Good morning! Today we’re cranking up the weird-o-meter another notch and looking at a kit car from Miami and a famous “black cab” from London currently residing in California. Which one is more your cup of tea? We’ll see.
Yesterday wasn’t without weirdness; we looked at a Laforza, that Ford-powered, military-truck-based, square-jawed block of Italian luxury SUV. The Laforza may have lost in the sales race to the more common and accessible Range Rover, but here in our poll, the tables were turned. A narrow win is still a win.
And of course it deserved to win. I mean, that’s a really nice Range Rover, and it’s one of the better ones relaibility-wise, but it’s also not all that hard to find for sale. But Laforzas aren’t exactly parked on every street corner – except perhaps in San Diego, as one commenter pointed out. The rest of us almost never see them. I think I’ve seen one, maybe two Laforzas in real life.
Today’s choices aren’t exactly a dime a dozen either, at least for most of us here in the US. One was once the most common vehicle on London’s streets, and the other is one of the most common kit cars to come out of south Florida but drive either one into any Target parking lot, and it will be the only one. Actually, drive either one pretty much anywhere and it will be the only one. Let’s check them out.
1966 Austin FX4 London Taxi – $3,000
Engine/drivetrain: 2.2-liter diesel overhead valve inline 4, four-speed manual, RWD
Location: Laguna Niguel, CA
Odometer reading: 57,000 miles
Operational status: Unknown; has been in storage since 1989
Some cars are so commonly seen in certain situations and are so perfect at certain jobs, that it seems like they were designed for the purpose. Ford’s Crown Victoria, for example, wasn’t designed as a police cruiser, but it was just about tailor-made for the task nonetheless. But this car, the Austin FX4, literally was designed for its purpose: its one and only reason for being is to be a taxicab in one particular city.
If you’ve ever been to London, you know that travel through the city isn’t exactly swift. Traffic is heavy, the streets are a tangled maze, and often it seems like it might be faster just to get out and walk. To navigate it all, London cabbies must learn “The Knowledge,” an encyclopedic understanding of the city’s streets and landmarks, and pass a test proving that they have absorbed it all. I’ve read that it takes a certain kind of mind to successfully pass The Knowledge; not just anyone can do it. Their chariot is likewise optimized for the task, with a super-tight turning radius and an efficient diesel engine. Believe it or not, most London taxis are automatics; this one happens to be a four-speed manual.
This cab has been out of its element, in faraway southern California, for four decades now. If I’m reading the ad correctly, it was purchased in 1983 and parked in 1989, and hasn’t moved under its own power since. But one of the great things about old simple diesel engines is that they can slumber for a long time and still be revived. Rubber parts still perish, of course, and plenty of them will have to be replaced, but putting this car back on the road should be a matter of patience more than anything.
Cosmetically, it’s pretty good, with still-shiny black paint and some hard-earned patina. I’m not sure what one would do with a London cab in California; rent it out for movies, I suppose?
1985 CMC/Fiberfab Gazelle – $3,925
Engine/drivetrain: 2.3-liter overhead cam inline 4, three-speed automatic, RWD
Location: Mount Airy, MD
Odometer reading: unknown
Operational status: Not running, has a bad ignition switch and probably other things
Mention kit cars to a group of gearheads, and you probably won’t get a very positive reaction. Most of us remember the ads in the back pages of automotive magazines back in the day, and some of us actually know someone who bought one; I once had a friend who bought a secondhand VW-based MG TD kit car that wasn’t very well built, and yes, it soured me on the idea of kit cars for a long time. But companies like Fiberfab and Classic Motor Carriages sure sold a lot of them, and one of the more popular models was a replica of a 1929 Mercedes-Benz SSK, known as the Gazelle.
You could get a Gazelle kit to plop directly onto a Volkswagen Beetle chassis, just like dozens of other kit cars, but it seems like most Gazelles went a different route. Kits were available to use either Ford Mustang II parts, or Chevy Chevette parts, in either case hung on a steel tube frame that came with the kit. This one is Ford-based, powered by a 2.3 liter four and an automatic transmission. In researching these kits, I found a PDF manual for the Chevette version; I assume the Ford version is similar. It’s interesting reading, and it kind of makes me want to build one – or rebuild one.
This particular Gazelle is not in running condition, and it looks like it hasn’t been in a long time. It was built in 1985, the seller says, but that’s about all the information we have. The seller says they planned to drop a V8 into it, which seems ill-advised in a hand-built fiberglass car. The deal doesn’t include a V8, but it does include – get this – a complete second Gazelle kit, untouched, never built, still in boxes. You could transfer the necessary parts from this ratty one to a fresh new-built Gazelle and start from scratch.
Or you could get this one running, clean it up, sell it, and use the proceeds to fund the drivetrain for the new one. Either way, under four grand for two kit cars is quite a deal, if you’re into that sort of thing. Yeah, it’s cheesy. If you ask me, the world could use a little more cheesiness these days.
With either one of these, you’ve got your work cut out for you. And even once you get them going, they aren’t exactly daily drivers. But they are both worthwhile projects for the right person. Yes, I know a lot of you aren’t into project cars, but if you were, which one would you go for?
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
I kind of like the weirdness of some of the kit-cars out there, but the Gazelle is probably one of my least favorites. There’s some sort of uncanny valley feeling I get when I see one that’s just a bit off-putting.
On the other hand, I know of a local British-themed restaurant where I could likely get a free glass of Old Speckled Hen just for showing up in that taxi. Diesel-powered London special ftw.
I voted for the dowdy one instead of the gaudy one!
(London cab for me)
The cab might be fun and potentially useful, but as much as I like the simplicity of diesels, I hate the smell and sound.
I also never liked the fake prewar cars be they kit or manufacturer or even postwar cars styled with prewar elements because the OEM they’re looking to ape never survived to build postwar cars to steal cues from [side eye to Exner]. In all but the rarest circumstances (and I can only recall ever seeing clumsy attempts), prewar cues on postwar cars don’t work—wheels and tires are wrong, proportions are off—nearly in opposition—and that’s when they’re not half-assed with inappropriately modern interiors and external details. Still, I’m going to have to go with the junk kit car as the extra parts are maybe worth something and it’s possible I could heavily revamp the thing into something not retro even though it wouldn’t be worth the effort. At least it’s not based on a Beetle.
There is something about kit cars that makes a statement about the will to express and differentiate oneself in an environment that makes it increasingly impossible to do so. The better-off could do it with Clenets; the hobbyist resorted to Gazelles and Bradleys.
Of course, not all self-expression is good. Some outsider art really needs to stay outside. And anyway, given a choice between Swinging Sixties London and ’70s-’80s American pretense, even a sympathetic lens can’t prevent me from seeing that the cab is dead cool and the Gazelle is crap.
So that’s what that is! There’s one of those Gazelle kit cars around the corner from me and I’ve been wondering what it is for years. I initially thought it was a modified MG but there are too many little details that don’t line up. Thank you for the answer.
I’d take both, but I’d definitely take the cab first.
I don’t mind kit cars. I’ve been around them, I’ve helped build them. The Gazelle is one of the less offensive ones. The condition of the Gazelle doesn’t matter much. Having a second whole kit in the box makes the built one look like a parts car to me. If you can still get two cars out of the deal, bonus!
But really, I’ve never dreamed of owning a Gazelle, and I have very often dreamed of owning a manual diesel London cab.
Black cab for me. Put a vinyl checkerboard stripe down the side and drive around blasting Offspring.
The only FX4 I’d buy is a truck.
So cool Diesel taxi it is
That Taxi has enough room for a fry grease tank. and if the Austin Diesel became financially impossible to keep running, I would want to see if a 4BT cummins fit in there somehow.
So much depends on how well the kit car was put together and maintained. Kind of moot here, as the diesel manual Austin readily gets my vote, regardless of the condition of that kit car.
A high school classmate had a VW-powered Mercedes replica (I do not recall the kit car’s brand) which had been poorly maintained though I did get to ride in it a few times whenever it was running. And it served as the backdrop for the pictures at our high school prom which had sort of a Great Gatsby theme.
Amusingly enough, in the same time period my dad got to ride in a genuine 1929 Mercedes of the same model of which my classmate’s kit car was a replica. He had a friend from college that he stayed in touch with who became a successful TV producer in Hollywood; my dad occasionally went to Los Angeles for conferences & would visit his friend who had acquired the Mercedes upon first becoming successful and actually drove it with some regularity (this was in the 60s, 70s, and early 80s so it was not unheard of for such cars to see street use, especially in Los Angeles.) My dad’s friend was of the mentality of appreciating his car as a relic of the Great Gatsby era and didn’t share the same mentality as the judges at Pebble Beach (yeah, giving these judges some serious side-eye for so consistently awarding their grand prizes to 1930s German cars, geez…)
Nothing against kit cars; a friend has a Locost he build a fairly long time ago and it’s a barrel of laughs even with a Pinto engine. The Gazelle does absolutely nothing for me. See, the Locost is completely honest about what it is and what it’s for while the Gazelle is an attempt to tart up something cheap and make it look somehow “classy”.
The London cab on the other hand is a charming, utilitarian piece of history and very much worth the effort to bring back into operation.
“Mention kit cars to a group of gearheads, and you probably won’t get a very positive reaction.”
Definitely is the case with me. I’m relieved to here a Beetle wasn’t desecrated to build this abomination, though.
The London Taxi is a very cool vehicle, so at least I get to vote for a car I like instead of voting against a car I dislike.
