so, where did the body come from. RC v lorrie

[venom0427]

So were did you get the body from???

in the mid 1990s i bought a kit from lorrie (now trading as rcm) and it came with, body, chassis, 5ltr engine and gearbox, windscreen and bumpers and over riders I think that was it.
Anyway, I got the kit and I was happy, and naive, after drinking myself into a stupor and celebrating the buy, it was time to come to reality.

I needed a welder, fiberglasser, compressor, and a heap more tools than I had.
So the car sat and sat, over a year and a heap of phone calls my screen and parts didn’t show up, so I went around to get my money back.

thru this time I didn’t get any real help, yes once he came around and showed me his car and got me all worked up, to then you just fall back into the same heap, this before the days of the internet.

I called my self replicar autos (get it) , So I sold the kit to a kid (about my age then) and his name was jason (your right nassty) we worked on it together for a wile, he then took the kit and went to lorrie ( looking back, it was a good move).

Prior to selling it I bumped into a guy who knew where a body was, and he could fined out if this guy wanted to sell it.
But just prior to this I was looking at flopping a mould from Lorries, but after finding all the faults with it nobody wanted to paint it or work on it.

Errors like:
Door panels to small
Bonnet not fitting or to the right shape
Boot to small, not fitting the correct shape
Large gaps all round the doors bonnet and boot
Large hollow section in the drivers side and passenger side front corner
Mis alignment of mould across the top of the front and rear guards
Masking tape used to fill chips or discrepancies in the guards

all of these items on top of not getting the parts made me upset, due to that the money spent on lorrie was my fathers inheritance, and it wasn’t long after that he died that I brought the kit that I thought that it would be good way to meet and do something that I love.
So, I went to Toyospares in Bayswater and saw the body there in the corner of this factory, it was RED in colour, but with no bonnet.
All the inner panels were their, but they looked different to my kit (Lorries)
I later found out that it was set up for a MGB front end.
So decided to ether paint Lorries or buy this one and start afresh, and by the way it was only around $2000 which was about $1500 cheaper than to fix Lorries.

I payed the man, picked the body up, and was happy.

Now I was almost ready to start, I needed a chassis builder and a fiberglasser.
Some then I came across beachcomber boats and jimmmyyy, I took Lorries kit to him and I said, I want something new and different, and that he did.
The kit for sale on the eBay sight was the first chassis we built.
But the biggest problem was that all the mounting points were wrong.

So there you have it in a round about kind of way. It was a long time ago but the story is true

Now comes the fun stuff , to put to rest this thing that’s being going for so long.
How to tell the difference between, Lorries (rcm) and RC bodies.

Lorries filler neck is different to mine, I didn’t have a filler neck at the start, so Mick (who is the brother in-law of Andrew, lorries mate and makes parts for him, well I don’t know about know) anyway, he had to make a filler neck hole for me, so when jason went to cut the hole for the fuel cap, he would have found the tin and filler there from Mick.
By the way Mick was to get a body for fixing Lorries body (JUST TRICKING YA) he got a yellow one.
Now here we go..
1.) My body doesn’t have a return lip on the body, it did but b/combers said that it would be to much like hard work, so I said don’t worry, we will do with out it. BIG mistake
2.) My edgers on the guard’s front and back were very clean (if the fibreglasses didn’t stuff up with the assembly of the mould).
3.) MGB front guards came with the kit, I got jimmmmyyy to do the guards in alloy as the inners were all different than what we were going to run (even though artnz had MGB front and Jag rear) I wanted alloy and I got it. B/comber wanted them in alloy as well so they could take a mould of them.
4.) Jason’millingtons car has red gel coat under the blue hi fill that you see in the photos. Lorries kit (the one I bought from him was black)
5.) Lorries doesn’t have the exhaust cut outs, mine did. From the genuine body.
6.) The original tunnel was wider to accepted the big block and the shifter, we cut it down by around 2-3” and moved it over to the left a bit. Lorries doesn’t have the tell tail marks of the move.
7.) Boy is there more??, narr that’s about it.
8.) Sorry, Just one more, this is the photo I took of poor jason as he was working on his body, look closely and you will see the red gel coat under the hi fill, thanks jason.


Now when all you guys go to you cobra bash nights, and you see a guy saying that it’s a RC or lorries kit, now you know what to look for.

just to clarify this issue from nastty (don’t want to leave you out), in not to much detail I will go thru and try and answer a few of your doubts.

Seeing double?
Well you are right, after about 6 years of hearing the same story, well if every one thinks that we copied his chassis, lets build one that was a lot easer, cheaper and more affordable the same as lorrie, GV and arntz.

Well we never had a demo car, we all know that, that’s what let us down; I did put his kit out the front of my house to sell it (privately).
It was hardly a good (demo as you call it) selling item

I didn’t think I did, but if I did, o well it’s been fun.

Well that is good, and I do mean that, the industry needs people to support and give guidance. What can I say?

Now I don’t think it stuck, it was more like being pushed onto us, we would have customers come in and ask “were did the body come from” so we told the truth, (maybe some one just got it wrong from the start and lost some sales to a better kit, or is he bitter???)
Because we never fed it, we denied it, and promoted the fact that our body was taken from a shell that wasn’t Lorries, what do think we should have done, agreed to a lie.

Open your eyes, look ate the cars, don’t just look at the bling, really look. I’ve got nothing to hide or loose, I think Lorrie has more to loose than me, don’t you think, because we lost everything.

mmmmm……..ring lorrie………I think ill have to pay STD on the call?

Get him to call me, now that would be a blast.

Narr I’m happy, it’s been good to get this off my chest.


thanks for listing

sorry it was so long.....

[PCC]

You certainly have a huge problem................

Your typing / spelling is shocking - back to school young man and practice your lines

[venom0427]

but used spell check

[boxhead]

ya better make sure it is turned on, A dictionary sitting on top of the monitor doesnt work - trust me I tried it

[venom0427]

is it that bad, sorry ill get the rear spell checker out tommorow when she wakes up

[Rebel1]

Whoa fellas, I'm sure venom0427 doesn't mis-spell just to piss us off.

Not all of us have the benefit of an excellent education or indeed few of us suffer "Conditions" of which mis-spelling is symptomatic.

He is a man of mature age, not a child, so lets just respect him for his attempts at the written word and use our "abilities and education" to understand what he is trying to tell us.

Thanks all

[Tenrocca]

Body came from AC cars in England, modified (perfected?) by Carrol Shelby. Anything else is a copy, so does it really matter? (All this BS has been mildly entertaining at times, but I think its time to put it all to bed hey fellas).

BTW - ITs "LAURIE". LORRIE (Lorry?) is a truck.

[venom0427]

im fine with that. and by the way, a spelling mistake, or was it?? i allways herd his name being called out by......lorrrriiiieee. dont take that Personally.

[Shelby400]

I agree with Andrew. There all copies of something.
Get over it.

Brett

[REPTYL]

David’s story wouldn't make much sense unless you were building or buying a Cobra replica in Melbourne back in the mid 90s.

I did indeed buy RC's original car (baby blue as seen in the photos).
As soon as it was registered many members of the Cobra car club said that it was one of Larries cars that David had copied.

Not that I care that much, but I know that this is quite close to David’s heart as Replica Autos was his bread and butter.

I can confirm David’s entire story. I did indeed find the tin lid under the fibreglass when cutting out for the fuel filler.
And I have since spoken to the man who did the body work and painted the car before David fobbed his mould, and seen his photos of the car.

I know a lot of people got burned when RC went under, but David did every thing right by me and I enjoyed the time he allowed me to work on my car in his workshop back in 1998.

The bloke can't spell and he's not the best business man in the world but he builds a good cobra and has passion.

[skulper]

All replicas are copies so who cares as long as we enjoy them. All replica manufactures have used ideas or parts off others and copied them, a couple of examples are in the GT40's the RF looks a hell of a lot like a Tornado, the Classic Revival looks a hell of a lot like an ERA and even the CR literature in Ians brochure mirrors that of ERA.

If these replica guys didn’t copy from somewhere we wouldn’t have them to enjoy, or we would have to try and import them. I would like to say thank you to all the manufactures past and present for having the balls to take such a risk in an industry that doesn’t reward them sufficiently, but they continue to do what they do for the love and the passion they have towards these fine cars. To me it seems a thankless task to be a manufacturer, imagine all the phone calls you get from the tyre kickers (yes I am one LOL) and all the endless phone calls helping people with their builds.

Then you have the risk that you will not have a business the next day due to the RTA and Dotars always introducing changes without any consultation with the people it affects most, the manufactures. It's a big HIP, HIP, HOORAY from me to all past and present manufactures as I believe without any of you we would not have what we have today.

Steve

[Rebel1]

And the RMC's look awfully like a Dax.
And the Harrisons look awfully like a RMC.

and the list goes on.

Seriously steve...a well worded response.

[boxhead]

David, please dont be offended by my comment on the spelling (I even through the first word in wrong so you could see I was tongue in cheek).

RC Sports cars was not a manufacturer I even knew about until this year and the past threads on the subject, I agree with everyone in the fact that all our cars are replicars of someone eleses.

And I agree that it would be a business that from the outside looks great but would be fairly involved with alot of cr@p from the registration boards that would make you think twice why you are in this game.

[jasonnichols]

Every one may be getting confused but to help I'll add my two cents worth

There is two jasons Mr millington and Mr jason

King jason 1 and king jason 2

The car in question was in mine or may be Im wrong I ended up with your first buy. The body was a bit average but then I didn't pay much for it. Various bits got sold including a body then I bought another one from laurie it was definately better than the first.

You pay your money you get what you pay for I didn't have a lot of money and I got a lot of car for it. I think everyone should a a nice lay down and a cup of tea.

further to this , this is one of reasons I sold my car and got out of the club

stop your bickering

[PCC]

Here here

Or is that hear hear - who cares - EXACTLY

Well said King Jason the 2nd

[Rebel1]

Now I really am confused.

[venom0427]

jason, with all my hart, thank you

[boxhead]

Now we have 2 Jasons, both claiming to have the same body?

[venom0427]

now for my last say,( i think, well not as big) yes there are to jasons, jason millington and jason nicholas. jason n (rcm) and jason m (rc)...so thank you all, now i will take a long brake and get back to the kids...thanks again

[Rebel1]

Exactly BH, Hense my confusion.

Hey...I like your idea regarding that aero screen. Will be interested to see what trev comes up with.

Now...back to the regular program