Engine Punk

In my recently acquired copy of Hot Car magazine for January 1973 I've spotted this advert for an original GP Centron. This is the one as originally conceived with the lifting canopy instead of doors by Pierre du Plessis at GP Concessionaires Ltd and just look who's selling it. Then check out the spec. There's a Porsche flat-6 engine in the back and an ominous comment about being for experienced drivers only. I interpret this as meaning that it was far too fast for its chassis. It would still have had a Beetle chassis and all the joys and disappointments that brings. Nowadays there's quite a lot of chassis tuning expertise for Beetles but back in 1973 cars like these were pioneering ways of showing the limitations of rear-engined swing-axle layouts. But the invitable question is - does this car still survive? And if it does is the paperwork straight? And if that admin hurdle can be overcome, can the latest corner better goodies be applied to it?

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 ...

So there you have it - The Car With No Name built by Anon I find this highly amusing. Through the power of the internet a chap has got in touch about a mysterious VW based special that I saw years ago at the National Kit Car Show at Stoneleigh. I featured this as VT No. 54 , described it simply as a VW Special and asked if anyone could identify it and tell me what it was called. Bob Bateman got in touch to say it was his car and it was called the CWNN. What does CWNN stand for? It stands for Car With No Name. The origin of this car still remains a mystery. Its builder must have called it something and if it still exists it ought to have something other than Volkswagen on its logbook or V5 because it definitely isn't a Beetle anymore. And the authorities are a bit fussy about that nowadays, unlike the glory times when this car was built. As if anyone could mistake it for a Beetle.... I nearly bought this issue Bob has filled in some of the gaps. He wrote about it i...

Seriously though, take it from me - a childhood spent making Airfix kits makes repairing old cars much easier. I saw this display at the Great Dorset Steam Fair yesterday. For those of you who don't already know, this is a vast gathering of Vintage things for steam punks and engine punks alike. There was a special gathering of Morris Minor LCVs - that's Light Commercial Vehicles. Morris Minors are probably the ultimate light car - a term that was clearly understood between the wars - and the vans and pick up derivatives are probably the ultimate light commercial vehicles. As Vintage Things they're dead certs and it's only a matter of time before I feature them in more depth upon Engine Punk. But I really like the display. If it wasn't for the people in the background, this Minor LCV would look like some highly detailed kit There's the sprue in the foreground and behind it is the partly built full size kit of a Morris Minor. It's just had its wi...