Melling Wildcat

Not exactly "grassroots," but cool nonetheless. I really love all the cottage industry cars that England puts out. Here's a new one from Al Melling, the guy that designed TVR's engines, among others.

Looks pretty good. They'll put any engine in them. The stock one is a reworked AJP V8 that became the Speed Eight, with some modifications. They've put in BMW engines, LS engines, Viper V10s, Chrysler 440s... I wonder how it drives. 30,000 pound starting price sounds pretty reasonable to me. They seem to put a emphasis on it being easy to customize and configure differently. I'll take that red long-nose version on top.

Melling Sportscars

That idea of raffling off a car (2000 tickets at 20 pounds each) is one of the most brilliant marketing ideas I've ever heard. Huge and continuing publicity, one heck of a mailing list of confirmed interested parties, and guaranteed funds to build another hand-made car. I honestly can't see a downside. (Well, maybe if a winner does something grotesquely stupid with the prize....)

JeepinMatt wrote: Not exactly "grassroots," but cool nonetheless. I really love all the cottage industry cars that England puts out. Here's a new one from Al Melling, the guy that designed TVR's engines, among others.

If it weren't for the Melling badge, I would have thought these were TVRs at first glance. Absolutely not a bad thing, as these are some nice-looking cars. Especially this roadster:

Stealthtercel wrote: That idea of raffling off a car (2000 tickets at 20 pounds each) is one of the most brilliant marketing ideas I've ever heard. Huge and continuing publicity, one heck of a mailing list of confirmed interested parties, and guaranteed funds to build another hand-made car. I honestly can't see a downside. (Well, maybe if a winner does something grotesquely stupid with the prize....)

Yeah, it makes me want to kick myself for not entering the raffle when they were still going on. They did three of them. Of course I didn't know they existed at the time. They will build it in left hand drive at no extra cost and they mentioned they already built one for someone in the US. I'd take mine with the IRS option and the Melling V8 with a 6 speed. Small blocks are cool, but I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to own such a unique engine. They built the Speedster as a special for the customer; I wonder if they'd build a coupe, or at least a hardtop. That eggcrate grill on the red car is a beaut. That's the LHD/LS3 model built for the US customer if I remember correctly

Very cool cars! I love seeing unique cars from small manufacturers!

That's a classy shape. It's reminiscent of a handful of cars, but not directly derivative of any. And it's a classic design: simple car, pretty body, big motor. Hard to go wrong.

There should be more cars like this in the world.

I'd have to take mine in BRG over saddle leather with an LSx. You know, for tradition.

Too bad they won't make enough so that I can pick one up much cheaper in the future. Especially over here in the US. Bummer