kit cars...

volospian · 17-12-2012, 11:13

Right, I'll give the background to this before I start the topic. I was, as some of you know, working on a scimitar project. The idea was to have a classic tax free car to drive the 15 minutes or so to work each day, plus doing the general workhorse stuff like visiting the tip, picking up ebay bits and so on. I bought a scimitar as it was something I liked and I had a RV8 hanging around that I thought could go in for a bit of V8 soundtrack. I was intending to tidy it up, replace just about everything wearable, retrim, respary and have a nice two door shooting brake.

However, since then my job has changed. I now work from home, which is good, but need to travel to the main offices (Milton Keynes, Alderley Edge or Hemel) and various customer locations (I've recently been working in Bolton, fo example). Now work have furnished me with a nice diesel powered Jaguar XF for this travelling, so I'm happy there, but now the "projet car" becomes something fun for the weekends.

I could "track day" up the scimitar (as I only live afew miles from Donnington) but if I were starting a track day car, I probably wouldn't start with a scimitar... Anyay, as the wife and I are avid walkers and go up to the peaks or so most weekends, I can see myself making much more use of a soft top for those sunny trips to the countryside (all two days a year, it's such a lovely sunny country in which we live...).

I could go for another classic rag top, but I don't really want a rolling resto, or a total nut and bolt rebuild, as both end up with hours of stripping out the old electrics, carpets, seats, drilling out rivets, wrestling with countless rusty bolts, etc. and I'm not in the mood for such a big job. The scim has been a lot of work to get to where it is and I don't really want to start that all over again. However, I do want a project and not a concourse motor that needs nothing done...

So... I'm thinking of a soft top style kit car. That way there is minimal stripping of the donor, just the specific parts you need, the rest goes to the scrappy or on ebay. Then you refurb those parts and bolt them on, with nice shiny new bolts, to a shiny new chassis, etc. I can even get some parts already reconditioned an not need to strip and refurb them at all.

I'm thinking of either an Aristocat XK120 Replica. This is quite nice. We saw one at the kit car show this year and we were both (the wife and I) impressed with the company. Plus you can now build one using XJ40 running gear.

The alternative that we have decided upon is a cobra replica of some kind. Boring perhaps, but I already have a RV8 an gearbox in the garage which wouldn't be used in the Xk120 , the wife loves Cobras and I must say I like them myself. The issue here is that there seems to be about a hundred different Cobra makers out there. I have narrowed the options down to Dax, AK and Pilgrim. Anybody have an experience of any of these companies or their cars? any advice on kit car building? Sequences, resources, etc.

I'm intending to try and get to visit a few companies this week (off work all week) so that will help, but I thought I'd start a thread here and let your words of wisdom flood in!

17-12-2012, 11:13	#1
volospian Vodka Martini Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 786	kit cars (now with pics!)... Right, I'll give the background to this before I start the topic. I was, as some of you know, working on a scimitar project. The idea was to have a classic tax free car to drive the 15 minutes or so to work each day, plus doing the general workhorse stuff like visiting the tip, picking up ebay bits and so on. I bought a scimitar as it was something I liked and I had a RV8 hanging around that I thought could go in for a bit of V8 soundtrack. I was intending to tidy it up, replace just about everything wearable, retrim, respary and have a nice two door shooting brake. However, since then my job has changed. I now work from home, which is good, but need to travel to the main offices (Milton Keynes, Alderley Edge or Hemel) and various customer locations (I've recently been working in Bolton, fo example). Now work have furnished me with a nice diesel powered Jaguar XF for this travelling, so I'm happy there, but now the "projet car" becomes something fun for the weekends. I could "track day" up the scimitar (as I only live afew miles from Donnington) but if I were starting a track day car, I probably wouldn't start with a scimitar... Anyay, as the wife and I are avid walkers and go up to the peaks or so most weekends, I can see myself making much more use of a soft top for those sunny trips to the countryside (all two days a year, it's such a lovely sunny country in which we live...). I could go for another classic rag top, but I don't really want a rolling resto, or a total nut and bolt rebuild, as both end up with hours of stripping out the old electrics, carpets, seats, drilling out rivets, wrestling with countless rusty bolts, etc. and I'm not in the mood for such a big job. The scim has been a lot of work to get to where it is and I don't really want to start that all over again. However, I do want a project and not a concourse motor that needs nothing done... So... I'm thinking of a soft top style kit car. That way there is minimal stripping of the donor, just the specific parts you need, the rest goes to the scrappy or on ebay. Then you refurb those parts and bolt them on, with nice shiny new bolts, to a shiny new chassis, etc. I can even get some parts already reconditioned an not need to strip and refurb them at all. I'm thinking of either an Aristocat XK120 Replica. This is quite nice. We saw one at the kit car show this year and we were both (the wife and I) impressed with the company. Plus you can now build one using XJ40 running gear. The alternative that we have decided upon is a cobra replica of some kind. Boring perhaps, but I already have a RV8 an gearbox in the garage which wouldn't be used in the Xk120 , the wife loves Cobras and I must say I like them myself. The issue here is that there seems to be about a hundred different Cobra makers out there. I have narrowed the options down to Dax, AK and Pilgrim. Anybody have an experience of any of these companies or their cars? any advice on kit car building? Sequences, resources, etc. I'm intending to try and get to visit a few companies this week (off work all week) so that will help, but I thought I'd start a thread here and let your words of wisdom flood in! Last edited by volospian; 18-02-2013 at 17:52.