Ronart Cars Ltd - Managing Director 1984 - 2003

Ronart Cars 1984 -2003, 2003  to present day

The RONART name is taken from our Christian names, Rona and Arthur. We moved to Peterborough from Ipswich in 1979, when I left the Royal Air Force after ten years in electronic engineering. During that period I developed an interest in old British motorcycles and restored several, including AJS, Matchless and BSA, the Matchless having a Swallow sidecar fitted

The interest in motorcycles later developed into classic cars such as the Triumph TR3A and Morgan sportscars. The Morgan was rebuilt completely and was for many years used as Rona's daily transport. Ironically it was only on rare occasions that I was able to drive it. The standard 1600GT Ford engine was replaced with a Lotus Twin Cam professionally tuned by Vegantune to 150 bhp which made the car move quite respectably. We both drove the Morgan around the Silverstone Racing Circuit where the club circuit was lapped at 1m 17secs. Rona managed to spin the car at around 80mph!!

The idea for the RONART W152 was conceived whilst on holiday in Germany in 1982. During a visit to the Daimler-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, I was very much taken with the old Formula 1 cars, and decided to design a car which would be a road-legal two-seater sports car, but which would have the looks and feel of an old racing car.

The shape and style of the RONART W152, and formerly the Alicat, did not come from any one or even two cars but came from various aspects of a number of racing cars of the 40's and 50's period.It is not a copy of any particular car, but rather, an interpretation of a typical car of the period.

Cars that featured most in the design were the Mercedes Benz Grand Prix Cars, Maserati 250F and the HWM Jaguar. Many people mention other names such as Vanwall, Cooper, BRM and Lotus to name but a few

but I have endeavoured to project my own individual style on a classic theme.

The total concept of the car was that it should look as though an old 1950's  racing car had been modified with the addition of wings, lights and wings just to make it street legal. 

The idea of the design the car kept on coming back over the following two years with several initial drawings being made. During the summer of 1983 plans were put forward and this led to a purchase of a Daimler Double Six V12 engined car which was subsequently taken apart during latter half of the year. During the first half of 1984 work commenced in earnest on the design of a chassis. The idea at the time was to use the typical ladder-type chassis. Steering geometry was a very interesting subject and the calculation of camber changes with roll and suspension changes proved very useful later. A welding kit as a birthday present for Auntie Win came in jolly useful!.

Up to this time the car was only meant as a" one off" project but interest from other people grew and although the chassis was nearly completed all work on the car stopped. A major planning, marketing research exercise was carried out to see if the car was a product that could be manufactured as a business. Although there were only initial sketches of the body at this time it was felt that the car would be wanted by a small number of people who wanted to own a racing car and enjoy the feel of driving it on the open road. The original chassis was immediately scrapped and in August 1984 Ronart Cars was formed.

The first item that was acquired was another Jaguar XJ but this time a manual 4.2 XJ6. With the difficulty in obtaining the V12 manual 5 speed gear box the 6 cylinder model was the obvious choice for the most popular model.

By November of 1984 a number of firms had been contacted with regard to chassis design but Spyder Engineering was the final choice. The backbone chassis type was used for many reasons and was an ideal engineering choice. The backbone principle has been widely used by Lotus, TVR and other sports and racing cars.

 

In December I decided to book the National Classic Motor Show at the NEC and  launch the car their to gauge feedback as to its suitability for marketing as a classic car.

It was early January 1985 when Spyder started the design work but first their development flat bed had to be extended in order to accommodate the large size and wheelbase of the Ronart. The W152 chassis is the largest chassis that Spyder manufacture up to the present day. The original chassis design had the wheelbase set to 113 inches but this was shortened to 109 inches in February 1985 Also in January we started to make the wooden jigs that would enable the bodywork to be hand made in aluminium.

Also during January 1985 full 1/4 scale drawings were produced of the top, side and end elevations of the body. A search of body manufacturers had been going on in the previous year but the decision was made during December 1984 to have Howard Freshwater, a local craftsman working at Stanley's Coachworks in Peterborough make the first prototype body in aluminium. Howard had worked for Aston Martin amongst other firms working with fine precision and could draw on years of experience in the aluminium body manufacture skills.

Jaguar XJ6 cars were ideally suited on which to base the mechanics. Jaguar, the name synonymous with racing, had excellent engines and mechanics from 2.8 litre engines through to the mighty 5.3 litre V12 of the XJ range.

The chassis is of paramount importance if safety, good roadholding and performance are to be achieved and with the chosen high power engines the design was entrusted to Victor Moore of Spyder Engineering Limited. Spyder specialise in chassis manufacture for a number of different makes and cars including replacement chassis for Lotus cars where they have had an excellent reputation for the manufacture of these replacement Lotus chassis which have been acclaimed as better that the original chassis.

It was mid April before the chassis was delivered and the following two weeks with four friends/family to help we managed to get to the show On May 4th at the NEC.  The car was not complete but had engine transmission drive, seats, and sufficient to gain public perception of the style of the car. The picture below shows the car on display.

The first prototype car had an aluminium body; initially it was envisaged that only aluminium-bodied cars should be produced. However, it soon became apparent that this would not be feasible; due to the high cost and time needed to hand-craft one body, numbers would be extremely limited. Now aluminium bodies are offered as an option but to date no other aluminium bodies have been manufactured.

 

Named the 'Alicat' due to it being an aluminium Jaguar, the car was exhibited at various shows in England while still under development with an aluminium body in 1985 and with a G.R.P. body in 1986. After the car had been exhibited at a number of exhibitions during 1985 it had created a great deal of interest. The manufacture of aluminium bodies proved to be virtually impossible at that time due to excessively long waiting time, very high cost and very few firms available to carry out the double curved bodywork.

From November 1985 all development on the aluminium body ceased and preparatory work on a GRP body started. By January 1986 the first generation moulds were taken from the aluminium body and a single body produced. February and March saw frenzied activity as the car was developed around the new body material.

The new car was displayed at the 1986 National Classic Motor Show, N. E. C.  where it was renamed the RONART W152 and the Alicat name dropped.

A week later the car was shown at the National Kitcars and Specials Show, Royal Showground, Kenilworth and once again at the National KitCar Show, Newark in June. The car was reaching an advanced stage by this time and the car was eventually 'on-the-road, legally' in September 1986. Rapid development and road trials leading to subsequent modifications then took place.

In November 1986 a number of independent Journalists, reporters and Magazine staff were invited to visit, inspect and test drive the car looking specifically at the cars road holding and performance, engineering, design, quality of components, style and generally asses the suitability of the car in the Classic and Kitcar marketplace. The reports that were subsequently published were all excellent without exception. The articles appeared in the following magazines:-

  Auto Car

  Kit Car Magazine  (front cover)

  Kitcar and Specials Magazine  (front cover)

  Sports Car Magazine

  Which Kit Magazine

  Top Wheels Magazine

The Which Kit Magazine staff awarded us the coveted prize of being named "The Best Car of the Year 1986" after driving and inspecting the car.

 

Development continued at a frenzied pace up to the RONART W152 being once again exhibited at the NEC, the 1987 National Classic Car Show and orders for the car started at the Show itself. Up to this point we had not accepted any orders for our car until we had satisfied ourselves of the cars development.

The car had a full year in road use development before production started. Prior to actual production the prototype and showcar was taken right apart, stripped of all components and the chassis and suspension components returned to Spyder engineering for detailed inspection. Spyder then manufactured special Jigs to enable accurate manufacture of all future chassis. Jigs were also made of all assemblies used in the car. During the post development year the car had five changes in spring rates and four changes in anti-roll bars to obtain good road handling characteristics.

Further work was carried out on the prototype body, improving the surface and edges. Production moulds were then taken from this body and produced by Fox Fibreglass of Bourne, Lincolnshire. A part of this firm used to make the original bodies and moulds for the BRM racing cars based in the town and the firm still manufactured parts for racing teams and for Ford in 1987.

From November 1984 the car has been built and developed at a workshop that was formerly Stanley's Coachworks, a subsidiary of Horrell's Dairy. In the early days of design the car was amongst good company with MG TA's, Porsches, Jaguars etc. that were being restored in the Coachworks. Stanley's Coachworks had earlier closed down leaving only some of these cars to have restoration completed.

Ronart Cars became Ronart Cars Limited in March 1987 in readiness for car manufacture. The first production kit was completed in November 1987 but production had been held up by the development of a full roll-cage incorporating a roll over bar, seatbelt bushes were also mounted in the chassis and the roll-cage. This meant that all cars produced were fitted with this feature as standard.

During 1988 Ronart Cars became one of the founder members of STATUS (Specialist Transport Advisory & Testing Utility Society), the organisation set up to improve the quality of the kitcar industry.

Prior to April 1988 the prototype car was rebodied and brought up to a production quality standard.          

The first year of production saw a total of eleven chassis car kits produced from November 1987 to November 1988.

In 1996 work started on the W152  Mk2 which improved the cars design and manufacturability. These included widening the pedal box area, improving the tail section aesthetically and fitting a boot lid to improve luggage accessibility, redesign chassis and suspension to improve road holding and manufacture of the chassis, use off-the-shelf components instead of bespoke ones, improve bodywork assembly. Also to bring chassis and metal fabrication in-house for cost effective manufacture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RONART W152 Mkll

The following points detail the improvements and changes made to the MK ll  W152 Ronart Car during 1996/1997.

   1. BRAKES:

• · Front brake hoses - longer flexible hose now feeds directly into calliper doing away with the fiddly Kunifer calliper bent pipe.
• · New routing for brake pipes ease assembly.

