| I SUPPOSE THE VW BEETLE STARTED it all, Rip off the body and then re-skin
it with a GRP alternative. In the 'seventies you could have anything from a beach buggy to
a Porsche 911 copy, and all of them with that old VW air-cooled flat four engine blatting
away in the back. In the ’nineties the trend seems to have returned (some would say
it never left) with a vast selection of body conversions to cover a host of different base
vehicles. The advantages over a normal kit car are obvious. Proven chassis, running gear already in place, electric's fitted, interior often comes complete with hi-fi and even air-conditioning. Just think about that for a second; no brake lines to fit, no suspension to set-up, no engine to install and no wiring to worry about. No wonder it’s so popular. Of course, it's not always the bed of roses it appears. Remove some external body panels and you may well end up compromising the car's original strength; and cutting a monocoque chassis in half, so that you can lengthen the wheel base, is best left to the brave. If you choose carefully, though, you could be in for some real fun at reasonable cost. In this new series of features, we hope to take a look at some of the full body replacement kits that are currently available and find out if they really are as easy to assemble as some manufacturers would have us believe. |
The first of these to come under Car Builder's scrutiny is the
Dakar 4x4, from Dakar Cars. Barry Chantler, Dakar’s boss, began development of his body kit nearly three years ago but only last year did marketing begin in earnest. The Range Rover is the basis for his body kit and seven years in the trailoring business meant he became increasingly familiar It was probably as Barry was slipping his Range Rover into low ratio, to help pull out some stuck piece of equipment from a muddy industrial site, that the idea struck.' with all types of 4-wheel drive vehicles. It didn’t take long for him to realise how fast the Range Rover bodies deteriorated which, more often than not, was well before the running gear showed any real signs of giving up the ghost. It seemed such a shame to throw away all that good running gear. A hankering to build a car from scratch led him into the kit car scene but the type of vehicles that seemed to take his fancy were always far too expensive. |
Then along came the Rotrax, an outrageously designed '90s version of the
beach buggy, but the problem here was the kit's donor vehicle. With such a wild off-road
machine, Barry was hardly inspired by the thought of running the Cortina suspension and
power unit, and anyway, there was no real way of achieving a 4-wheel drive version. It was probably as Barry was slipping his Range Rover into low ratio, to help pull out some stuck piece of equipment from a muddy industrial site, that the idea struck. What better donor for a wacky off-road car than a Range Rover? Shortly after, he made contact with Rotrax designer, Dennis Adams, to sound out his ideas and to see if Dennis approved. Approve he did, and when the two met, Barry bought a body and some roll-over bars. Development of the Dakar had begun. Initially Barry had intended to remove all the donor’s panels and then shorten the chassis to fit the comparatively small Rotrax shell but the complexities of such action were felt to be well beyond the reach of the home builder. As a result, the chassis remained the same and it was the Rotrax wheel base that was lengthened. This first prototype was soon up and running and feedback from the shows proved that there was |
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| Above: Standard Range Roar dashboard looks smart and a complete new dash top can be bought for less than £30. Below: Seats in the demonstrator were recovered Corbeau items that provided plenty of side support. | Above: Rear seats come from a Land Rover and there’s plenty of leg room for two adults. Access is less easy! Below: 3.5-litre Rover V8 provides plenty of urge and access around the unit is excellent. |
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