The whole kit and car-boodle
IFIRST saw this car at a Vintage Sports Car Club meeting at Brands Hatch where it was parked in a line of kit cars. From a distance I thought it was an Alfa Romeo 159 Alfetta because it had a very similar egg crate grille, but as I got nearer and saw number plates and indicators I didn’t know what it was.Whatever, it looked fantastic.
Fortunately, in front of the car was a sheet of paper explaining all.A one-off special it transpired, built by a bloke called John Nash; a member of the Kent Kit Car Club whose display it was part of.
I missed two races waiting for the owner to turn up.Why? Because firstly I wanted to congratulate him on his incredible workmanship. I’ve spent a lifetime peering at kit cars and specials and have never seen one so beautifully finished as this one.
Second, because I wanted to know what lay under the JNS Special’s skin.A Jaguar engine? An Alfa twin-cam? And finally,
I wanted to know how the hell John Nash had managed to build such a wonderful-looking machine for under six thousand quid.
Eventually Mr Nash arrived, explained that he’d built it from scratch over five years and that it had been inspired by pre- and post-war Grand Prix cars. And that it had cost only £5,750 to build, that 7,000 man hours had gone into it – and nearly one marriage.
Several months later we’re in Nash’s garage in Hythe, Kent, examining the JNS.With the bonnet off, the powerplant is revealed – and it’s not what I’d expected. Nash says: “A club member had a couple of ropey Renault 5s going begging, one of which was a Gordini Turbo.
“I managed to buy the pair for £200 and chop them up in his barn taking away the bits I needed. Building a rear-wheel drive car is complicated because you need room for the prop shaft so I reckoned that it would be a lot easier to simply use one of the Gordini engines as it was fitted to the Renault: longitudinally mounted with the gearbox in
front. I was able to use all the Renault drive shafts, wishbones and torsion bar springs, plus brakes and hubs.”
How Nash managed to build such a lovely machine on such a small budget is a combination of doing virtually everything himself and using a lot of lateral thinking when it came to sourcing parts.
HE SAID: “Some of the critical welding I farmed out to experts. “Like the rear trailing arms. They’re from a 2CV but I needed to shorten them because without doing so the rear wheels would have been too far back. I made all the moulds for the fibreglass body and made the panels but I got a professional to paint them.”
When I first saw the JNS at Brands I was sure I was looking at the work of a man with an engineering background but also with some experience of design.
“I did an engineering apprenticeship,” explains Nash.
“But I ended up doing technical drawings for what was the Central Electricity Generating Board and before I retired, illustrating operations manuals at Dungeness power station.”
Driving new Ferraris and valuable supercars never bothers me. One-off concept cars are a bit more of a worry because they cost millions to make and often years of work. Driving the JNS is much more worrying. I’ve had it insured for £30,000 but it’s not the money, it’s the time it would take John to rebuild it if I stuffed it.
So I shall be damned careful. I’m sitting in a wide seat that was once fitted to aVauxhallViva.
Those white dials in front of me came from a Triumph Dolomite (£10) and Nash fitted the faces and made the numbers using Letraset. My feet, when they’re not resting on the chequer plate aluminium floor that came from a toilet (£5), press pedals from a Triumph Spitfire.
The naturally-aspirated Gordini engine (Nash had chucked away the turbo) breathes through a pair ofWeber DCOE carbs that Nash already owned but he made the air filters from a sheet of foam and some chicken wire.
Don’t want to spend money on expensive K&N filters when you can make some for a few quid. The engine sounds excellent, not loud but with just the right balance of noise from induction and exhaust.
How do you criticise the work of such an enthusiast?
Easily when there’s not much to fault. I’d rather there was less travel in the brake pedal, and there’s a fair bit of slop in the gear lever. Nash has tried to sort that out but reckons he’s got it as good as he can.These are just niggles, the overall dynamics of the car are extraordinary for a home-built and designed machine.
The steering is direct yet light and, because the engine produces only about 110bhp there’s no torque steer. Best of all is the ride, which is very pliant and comfortable.At only 580kg the JNS is plenty brisk enough.
Nash has been to Le Mans and back in his creation, with no problems. I can only imagine the feeling of pride he must get every time he opens his garage door.