The Warriner Website

This website is dedicated to my car - a Robin Hood Kit Car. It was completed on 16 February 1999 and was the first Robin Hood to successfully pass the Government SVA test.

A description of a few trials and tribulations of the kit-car build follows. I hope that you enjoy it!

First a little bit of history! My interest in cars has always been with me. My father was a mechanic for British Rail and, I suppose, he gave me the bug. After having a great time as a student in London during the sixties and then having to come down to earth facing unemployment, selling my racing bike and then living in a grotty flat for a while it was time to buy a house. All this precluded me from following my ambition of owning fast cars and racing for a living! I suppose my first REAL car was a Fiat 600 in 1968 (it cost £75) which soon had an ABARTH conversion (1000cc) complete with twin Weber carbs and an unhealthy appetite for petrol and big-end bearings. Next offering was an Austin A35 estate (van with windows) followed by a variety of run-of-the-mill cars dictated by current girlfriends. All this culminated in a Morris Mini Cooper 998cc which soon had twin tanks, sump guard and HALOGEN spotlights (only recently invented) This was a very fast car BUT didn't stop very well. One thing led to another over a number of years and I bought my first rally car from a friend - a 1293cc Austin Cooper 'S'. What a machine! Here it is on it's (and my) first rally. My friend John Botterill is asleep with the map next to me! It was so cold that the self-adhesive numbers wouldn't stick to the doors so we used a felt-tip pen instead.

Just before we reached the photographer's bend we saw a sign which said 'FLASH' and so we flashed our headlights!!!

We never made that mistake again.

After a couple of rallies we decided that this 'fast' car couldn't keep up with FORDS so we swapped it for a Lotus Cortina MKI. Eight miles to the gallon didn't seem to worry us in those heady days of cheap fuel (1976/77) This car not only gobbled fuel but also clutches and so it was eventually disposed of (aluminium doors DO corrode)

Next came a cheaper to run vehicle Suzuki 250 GT - the fastest 250cc production road bike available at the time - scared me silly within six months so borrowed a 1300GT Escort from a friend who went to sea for two years (!) I loved this car - it was so cheap to run.

The picture on the left was taken at a place just off the A1 which the locals knew as 'Spitfire Bottom' Whilst we were working out the route we took no notice of the warnings from local drivers until we arrived (at high speed) in this ford at about 3 a.m. to find about 200 spectators (on a Novice Rally) THEY all knew about this bloody river - we didn't. There were TWO Landrovers waiting to PUSH cars out if they faltered whilst crossing.....

Next came a REAL car - Escort Twin Cam (1558cc) complete with sponsorship (not that I was a good driver but the navigator was the area Sales Manager for the building firm!)

I then sold this monster (4-8 MPG if you were lucky), got married and put a deposit on a house with the proceeds. Thus ended my rallying career. This glosses over the other silly things that I used to do like Autotesting a Fiat 500 (and thrashing a Mexico into the bargain), rock climbing with a lot of my old mates etc etc.

Four houses and two children later I was suddenly 50......

On my birthday my old friend JB bought me a book 'Build your own Sportscar for £250' - Yes, that's for me...

I was too lazy to build one from scratch so I bought a part-built one instead - here's the story.