Show And Tell - What Do You Drive?

[Paul Wilkinson]

Wow. They made them for a few years (probably not surprising given their McLaren-derived styling). I've got a brochure from the Australian agent, Manta Motors, which dates to the mid-70's. At that time they had 1970 VW or late Karmann Ghia suspension listed in the specs. Nett weight with a small block Chev was quoted as 1900lbs. (under 900kg!!)

Yep. The early ones had VW front suspension which always seemed strange to me. They used a (flipped) Corvair rear so why not use the twin-wishbone Corvair front? They also made the VW based Montage which indirectly came to NZ as the Mararn. The founder died in a racing accident (Formula Ford?) and his brother kept it going for some years but I think they overcapitalised on their C1 Corvette replica.

I loved them ever since I saw one being stolen in the original 'Gone in 60 Seconds'

From Wheels 1974: