After the Stimson Safari Six had been built in small numbers by Barry Stimson's company Design Developments, the project was sold and the production rights taken over by a company named Automotive Services, based in Winchester. They supposedly planned to relaunch the car as the Shikari with Ford Fiesta- or Peugeot-engine but the only evidence that I ever came across was a tiny little flyer dated October 1973 and just mentioning it. An actual car never materialized, or so it seemed.
Wrong! This photograph was taken recently by Gary Bygrave and it appears to show a Shikari after all. Bygrave saw it in Winchester, so it certainly didn't seem to have travelled far. Note the plastic (cracked) windscreen and square headlights, which seem to be of a later era then the 1970s?
Anyone who knows more about it?
This certainly seems to be a Shikari prototype, as spotted in Winchester recently
Picture Gary Bygrave
Lainston Investment Services Ltd. planned the Shikari for 1974
Picture Paul Wylde / Jeroen Booij archive
I think they made the blue one too. Barry didn't advertise any blue option. It could have been built by fauchon plastics has Barry had trouble getting moulds back of him for the mini bugs and the safari.
ReplyDeleteThe headlights look like they're from a 1980s Metro. Keith
ReplyDeleteYes looks like mk2 metro
DeleteThe headlights are definitely from an early Austin Mini Metro (HLE upwards), and the Shikari must be later than 1973 as the Ford Fiesta wasn't introduced into the UK until 1977, so it couldn't have used it as a mechanical base.
ReplyDeleteI am local in the area and after spotting the car wanted to find out more about it, hence I am here. When I first found it it had gullwing doors which have now gone, it has deteriorated over the years, would be nice to save it
ReplyDelete