Engine Punk

I liked the Gardner Douglas T70 replica very much, especially in spider form. You can either have classic or high tech - I think a nostalgic blast gets the nod from me but the looks are timeless anyway. Depending to whom I talked at this year's show, we are either in for a long, hard winter thanks to all those cuts or kit car manufacturers offer a viable means of realising that track day/replica dream at reduced cost.  I went with Peter Tuthill, also known as Motormind, who was delivering some of his books to one of the booksellers exhibiting at the show. His books on subjects as diverse as Turner, Paramount and Kieft are selling steadily but he doesn't feel the time is right to take the financial risk of publishing any more for the immediate future. This is a terrible shame because some of them sound fascinating and explore obscure parts of motoring history nobody has examined yet. We were particularly impressed by this Ultima at the show and Peter just had to get in to ...

Despite the recession and continuing economic gloom, the 2009 Exeter Kit Car Show at the West Point Exhibition Centre was still upbeat. Some people pointed to vacant spaces in the exhibition hall and maybe the weather did put some people off but there was still loads to see. This machine is the KZ1 and is a one off, although there are plans for production. Apparently, there has already been strong interest in the car from Middle eastern customers and although the designer is British production will probably be in Eastern Europe. I don't know if there is any link to the Ascari KZ1 but it looks superb. I went with Peter Tuthill, author of (among others) Cornwall's Motor Industry. He's currently working on a similar book on Devon's motor industry and needless to say that I've put my name down for one. As soon as it's out, you'll hear about it on this blog. Peter is another self publisher like me, so has to do practically everything himself but it'll be wo...