Toniq-R a runner

[anonymous-user]

Just got the latest Toniq-R update:

Toniq-R said:

What we've been doing this month: Well we really don't know how to go about writing this, as we're so excited. Last month we told you the car would be a runner, and by God it is! After a few days testing the running car in the workshop, where we had it spitting flames and sending out an almighty roar, the time had come for its first test run. On Tuesday evening Ian tested the car briefly doing a couple of laps around the car park and to my delirious happiness all went well. After this, we checked the oil, water pipes, radiator, brakes pipes, brake callipers, all cables and all moving parts, no drips, no cracks! Of course we shouldn't be that surprised, as over 300 Stuart Taylor Motorsport bike engine Phoenix and Locoblade cars have been completed in the last 5 years. On Wednesday the 6th October it was Colin's and my turn! This is the moment we had been waiting 2 years for - You could say 3 years, but it was only after the 1st year that we really believed it was ever going to make it into production. In the 1st year at the University of Huddersfield our focus was purely on getting a good degree. Soon after university I set my mind to getting the car to the International Motorshow, and production even then still seemed a very long way off for me. However, Colin had different ideas from an earlier stage, knowing he wanted to get it into production half way through our final year at university - How right he was and how boring I am?! At 10.31am on Wednesday 6th October 2004 it all happened. Colin was 1st to drive the Toniq-R, purely because he was standing by the drivers seat and I was positioned by the passenger seat after we'd pushed the car out of the workshop. I don't know who was more nervous, him or me, but I can't say I liked him driving it off around the car park. You see, Colin is fantastic at building things, but put him in a car and he seems to race everyone, all the time - so I was a little scared to see him in our Toniq-R! I've been a scared passenger in a car with him many times over the years - and that's in cars which have about 100bhp/tonne, this Toniq-R has 320bhp/tonne. Starting off gently he built up confidence and speed doing more and more laps of the car park. Eventually Colin stopped and with his ear to ear grin he just started swearing about how happy he was! Hopping in the car shortly afterwards, with my hands shaking, I was a little worried, I had never driven a car with this much performance, 0-60 in an estimated 4.2seconds, a bike engine and clutch, a car weighing just 450kgs, no seat belts - what was I doing! I had sat in the workshop with the engine running before, feeling tremendous vibrations through the seat, this was going to be even better! Flick the red safety switch to the left of the steering wheel, click the silver knob to the left, wait for the fuel pump to do its thing, push the black starter button located at the far right of the dash and vaaarrrooommmm! A massive grin erupts on my face, left foot down on the clutch, a quick pull on the toggle to engage 1st gear, feed out the clutch, a little acceleration needed, feel it bite and we're moving! I always thought it would be complicated or tricky to drive being a bike-engine car, but it wasn't - its exactly the same - when I say this I mean the actions required to move are the same - the performance is not. After crawling around my 1st corner on the clutch I had my 1st 100m blast, I backed off almost immediately, I must have been doing 30mph instantaneously! Check the brakes - good they work, the travel's a bit long, but that disappears as the brakes are bedded in. I continue with a few more laps of the workshop car park, my emotions are flipping between the feeling you get when you bungee jump (scared) and that which you have when you've just realised you got change for a twenty when you only gave them a tenner (smug). The car is surprisingly easy to drive; the engine note blasting out of the side-exit exhaust is gorgeous but very quiet at tickover.

Congratulations to 'em, I say.

[robcollingridge]

Interesting (if not slightly OTT and ugly) looking car but I can't quite see what the market target segment is. Do Caterham seven owners really aspire to something like this? Will be interesting to see if a it sells in any numbers.

Rob