Hey PJ. I had no intention to make you feel or look foolish. My only intention was to document what I believe the course of events was leading to the cars looking the way they do.
As for Mike designing the original Sammio shape I don't know who did what to the original Nikkri bodyshell, but I do know that Gary Janes owned the company and it was him, on his own, that was covered in filler dust when I visited the 'factory' to collect my kit. It was also his company to sell, including all the intellectual property rights, which are now owned by Andy P57. I believe Mike worked for Gary on a freelance basis rather than as an employee, effectively selling any ideas/design input to Gary. If Ferrari pay Pininfarina to design a Ferrari, who owns the resultant shape?
I didn't meet Mike until half way through my build when I turned up at a kit car show to get some money back after a tonneau I'd paid for never arrived. Mike struck me as a nice chap who knew his stuff and gave me loads of useful advice about paint prep.
That was about the time that Gary appeared to have overstretched himself by diversifying into the Scimitar based G46 and Beetle based 550 Spyder, and, by several accounts, the customer focus side of the business started to slip.
As for Mike setting up in competition to Ribble, that appeared to be a rather ungentlemanly, if not necessarily illegal act, but I believe an agreement was made behind closed doors for Mike to pay Andy a percentage of his sales. Not sure how that's working out in reality for either side.
Anyway, I hope you accept my apology, at least you've now had an independent view of what occurred rather than the full, one side of the story...
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