I just can’t put my finger on what exact vintage racer this replicar/kit is emulating. I’ve seen that grille before. British; yes. Vanwall F 1 racer, no. Anybody else? What is clear is what it’s using for donor parts.
Triumph is the donor. Now what is it impersonating?
Some kind of Allard would be my guess.
+1 for Alllard.
Allard for sure.
Yes, Allard was the first thing that I thought of – only because there have been two of them for sale on auction site trademe over the past couple of months, and I researched them to find out what on earth they were.
I was thinking Frazer Nash.
It definitely has some Frazer Nash LeMans Replica replica going on, but it also strikes me as being as much an original as it a replica.
http://www.classicandperformancecar.com/features/octane_features/223038/frazer_nash_le_mans_replica.html
Who says it has to be emulating any specific car? Makes more sense to me that it’s an original with generic period styling cues.
Good point. The very specific design of the grille triggered some distant memory, but I may be imagining it. The little hole in the bottom of the grille is obviously where a remote starter is meant to go in, and that’s a feature I’m a bit surprised a random (non-replica) car would have.
Whatever it is, I want it…
Remote starter? Paul, this is a British replica using British mechanicals that hole is for the crank handle most pommie cars were equipped thus, rely on uncle Joes electrics? oh please my old Hillman has this feature but Ive no handle i must get/make one. What model Triumph is it I cantv read the plate clearly?Style _J2 Allard
Remote starter/hand crank; same difference, right?
Remote I thought meant powered , crank handle armstrong starter similar
Maybe the remote starter just has a really long handle.
A lot of the race car of the period it is trying to replicate were starter by a big starter that rolled around on a cart.
Got me a handraulic armstrong starter today Ive found a treasure trove of Hillman parts from the 30s thru till the end unreal what some people hoard and at least this guy will sell stuff
Whatever it is, it needs a supercharged 426 Hemi for that 200 mph run at Bonneville.
Depending on the donor this could be quite fast There were a lot of kit cars that used Herald/Spitfire running gear as they wereBOF but later 2000/2500 cars went well the injected 2.5 was very quik but had Lucas injection which was unreliable. There are huge numbers of Triumph 2000/2500 sedans still going in NZ very popular car BITD, and this is what BMW copied to make their fast Sedans but honestly Id prefer a well sorted Triumph over a Bavarian Money pit.
The grill reminds me of the 40’s Alfetta GP car , which is probably where Allard copied their grill from. Presume the chassis is TR3 or TR4. Looks nice.
Remarkably difficult to find a decent pic online showing the front of that car:
http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/images/large/1106/Alfa-Romeo-159–Alfetta-_1.jpg
Similar shape and proportions, but the Alfa isn’t as pointy at the top.
FD14323 is a Spitfire MK3 (1967-70) according to:
http://www.triumphspitfire.com/History.html
Which would mean that this special has a custom chassis in addition to a custom body. There’s lots of work there, very neat. If I must quibble I’d mention that the steering wheel is all wrong, other than that it’s an interesting mashup of British styling cues.
Spitfires had a backbone style chassis there could be one under this but it was the mkiv before the 1500 engine came out and there was much more go than the Herald donor car
The Spitfire chassis would take any Herald/Spitfire motor, or the straight six in 2.0 or 2.5 litre capacity. Only problem was that the Spitfire bonnet/hood wouldn’t close on a straight-six motor because it didn’t have the power bulge that the GT6 had.
I’d like to think this car has a 6-cylinder motor, to give it the performance to match the looks.
Steering wheel all wrong for the period it’s trying to emulate, but dead-on for 1967.
It also appears to have a shoulder belt for the driver (can’t see if the passenger gets one) which would hint that it was built some time in the 70s at the earliest.
Paul, we need more pics. An interview with the driver wouldn’t hurt either. 😀