Since Newark is only 30 miles or so from my house I decided that I really should go to the Newark Kit Car Show. It was too far for my brother, so I took daughter #1, Lil'B.

The Jagos were there, all parked in a row. Notice how the far end of the row is closer to the road than the near end? The Jago owners club should go and see Dakar owners club for 'parking in a row' tips...

From this end the row looks much better. Lil'B agrees...

There was a good turn out from the Scamps too... It's nice to see the older, less flashy (read Lotus 7 clone) kits. They all seem to have a really good following.

This is a view into a Scamp engine bay. I was impressed by two things here: - 1) The use of a central heating cylinder thermostat to control the fan (I think), and 2) the use of an empty water bottle as a bonnet prop. This is proper ingenuity.

Woo, here's a Fugitive, and very nice too. There were two at the show, we'll see the other one later...

This is the Fugitive's engine bay. It's very tidy but not very Beetle. Never mind...

This is the other side of the Fugitive. We weren't the only people interested, so why aren't there more of these about?

Dakar had an indoor stand at Newark. (At Stoneleigh they generally park outside in a row...) It seems that the production rights for Dakar have been sold to Dakar 4x4 Design and Conversions, and they are really making a go of it. Yay!

Blitz World had an indoor stand too. They had 3 buggies on show, and all were very clean. I'm afraid I didn't pay too much attention to the engines, but I seem to recall that all three had a different, and one may have been a bike engine.

This is another buggy on the Blitz World stand. It's blue.

Have you ever been driving along quite happily and been over taken by some idiot in a Lotus 7 clone. Well here's some hope for catching him ;)

This is a Juno Jeep. According to their blurb, it's the ultimate toy vehicle - well Lil'B seemed to like it! It's based on a Rover 100/Metro but didn't have the donor engine. This car was one wheel drive, with a long chain to the rear axle. There are plans for a 4-wheel drive version. Although this car looked like fun - especially for the kiddies - if I had a spare Metro kicking around I'd probably be knocking on Freestyle's door. Juno Jeeps don't have a website at the moment, but are working on one.

Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen - well all the way to Newark, which isn't that far from their Mansfield base. These guys are probably the bread and butter of the Lotus 7 clone kit car world. However, lurking in their brochure is something called the Rager. It looks good, it's beefy, it's going to be available with a V8, and it's aimed at the off road market, but I've never seen one... if I can be bothered, I'd scan in the brochure, but I can't.

Now if I had a rusting Metro on my drive - which I did once - I'd be turning it into one of these. It's a Freestyle. I used to think this kit was expensive, but after looking at some others I've changed my mind. At Stoneleigh, these guys were parked outside, but at Newark they were in the hall, and this meant they had the video out. Lil'B and I watched these 2 wheel drive buggies driving down some seriously muddy tracks.

This is what you get in the Freestyle kit. Well, as far as I could make out, this is the standard chassis kit and the 11 piece galvanised body kit. Yours for £1090 - a bargain.

Since I'd brought Lil'B with me, we noticed that there was something for the kids. Well she noticed, even before we'd parked, even before we'd entered the show ground. This is a big inflatable helterskelter she went down 7 times - which is excellent value, since I only paid for 6!

This is the bouncy castle. The only way I got Lil'B off this was to promise another go on the helterskelter before we went home. Although I accept that it may be nice to give the kids something to do - it does make it very hard to drag them back to the cars afterwards.

Lolocost had towed their trailer all the way to Newark too. I wonder if they followed Robin Hood here? This is a a lightweight chassis, it's strength comes more from the panels than the box section.

I jest of course calling this the heavyweight - it would be like a feather compared to most road cars. You can see the price in the picture. All you need to do is buy the book, and build a car!

This was in the cars for sale section, which was dominated by VW based kits. This is a Beaujangle Can Am. Go on and Google that - I got 77 hits, most of which were about dogs. Not that this was a dog, it looked quite smart.

The sign in the window of the Beaujangle Can Am reads: - Beaujangle Can AM beach buggy, yellow, tax exempt, disk brakes (front), radio, fat back wheels, 1600cc, Gose like F**k, Just in time for Summer, Don't want to take it home. Made we wonder why?

This purple buggy was also for sale - it was very tidy and a an awesome paint job.

The purple buggy was VW powered - Yay. It had all the shiny trimmings.

This blue buggy was also for sale - again, it was very tidy.

The blue buggy looked like it was bike powered. This is the first time I've seen a bike powered VW. Woo and yay!

This is Beetle based, and that's all I know, other than it was for sale...

Dancing Metal had a VW engine! It had all the shiny bits, and what looks like an original reg.

Here it is again - that funny little yellow and aqua thing from Stoneleigh. Well this time I took a closer look. I couldn't find anyone to tell me what it was, but a quick web search reveals this. It's the same car! It seems to be associated with the Mini Marcos kit - but I'm not sure how...

Another picture of the Alto Duo.

This is another good thing to come from Dakar 4x4 Design and Conversions. It's a 4x4 Rotrax Suzuki based on a Vitara. Note the child seat in the front - this is a family car - don't let your wife tell you otherwise!

It's a Dakar, the only one out in the sunshine. Does one car constitute parking in a row?

At Stoneleigh they're mostly inside, at Newark they're mostly outside. In any event, there are plenty of trade stands.

The Blitz 4x4s were out again, these same cars were at Stoneleigh, and here they are again. The owners are members of the Mongrels kit car club.

Here's the other Fugitive - we had seen it driving around and parked up in the camping area - but here it is parked next to the other Fugitive. The big radiator gives away the fact that it isn't beetle powered.

There were also stationary engines at Newark. Lil'B took great delight in telling me that there was a big one, there was a little one, there was a red one and there was a green one. I took great delight in pointing out that there was one that wasn't stationary.

All in all it was a good day out and I'd probably go again. It was cheaper than Stoneleigh, only £8 at the door with Lil'B free. But it was hot, damn hot, real hot, and by mid afternoon we'd both had enough, so we went home. According to the website there is a Miss Kit Car show competition. We didn't get to see it - never mind