2026 Season in Swing
The intrepid IMM trio: McCoy GT
The intrepid IMM trio: Heerey GTM
The intrepid IMM trio: Ranger Cub 4
The Otematata Engineering Elin
Showing posts with label Kingfisher Sprint. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kingfisher Sprint. Show all posts
Tuesday, 2 June 2026
Tuesday, 3 September 2024
Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #40
Will the real Kingfisher prototype please stand up?
Mini Marcos sold - in memory of Aad
New 'bomb release test' picture of Autocars Marcos
Tuesday, 9 April 2024
Tuesday, 4 October 2022
Mathijs finds an Irish Kingfisher Sprint
Mini Marcos owner and fellow-Dutchman Mathijs van Mullem lives in Ireland these days and he took his Marcos with him. He does send over a message every now and then. Last week a brief one came in: "Found a Kingfisher here in Ireland and bought it to play a little with". Wow! Doesn't that look like a nice example of the rare Kingfisher Sprint? Congrats mate, I'd love to hear more about it in due course!
'VFO 218' is a Kingfisher Sprint. About 35 of them were made in the early 1980s
Picture Mathijs van Mullem
The Kingfisher had a big rear hatch with a Datsun 120Y screen in it
Picture Mathijs van Mullem
Mathijs found this in Ireland, where he lives, and bought it to play with
Picture Mathijs van Mullem
He restored a Mk3 Mini Marcos, and drives that now in Ireland, too
Picture Instagram
Monday, 27 January 2020
Kingfisher Sprint shell wants to be turned into a car
A virtually new Kingfisher Sprint body shell that remains unbuilt and thus never turned a wheel since it was made in Northumberland in the 1980s has turned up for sale in Vienna, Austria. Christian Schmidt made me aware of the car that is owned by a friend of him, who lives locally. He wrote: "He is in the process of streamlining his collection of classic vehicles. Main reason is as usual - too many projects, too little time! He asked me to help him with the sale and I was immediately thinking of your Maximum Mini Market."
The shell was bought with the intention to build it up as a functioning car but it never happened. Somewhere in the shell's life the body's front end had gone missing at some point and therefore a new mould was made. This mould comes with the lot, together with the bonnet, both doors and the rear hatch panel. A new owner will have to source all the rest of the (Mini) mechanicals and further parts to finish the project, including VW Beetle 1303 windscreen, Datsun 120Y Coupe rear screen and Ford Capri rear lights as these were fitted to the cars built by Kingfisher instigator Roger King. King sold approximately 35 Sprints between 1981 and 1984.
For more details see the ad here.
The shell was bought with the intention to build it up as a functioning car but it never happened. Somewhere in the shell's life the body's front end had gone missing at some point and therefore a new mould was made. This mould comes with the lot, together with the bonnet, both doors and the rear hatch panel. A new owner will have to source all the rest of the (Mini) mechanicals and further parts to finish the project, including VW Beetle 1303 windscreen, Datsun 120Y Coupe rear screen and Ford Capri rear lights as these were fitted to the cars built by Kingfisher instigator Roger King. King sold approximately 35 Sprints between 1981 and 1984.
For more details see the ad here.
Waiting to be built from the early 1980s-on - this Kingfisher Sprint body is virtually new
Picture via Christian Schmidt
A mould was made to create a new front end for the car - it comes with the lot
Picture via Christian Schmidt
What have I done..? Kingfisher body shell when it was picked up many years ago
Picture via Christian Schmidt
About 35 Kingfisher Sprints were made, and this one never turned a wheel
Picture via Christian Schmidt
Monday, 3 June 2019
The Kingfisher as a 4-wheel drive homologation special
The story below was posted online by Tom Wilkinson last week and I wanted to share it with you guys here as I rather enjoyed reading it. It's a nice little tale about the Kingfisher Sprint, or actually one very unusual version of that car dubbed the Kingfisher Turbo Sprint Coupe 4WD HS. He we go, in Tom's words:
"I’m not sure how we met our friend John, but he came up to the farm when we had our first Avengers. We would take him up the road, but John was a Hot Car reader (not Cars and Car Conversions, Rallysport or Motoring News), so he thought that when we were explaining it was a Group 1 Avenger, he got it into his head it was Stage 1 engine (remember those?), and was thoroughly shaken by his ride up the road. Now John was one of those guys who was always vague about his background, or how he earned his money, but always had a tale to tell about how qualified/experienced/knowledgeable/skilled he was, and his stories were always told to reflect that. One of the ones I do remember was how he’d been a snowmobile salesman in Vancouver and used to race them along frozen rivers with his mates. Personally, I thought he was a part-time script writer for Jackanory. Anyway, John bought a Lancia Delta HF Turbo 4WD, the forerunner to the Integrale. He regaled us with tales of how it had lost a little crispness to the handling when it underwent a RHD conversion, so he upgraded the turbo and put a Koni handling kit on it. He wasn’t so happy when Coke was on his way back from Newcastle one evening, and caught and passed him at Weldon Bridge and left him for dead going along the Coquet to Rothbury - in a bog standard Citroen Visa Diesel."