What’s funny is that, for me, it’s the shitty Beetle base of so many kit cars that’s the reason behind me not liking them.
I get it. The Beetle is my favorite car of all time, but I’m aware of their limitations. Part of the appeal for me is the simplicity, though. They have the bare minimum features required for a car to be useful transportation (mine has no radio, no heat, lousy brakes, and barely enough power to sustain highway speeds). If you aren’t a Beetle fan, I can see where a car with those limitations has no appeal.
I get that appeal as I prefer simplicity and easy repair and I certainly love my share of cars few others understand. As a sports car-styled kit car donor, though, besides the availability and construction making it a theoretically easy operation, they don’t work for me. When I was a kid, a guy in the neighborhood had a Bradley GT II that appeared to be a daily driver and I thought it looked really cool . . . then you hear that exhaust note.
I just don’t like building a copy of a front-engine car around a rear-engine base. Like, an MGTD isn’t supposed to have that back there, its just failing at one of the most basic attributes of building a replica, which is to seem at least passably close to what its replicating.
Yeah, that’s really bad. I remember there being a “Bugatti Type 35” replica as a kid that was built like that, too. Horrendous and not fooling anyone who’d know or care what the real thing was. I never understood why they wouldn’t just make something that was their own design instead of a completely unconvincing fake (except fairly recently as a certain number—500?—replica or “replica” cars that were formerly only allowed as kits can now be sold as turnkey vehicles annually without meeting safety standards).
There was a realtor in San Francisco who was renowned throughout the best neighborhoods for her Ivory/Brown Gazelle. She even had professional photos of her next to her car outside her offices on Union Street.
Since I’m a realtor now too – I’ll take the Gazelle.
Pay more to have two cheesy clusterfucks of bad taste?
Nah, gimme the cabby, I could at least shoot some, uh, promotional videos.
I can confirm that London cabbies are proud of what it takes to do their job. I was in a London cab once and a driver tried to force us out of our lane so he could get over. When our cab didn’t budge, the other driver yelled “Are you some kind of a wally” the next time traffic stopped. Our driver indignantly rolled his window down and yelled back that he’d been driving cabs in London for 30 years and didn’t need anyone to tell him how to do it.
For the sake of that memory I want the London cab.
At three grand that cab might almost be worth exporting back to the UK. These cabs are all gone there. Worked or rusted to death.
The old black cabs are much loved but I think things have moved on. I spoke to a driver of a new electric cab and he loved it compared to the old boneshaker.
I didn’t mean to use as a cab, it wouldn’t be legal for one thing.
As a collector car I mean.
I voted for the cab, but then I realized if I got the Gazelles, I could build them both then race them!! They’re Gazelles, right?
Ideally, there would ultimately be a racing series with Gazelles vs Cheetahs!!
I think the Cheetahs would be feasting on the Gazelles.
The black cab is my choice. It’s a practical vehicle, is in original condition and likely has some novelty value. And with the old diesel with the manual, it will get somewhat decent fuel economy
That kit car on the other hand is just a heap of shit in bad taste and is overpriced by at least $3000.
I’d much prefer an FX3 to an FX4, but, to use a hackneyed expression, I’ll take a cab.
I see what you did there.
Sped right past that Gazelle mess to vote for the cab.
A friend acquired a Mercedes Marlene kit car from a bankruptcy auction with a low ball bid and I helped him haul it home. He joked he should drive his fake car around wearing a fake Rolex. Had a small GM V6, 3 speed auto and not put together very well. Tried to get his girlfriend to drive it, the throttle linkage jammed backing out of the driveway and she almost wrecked it. That was the end of that car…
Real beats fake every time.
Taxi, please!
It’s a straightforward mechanical device, devoid of pretension and just overflowing with utility. For lack of a better word, it’s honest. Also I’d like to drive a manual in a RHD car and the taxi will just shrug off my clumsiness. (Like Inigo and Westley, I am not left-handed.)
The kit car is the opposite: minimal utility and trying very hard to be something it’s not.
Kit cars are great, if you’re the one building it from the kit. Other than that it’s APP (another person’s project) and god knows what you’ll find.
I’ll take the cab. It’d be fun going to events like Celtic Games and just tooling around.
The automatic in the kit car kind of sours it for me. And, I’ve revived a few dormant diesels (nothing sitting this long, though), so that doesn’t scare me. Cab it is.
That was exactly my thought – even just seeing that ’80s (?) Ford shift lever in there kinda ruins it for me. If you’re going to have something purposefully archaic, it should go all the way.
Black Cab. It may take a long time to get where you’re going, but it will get there.
I’ve seen a few Gazelles, but never warmed to them. To me, they look like kit cars, and the inclusion of another simply means twice as much fiddling and fussing.
If it was a Meyers Manx or a Devin I’d go for it.