Name the car, a point be yours
Now ex-rookie
Looks like it was built on a shortened VW pan. Is it a one-off?
renault 4cv based?
Not 4CV based: VW basis is correct, although I don't think it used a VW floorpan. Yes, it's a one-off.
to the pros...
Anything to do with Tom Killeen?
Is this from South Africa?
No Killeen connection, and not from South Africa...
European?
It looks a bit like Ian Stronach's Vixen but it can't be that since we've had it already...
Not European
And not the Vixen...
Australian?
New Zealand?
It looks as if the body may originally be a KM (Keith Morrison, Sydney).......
I'm not aware of any Keith Morrison connection...
Isn't this the Volcoupe by Ron Learnan?
Wahay! Yes indeed - well sleuthed, (though I think it's spelt Volcoup). Away from home at present, so will award point and come back with clarification soon
"'As the composition of the racing fields began to change with the advent of a more professional era Ron decided to build a one off sports car called the Volcoupe in the late 1950s early 1960s "
(http://www.500race.org/Men/Learnan%20Volcoupe.jpg)
I have a whole article here which refers to it a the Volcoup, but the point is definitely yours!
Great!
What is the name of this little car, and who built it?
Experts?
Trippel. the later Marathon (France) and Troll (Norway)...
Eeeeh so Hans Trippel, the body was made by Böbel.... Way after ànd before his amphibious adventures..
Quote from: qwaszx on January 28, 2015, 03:24:19 PM
Trippel. the later Marathon (France) and Troll (Norway)...
This is not one of those.
is it a british sports car one-off?
well it is from NZ from the rego plate
Volcoupe?
Quote from: kwgibbs on February 20, 2015, 03:58:21 AM
Volcoupe?
We have a winner. To complete the puzzle, who built it? LOCKED FOR YOU.
yes, it was Ron Learnan.
thank you!,there was very little information about this particular one-off that he built.
Repost: http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=20179
Merged!
Quote from: Wendax on February 20, 2015, 08:27:03 AM
Repost: http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=20179
That's my third repost in the last couple of days! Sorry, but it's all to do with hyphens, parentheses, and alternative names.
All references to this car on the web spell the name Volcoupe.
Quote from: nicanary on February 20, 2015, 08:32:23 AM
Quote from: Wendax on February 20, 2015, 08:27:03 AM
Repost: http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=20179
That's my third repost in the last couple of days! Sorry, but it's all to do with hyphens, parentheses, and alternative names.
All references to this car on the web spell the name Volcoupe.
Ah - I told you it had featured before but try as I might I couldn't find it!
No wonder; who's going to Search for "Volcoup(e)"?!
Perhaps Quiller's title should be changed to "Volcoupe / Volcoup". The blanks between the words and the dash make the words searchable.
Quote from: Wendax on February 20, 2015, 09:38:56 AM
Perhaps Quiller's title should be changed to "Volcoupe / Volcoup". The blanks between the words and the dash make the words searchable.
Good idea!
I'll execute.
I know this is very old, but if anyone wants to know more... I have owned this car!
Quote from: RhysN on July 01, 2018, 05:32:31 AM
I know this is very old, but if anyone wants to know more... I have owned this car!
We'd love to know more about it, like mechanical details.
I'm sure you have some photos you could post?
I'm sorry that I didn't respond to the comment re wanting to know more.
Ron Learnan was an engineer by training, educated in NZ in the 1950s, and wound up in the UK for a few years during which time he bought a brand new Cooper 500. He crashed it a bit later, repaired, and modified it to the point where Coopers apparently disowned it, and it became the RGR, now back in the UK after many years in NZ.
Ron decided he needed a road car, so set about building Volcoupe(e). It shares many dimensions with a Cooper 500, much of the same suspension layout, "wobbly leaf" transverse springs and such. It had a midmounted VW engine in a space frame and was a very effective little car. Ron used it daily to drive the 25 odd miles each way to work. Wheels were cast by Ron and friends with cast iron liners in the alloy centres which have Renault 4CV rims bolted to the outside as per Renault. Wishbones are all fabricated, front uprights fabricated, rears suspension is a combination of VW axles, transverse spring, and bespoke parts to make it all work very well.
The alloy body with gull wing doors, uses a Hillman Minx rear screen as the windscreen. I first paid money to buy it in 1967, paid a deposit at one of the many dodgy car dealers in Auckland, then went back a week later to finalise the deal, and was told they had sold it. Refund of deposit? Of course not, which hit an impoverished student very hard.
I found it again many years later (1990?) and this time paid and collected the collection off bits very quickly. Family/housing needs got in the way, so I sold it again, loads of restoration work done, but incompleted.
Thanks Rhys.
Have you got any photos of it?
All I have a pre digital. I'll try scanning
Thanks.
What I do is take a photo of the photo! That way you get a digital image.