It's neither the beautifully kept Aston Martin nor the faithful Cobra replica that first draws the eye as Peter Filby swings open his garage doors. It's the boxes. Uniform in height and stacked neatly across the full width of the back wall, this doesn't seem to be your usual garage fodder. "Those?" he smiles. "They're copies of Snakes Alive!, my latest book."
Even in retirement, Filby can't help but put print to paper. He slides out a hardcover compendium of Cobra replicas. It is specific in subject, covering all models built during the 1980s kit-car boom- or at least what the author describes as "best of breed".
Because, let's be honest, kit cars of the period weren't always known for their craftsmanship. The roots of the industry were well-meaning. home-assembled Specials of the 1950s and '60s, such as Fairthorpe and Elva, led to interesting low-volume (and some not-so-low) makers such as Lotus. But they also sprouted a rash of weird and often not-so-wonderful glassfibre shapes of dubious quality and, at best, acquired taste.
That is, at least, one way of looking at it. The counterargument is one of democratisation of sports cars; of swapping hard graft and a little imagination for the chance to drive something closer to fantasy than the rusted family saloon you sacrificed to achieve it. This intrigue was probably the fuel that ignited Peter's career.
'Probably' will be a feature of this story. As we sit in his kitchen, across a table filled with a lifetime of motoring books and magazines that bear his name, it's a struggle to piece together perfectly the patchwork of publications that make up his working life. Absolutely apparent after a cup of coffee in his convivial company, however, is that the particulars are not so important. What shines through is a single-minded determination to tell stories about a corner of our industry that he (mostly) loved.
Esta historia es de la edición January 2023 de Classic & Sports Car.
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Esta historia es de la edición January 2023 de Classic & Sports Car.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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Mick WALSH
'Had someone said that this worn-looking titan would win the most famous old-car event, we would have laughed'
ALFA ROMEO STELVIO QF
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"It's a car for posing in really"
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HONDAS DECK THE HALL
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ABSOLUTELY buzzing
Honda's Si Civics brought agile, cheap fun to motorists long before the Type R name got anywhere near a hatchback
THE FEMININE TOUCH
In 1955, General Motors styling guru Harley Earl brought 11 talented women into the male-dominated world of automotive design. What was their lasting impact?
Out on a limb
Panther's innovative Solo 2 was something completely different, both for its maker and the sports car market
Restyles with substance
Panther Westwinds blended a passion for pre-war designs with modern-era mechanical usability and remarkably fine coachbuilding
Dead ringers
The Maserati Kyalami and De Tomaso Longchamp share much, having emerged from the same stable, but are poles apart at heart