There’s a pretty nice looking Fiberfab Bonito up on eBay UK (#330298432449) right now in Rochester UK — the auction is almost over and it looks like it’s going to go for £3,300. The car is on a ‘47 Karman Ghia chassis with a ‘70 2.2L Flat-6 out of a Porsche 911 swapped in and meshed to a five-speed transmission. Not that the car isn’t lots of fun on a VW Beetle chassis, but this driveline and chassis makes it a real performance vehicle that’ll keep up with anything else from that era.
I’ve always thought of the Fiberfab Bonito as the “gentleman’s GT40″… a more elegant replica of the GT40 than spot-on replicas or the macho Avengers. Darren in Yorkshire, UK has his up for sale. He’s owned it for about twenty years, putting in £2000 last year to put in a 2L engine (it’s on a VW chassis with disc brakes all around). As far as I know he’s the second owner, with the original builder spending about £6500 to complete it. It needs to be painted, but other than that it’s a solid car.
If you’re interested, drop him a line at darren.r.collins@hotmail.co.uk. As well as straight sale he’s open to interesting car and motorcycle trades.
The Bonito was built in the seventies by Fiberfab Germany (so you’ll only usually find these in Europe), one of the few exotic kits of this type to fit four passengers. About a thousand were made until production ended in 1978, and probably only about fifty are currently complete and on the road. Windshield and lights were out of a Ford 12M P6, and the rear window came from a Opel Record C. The last few pictures here are from the assembly manual, which is still available care of FF Germany.
Bill in Northern Scotland writes in about his early model Bonito GT-40 replica for sale. It’s never been completed or put on the road but is about 95% complete (oh how true that is for 99% of the kit cars out there). In any case, he writes,
Work started in 1983 with a standard shell modified to accept a mid-mounted Alfa-Romeo opposed 4 Boxer engine and (Lotus Europa style) rear-mounted gearbox. Due to extensive time working overseas; the, then 95% complete, car was handed to a local car dealer for storage. She has never been turned, cleaned or maintained in seven years. Her current condition requires a full strip-down and re-build: Perfect for the enthusiast wishing to custom build to his/her own spec.
Briefly: square tube chassis, inboard rear / outboard front brakes; aeroquip hoses throughout; front mounted “cut & shut” radiator; adjustable coil-over suspension – rose-jointed on all 4 corners (c/w titanium washers); Revolution road/race alloys - never used; recaro seats covered with last of RS-2000 multi-grey cloth – never used; all new Italian guages; electric windows – Volvo motors; diesel carpets; implosion crash tank – custom built.
Bill is looking to sell the car (or trade it for another “classic car”) to someone who has the time to finish it. You can email him at bmalhan@tiscali.co.uk if you’re interested.
Back in the 1970s Gerrit (in The Netherlands) built himself a Bonito, but sold it and never was able to refind it… I know what that feels like!
Anyway, his Bonito is a polyester body on a VW Beetle chassis with a Golf GTI engine swap (radiator up front). He’s not the original builder of this one, but did a lot of repairs, including replacing the front axle, gear box (Porsche 5-speed), disc brakes, leather seating, with lots more planned — Gerrit says he’ll keep us updated with this ongoing project.
….The car I recently mentioned is the relatively rare Fiberfab Bonito, which resembles the Avenger but is a different car (classier maybe?). Here’s a couple more shots of the one I posted earlier, as well as another one.
Frank from the Netherlands sends in this Fiberfab classic… It’s got elements of the Avenger series, and I think that’s what it is, but the roofline and windshield looks a little unusual to me. Anyone recognize the model?
Part of me thinks it looks weird with this roofline, but the other part thinks it’s kind of classy.
EDIT: It’s a FiberFab Bonito.
Recent Comments