DeHavilland Motor Company
I visited the DeHavilland Motor Company yesterday (16/07/11). These are my thoughts for what it is worth.
I met with Terry , the guiding force behind this project.
Terrys father is also involved with this project. He has many years experience within this industry.
Terry told me the history of this project, where and how he had obtained the moulds and their history. He did not claim , like others, that the moulds were from an original Dino .
This Dino is based on an MGTF. Again Terry told me the reasons behind this and they were all sound. The result being that the car , once completed , should be reasonable quick and more importantly from my point of view, it should handle well. Terry is anticipating fitting a V6 engine at a later date which is probably my preferred option.
Also being based on an MGTF this should shorten the build time as the two sub chassis will be removed from the base car and then bolted to the Dino chassis, possible a days work at most. Obviously there are alterations that have to be made to the steering column.
Terry has come up with some ingenious solutions to problems he has encountered and, appears to me, not to have sacrificed quality with a desire to keep the costs reasonable. I am not a mechanical engineer but within the industry I work in, I know that if it looks right and works right then 99% of the time it is right and his solutions looked right.
I was disappointed that this project is not at the stage where I could sit in the dino to make sure that I could comfortable see though the windscreen, operate the pedals and the gearstick etc...
However Terry thinks that this stage will be reached soon but I think he is a tad optimistic with his timescale. However I was able to appreciate the quality of the body which Terry informed me that as it is the prototype , production bodies would actually be better.
He also explained that most dino kit cars suffered from a drooping front nose but again due to his attention to detail this one will not.
I am looking forward to re-visiting the company once the seating has been installed.
I will be following the progress of this project and look forward to a test drive later this year?
At this moment in time I do not foresee anything to prevent me purchasing one of these dinos in the near future.
|