Visit to Australasia

[Lee]

Recently I have been thinking about replacing my current 40 with a new one. I use my 40 mainly for track days, not competetively - just for fun, so I am looking for a car which will stand up to everything a track can throw at it, but with the ability to be used on the road. I am also looking to build (assemble, not fabricate) most of it myself.
In the UK now there is only one established manufacturer - Tornado. So I went to visit Andy to see what is going on and find out what he has on offer. What I found is what appears to be a very well sorted road car, which can be supplied as a complete kit - every single piece. The only items the builder needs to add are brake fluid, glue, paint and engine. As a complete road and occassional track car package I think this is excellent. However, never one to skimp on research I wondered what else was on offer.
MDA are advertising a car, but although it may be developed from other cars with some race car pedigree, this is obviously untested so far. I hope to see it at some stage.
I have some information from CAV, but it appears this is not available as a kit, and I am also concerned about the concept of monocoque from the viewpoint of repairing a bent chassis.
So as far as I can see this left me with 3 main choices - DRB from GT40 Australia, GT40 Replication in New Zealand, and Roaring Forties also in Australia. 'Well go and have a look at them' said the wife. So I had a look at the cost of flights on the internet and was amazed at how cheap flights are at the moment. (In the end I booked direct with Qantas which was even cheper than the net). Therefore a plan was put together, and last Thursday I set off on the 24132 mile (38837km) round trip from London to Brisbane, Auckland and Melbourne in 5 and a half days (50 hours 20 minutes flying time)
Total cost of flights was £677.40 so that works out at 2.8 pence per flying mile, including 10 inflight meals.
I was expecting that I would be unhappy with at least one of the manufacturers involved, but instead I found a very high degree of professionalism at all three. I spoke to a number of people involved at the various locations, took photos, videos, made notes, saw finished cars, and was taken out in them by the cars owners.
Many thanks again to Peter, Dave and Robert for their hospitality.
In short I was very impressed throughout, and far from making the choice easier, I will now have difficulty not choosing all four!! But seriously I now have more information on which to base my decision which I hope to make in the next few weeks.
Of course this also means that there is another finished GT40 on the market in the UK. Contact me for further details.
More to follow.
Lee