bout a year ago I was getting bored, so I needed a challenge.
What I needed was a car to restore. Ford Mustang convertible? Difficult to find, and they wanted six grand from the States for a pile of rust free bits.Nope.
Cadillac Convertible? Had a `76 Seville for seven years and nobody could get it to run, but that's a different story. Nope.
Lotus Esprit? Spent six months looking for one, about two grand needing lots of loving care, didn`t find one until it was too late. Nope. 
Despair was starting to set in, then lying on a sun lounger in Greece it struck me, why not build a replica. Paul had already tickled my fancy with the Spyder replica built on a Skoda, but there was one car I`ve always loved since I watched Top Gun for the first time, a Porsche 356 Speedster, or was it Kelly McGillis that interested me more!.
The decision was now made. First point of call, I bought as many kit car magazines as I could find, then checked out the web sites. 
A few phone calls later, and Chesil were the only ones to reply. Sold, it `was`

going to be a Chesil.

Update Willy Lambrechts at L & B Cars in Belgium has now entered the fray with some tempting offers.

L & B Cars are now the main suppliers of all bodies and parts for
speedstars.co.uk.

L&B have now sold the U.K. rights to Pilgrim Cars

Martin and Walker now supply all our bodies.

(This is something you learn, suppliers don`t take you seriously until you send them a deposit for the body). By this time I`d lost track of all the people who promised me a Beetle for the chassis and everything got put on the back burner.
Fate or chance, met a bloke in the motorist shop who had a Beetle sitting in his garden and wanted £100 for it. A quick look and it was on the trailer and back in my garage.
On closer inspection, somebody had spent a lot of hard work and effort working on it, but time and the fact that it had a sunroof, but no glass, had taken its toll on the interior.This was really lucky for me because I don`t think I could cut up a `salvageable` Beetle.
Now was the time to look closer at what I`d bought. My luck  just kept
getting better, it had disc brakes on the front, that just saved me £200 +, it started first time and ran smoothly, that would save me a lot of aggravation and the best bit, it was a 1600cc exchange unit which meant I could easily make the engine size bigger. Things were really looking up.
A few pictures to remember it by: