Only for those with deep pockets

[Mike Costigan]

Hey, it sounds like we've got an embryonic lock-down business on our hands! I suggest we get Tony Betts on board to buy up the chummys, Dave Wortley can be our Chief Scrounger (he seems to be good at getting things for nothing!), Martin Prior can be in charge of woodwork, Duncan Grimmond can be Chief Metal Basher with Ian Williams in charge of the main construction, Alan can be in charge of the mechanics and final testing. Let's say we aim for a production run of ten cars with a basic net cash purchase of £5,000 per car; we should be able to sell them at say one hundred times the original Gordon England price, so that's £28,500 each, £1,000 extra for wings, £500 for a windscreen and £700 for a hood. Even if we say that's a profit of £20,000 per car, split between several of us that's quite an attractive business proposition (and more importantly if I can get enough on my side I may avoid the lynch party!).

We will need some working capital, as we can't afford to flood the market with all those chummy bodies, but it would work. Once that production run is completed, we can then look at a run of Speedys based on RP saloons, and then some Grasshoppers on Ruby running gear ... I'll start doing some more sums!

[vintage_racing]

  yawn.

[Tony Griffiths]

A beautiful car in spite of the polishing. Would love it but will stick with the RN and Ulsteroid. I understand they are a little impractical to work on with undertray etc. Not really one to take to your local supermarket!
Cheers,
Dave.

David's Ulster, the body built from templates taken from an original, is astoundingly accurate. I asked him how he'd found the wings, the "1930" wide top, deep beaded-edge style as fitted to road versions by the factory. Turns out he hadn't found them, he'd made them; all by himself; in a garden shed; with hand basic tools and a welder. Add David to those who could pull off a £12,000 replica aided by (very cleverly and disguised and in a similar vein to his Wortley Special) the incorporation of parts from his great-grandfather's Yorkshire range, his grandmother's sewing machine and father's bicycle...

---

Dave Wortley can be our Chief Scrounger ....£1,000 extra for wings,

£1000 for wings! Give David a couple of planishing hammers, a small welder, a couple of days and he'd be knocking them out for £100 the pair (fronts only, rears extra).

[Malcolm Parker]

Having built both a GE Brooklands rep and an Ulster rep, I will add my two-penny worth.
As a competent but basically amateurish woodworker, I made the frame for my Brooklands in a week.  If you have a jig (in my case an old door with some timber uprights to bend the body sides round) and the templates for the plywood, it is really quite straightforward.
That is where the easy bit ends.
Producing a good finished Brooklands (mine wasn't finished as I would have liked) takes about three times the work needed to make a good Ulster rep.   There is more work producing the axle fairings, front apron and spare wheel cover than making an Ulster b0dy tub.
Tom Abernethy's lovely Brooklands looked better in my opinion when he had it.   The example now owned by Steve Hodgson which was at Guildtown last year is how a Brooklands should look.
The Brooklands is an iconic model and I have no doubt that it will sell for somewhere near the price.   Eventually most of the replica Brooklands will end up highly polished in foreign garages.
Good to know that there is one in use somewhere near Melton Mowbray!

[Tony Betts]

Hi mike,

As a ranking member of the austin 7 world. (Grey mag editor). I dont think you should be suggesting breaking perfectly good road worthy 1925 austin sevens.

And if you can get those prices, you need to start taking a commission on selling my spares for me.

I have a 3 piece bonet on my site for £250
The last chummy body I sold was to a forum member for £1,000
The last set of wings £600

My quote for the speedo was well over £500. Not that you will pick one up every day for £500

I have a 1925 car, and last thing I would do I sell it to you knowing you would break it. 

Tony.

[Mike Costigan]

Hi Tony,

I have nothing better to do at the moment than stir thinks up! I would hope that my suggestion was taken with tongue firmly in cheek; I am certainly not condoning the practice of breaking a complete car - good or not - in order to create a special. All I was doing was pointing out that building up a car from a collection of bought-in spares is not the most cost-effective way of doing things.

[austin]

Just to add a bit more fuel to Mike's fire, here is the same car in Chummy form competing in the 1926 London to Gloucester trial.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

"Genuine vintage competition history"

[Mike Costigan]

Thanks Austin, I knew I was on the right lines 

[Austin in the Shed]

That photo has put a couple of thousand on it, £19k now.