Where'd everybody go

[spartan_andy]

There's usually 5 or 6 posts a day on here and when den gets into full flow quite a lot more.

Now I know dens been told to tone things down but I believe this was referring to the content and the vehemence not the no of posts.

Things have been very quite today. Has everybody been given detention and not allowed to come out and play.

[kartman]

I'll wake Den up.

Was looking at an old kit car guide I brought off ebay - around 1984 ish.

What ever happened to the Pilgrim 'Rapier'?

[kitcarman]

Yawn!!!

Sorry, did someone nudge me?

[kitcarman]

Rapier ? - Emmm – Wasn’t that one of the names we proposed for the Hawthorn before we settled on Hawthorn?

I think that’s right.

Den

[kartman]

Den

Your follow up question for 10 points....

So did the Hawthorn evolve into the Sumo???

[kitcarman]

No! It didn’t.

The sad fact was that an awful lot of effort went into the Hawthorn, but it didn’t sell that well because it wasn’t a replica.

I sold 100 Hawthorn’s in 3 years.

I sold over 1000 Sumo’s in it’s first 3 years.

Den

[kartman]

Sorry Den, no offence meant - I just looked up a picture of it via google, the front was a little Cobra'ish (IMO) and the picture was on the 289 register site.

Amazing to see how much the industry has changed in 20 years though - only a few Seven & Cobra replica's back then and the big thing appeared to be Countach replica's.

[kitcarman]

kartman said:

the big thing appeared to be Countach replica's.

About 20 kits advertised as available, but not one drivable. A practice that was eradicated some time ago – almost.

I’m sometimes asked where all the Countach replica's went. The truth was that they never really arrived.

Den

[kartman]

The other thing I noticed was the number of VW Beetle based kits - appears you could almost buy any body shaped you wanted to fit onto one.

>> Edited by kartman on Wednesday 3rd March 21:03

[andycanam]

[quote=kartman and the big thing appeared to be Countach replica's.[/quote]

and boy did I lust after them..... I even still have quite a few of these "porn" mags from that era.

I can even remember that I had nailed it down to the Prova..... and that was years before I was old enough to drive.


So in hind sight what did end up as the pick of the bunch in the countash replica's?

[kitcarman]

Andy,

I think Prova turned out to be the only one in the end. Loads of kits were sold but very very few ever got built to the point of being driven.

In all those magazines, you won’t find many references to driving them.

Den

[siennacountach]

Actually it was (and is) the Mirage rather then the Prova that survived the battle. The Broadbest Primo and the Silhouette were a drama, but also manufactorers that actually had good cars like Brightweel, Sienna, ABS (A lookalike) didn't survive. Mainly because the development costs were to high and the demand for expensive kitcars to low. I think that Sienna made the best one of all of them. (And that is not because I own one ;-) but because the chassis was developed in co-operation with STATUS and it was thoroughly tested. (seatbelts, stifness etc.) Also the body is really accurate with detachable wheel arches and front spoiler as per the original.

Theo
www.lamboreplica.co.uk

>> Edited by siennacountach on Tuesday 12th July 15:27