Replicar Cursor

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In the early 1980s, designer Alan Hatswell developed and manufactured a range of high quality hand-built replica vehicles including the Jaguar SS100, Ferrari 250LM, Bugatti Type 35 and Type 55 recreations, all featuring glass fibre bodywork and period fittings.

They were supplied by his company Replicar Ltd, based in Dunkirk, Kent, and about 100 of these replicas were produced. The quality of these vehicles was evident when the Replicar 250 LM was displayed on the Replicar stand at the Birmingham NEC Motor Show in 1982 and a contingent of Ferrari top brass visited Alan to congratulate him on his vehicle and wished him every success!

By the mid-1980s, Hatswell developed the Cursor, a simple three-wheeled machine which was designed to allow sixteen-year-olds to drive a car type vehicle on the UK roads, with only a moped license, a full year before they could legally drive a car. The chassis was of tubular steel construction with the two steerable wheels to the front and the single driving wheel at the rear.

Replicar drew on their considerable experience of building glass fibre structures to make the body. The glass fibre shell was self-coloured with pigments added during the manufacturing process, rather than being sprayed with paint in the usual way. Whilst this reduced the production costs and time, the colours were not permanent and some fading was evident after prolonged exposure to sunlight.

The Cursor had the whole back end of a Suzuki moped built into it including a single cylinder 49cc Suzuki CS50 engine, driving through a 3-speed automatic gearbox with a chain to the rear wheel. Hydraulic brakes operated on all three wheels. The Cursor was intended to match the maximum speed of a moped at 30mph, but the car can exceed 40mph in the right conditions. Due to the tiny engine, fuel consumption was in the region of 90mpg.

Made between 1985 and 1987, over 100 Cursors were built, costing £2,200 – over twice the price of a conventional moped. Most were single-seaters with a canopy which hinged open to allow access (rather like the Bond Bug elsewhere in this catalogue), although a handful of two-seaters were built with ‘gull-wing’ style doors.

This most unusual Cursor is one of two in the sale and was first registered in March 1987, being acquired from its third owner for the Stondon Museum in 2001. It has a current V5C and an old MOT dated 1999 at which point it had an unwarranted 1,298 miles showing on the clock, a total which has now risen to 2,198.