Rare Aussie sports car on offer at Burns & Co. auction
Burns & Co. Auctions’ Classic & Collectable Car & Motorcycle Auction on Sunday, 16 February, has plenty of vehicles to choose from - classic Aussie Fords and Holdens, American muscle, prestige European and late-model performance cars, as well as collectable motorcycles.
If your automotive tastes differ from the norm, you can always find something unusual at a Burns & Co. Auctions, too. The February edition is no exception, presenting this rare, Australian-made ‘Kalita Sports Body’ from the 1970s.
In the late 1960s, the beach buggy craze that had started in the USA with the Meyers Manx was making a mark in Australia. Aussie companies followed the Manx template of using fibreglass bodies on a shortened VW Beetle floorplan, but most offered a local spin with their own body designs. One of those was J&S Fibre Glass.
Based in the inner Sydney suburb of Ashfield (late moving to nearby Haberfield), J&S was founded by Jeff Simmonds and John Jennens in 1959 off the back of a Ford-based, fibreglass-bodied special they had built a year earlier. As J&S, the first project from Simmonds and Jennens was continuing production of Nat Buchanan’s ‘Cobra’ sports car. J&S then turned out several copies of Len Moir’s ‘Moir Renault’ before launching their own car – the Hunter – in 1961.
With a body designed by Moir that showed influence of the early TVR Grantura, the Hunter featured a bespoke chassis, designed to accept Holden running gear. Grey motors and three-speed manuals were the norm, although four-speed ‘boxes were also fitted. Light and nimble, the Hunter was also fast, especially when available performance parts were added.
Despite its merits, Hunter sales were slow. Jennens left the business and J&S supplemented their income by offering a range of bolt-on hardtops for imported sports cars of the period – MG A and B, Austin-Healey (‘Big Healey’ and Sprite) and Triumph (TR and Spitfire), along with tops for the Datsun Fairlady and Honda S600/800.
In the beach buggy field, J&S started with the ‘Fun Buggy’, following up later with the ‘Trail Buggy’. Both were offered in kit form, for DIY builders to fit their own running gear. Like most other buggies of the period, the Fun Buggy and Trail Buggy were designed to accommodate a shortened VW Beetle floorplan and take Beetle engines. Body designs (by Moir) were in the Manx style, but both were unique.
Apart from styling, where the Trail Buggy differed from the Fun Buggy was its bias toward road use, being pitched more as a sports car than a dune buggy. To this end, the body was braced with a T-top style roll cage that incorporated what would now be regarded as side-intrusion beams and front/rear impact protection. Relocating the fuel tank behind the passenger seat was another safety-oriented change.
In basic ‘Constucta’ form (body, roll cage, windscreen, lighting and fuel tank), the Trail Buggy sold for $745 in 1972, while a $1,250 ‘Assembler’ kit added virtually everything else, except the Beetle floorplan, engine, suspension and brakes.
By the early ‘70s, Fun Buggy production had reached almost 200 units, with around 40 examples of the Trail Buggy built before new regulations effectively outlawed shortened chassis vehicles. These regulations saw J&S exit the car industry, with Jeff Simmonds transferring his fibreglass skills to boats, particularly catamarans, where he was quite successful.
The VW-based Trail Buggy wasn’t dead, though. In 1974, the concept was revived by ‘Kalita Performance Industries P/L’. Like J&S, Kalita was based in Sydney, but it’s unknown how much, if any, involvement Simmonds had in the revival. The one period article on Kalita, published by Modern Motor in 1974, makes no mention of him, so it’s possible Simmonds sold them the rights to the Trail Buggy, just as J&S had acquired the rights to Buchanan’s Cobra 15 years earlier.
Seen alongside each other, the similarities between a J&S Trail Buggy and the Kalita ‘Sports Body’ are obvious, but one key difference was that the Kalita body had been re-designed to take a full-length VW floorpan. This eliminated the main hurdle to getting cars like this registered. The fibreglass body’s extra length was all forward of the windscreen, meaning the cabin remained a two-seater, but with improved leg room – comparable to an MGB cabin, apparently.
A large parcel shelf behind the seats was another difference the Kalita Sports offered over the Trail Buggy, while the engine was fully enclosed and substantial fibreglass bumper bars were fitted as standard.
Apparently, Kalita Performance Industries P/L only offered the Sports as a complete, turn-key car. They would source and refurbish all the VW running gear before fitting their own bodies, which were available in a range of bright colours. How much personalisation was available to the customer is unknown, but presumably, requests for aftermarket wheels and bolt-on parts, like induction and exhaust systems, could be accommodated.
It's also unknown how many units of the Kalita Sports were built. Fewer than 100 would be likely and fewer than 50 even more likely. The example to be auctioned by Burns & Co. was first seen by JUST CARS at the Victorian ‘Day of the Volkswagen’ event in 2023 and had been offered by another auction house in 2024.
As consigned for the 16 February auction, the car is complete and presents in very good condition, with 56,406 miles on the odometer. A VW flat four engine of unknown capacity is fitted, but presumably it’s the standard 1200 or 1300cc version. No obvious performance parts are visible in the engine bay, so presumably it’s in standard tune, too.
New brakes and wheel cylinders have recently been fitted. The narrow, tombstone-style seats have been replaced with SAAS aftermarket sports seats, but the originals will be included.
To see more, click HERE.
Beyond the rare Kalita, there are lots of other opportunities in this auction for car and motorcycle enthusiasts to add something new to their garage.
Burns & Co. Auctions’ February Classic & Collectable Car & Motorcycle Auction will be held on Sunday, 16 February, with the first lot going under the hammer from 10:00AM AEDT.
Bid online, via phone, with absentee bidding forms or bid in person at 4 Market Drive, Bayswater Vic, 3153.
