[Trevor Legate]

And the thread goes on.......

OK so the DAX was designed by John Tojeiro. Well yes. it was eventually sorted out by him and carried his seal of approval. Original DAX's.......oh dear. They began by making a body to the order of a German gent who fancied re-bodying Corvettes in Europe. Deal went sour (gosh) and they ended up advertising in the UK trade mag (Excange & Mart) claiming the bodies would fit onto a variety of weird donor cars. It chills the blood to think any of these escaped onto the Queens Highway. Then they employed Adrian Cocking whose mate came with him because he owned an Arntz body. The new DAX body was copied from that. They then got a south coast enginneering company to help with a chassis and - well well - they though they could do a better job and along comes the Southern Roadcraft Cobra 427........with me so far? The DAX struggles along before they got Mr.Tojeiro along and clean up the act -they now make a worthy product. Saw the first V12 DAX just after Frank Catt (see the GT40 club website) completed the shoe-horn installation. Nice and ruddy quick thank you Auntie, but made the wrong noise.
So of course Adrian Cocking left and set up RAM (to do a better job etc) and got Adrian Reynard involved. Managed to wangle a deal out of a trusting Mr.C.S. and then issued an unapproved press release to say RAM are the ONLY manufacturers of Cobras in the world - smack in the middle of the court battle between Shelby and AC Cars who were selling the AC Cobra, with full approval for sole use of the name from Ford! You can just imagine how pleased ol Shel was...!!! Ay karamba. Goodbye RAM and Mr.Cocking disappeared into the wilderness, destined to wander forever in utter disgrace. Actually I never did get to the bottom of what really happened to RAM - the mention of his name to the UK Cobra Club brought forth expletives so I thought it best to back off. Rumor has it RAM will return, but no sign yet.

So you see its a hotbed of intrigue and endless fun on the replica scene over here. One big happy family.

On the matter of UK politics (!) yes the Brits did dump Winston Churchill after the war, but re-elected him at the next election. We do things like that. He was 75 then and not really up to the task, and actually carried on for too long after a stroke. Always cantankerous and never prepared to let go and sit back to reflect on past glories. Always hanging on to power, never admiting defeat. Unique guy, can't think of anyone else like that.....

re the similarity between the AC Ace and the Ferrari 166 - the Tojeiro Bristol (LOY500) (forrunner of the Ace, and a Ferrari 166 lined up in the Goodwood paddock alongside each other last year and I was able to get the photo I always wanted - see my next book!!!!!!!!!