Engine Punk

I f anyone asks me about a c ar or a bike or any sort of Vintage Thing (old or new) that I don't know, I au tomatically want to know more. When Gordon Johnston got in touch about his Gilbern T11 he had my full attention. (Photo : Gordon Johnston) When I started the Vintage Thing series on Engine Punk I intended to feature only those VTs that had physically crossed my path and been subject to the old Mk1 eyeball.  But as soon as I saw photos of Gordon's car I was hooked and had to know more. Gordon's opening gambit was that he found Engine Punk interesting but couldn't see anything on Gilberns.   I have a long standing interest in Gilberns. They were famous for being made in Wales and were robust sporting coupes that could seat almost four people at a pinch. Most of the ones I came across were powered by Ford's redoubtable Essex V6 and they had simple lines that avoided many of the awkward angles from which contemporary low production cars suffered during...

The Kilo Sports was a no frills, doorless roadster based on a Morris Minor and produced in Cornwall. When I was still at school in the late seventies and early eighties, there were still some after shocks from what Peter Filby called The Fun Car Explosion. Kit car manufacturers sprang up everywhere, it seemed, and offered the eager purchaser all manner of extrovert motoring experiences. Many used a common basis like a Beetle or a Triumph based chassis but the Kilo Sports used the organs from a dead Morris Minor. The Kilo was designed by David Stiff and built by a local Morris Minor specialist known as the The Thousand Workshop. Production began in 1983 and lasted for a year with a brief revival in 1986 and estimates of production top out at about 14 cars. I had a very good friend and neighbour who about this time ran an ex-GPO Minor van. My first ever car was a Morris Minor, which I've still got (more about that another time) and we visited The Thousand Workshop because it ...