Claimed performance is suitably rapid, with 0-60mph in 3.6sec and 0-100mph in 9.8sec

Anyone with an interest in British specialist sports cars will recognise the overall outline as that of the Strathcarron, but this is the Javan Sports Cars R1, a car in the same spirit but completely re-engineered from the tyres up.

The West Cornwall-based company belongs to scale-model manufacturer Javan Smith. After Strathcarron went into receivership in 2001, Smith bought all the tooling for the car, but since then has changed everything but the body moulds – even the monocoque is redesigned and is now a lightweight, epoxy-bonded aluminium honeycomb built along aerospace principles.

The hand-built R1 weighs 670kg and its mid-mounted four-cylinder engine is a 2-litre Honda i-VTEC unit producing 220bhp. Claimed performance is suitably rapid, with 0-60mph in 3.6sec and 0-100mph in 9.8sec. And that’s for the road-going version – Smith is also planning 'a dedicated track version that should lose another 40kg and could use a different powertrain'. Also on the cards as options are a supercharger conversion and launch control.

Final development of the Javan R1 is currently being completed with the help of chassis expert Rob Wilson. Smith then plans to produce no more than 12 a year of the £30,139 roadster.