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The Hornet is a Lotus Seven copy created as a kit car by T&J Sportscars to use components from the Ford CortinaMk3 and later Mk4 or Mk5. This allowed a choice of 1300/1600 OHV pushrodFord Kent engines or 1600/2000 single overhead camshaftFord Pinto engines. All the running gear is sourced from the Cortina, although T&J-manufactured front wishbones were an option to replace the Cortina pressed-steel items. Parts needing modification are the propshaft, which needs to be shortened, and the alternator that needs to be repositioned.
The Lotus Seven is a small, simple, lightweight two-seater open-top sports car produced by the British manufacturer Lotus Cars between 1957 and 1972.
A kit car is an automobile that is available as a set of parts that a manufacturer sells and the buyer then assembles into a functioning car. Usually, many of the major mechanical systems such as the engine and transmission are sourced from donor vehicles or purchased new from other vendors. Kits vary in completeness, consisting of as little as a book of plans, or as much as a complete set with all components to assemble into a fully operational vehicle such as those from Caterham.
The Ford Cortina is a car that was built by Ford of Britain in various guises from 1962 to 1982, and was the United Kingdom's best-selling car of the 1970s.
The body tub uses the same concept as the earlier version known as Locust, and is built from ¾" plywood, to plans supplied. The wooden tub is then skinned with thin gauge aluminium-sheet. The tub is fitted to a ladder chassis supplied by the manufacturer. Unlike the Locust where most other Seven-style body components will fit, the size of the Hornet meant that the builder is limited to items provided by the manufacturer.
Locust is a kit car inspired by the Lotus Seven.
Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards which includes medium-density fibreboard (MDF) and particle board (chipboard).
Aluminium is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. It is a silvery-white, soft, non-magnetic and ductile metal in the boron group. By mass, aluminium makes up about 8% of the Earth's crust; it is the third most abundant element after oxygen and silicon and the most abundant metal in the crust, though it is less common in the mantle below. The chief ore of aluminium is bauxite. Aluminium metal is so chemically reactive that native specimens are rare and limited to extreme reducing environments. Instead, it is found combined in over 270 different minerals.
BWE Hornet Demonstrator at Harrogate Kit Car Show
Hornet at Stoneleigh Kit Car Show
Locusts and Hornets size difference can clearly be seen.
Specification
Donor vehicle – Cortina MK3,4,5
Chassis – Twin rail ladder in Rectangular Hollow Section with suspension points, body outriggers and roll bar plinths
Front Suspension – Cortina wishbones with optional tubular wishbones allowing full castor/camber adjustment
Rear Suspension - Cortina four-link suspension using donor springs and shock absorbers
Engine – Normally Cortina, but other RWD engine/gearbox combinations could be accommodated
Build time – Estimated 360 hours
A hollow structural section (HSS) is a type of metal profile with a hollow cross section. The term is used predominantly in the United States, or other countries which follow US construction or engineering terminology.
The Hornet was manufactured by BWE Sportscars and like the Locust can be built using Ford Sierra components. Bev Evans of BWE died on Thursday 10 April 2014. BWE Sportscars is no longer trading.
A Locost is a home-built car. The car features a space frame chassis usually welded together from mild steel 1 in × 1 in square tubing. Front suspension is usually double wishbone with coil spring struts. The rear is traditionally live axle, but has many variants including independent rear suspension or De Dion tube. Body panels are usually fiberglass nose and wings and aluminium side panels. Each car is highly individualized according to the resources, needs and desires of each respective builder.
Westfield Sportscars are manufacturers of both factory built and kit versions of several two-seater, open top sportscars. Their main product line is a Lotus Seven inspired car - vehicles originally designed by Colin Chapman with only the bare essentials for motoring in order to give the rawest and most exhilarating driving experience.
Elva was a sports and racing car manufacturing company based in Bexhill, then Hastings and Rye, East Sussex, United Kingdom. The company was founded in 1955 by Frank G. Nichols. The name comes from the French phrase elle va.
Gilbern, Gilbern Sports Cars (Components) Ltd , was a Welsh car manufacturer from 1959 to 1973, based in Llantwit Fardre, Pontypridd, Glamorgan, Wales.
Turner Sports Car Company Limited was a 1950s British sports car manufacturer, that closed in 1966.
