The Rolls rolls on

Our slightly off-balance Brit expat contributor, Iain Ayre, is never satisfied with ordinary. Instead of trying to prototype and manufacture a Cobra replica based on Mazda Miata rolling gear, he was unable to resist buying a 1950 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith in kit form: it's been partly converted from a plump Park Ward body to an Art Deco-style two-seater drophead, with the engine moved back in the chassis already. All he has to do is design and make a body for it. The goal is to take it to Pebble Beach at some point, where it will upset the people who deserve to be upset and delight the people who deserve to be delighted.
“I’m still considering the options. The body could be a Big Midge (google kit car Midge UK) – 3/4” plywood skinned in thin aluminium. Or it could be a Superleggera structure like an older Aston Martin, a light steel frame supporting lightweight aluminium body panels. Or, as the mudguards will be GRP anyway, I can also make the whole thing a curvy teardrop with multiple curves created freehand out of plaster and wood, then skin it in GRP and matting to make a one-off body.
“The mudguard maquette was constructed from foam and a thin skin ages ago, and is now in the process of being finished off. The structure is too delicate and too badly damaged ever to be prepped properly for moulding, so I’m getting it roughly into the right shape with plaster and some body filler. Then I’ll take a set of rough clamshell moulds, pop out a rough positive shape in thick GRP, and then I can prep the rough positive to gloss paint, and finally wax them eight times and make proper moulds to construct the four mudguards for the Rolls. They’ll be available if anybody fancies a set, but they are bloody enormous: they might look good on a Beauford.”
Stay tuned.

Feb 2009 issue sneak peek

Here's the first look at our Jan/Feb 2009 issue. As you can see it includes a big Cobra Guide special section. We had planned to publish Cobra Guide 2009 as a stand-alone magazine again this year, but due to the economy we opted to help our clients save some marketing money by including most of the editorial in this special section. If you're not a Cobra fan, fear not, as we've got plenty of non-snake stories to keep you busy. Even some of the Cobra section material should be interesting to car buffs of almost any stripe. Hope you enjoy!

Kit Car magazine shut down

We've heard from numerous sources that Source Interlink, publisher of lots of specialty automotive magazines, has shut down Kit Car in what appears to be company-wide cost cutting measures aimed at underperforming titles in light of the poor economy. Both, Steve Temple and myself, served as editor of that publication under the Petersen Publishing banner and are saddened to see such a venerable magazine fall by the wayside. It is unclear at this point what will happen to subscriber's remaining issues, but typical in such cases, Source Interlink will doubtless offer other magazines in their portfolio to fulfil subscriber terms.

0-60mph 2.6 seconds

Our expat Brit contributor, Iain Ayre, is recently back from the UK where he was able to experience this Suzuki Hayabusa-powered fiberglass Mini that zooms to 60 mph in less than 3 seconds. His report on this supercar killer will appear in full in the February issue on sale Jan 2, 2009 and available shortly before that for subscribers. I'm sure I won't be the only one to desire one of these go-karts. In fact, I saw a couple at the Stoneleigh show some years ago and haven't been able to erase them from my mind (or my short list) since. Stay tuned.

December issue sneak peek

Here's a look at the new issue of KCB, Nov/Dec 2008. As you can see it's loaded with cool cars and other stories worthy of a closer look. If you don't subscribe, you should! This issue should be hitting the subscriber mailboxes this week and it will be on the newsstand October 23. We're now working on the new Cobra Guide 2009 issue that will hit the newsstand November 28. It's shaping up to be another great edition for guys who love the snake, America's favorite muscle car.

Drag Daytona

You're going to be seeing a lot more of this car, not only on the pages of Kit Car Builder, but at drag events around the country. We're following along on the complete build of this special Shell Valley Daytona Coupe and chronicling its progress in a series of stories in KCB. Eric Andreen is the sparkplug on this project along with driving it. Andreen is a successful Colorado drag racer and engine builder and has done a stunning job on the car that some folks have tabbed, "Tic Tac," for it's eye-searing orange paint job. So far the Drag Daytona is running a back-up/test engine, a 481-ci big block Chevy churning out something like 700 hp before

nitrous bursts. At a recent event, Eric managed 10.23 seconds in the quarter on the freshly-built car/engine and without using nitrous. The primary engine is still being assembled and will produce 900 hp!

The first story on this project appears in the October issue.

Snake worship

Seems like snakephiles can't get enough cool stuff to display on their Cobra replicas these days. KCB contributor, John Carollo, found the stuffed cobra peering over the winshield of a four-wheel snake at the recent London Cobra Show. That crystal snake shift knob is in the cockpit of Time & Debbie Booth's purple Shell Valley replica. Photo by Jim Youngs.

Rocky Mountain Replica Roundup

Aside from the great venue -- Heritage Square amusement park in golden, Colorado -- the friendly folks and the laid-back atmosphere, one of the coolest things about the Rocky Mountain Replica Roundup is the wide variety of cars that show up. The show is not dominated by one single marque, except perhaps this year, with an abundance of dune buggies, most from Renagade. The Replica Roundup is the annual event hosted by the Rocky Mountain Handcrafted Automobile club, and specifically its tireless organizer, Chris Guenther and his family. (That's his venerable Aztec 7, that won the People's Choice award this year). We have to brag a little too as QueenBee Youngs' Regal Roadsters T-Bird replica took home the Best of Show honors. You'll be seeing more coverage of this fun event in an upcoming issue of KCB.

Honey, don't touch that car

This is a classic and I'm sure you've seen it with your own kids, maybe. This couple couldn't see their little tyke just after they told him for the third time not to touch the cars. He just couldn't resist and had to lightly touch the door handle. My son would have done the same thing at that age, and maybe even today at 30 years old!

More sneak peeks

Even though the October issue is still about a week away from being delivered and a couple weeks before it reaches the newsstand (August 29), I thought you might like to see one of the cars featured. This Thunder Ranch Phantom 356 is the collaboration of TR owner, Tom McBurnie, and customer Ron Padua. A standard 356 Speedster replica was widened considerably and outfitted with lots of special touches that make it so unique. Among the special features are suicide doors, carbon fiber belly pan, dash, door panel caps; lowered windshield and a host of other cool stuff. You can read all the details in the October issue of KCB on how this car came together and what an awesome piece it really is. In a previous post you can see that the liquid-black Phantom is the main image on the October cover. That issue features even more VW-based cars along with some other nice machinery. Plenty of eye candy and information for every taste.

Factory Five Racing open house

We made a quick trip to Massachusetts to attend Factory Five's annual Open House and the turnout was great with nearly 150 cars on hand and lots of carless visitors. One of the highlights of the event was a preview of FFR's new product, their version of a 1933 Ford roadster, code named "Larry," for Boston Celtics great Larry Bird who apparently wore number 33 on his jersey. These are just a few shots from the event and you'll see many more in an upcoming issue of KCB. That t-shirt sorta says it all for this dedicated bunch. And that grimacing redhead is none other than company prez, Dave Smith summoning his strength and getting ready to hand out some trophies to the gathered snakephiles. FFR's parking lot was nearly overflowing with a crowd that enjoyed BBQ, factory tours, scooter giveaway, entertainment, dyno runs, and in general seeing every conceivable color scheme and engine choice there is. 

Sneak peek at the October issue

Here's a little sneak preview of the Sept/Oct '08 issue which will be shipped to subscribers beginning August 12 and on the newsstand August 29. This issue includes an extensive Hot VW-Based cars section that not only includes stories on some cool cars, but a How-to story, event coverage and a buyer's guide to a dozen more VW-based kits. In addition there is an interesting story on a kit car that took 3rd at this year's One Lap of America against some formidable souped-up production cars plus stories on some hot new kit cars including a Cobra replica and a monster exo-skeletal roadster.