"So, when we got a phone call from John one day to go and see him at his new car factory in Rothbury, we were just a little bemused. It was at that time when there was another John, also making cars, but based in Northern Ireland, so you can imagine, “our” John was immediately nicknamed Delorean. Anyway, off we went to Delorean’s new factory where he’d bought the remaining assets of the Kingfisher Car Company (Roger King , the originator of the Kingfisher, had got into financial difficulty and gone into receivership). He was always the master of hyperbole, so he explained how he intended to market the “new” Kingfisher as a real performance car, and intended to build a rally version, the Kingfisher Turbo Sprint Coupe 4WD HS (the four wheel drive homologation special)
But Delorean being Delorean, it was going to be perfectly engineered, unique and ultra-competitive. (Please bear in mind that these were based on Mini 850s!). His plan, having researched the history of competition Minis was to create a twin-engined version, one in the front and one in the back, like the factory had experimented with for rallycross. Then he was going to turbo-charge both engines."
"He then sprang the big surprise: “And I’d like you two to drive it. I’d like one of you to do an English Championship, and the other to do a Scottish Championship. What do you say?” Well, we managed not to burst out laughing (and not wanting to scupper a deal that just by some remote chance, he ever got going), and started winding him up. “Can you fit it with Group 4 Minilites John?”
“No problem. I’ll get my engineers on it this week” (We were the only people in this lock-up unit!) “And can you fit Bilsteins too?” “I’ll ring the factory in Germany in the morning, and get them on it” “And can you design a high range/low range transfer box for it so we can have both a forest ration and tarmac ratio?” “I’ll ring Quaife in the morning” (I wonder if this was the prompt that caused Quaife to create their dual range gearbox!). After we’d run out of ever more outrageous questions, Delorean then says “So we have a deal then?” “Absolutely” we said, and he shakes our hands and tells us he’ll get his legal team on drawing up contracts first thing in the morning."
"As far as we know, the last we heard he was selling off job lots of moulds, resin and matting, and desperately trying to get out of the lease with English Estates. And we’re still waiting to hear from his “legal team”
"I’m not sure how we met our friend John, but he came up to the farm when we had our first Avengers. We would take him up the road, but John was a Hot Car reader (not Cars and Car Conversions, Rallysport or Motoring News), so he thought that when we were explaining it was a Group 1 Avenger, he got it into his head it was Stage 1 engine (remember those?), and was thoroughly shaken by his ride up the road. Now John was one of those guys who was always vague about his background, or how he earned his money, but always had a tale to tell about how qualified/experienced/knowledgeable/skilled he was, and his stories were always told to reflect that. One of the ones I do remember was how he’d been a snowmobile salesman in Vancouver and used to race them along frozen rivers with his mates. Personally, I thought he was a part-time script writer for Jackanory. Anyway, John bought a Lancia Delta HF Turbo 4WD, the forerunner to the Integrale. He regaled us with tales of how it had lost a little crispness to the handling when it underwent a RHD conversion, so he upgraded the turbo and put a Koni handling kit on it. He wasn’t so happy when Coke was on his way back from Newcastle one evening, and caught and passed him at Weldon Bridge and left him for dead going along the Coquet to Rothbury - in a bog standard Citroen Visa Diesel."
"So, when we got a phone call from John one day to go and see him at his new car factory in Rothbury, we were just a little bemused. It was at that time when there was another John, also making cars, but based in Northern Ireland, so you can imagine, “our” John was immediately nicknamed Delorean. Anyway, off we went to Delorean’s new factory where he’d bought the remaining assets of the Kingfisher Car Company (Roger King , the originator of the Kingfisher, had got into financial difficulty and gone into receivership). He was always the master of hyperbole, so he explained how he intended to market the “new” Kingfisher as a real performance car, and intended to build a rally version, the Kingfisher Turbo Sprint Coupe 4WD HS (the four wheel drive homologation special)
But Delorean being Delorean, it was going to be perfectly engineered, unique and ultra-competitive. (Please bear in mind that these were based on Mini 850s!). His plan, having researched the history of competition Minis was to create a twin-engined version, one in the front and one in the back, like the factory had experimented with for rallycross. Then he was going to turbo-charge both engines."
"He then sprang the big surprise: “And I’d like you two to drive it. I’d like one of you to do an English Championship, and the other to do a Scottish Championship. What do you say?” Well, we managed not to burst out laughing (and not wanting to scupper a deal that just by some remote chance, he ever got going), and started winding him up. “Can you fit it with Group 4 Minilites John?”
“No problem. I’ll get my engineers on it this week” (We were the only people in this lock-up unit!) “And can you fit Bilsteins too?” “I’ll ring the factory in Germany in the morning, and get them on it” “And can you design a high range/low range transfer box for it so we can have both a forest ration and tarmac ratio?” “I’ll ring Quaife in the morning” (I wonder if this was the prompt that caused Quaife to create their dual range gearbox!). After we’d run out of ever more outrageous questions, Delorean then says “So we have a deal then?” “Absolutely” we said, and he shakes our hands and tells us he’ll get his legal team on drawing up contracts first thing in the morning."
"As far as we know, the last we heard he was selling off job lots of moulds, resin and matting, and desperately trying to get out of the lease with English Estates. And we’re still waiting to hear from his “legal team”
This actually is a turbocharged engine in a Kingfisher Sprint. There's just one engine though...
Picture Jeroen Booij
The very first Kingfisher Sprint, built in the Rothbury factory. Roger King is the man with the beard
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
Thursday, 22 October 2015
Market round up (Autumn 2015)
Let's make a little round-up on what is on the market at the moment. Quite a lot Mini based vehicles to choose from, ranging from plain weird to pretty wonderful. At your service!
PS: You know where to find more of them - click here for Deep Sanderson, Unipower, Ogle et cetera...
Another part of the DART family: a rare Kingfisher Sprint, this one is in Ulverston
Also in France (Colmar): a beautiful and pretty rare Mk3 Mini Jem. Tres chique but not cheap
PS: You know where to find more of them - click here for Deep Sanderson, Unipower, Ogle et cetera...
A Jiffy project, this one comes with six wheels! Jiffy registrar Glen Bowden says: "I dont think Indespension built it. I havent heard about 6-wheelers and I have only seen two."
See the ad here
A very nice Freestyle, built with auto testing in mind. Not cheap though but ready to go
See the ad here
Or do you fancy a buggy for the rough? Then this NCF Blitz with off road tyres is yours
See the ad here
See the ad here
Speaking about rough: this Mini Marcos is advertised as a Mk1 or Mk2. I'd say it's a Mk3
See the ad here
Another part of the DART family: a rare Kingfisher Sprint, this one is in Ulverston
See the ad here
Built at the Goodwood track in the 1980s and with 1100 underpinnings: a Langridge Navajo
See the ad here
I really like this Mk1 Scamp. For sale in Ryde, on the Isle of Wight. Combine it with a holiday!
See the ad here
See the ad here
And it's not the only one seen for sale at the moment. This Mk1 is offered for sale from Louth
See the ad here
See the ad here
For wicker men: An Innocenti Mini Mare, seen in central France but until recently in Italy (click)
See the ad here
See the ad here
Also in France (Colmar): a beautiful and pretty rare Mk3 Mini Jem. Tres chique but not cheap
See the ad here
This gorgeous 1964 Radford Mini de Ville has been featured in Maximum Mini 2 before
See the ad here
Or do you prefer a coachbuilt Mini by Wood & Pickett? This 1988 car was built for Sir Jeffrey Archer
See the ad here
Or do you prefer a coachbuilt Mini by Wood & Pickett? This 1988 car was built for Sir Jeffrey Archer
See the ad here
While this Mini Marcos Mk3 racer is in Bradford on Avon - where Marcos Cars were based
See the ad here
Also close to where it was built: an AEM Scout on a stones throw from Merthyl Tydfil in Wales
See the ad here
See the ad here
This Nimrod is in the USA. It was in a good state until recently (see here), but look at it now…
See the ad here
A very nice Minus Mini here with 1275 engine and comprehensive work carried out
See the ad here
Last but not least, over to New Zealand, where a Terrapin has made it to the market
See the ad here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)