At first glance we thought this was some sort of deformed Sebring Sprite. Actually it was created by Canadian, Darryl Townsend, back in 1970. The seller’s father purchased the car in 1976 and it has been sitting in their barn for over 30 years. Now that the seller’s parents have passed away, their sons have decided to sell the car. Even though it was an amateur build, there are some interesting details here. You can find the listing here on eBay with bidding at $2,716 and the reserve not met.
The body was constructed of hand laid fiberglass. The design looks like a conglomeration of different cars, but we actually like the shape. The paint is peeling, but the body looks to be in fairly good condition. The seller has just updated the listing and mentioned that many of the parts look like they came from a Sunbeam Alpine, so there could be an Alpine chassis under there. Any opinions?
That interior doesn’t look too bad for a home build either. The dash is some sort of custom creation, but the steering wheel and seats are obviously from a Jaguar XKE. There are a bunch of switches between the seats and the gauges are not mounted very symmetrically.
The undercarriage looks pretty rusty. The seller claims that there is no rust through, but we would want to inspect it before believing that claim. You may just want to source a solid Alpine donor to stick under the body. It would be a lot of work to figure make it all work, but would probably be easier than repairing all the rust.
The builder of this car was serious. He even created this id plate complete with a serial number. It makes us wonder if this guy was considering producing these on a larger scale. We would have actually considered buying one and you may too after seeing the next photo.
Here is the best part of this car. There is a Jaguar inline-six stuffed under the hood. It is going to needed some work to get it running again, but we are sure it would be worth it because this think has to be a blast to drive. Anyone here know anything about this car or the builder? We think it is an interesting creation and would love to learn more about it.
Nice find
cool car, I don’t think it 100 % alpine underneath. I had an alpine once, and I don’t think you could cram a Jag 6 in one if you tried the tigers with the small v8 were very cramped for space. With a Jag engine this thing should fly. jmo
Interesting car indeed. I have always admired a home builder who could finish one. Very daunting. Yes I think it would fly, my only reservation is that big Jaguar lump on top of those little tires. Can you say omg terminal understeer? But with all that torque you could probably bring the rear end around. It would be fun to drive it.
Fly yes, corner no, it probably 60% of the weight on the front wheels. That car is also going to have a blind spot big enough to hide a peterbuilt on both sides.
Looks like an xke windscreen. Chassis?who knows. Peterbuilts cant catch it!
Looks like a poor man’s Daytona Coupe.