Complete Kit Car – September 2019

http://www.completekitcar.co.uk September 2019 43

Duratec is highly tuned and delivers impressive 265bhp.

Purposeful interior in this focused Tiger. JK Composites fibreglass buckets.

A long time car enthusiast, this is John Aylward’s first

kit car. Indeed, this is probably the very first Tiger

Aviator to hit the road, having been the company’s

original demonstrator. John bought it directly from

the factory in 2013 and since then has been on

an ambitious upgrade frenzy, modifying the 2.0-litre Duratec with

race head, pistons and rods. Professionally built and then set up by

Northampton Motorsport, the engine develops an impressive 265bhp.

Keeping all that under control has meant fitting a Quaife semi-helical

gearbox and LSD. Inside the cockpit there’s now a Stack dash unit, with

JK Composites GF seats. Having originally changed the exterior colour,

John reverted to the original green, with new decals.

He uses the Aviator for occasional track days, but largely with EATOC

and the North West Kit Car Owners’ Group. Plans for the future include

a new custom exhaust and possibly a supercharger! “I have owned the

car for six years and it is definitely a keeper,” says John. “Like most kit car

owners, I keep hankering after a Cobra, but my secret desire is to have

a Gardner Douglas T70.”

TIGER AVIATOR

chassis and engine package. Although it

has struggled to make a big sales impact,

today the Aviator remains available and is

a highly distinctive sevenesque offering.

Elsewhere, the company has also

dabbled in non-sevenesque models.

Some have been replicas (such as the

Tiger D-Type from the mid 1990s and

the original Tiger LM, a Ferrari 250 LM

replica of 1989 and brief ownership of the

ex-GCS Hawke Morgan replica) while

others have been independent designs such

as the Storm of 1999 (a full-bodied car using

the underpinnings of the Super Six) and

more recent GTA which cunningly reclothes

a Tiger Avon chassis and remains available.

One major headline model was the

Z-Cars developed Z100 in the early

2000s, a twin motorcycle engined version

of (essentially) the B6 which, in four-wheel-

drive form (dubbed Z100WR), cracked the

0-60mph dash in 2.9sec.

“THE TIGER AV IATOR BROUGHT

IN A BR AV E NEW WORLD

WITH ST Y LING FROM FIRST

PRINCIPLE DESIGN, TOP

QUALIT Y MOULDINGS AND A

HIGH SPECIFICATION”

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