I never knew this existed.

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-britishcars/the-light-car-rocket-spotted/32694

Definitely function over form!

I never could work out where the ridiculous price tag came from, there never was anything "special" about the car at all, other than the name Gordon Murray attached which presumably meant you could sell it for double (or more) what it was actually worth!

Russ,

I'm sorry, not sure if it was meant like that, but your post looks slightly like professional jealousy.....

You make a tandem seat f1 replica and so did Gordon Murray, but his is world famous, revered in the press and commands high sale prices, and yours, well, isn't.

I'd say well done to the guy, I've always thought it an elegant and simple design, very exotic for it's day, as it was designed in 1991, it was a bit of a precursor to the number of bike engined cars around today.
Every road test I've read was really positive about it, and if it's held it's value, then there's appeal and demand.

Seems a bit sour grapes to say there's nothing special about it!

Just my humble opinion of course, all can disagree if they want.
Ad

I think Russ has a point but I guess for the target market for the Light Car Rocket price just isn't an issue, whereas Russ is subject to a bit of healthy competition from the locost market so is a bit more focussed on keeping the price down.

Personally I'm not keen on either of the cars though compared to a Seven or a Fury / Stylus.

Stu

I always think that the perceived value of cars like ours is subject to a great deal of brand awareness, snobbery, unrealistic track times and dubious engineering opinions. At my recent IVA the IVA tester claimed in some ways in his opinion a GBS Zero is 'better' than a Caterham. As a person who sees more lightweight kit built sportscars than any other person his opinion should have some weight. The prices of said cars does not however reflect this.

Its the price that people will pay rather than it's value that matters.

To be fair, the Caparo T1 sits at the top of the market I suspect. There's room below for variations.

When I said I could never work out where the ridiculous price tag came from I actually meant when it was launched, so that would be a bit early for professional jealousy as my car was some 14 years away from being built at the time.

I've had people say my car is way too dear because I ask some £20k plus for a built car, but then I don't have the no. of customers that a 7 manufacturer has to get the economies of scale - I also couldn't give a monkeys about actually making any money from the project or selling to a mass market (lucky really, because I doubt if it's paid me even a fiver an hour for all the hours put in - the first car took around 2000 hours & there's a lot more gone in since!), if it ever did take off then I can assure you I would no longer be running the show. But why would I want to sell the car for peanuts, it's not like there is actually anything else even vaguely similar out there, unlike a 7 where you can go & choose from any no. for less than £10k already on the road

My point about the ridiculous price tag also applies to things like the Atom - it doesn't even have any bodywork to talk of & believe me that's where most of your time & costs go, along with development, which is very easy if you're selling dozens or hundreds, but has to be spread over much fewer cars when selling just a few. You could also say exactly the same about the Caparro, surprise surprise they never sold many, the production standard was appalling & reliability - well, they set fire to Plato & the floor fell off when Top Gear played with it!!! There is absolutely nothing special about either the Rocket or the Atom, the Caparro has a very special engine (which is then going to need rebuilding frequently at vast expense) & some carbon fibre bits, but give me a BAC Mono any time - yes, it's very expensive for what it is, but at least it's built to a high standard, & is put together properly & won't need a rebuild every 5 minutes!

Wasn't the Weisman gearbox extension like 12 grand?

Lovely car, although it never had its ultimate compliment.

Imitation

didn't someone like brooke cars do a similar one to this as well?

The Brooke was quite similar looking, but IIRC, it was a Duratec 2.3, can't remember how the transmission was arranged, ie transverse or inline, & the seats were side by side rather than tandem, can't remember the price tag, don't think it was as daft as some, but still wrong side of £40k possibly? I don't think many were sold, I've never seen one in the flesh other than at a show many years ago ..........

Brooke! that was the name i was searching for.

Spotted one at a kit car place years ago (anyone remember Jigtec??????? ) under a tarpaulin that someone had had a fatal accident in. never seen another before or since.

There's a Brooke for sale on PH just now... I really like them!



ADVERT LINK

It's simple! The Rocket commands a premium because it was designed by a genius F1 engineer.

quote:

---

Originally posted by russbost
I could never work out where the ridiculous price tag came from...

...because I doubt if it's paid me even a fiver an hour for all the hours put in

---

"at a commercially viable and worthwhile price" - Eeeeerrrrmmmm, How many did they sell, & how many years did it stay in production? Commercially viable? - well obviously not!

quote:

---

Originally posted by russbost
"at a commercially viable and worthwhile price" - Eeeeerrrrmmmm, How many did they sell, & how many years did it stay in production? Commercially viable? - well obviously not!

---

It must be just me then, as I think it looks horrid, not got the right lines at all,
The Brooke however is a much more pleasing look

steve

quote:

---

Originally posted by scootz
There's a Brooke for sale on PH just now... I really like them!



ADVERT LINK

---