Background

Hello. My name is Anthony Lathrop and this is my blog to document my Ill-Advised Sports Car Project. 

To the extent that I grew up at all, I grew up splitting time between my dad's race car shop and the music store/guitar repair/luthiery shop where my mom worked. I work in health care but I've just about always had some kind of build or rebuild project going on. Bicycles, guns, guitars, tube electronics... but until recently I hadn't worked on cars in over 30 years.

I did some work for my dad as a teenager - but the 70s and 80s era amateur or semi-pro race cars were notable for the absence of electronics and no little fiddly bits of plastic with hoses and wires running off to connect to seemingly unrelated parts of the engine. Whenever I looked under the hood of a car more recent than 1980, I saw a lot of stuff with no discernible purpose - but likely to cause mysterious malfunctions if not connected properly. 

Just in the past 2ish years my brother Ray, who grew up to be the most automotive of all of us race car shop urchins, gently nudged me back in to working on cars - partly with his help and advice, and also by introducing me to the world of YouTube DIY auto repair videos. "Just watch couple of videos and see if it looks do-able." Turns out, it almost always does look do-able.

For years I'd been attracted to the idea of building a kit car, but they were either too complex and expensive (eg; Cobras, Porsche Speedsters), or simply not an interesting enough car to sink that much effort into (eg; most of the air cooled VW based kits). 

Then, on a guitar forum of all places, someone posted about the Replicar kits (originally by MEV, subseqently taken over by ANC Sportscars). This looked simple and affordable enough to do... but also a car that was interesting enough to be worth the time and effort. I've always had a soft spot for vintage British sports cars - not much of an MG or Triumph fan, but love the Jaguars, Aston Martins, Austin Healeys, Minis, and Lotuses (Loti?). And then the kicker - the Replicar uses Mazda Miata running gear - and my genius mechanical engineer brother Ray happens to be something of a Miata fanatic.

The Replicar is styled after the Aston Martin DBR-1, a racing car from the 1950s of which only a handful were ever made, but famous for winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans and many other races, driven by great names like Stirling Moss and Jack Brabbham. A classic much beloved by British sports car fans.

Here are a few pictures of some of my favorite Replicar pictures I've run across.

One of the reasons Replicars are affordable is that they leave a lot of the details up to the builder, particularly the interior. It's interesting to see how different builders have chosen to fit out their cars. I have a great appreciation for small details done well and hope to be able to get some of that vibe in my build.