MK Sports Cars was founded by Martin Keenan and has recently moved to Rayne, Essex. It offers the Lotus Seven style kit car MK Indy. The MK Indy is available in four different designs - these are the Indy, Indy R and Indy RR and more recently the RX-5. The kits offer the option of various engines from cars and motorbikes.
JZR Trikes is a UK producer of traditionally-styled, motorcycle-engined trikes in kit form.
GCS Cars traded initially from Orpington in Kent, UK and produced the Hawke. Although similar to the Burlington SS in some respects, the GCS Hawke was developed completely independently by the partners in GCS Cars with considerably different dimensions overall. The Dorian/Burlington was designed to fit on a Triumph chassis, although Dorian later developed a chassis that it is believed was using Escort parts. The GCS Hawke was designed to fit on a ladder-frame chassis to accept Cortina/Sierra parts. This led to the bodyshell and wings being considerably wider than the original Dorian/Burlington car. It is an open two seater modelled fairly closely, but differently enough, on the Morgan. Whereas the Burlington body tub was constructed of glass-fibre, wood and aluminium, the Hawke has a one-piece GRP bodyshell with integral floor. It can take a variety of engines from Ford and the V8 Rover. The company was founded by Garry Hutton and Collin Puttock.
Sylva Autokits is a kit car manufacturer based in Lincolnshire, England. Sylva was founded in 1981 by Jeremy Phillips and has developed and produced a number of small and lightweight sports cars. Sylva cars have won a number of 750 Motor Club Kit Car championships.
JC Midge is a hand built car i.e. a "plan and pattern" car designed by John Cowperthwaite. Like the Locust the body is made of aluminium skinned plywood or MDF and using a purpose made grille or one from a donor, such as a Wolseley 1500. Unlike a Kit car only a few parts were available, the rest being from the donor car or hand made by the builder by sticking paper patterns on plywood or aluminium and cutting round them with a jigsaw. The starting point was a set of patterns and instructions costing £35 and the designer claimed it was possible to put a car on the road for £800.
The Blakely Bernardi is an automobile produced in the 1980s by Blakely Auto Works of Princeton, Wisconsin, USA. Blakely produced a number of automobile models, including the Bearcat and Bantam. This model is named after Enrico Bernardi, Italian inventor of the gasoline internal-combustion engine and automobile pioneer. The Bernardi was available as a completed car or as a kit of parts to be assembled by the buyer.
Spartan Cars was a manufacturer of kit cars based in Pinxton, Derbyshire, United Kingdom, which operated from 1973 to 1995. The company was founded by Jim McIntyre.
The TVR Tasmin is a sports car designed by TVR and built in the United Kingdom by that company from 1980 to 1987. It was the first of TVR's "Wedge"-series which formed the basis of its 1980's model range. The Tasmin/280i was available as a 2-seater coupé, as a 2+2 coupé and as a 2-seater convertible.
Blakely Auto Works was a manufacturer of automobiles and of kit cars, working from premises located in a series of US midwest communities, including Princeton, Wisconsin, in the 1970s and 1980s. Blakely produced several kit car models, the Bantam, Bearcat, and Bernardi.
The GKD LEGEND is a light-weight performance sports car manufactured by British company GKD Sports Cars, based in Boughton Monchelsea, near Maidstone with workshops at Lenham. The LEGEND is available in component form, or fully built.It was the first seven inspired car on the market using BMW E36/46 running gear.
Gardner Douglas is a British low volume sports car manufacturer, based in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. Their models include replicas of the AC Cobra and the Lola T70.
Haynes Roadster is a replica of Lotus Seven home-built according to a book Build Your Own Sports Car: On a Budget by Chris Gibbs (ISBN 1-84425-391-0). Ford Sierra is used in the car as a donor for drivetrain and suspension components.
Mills Extreme Vehicles (MEV) is a kit car design and manufacturing company based in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England, founded in 2003. As of January, 2016 they manufacture the Exocet, an exoskeletal design and the Replicar, a full-body design inspired by the 1950s Aston Martin DBR1. Both cars use donor parts from the Mazda MX5 Mk1 sports car. An enhanced version of the Exocet, the MX150R, can participate in UK race series regulated by the 750 Motor Club and the MSA.
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BWE Hornet Demonstrator at Harrogate Kit Car Show
Hornet at Stoneleigh Kit Car Show
Locusts and Hornets size difference can clearly be seen.
