Busy
Speaking of the public, around 5,000 turned up on the day and between them seemed to keep most of the manufacturers pretty well booked up for passenger rides round Brands’ Indy circuit from the track opening at 9am to its closure at 6pm.
Not surprisingly all this track use didn’t pass without a few incidents, with sessions having to be stopped several times due to people spinning or parking it in the gravel. In fact track use was even in danger of being stopped altogether after an oil cooler pipe let go on the BAD Daytona, leaving marshalls struggling to deal with a 12 litre oil slick stretching from Graham Hill to the pits.
none
Fortunately the car’s 500bhp V8 survived unscathed, and after finding some new hose and more oil the BAD crew had it back on track sounding and running as strong as ever. And having sampled it from the passenger seat I can say that it really does run very strongly indeed.
Running rather less strongly - at least during the latter half of the day - was the Aeon GT3 spyder, whose Audi turbo engine went into a sulk after an intercooler pipe came adrift and wouldn’t produce anything like full power even with the pipe refitted. Pity, because from the passenger seat (well one of them!) it seemed impressive through the tight corners, but as I’m due to test this car for PistonHeads at least I’ll get another chance to see how it really performs.
Debut
Making its UK debut at totalkitcar LIVE! was another no-nonsense performance car suitable for PHers requiring serious track performance, namely the Queron Animas. Designed by French hillclimb expert Georges Queron, this mid-engined missile was powered by a relatively modest 240bhp Honda V-TEC engine, but thanks to its chassis dynamics was one of the fastest cars around the track on the day.
Queron
The Queron is due to be sold in the UK by Quantum Sportscars, whose boss John Sampson already has long term plans for a V8 version to give the Ultima some serious competition.
As for the event itself, inevitably there were a few teething problems, such as a large part of the paddock area being lost to exhibitors due to the erection of some fancy pavilions for the forthcoming A1 Grand Prix. However, the general concensus seemed to be that overall it had been a really good event.
So much so in fact that even before the day was out, Messrs Palmer and Hole had decided that not only will totalkitcar LIVE! be on again next year but will be a bigger two day event.
© Copyright Graham Bell 2005
MattOz said:
My next door neighbour but one is responsible for the Edge Devil. I've watched this car progress, and it's a fantastic bit of kit, using quality Audi running gear.
Imagine that thing running a Audi turbo lump!It's surely one to watch in the future.
Matt
Don't know about Audi turbo, but Robin Hall, the car's designer, seemed to spend most of Totalkitcar LIVE! measuring up an Audi V6...
Been wanting to test this one for PH for ages, but as they admit, the original prototype has a few rough edges (no pun intended) so figured it best to wait until the second one was available.
Or could this be interpreded (Excuse spelling) to mean.
Too jumped up to admit being a mere kit car? Or afraid of being embarrased by "Lesser" cars.
Or "Running scared of the GDT70 I wonder.
That statement has similar tones to TVR trying to hide their roots.
Or am I just too cynical?
Dave Brookes said:
Or am I just too cynical?
Yes.
Simple fact is that if you have a very high performance car and you're experienced at high performance driving, you'll spend most of your time at events like this being baulked by slower cars/drivers.
The Queron had exactly the same problem, with its creator branding some of the other track users as 'tourists' because of the way they were driving.
grahambell said:
Or am I just too cynical?
Yes.
Simple fact is that if you have a very high performance car and you're experienced at high performance driving, you'll spend most of your time at events like this being baulked by slower cars/drivers.
The Queron had exactly the same problem, with its creator branding some of the other track users as 'tourists' because of the way they were driving.
I hadn't realised this event was actually a Race Meeting
I thought it was an opportunity for manufacturers to demonstrate their wares to the potential buying public in a SAFE enviroment 
Purple AK said:
I hadn't realised this event was actually a Race Meeting
Let's see... I've got this 500bhp car that goes like stink and goes round corners like you wouldn't believe, and I'm going to demonstrate it on track. Which I'll do by pootling around at 40mph because that's safe.
It's also pretty
pointless. If you want to show people what your high performance car is like stuck behind a bunch of slow traffic you might as well stick to driving on the road because that would be equally useless as a means of demonstrating what you car is really capable of.
It was only a few months or so ago that they thought they needed to prove something with some (Pretty impressive) 0-100-0 times (Which most people know that with that ammount of power you could make a bed frame do that) But now they are too good to mix with the lower classes.
Horse p1ss and b0110x it sounds like to me.
I cant say I noticed any of the faster cars having problems getting past the slower ones.
This event was open to ALL manufacturers, regardless of prowess, to demonstrate their cars to a wide spectrum of the buying public, Not just the Elite few!
Dave Brookes said:
So it wouldn't have been alone then with 500BHP, and It would have been fun watching it trying to keep up with some of those bike engined super sevens on the bends.
It was only a few months or so ago that they thought they needed to prove something with some (Pretty impressive) 0-100-0 times (Which most people know that with that ammount of power you could make a bed frame do that) But now they are too good to mix with the lower classes.
Horse p1ss and b0110x it sounds like to me.
Hmmm, don't agree with that and not just because I own one!
Seems they are not your favourite company then?
One of the current factory demonstrators has the 640 BHP engine in it. The performance of such a car is just insane. To put that on track with SOME of the cars there would be pointless, even with the experience of Ted Marlowe at the wheel.
Besides, I heard it was quite a poor public turnout at Brands (although I wasn't there, so would be prepared to be corrected on that). I think they made the right decision.
BTW, I love your cars, Dave. Probably the best Cobras I have seen
Hi Gaz.
Thanks for the compliment.
I don't have a problem as such with the Ultima (I'd love one, and did offer to build one for a friend for free recently). I got a bee in my bonnet over Grahams choice os words over why they were not there. The event was not as busy as it could have been but for a first off of what could be a new type of show format I think is has massive potential, the view of the track from the pits was incredible from a paying public perspective and If Steve Hole decides to do this again next year and can get some side stall guys in this show could just grow and grow. Just a shame that i live 200 mles away.
I feel seeing as this was a track demonstration event that Ultima should have been there due to the nature of the type of vehicle they produce.In the same way that I can understand why Beauford were not there.
Just my opinion.
>> Edited by Dave Brookes on Friday 30th September 11:40
Purple AK said:
I cant say I noticed any of the faster cars having problems getting past the slower ones.
Maybe you weren't watching closely enough.
Seemed pretty obvious to me at times - both from the paddock and inside a car - that the faster cars/drivers were often baulked (even if unavoidably) by slower ones.
Not just my view either. John Hewat of Aeon and Tim Benbow of SSC both seemed pretty much of the opinion that they should restrict it (or at least certain sessions) to drivers with track experience.
Mixing fast cars with competition experienced drivers with slow cars driven unpredictably by people who've never been on track before doesn't make for the safest of environments.
Nor does it provide the ideal conditions for the experts to show what their cars can really do.
Which is why Ted Marlow doesn't run his cars.
grahambell said:
Maybe you weren't watching closely enough.
Seemed pretty obvious to me at times - both from the paddock and inside a car - that the faster cars/drivers were often baulked (even if unavoidably) by slower ones.
Not just my view either. John Hewat of Aeon and Tim Benbow of SSC both seemed pretty much of the opinion that they should restrict it (or at least certain sessions) to drivers with track experience.
Mixing fast cars with competition experienced drivers with slow cars driven unpredictably by people who've never been on track before doesn't make for the safest of environments.
Nor does it provide the ideal conditions for the experts to show what their cars can really do.
Which is why Ted Marlow doesn't run his cars.
Then the only message that can be taken from above is that both Ted and yourself think that the track event was poorly organised by Steve and Jonny P (as the MC fondly refered to him). Un peu hipocritical compared to your article n'est pas? - make your mind up for ****sake!!!
I suspect in all honesty,this kind of event for Ultima is a bit like driving a cobra out on the road - every other car will be gunning for you so they can say I nearly had that Ultima plus he'd get a disproportionate amount of none buying joyriders just because it's the world record holder for both 0-100-0 and for lateral G force pulled in 200ft circle. The car has such a reputation now they probably just didn't need to attend....
And for those that weren't there - you missed a great inaugural event
>> Edited by smash on Friday 30th September 17:35
>> Edited by smash on Friday 30th September 17:38
smash said:
Then the only message that can be taken from above is that both Ted and yourself think that the track event was poorly organised by Steve and Jonny P (as the MC fondly refered to him). Un peu hipocritical compared to your article n'est pas? - make your mind up for ****sake!!!
Well I did say there were a few teething problems and the track situation was one of them. So
to you. Both cars I pulled over and let past but could easily have taken on the straight but they both dissapeared after a few corners.
I went passenger in a friends 400bhp ultima on the same (donnignton) day and nothing went past... but lots of cars caught up.
For this reason I agree that these track test days should have the cars/drivers regulated.
Still I think there is no excuse for Ultima not to be there, bit of a let down really and definatelly gives the wrong image.
excellent day and a very good event concept that deserves support IMO, and definatelly helped me finalise the spec for my MK Indy.
Gassing Station | Kit Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff