In the video below you can see Ant Anstead in a video worth seeing, who builds alone, it seems, the CFRP body for a Tipo Individual Vehicle Approval, which is described as nothing less than a replica of an Alfa 158. According to Wikipedia 'along with its further development, the Tipo 159, one of the most successful racing cars ever produced'.

Unfortunately, neither the German nor the English part of the Wikipedia article mentions the special feature that the Alfetta, as it is also called, is a car with a transaxle design. However, only the name and a bit of the front surface seem to have been adopted for the alleged replica.

It felt like Ant Anstead was "pulled out of a hat" in 2017 when Edd China split from Mike Brewer at Wheeler Dealer. Anstead initially behaved in much the same way as China, as a down-to-earth craftsman. Only, unlike China Anstead never seemed to do anything wrong.

It was not noticed that Anstead has already had a remarkable career, e.g. as a television producer. He was also perceived somewhat more as a light-heartedly explanatory American than as an Englishman often troubled by doubts. In the beginning, Mike Brewer also led the regiment, as usual before.

That has obviously changed somewhat now, because Anstead appears as a Brit who has always been occupied with 'the restoration and reproduction of classic vehicles as well as the construction of individual automobiles'. For the project described above, he teamed up with veteran engineer and car builder Darren Collins, who appears to be responsible for building the relatively complex frame.

The in-line eight has become a four-cylinder. Since sporty and at the same time reasonably affordable standard drives have become rare and these are no longer available in transaxle design, the second generation of the Mazda MX-5 was used. Allegedly, the body does not survive the drive by far, so that you can use it for a second life in the Tipo 184 IVA.

This harks back to the British tradition of kit cars, with the Lotus Seven, respectively Caterham perhaps being one of the early examples. There you could, perhaps even for less money and less taxes, assemble a car yourself from parts from sometimes varied kits, as practiced in Germany on the VW Buggy, which was developed parallel to the famous Dune Buggy. Almost every particularly sporty car is now available as a replica.

The example of the buggy is a very good comparison, as in this case too you have to take everything possible from an abandoned MX-5 and work it up (or have it worked up). The cheapest kit currently (2022) costs around £20,000. A road legal version is also possible for an extra charge, but probably only in Great Britain.

Nothing remained of the technical finesse of the former Alfetta, in exchange indeed not all, but quite a few of the Mazda have been added. There is even said to be a version based on the Alfa Spider with a rigid axle, although the Alfetta from back then always had either a pendulum axle or, later, a DeDion axle. As I said, the gearbox is also flanged directly behind the engine, atypical for the naming.

Of the eight cylinders in line with a supercharger, only the exhaust manifold remains. In the Mazda version, the first and last two remain unused, but presumably locked. There is only one line to the outside anyway, because of the lambda control with a small catalytic converter. It's a complete MX-5. Even the steering wheel finds use if you don't opt for the more expensive, classic-style one.

A full version is offered for around £50,000. It remains unclear where to get the parts from when there is a higher demand and how or who will refurbish them. Also why one didn't contact Mazda, but probably a deal would have failed due to the fact that it was the previous version of the MX-5 with limited storage capacities. All in all, one may still have to reckon with higher costs than those mentioned.

Instead, potential customers are drummed into how easy it is to put together such a car, e.g. as purchase from parents for their children. You only have to imagine that an MX-5 was delivered as a finished body with all parts neatly packed in boxes and the children were supposed to assemble the car with semi-professional tools.