What's it worth...KVA Mk1 Early Chassis

Hi folks,

I'm new to the forum here; having registered to ask this question. I'm based in N.Ireland, UK. I'm a long time GT40 lover; been my dream car for years. Someday I'll get one, and I've discovered one that I'm interested in, but am cautious. Looking for some advice.

The car, I believe, is a KVA Mk1 with the early chassis. Big Granada uprights and big turrets on the chassis for the springs/dampers. It's not a particularly pretty chassis on those early cars.

Rover V8 on Renault gearbox. Registered on a Q plate. It's been completed and used on the road, but has been lying unused for a while. It would take a real good going over to get it properly recommissioned, but I don't believe there are any fundamental faults with it.

It's real hard to value GT40s I find as they vary so much depending on the kit and construction. What would a fair price be for such a vehicle? I appreciate it all depends on the buyer and it's hard to value something unseen, but just a general idea would be the ticket.

Are we talking £5-10k? £10-20k or £20k upwards?

I don't often see the KVA with the early chassis up for sale, so not sure what money they make in comparison to others. Would be very grateful for your experienced opinions. My heart is saying something different to my head on this one!
 
Willie,
Over 10 years ago I bought a c-type chassis kva unfinished roller (late style chassis). No motor/trans/paint etc. I paid about 10,000 pounds for it which was like 15k US at the time. The early chassis you are indicating is less desirable, and takes a lot of modification to make it into what a current standard space-frame style chassis is. If you can buy it cheap enough and are willing/able to buy another chassis and use the body/motor/trans/wheels etc then It might be worthwhile.

Look at all of the old for-sale prices that have been listed here on this site and check ebay for sold listings as well. There is a "KCC" rebuild thread here in the builders forums that has lots of pics of a similar chassis. Good luck and happy hunting, S
 
The yellowy mustard colored one has been on E-bay for 2 years now at 25k, that is an early KVA on a C type chassis, uncompleted .

No invoices and not registered, I was going to take a look at it over a year ago but the owner came across as a bit of a cock so didn't bother in the end, I spoke to Andy Sheldon about it and he valued it at around 10 - 12k

Lets be honest, if it was a bargain it would have gone by now.
 

Mike Pass

Supporter
The early chassis had a Cortina Mk3 complete front axle assembly bolted on the front and a fairly crude KVA made swinging arm setup at the back. The later C type chassis were a huge amount better. The early cars are OK if all you want is something that looks like a GT40 but the chassis are pretty poor. The KVA bodies are OK. The Q plate is a bit of a kiss of death as it will trash the value of the car. A GT40 on a Q plate will be quite hard to sell. The Rover engine also won't go down too well either as the Ford small block is infinitely preferable.
It is possible and has been done which is to chop of the front and rear chassis ends and weld on something like a GTD/Southern GT front and rear section and swap the Rover for a Ford. All this will cost so the car would have to be very cheap to do all this work. It all depends on what you want at the end and what you want to spend.
In general these things are worth the sum of the parts. The body and the Renault box are OK. The seats and gauges could be worth money if they are correct and in good order.
Cheers
Mike
 
Hi, the early KVA is a good car if you want it for road use but needs a few mods to be a track car. The original GTDs were early KVAs with new sub frames and suspension links fitted so you can make a good car out of it. The body will be fairly accurate too. The roof, doors and cills were moulded from Fords own mk3 museum car with mk1 front and rear body sections added. If you are a hands on type who can weld then you can use it as a base for a good car. Its all down to price because I would value it as the worth of the bodyshell, engine and gearbox and any other usable parts.
 
Thanks very much for all the info and replies. Apologies this is so short, but no PC at home and very hard to type on a phone.

I don't want to post any pictures as I haven't asked the owner for permission to do so. Sorry.

I haven't seen under the front end of it, but the rear end is big crude box section pillars for coil over dampers, with pretty brutish swingarms. Rear drums. I'm pretty sure it's an early KVA which is obviously not ideal. I've never driven one, so can only guess at this...and it just looks wrong on such a car.

Nice set of split rims and great bodywork. Sitting thick with dust.

Would £5-7k be a fair price? Or is that a bit cheeky? I'm looking at it as really a starter kit for bodywork. I love fabrication but have a few projects on already. GT40 is my dream though, so I could cruise around in it for a while, then rebuild it into something special. To remove the Q plate is a massive issue, so ultimately that's a problem. Not sure if e marked glass is available for them and it would be a very difficult thing to IVA.

My gut feeling is that for me it'd need to be a bargain to justify the effort. I'd have to sell my current toy to pay for it, (Caterham Superlight R) and I just know the KVA would be like a truck in comparison.

Head says leave it. Heart just keeps talking me into it. It's those rear bulges. Such a hot looking machine.

£5k downright insulting or fair?

Thanks again folks. Extremely helpful.

Willie
 
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