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KVA, United Kingdom.
During
the 1960s an Englishman, Ken Attwell, yearned to own a GT40. It was
only by 1982, and while working for Ford in Swansea, that Ken
decided to build his own car. Ford had asked Ken to help with the
restoration of their own Mk. 3 car that had been involved in a
filming accident. As there was no budget for the restoration, Ken
agreed to their request, doing the work in his home workshop with
the proviso that he was allowed to take moulds off the body panels
which he would use to construct his own car (replica). He designed a
space frame/semi ladder type chassis which turned out to exceed the
required torsional strength and by late 1982 his first, blood red
KVA (Kenneth Vincent Attwell) ‘Mk 3’ GT40 ‘look-alike’ was
complete and was displayed by Ford in the reception area of their
Swansea plant. This car used Ford based suspension, a Ford CVH 1.6
litre engine and VW Variant transaxle. Larger engines like the 2.8
litre V6 or 289 CID V8 with ZF or Renault 30 transaxles were
suggested.
Howard Walker of “Motor Magazine” test drove the car and wrote a
very complementary article in the October 1983 issue. The front page
spread and photographs created a lot of interest. With Ford’s
blessing, Ken formed a small company, KVA, and started marketing
kits that could be built up as replicas. Ken continued his full time
work as Senior Engineer at Ford and as this proved quite stressful,
his wife Margaret stepped in run the business. Margaret proved a
very capable manager for the KVA business and continued until she
retired in 1994 after selling the business to Jules Hoffman of
Integrity Motors in Florida USA. The kit was continually improved
and in 1985 the Mk.1 body style was introduced.
Through a phase of using Jaguar suspension in a “B” type chassis, to
the use of wishbone suspension both front and rear in the “C” type
chassis, the kit produced a car which, to a large extent, replicated
the original suspension design. Customers included Ford Motor Co at
Dagenham, Lord Trotman, chief of Ford worldwide, GTD, Hightech
Welding, Thomas Hermson in Germany, RML Racing, Dee Type in the UK,
ERA in the US, Dax kit cars and Ray Mallock as well as original Ford
GT40 owners who purchased body parts. Over 400 of these kits were
sold during the twelve year operation of KVA. Jigs and moulds were
also supplied to other countries including South Africa where GT40
replication continues to this day. During the period from the mid
eighties till 1994, many rivals started building GT40 cars, in many
cases copying Ken’s design.
Ken Attwell is therefore considered the ‘father’ of GT40
replication.
References:
Ken Attwell;
David Hodges, Ford GT40: An Anglo-American Supercar Classic
(ISBN 1-899870-25-3)]
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