Topic

Spotted today, a Moss Monaco Kit Car based on a 1973 Triumph Spitfire Mark IV with a 1296cc engine.







The Moss Monaco may not have a very powerful engine (63bhp) but weighing in at 540kg (compared to 843kg for the Spitfire ) the power to weight ratio is now 116.7bhp/ton (compared to 74.7 for the Spitfire it came out of)

Those in the know say the main handling complaint of the Spitfire "Tuckunder" is not a problem with this kit car, probably due to the Mosses light weight, which also makes the Monaco extremely nimble, on dry roads any rear sliding is very predicable (and great fun) although care has to be taken with the throttle in the wet.

The important question is ....what do you think ... Cool?

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I like it, not as much as the original 1973 Spit but that was probably beyond redemption I suspect.

As a way of saving something of the original, it's quite nice I think. Probably not very practical but looks good fun.

Wonder what it would be like with the 1500 Spit engine?

cairnsys wrote: wrote:

...Wonder what it would be like with the 1500 Spit engine?

No need to wonder, take a look at this link

Cool. Just for what it is.

lots of fun at real world speeds, nods in your direction, a bit alternative, and a big chunk of pride building the thing.
having 'wasted' many hours on kit cars, there's a huge amount of good times there before it even hits the road.

Genuinely conflicted by this. On the one hand I love the concept, if I had this in the garage it would never be in the garage. OTOH, I don't love the looks. Not sure what it is, just looks a bit too much like a kid's toy car.

Nonetheless, I reckon it's pretty cool. It has the cachet of being based on a classic sports car & is almost certainly a hoot to drive. Plus you'll get plenty of kudos on the road.

PQD44 wrote: wrote:

The Moss Monaco may not have a very powerful engine (63bhp).

Cool, cheap insurance then.

I do like this type of 'replica' kit car echoing this older type of vehicle. The trouble is with this one that I suspect it would be a dry day only car. Although it appears to have some sort of wet weather cover attached It looks like for covering it up while parked only.
Another issue for me is the size of the cockpit area. I strongly suspect anyone over 5'6" would need full face protection!

David, as regards the cockpit, the seat is very minimal and if you look at the windscreen you will see it is rather tall and slightly out of proportion to the car, so I assume the owner is probably well over 5'6"

I went for cool. Lots of fun for little dosh. Having owned a Herald as a 19 year old, I soon learnt that 'tuckunder' was easy to avoid if you kept your foot down on the loud pedal - keep the pressure on the rear suspension and the car squats rather than tucks - however, do not ease-up in the bend otherwise understeer becomes massive oversteer and you will spin (I know, I did it).

As far as kits are concerned, I'm a big fan of the Tifosi Rana - take a look at this: http://hallsgarage.co.uk/TifosiRana.pdf

Richard

It would probably be better still with the original "Standard Triumph" 1156 cc engine as fitted tot eh Mk1 & Mk2 Spitfires. they went really well. Back in my youth I had a Mk2 Spitfire (AYY 818B) which had a rebuilt engine in it set up be a friend who was wizard with twin SU's and it went really well indeed plus normal diving returned 50 MPG. It had 5 1/2J Dolomite wheels fitted with 185 Avon tyres and handled like a roller skate. Four wheel driftign through bends was great fun indeed

It's quite neat actually but not for me. I enquired about building a Riley Brooklands kit car once but lack of space to build it put the mockers on the idea. I preferred the boat tailed body and the squarer bonnet and grill. It was so long ago now that I cannot recall what running gear it had but I had the idea of using a 2600 SD1 engine.