I know for a fact that I’m not the only individual in the C&SC office that is almost always on the lookout for something new to capture their imagination – long, or short term. It may not (and often won’t) lead to anything, but it’s a bloody good way to while away the hours when it’s too wet to work on the cars that we do own.
And this brings me neatly onto my latest infatuation. I’ll tell you what I want. What I really, REALLY want… and that is an early Formula Vee car. Mock all you like, but the air-cooled enthusiast in me can’t help but be lured by these pint-sized racers that helped kick-start the careers of such luminaries as Lauda, Fitipaldi and Rosberg.
Based on stock Beetle parts, the single-seater was conceived in 1959 by a VW Porsche dealer in Florida who commissioned Nardi to build a prototype based on a 1958 car.
Two years later and George Smith and William Duckworth created the Formula Vee series using the Nardi car as the model for their Formcar, thus launching an ‘affordable’ way to go racing.
So why do I want one? Not sure really.
It could be that there’s a little bit of a racer in all of us big boys and the romanticism of being able to open the garage door to discover your very own race car obviously appeals.
