Ok, Ok, I own up. I have been a non-registered, Looky Lou at this sight for several months. I have been in love with GT 40s since 1966. I was that kid looking through the showroom window in Leeds England saying, “one day …one day.”
I have now joined and would like to put my ten penneth in:IMHO - I would like to try and clear up some of the confusion regarding the CAV GTs. It’s not really complicated, but somewhat hard to explain. I’ve been in vintage, classic, and exotic automobile business for 37 years and involved buying and selling these roller GTs for approximately two years, originally through Bob & Margo Lacy, AKA, California Advanced Vehicles, CAV-USA. They had a third partner, Tanya, and through a partnership disagreement, Bob and Margo, unfortunately, are no longer involved with CAV USA. CAV-USA used to have a marketing agreement with Cape Advanced Vehicles, the original CAV-South African Company, who originally, approximately 3 years ago, produced a space frame, turnkey minus, (complete car less engine and trans). A good car, but understandably the first rollers did have their teething problems as with most any new projects. CAV South Africa then upped the ante and went to a much improved, in every respect, complete TIG welded high grade, stainless steel, monocoque chassis, with integral roll over and side impact protection. This is a far superior, stronger (yes, I am a little bias) and never rust, stainless steel tub chassis, very similar, but obviously not to the exact detail of the original GT40 chassis in basic design.
The original South African CAV went out of business after two major events:
#1. CAV South Africa went into a deal with Shelby to produce the new CRX 4000 Cobras. They spent a fortune building molds and expanding staff, ect. to accommodate the projected production but then, #2, the main event that caused their whole demise was something that no one could foresee or control; the US dollar dropped from approximately 12 rand to the dollar, to 6 rand to the dollar. Therefore, they could not produce vehicles at the contracted price. For those folks out there that say, “yeah, they went bust,” yes, that’s what happened, but at least they had the guts to go for it in the first place and they put their money where their mouth was. I do not know of any private buyer who lost a dime apart from the original owners of the CAV South Africa Company.
AutoFutura, www.cav.co.za a company that is owned now by two, “attentions to detail engineer types,” purchased the molds, chassis, parts, other assets and rights from the CAV South African liquidation sale and immediately went into producing rollers. Once again they upped the ante and implemented 48 + new improvements to the rollers and by March ’05 will be completing the 100th CAV, monocoque, stainless roller which VIP Classics, out of San Diego, have contracted to purchase as one of our demos. We at www.vipclassics.com have sold many rollers over the last two years, and have 8 in our showroom, 4 of which are sold, plus another 2 being picked up from Long Beach this week, one of which is sold. 2 more are on the ocean inbound, and another 8 in production. Some of these are sold, some available. By the way, vipclassics will be at the Barrett Jackson Auction this week for anyone who wishes to see AUTOFUTURA’S CAV quality. Booth #334.
I agree somewhat with your members, to stop the confusion on the CAV name, it may be necessary to rename CAV somehow, someway, someday, (although that’s nothing to do with me.) The original company, Cape Advanced Vehicles built up to approximately chassis tubs # 100. The last few were purchased by Autofutura through the liquidation sale and are now being completed by Autofutura with the many improvements. They are being sold through vipclassics.com.
As far as the current situation, Autofutura, URL. www.cav.co.za, is the stainless steel, monocoque chassis CAV manufacturer which are available in the USA through Roy Sayles, www.vipclassics.com out of San Diego, and Ian Clark for Canada. Ian is on the forum. Part of the confusion is that Tanya, the ex-partner of Bob & Margo Lacy of CAV.USA. has acquired that company and name but has NO affiliation whatsoever with Autofutura CAV South Africa. We have been told that Tanya has formed a relationship with Bailey/Edwards out of South Africa and is intending to import a space frame GT to the USA. I am told that they are in the process of producing her first 2 cars in South Africa. We wish her well.
The whole business of small production automobiles is a very venerable. There are so many pitfalls that can cause disaster. It always takes much longer to produce and market the product than anyone could ever imagine. Any one of the hundreds of parts of a roller can turn into an engineering nightmare if not well tested. There’s import duties that can change at any time, employees, partners, overheads, health problems, and a 1000 other things that can go wrong. And who would have thought the U.S. dollar would devalue overnight by half? The S.A. Rand to the dollar the other day was 5.6. and going down.
Consider this: in 1967 GHIA built 52 cars, 11 sank on a ship coming from Italy. Approximately 88 Apollo’s were built, one of which I own. I also own one of 3 Bianchis straight eights, body by Grabour. Dare I mention Tucker, Clenet, Sparton, Vector or Delorian? These companies come and go and are up and down like a bride’s nightie. To my mind anyone who starts their own business, especially one that is so labor, time, and cost intensive as building and selling something of this magnitude, deserves our thanks and appreciation not to mention a huge medal. These companies and their owners come and go usually under a cloud of controversy and criticism and usually make very little money or lose every thing. However, they do leave their cars to be loved and cherished forever. Most have dreams of becoming Mr. Ferrari or Ford, however, most close down at some time or another. So to you builders, PLEASE, PLEASE KEEP BUILDING!