• 2. BRAKE PEDAL ASSY:

• · New dual remote servo fitted as standard to all cars which is situated on the right hand side chassis to the engine mount upright chassis bracket.  Later Mk2 cars have modified brake pedal giving more progressive braking feel.
• · Adjustable pedal box available ncorporating dual master cylinder and clutch master cylinder on moving parts.

• 3. HAND BRAKE:

• · Handbrake now repositioned to the left of the gearstick and at an angle in line with the extended arm.
• · Standard handbrake now used can have attractive covers fitted over handle (covers of different designs and material may be purchased from other sources).

• 4. SUSPENSION:

1. · New spring shock units fitted which are the same as Jaguar XJ rear units, these are used front and rear on the W152. These shock absorbers and s[prings are separately available ‘off the shelf’ and springs may be purchased to suit driving requirements. The springs supplied as standard are softer than the MK l and give a softer ride on the road. The shocks used are AVO units which have 16 positions off adjustment via a knob and are rebuildable. Note that these units have been designed in also to avoid spring movement noises being transmitted via the chassis as the springs do not touch the chassis at the end. Also the front and rear springs are situated at a slight angle giving an aesthetically pleasing look at the front of the car. The front springs only reach as far as the top A arm pivot bar and both curly type or straight type top A arms may be used.
2. · The radius arm bushes have been changed to have the same rubber bushes as the XJ6 on the rear A arm and having rose joints locating the radius arms to the chassis at the front. This makes for adjustment on rear axle and much improved resistance to axle tramp under heavy loads. It also increases  ground clearance and reduces the radius arm bush housing from wearing due to sleeping policemen!
3. · Spring plates now are now universal left and right with changes in accommodating bottom shock mounting only.

   5. SEATING AND TRIMMING

1. · New seat moulds have been produced to improve position and posture. These have incorporated increased rigidity and the ability of the rear seat assembly to tilt forward giving access for additional storage space behind the seats. Seat belts are fitted on top of the seat and do not fit through an aperture in the seat. These are the standard four belt harness as previously used except now they have eye fixing and locking ring for easy removal.
2. · Seat belt bushes have been repositioned in line with requirements for legislation and seat belt testing. This has led to increased inner framework bonded into the fibreglass.
3. · Inner trim panels finished in leathercloth texture are fitted to all centre body sections prior to shipment.

• 5. ROLL CAGE:

• · Rear roll cage is now positioned outside of the centre section and located on the rear panel. Additional framework is fitted giving increased strength both at the rear and at the side. Basic framework system is still retained but enhanced.

• 6. BODYWORK:

• · New body moulds have been manufactured which produces significant improvements in the quality of all surfaces, panel fit, edges and also quality of panel manufacture. The design of panel fit also allows for very much easier alignment and build. All mounting holes are pre-drilled and alignment should be very easy.
• · The front pedal box areas have been standardised left and right and these have been extended in length by four inches to accommodate drivers who are over six feet four inches tall.
• · The width of the drivers side pedal box has also been increased by one point eight inches giving more pedal room. If required a further two inches of sidewards room at the pedal box (engine side) can also be incorporated by chassis modifications.
• · The rear part of the centre body section has an integral back wall with the roll cage mounted behind. The centre section floor is now flat and raised up to allow radius arm movement instead of raised channels as in the MK 1.
• · The tail section has been lengthened by three inches giving the ability to store a spare wheel easier if required. The apex of the tail has also been dropped by one point five inches which gives a more pleasing aspect of the rear of the car. An access panel has been cut out of both the centre and tail section at the side allowing easier access for brake pad changing or maintenance. This panel is mainly hidden from side view by the rear wheel. The tail section is much easier removable for access to spare wheel or maintenance and can be removed without disconnecting rear wings and light electric’s or fuel hose.
• · The boot panel has a deeper recess to allow for rubber to be fitted stopping rain from seeping in and again the panel fit is improved.
• · Side panel now have the louvers taken off but still retain the top oval air holes with stainless steel mesh as before. The fixing of these panels to the nose cone is via a 90 degree flange to give a much stronger construction and will only fit in one place alleviating panel mismatching. Increased flange at the side will provide increased panel matching between the side panels and the bonnet. Side panels have now been fitted such that the tyres do not touch the wheel cut outs on full lock if  high aspect ratio tyres are fitted..
• · Nose cone has longer body side at the spring mounting for new type shock absorbers. Mounting of the nose cone has been changed by incorporating a steel tube from one side of the spring mounting to the other. On this tube are metal tabs which have the nose internal flange bolted up. This also will allow the bonnet hinge to be affixed in steel as against bonded in fasteners on the nose cone which will greatly stiffen up the hinge mounting.

In 1997 the business had 5 people manufacturing and assembly W152 cars at Westwood Farm, Peterborough.  I instigated seatbelt anchorage testing to EC standards and also we were one of the first companies to carry out Hydrapulse testing of the chassis and suspension. Both of these were passed A1 without issue.

The W152 MK2 was judged to be a significant improvement and has remained the same with very minor changes since