Hopefully my first post has answered or sparked a few questions -sorry for going on a bit, once I started I couldn’t stop.
[email protected]
I have now joined and would like to put my ten penneth in:IMHO - I would like to try and clear up some of the confusion regarding the CAV GTs. It’s not really complicated, but somewhat hard to explain. I’ve been in vintage, classic, and exotic automobile business for 37 years and involved buying and selling these roller GTs for approximately two years, originally through Bob & Margo Lacy, AKA, California Advanced Vehicles, CAV-USA. They had a third partner, Tanya, and through a partnership disagreement, Bob and Margo, unfortunately, are no longer involved with CAV USA. CAV-USA used to have a marketing agreement with Cape Advanced Vehicles, the original CAV-South African Company, who originally, approximately 3 years ago, produced a space frame, turnkey minus, (complete car less engine and trans). A good car, but understandably the first rollers did have their teething problems as with most any new projects. CAV South Africa then upped the ante and went to a much improved, in every respect, complete TIG welded high grade, stainless steel, monocoque chassis, with integral roll over and side impact protection. This is a far superior, stronger (yes, I am a little bias) and never rust, stainless steel tub chassis, very similar, but obviously not to the exact detail of the original GT40 chassis in basic design.
The original South African CAV went out of business after two major events:
#1. CAV South Africa went into a deal with Shelby to produce the new CRX 4000 Cobras. They spent a fortune building molds and expanding staff, ect. to accommodate the projected production but then, #2, the main event that caused their whole demise was something that no one could foresee or control; the US dollar dropped from approximately 12 rand to the dollar, to 6 rand to the dollar. Therefore, they could not produce vehicles at the contracted price. For those folks out there that say, “yeah, they went bust,” yes, that’s what happened, but at least they had the guts to go for it in the first place and they put their money where their mouth was. I do not know of any private buyer who lost a dime apart from the original owners of the CAV South Africa Company.
AutoFutura, www.cav.co.za a company that is owned now by two, “attentions to detail engineer types,” purchased the molds, chassis, parts, other assets and rights from the CAV South African liquidation sale and immediately went into producing rollers. Once again they upped the ante and implemented 48 + new improvements to the rollers and by March ’05 will be completing the 100th CAV, monocoque, stainless roller which VIP Classics, out of San Diego, have contracted to purchase as one of our demos. We at www.vipclassics.com have sold many rollers over the last two years, and have 8 in our showroom, 4 of which are sold, plus another 2 being picked up from Long Beach this week, one of which is sold. 2 more are on the ocean inbound, and another 8 in production. Some of these are sold, some available. By the way, vipclassics will be at the Barrett Jackson Auction this week for anyone who wishes to see AUTOFUTURA’S CAV quality. Booth #334.
I agree somewhat with your members, to stop the confusion on the CAV name, it may be necessary to rename CAV somehow, someway, someday, (although that’s nothing to do with me.) The original company, Cape Advanced Vehicles built up to approximately chassis tubs # 100. The last few were purchased by Autofutura through the liquidation sale and are now being completed by Autofutura with the many improvements. They are being sold through vipclassics.com.
As far as the current situation, Autofutura, URL. www.cav.co.za, is the stainless steel, monocoque chassis CAV manufacturer which are available in the USA through Roy Sayles, www.vipclassics.com out of San Diego, and Ian Clark for Canada. Ian is on the forum. Part of the confusion is that Tanya, the ex-partner of Bob & Margo Lacy of CAV.USA. has acquired that company and name but has NO affiliation whatsoever with Autofutura CAV South Africa. We have been told that Tanya has formed a relationship with Bailey/Edwards out of South Africa and is intending to import a space frame GT to the USA. I am told that they are in the process of producing her first 2 cars in South Africa. We wish her well.
The whole business of small production automobiles is a very venerable. There are so many pitfalls that can cause disaster. It always takes much longer to produce and market the product than anyone could ever imagine. Any one of the hundreds of parts of a roller can turn into an engineering nightmare if not well tested. There’s import duties that can change at any time, employees, partners, overheads, health problems, and a 1000 other things that can go wrong. And who would have thought the U.S. dollar would devalue overnight by half? The S.A. Rand to the dollar the other day was 5.6. and going down.
Consider this: in 1967 GHIA built 52 cars, 11 sank on a ship coming from Italy. Approximately 88 Apollo’s were built, one of which I own. I also own one of 3 Bianchis straight eights, body by Grabour. Dare I mention Tucker, Clenet, Sparton, Vector or Delorian? These companies come and go and are up and down like a bride’s nightie. To my mind anyone who starts their own business, especially one that is so labor, time, and cost intensive as building and selling something of this magnitude, deserves our thanks and appreciation not to mention a huge medal. These companies and their owners come and go usually under a cloud of controversy and criticism and usually make very little money or lose every thing. However, they do leave their cars to be loved and cherished forever. Most have dreams of becoming Mr. Ferrari or Ford, however, most close down at some time or another. So to you builders, PLEASE, PLEASE KEEP BUILDING!
Hopefully my first post has answered or sparked a few questions -sorry for going on a bit, once I started I couldn’t stop.
[email protected]
