Project Kimber
Encyclopedia
Project Kimber was the industry group which intended to restart production of the discontinued Smart Roadster
Smart Roadster
The Smart Roadster is a two-door sports car first introduced in 2003 by Smart GmbH. Sales of the Roadster and Roadster Coupé met expectations, however warranty claims resulted in a halt of production of both models in November 2005 after 43,091 Roadsters were made...

 car
Čar
Čar is a village in the municipality of Bujanovac, Serbia. According to the 2002 census, the town has a population of 296 people.-References:...

 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 in 2006, following their unsuccessful bid for MG Rover Group
MG Rover Group
MG Rover was the last domestically owned mass-production car manufacturer in the British motor industry. The company was formed when BMW sold the car-making and engine manufacturing assets of the original Rover Group to the Phoenix Consortium in 2000....

 in 2005.

MG Cars

Following the demise of MG Rover Group
MG Rover Group
MG Rover was the last domestically owned mass-production car manufacturer in the British motor industry. The company was formed when BMW sold the car-making and engine manufacturing assets of the original Rover Group to the Phoenix Consortium in 2000....

 in 2005, Project Kimber submitted an unsuccessful bid to buy the company out of administration. Project Kimber was named after Cecil Kimber
Cecil Kimber
Cecil Kimber was an automobile engineer, most famous for his role in being the driving force behind the MG car company.-Biography:He was born in London on 12 April 1888 to Henry Kimber, a printing engineer and his wife Fanny...

, MG's founder.

During the bid process, David James was quoted as saying: "This is the last chance to save Britain's largest independent carmaker from falling into overseas ownership."

Smart Roadster/AC Ace

In 2006, David James
David James, Baron James of Blackheath
David Noel James, Baron James of Blackheath CBE is a British businessman and corporate troubleshooter and Conservative life peer.-Career:...

 entered talks with MG Rover's new owners the Nanjing Automobile Group
Nanjing Automobile Group
Nanjing Automobile is a state-owned enterprise with a history that dates from 1947, making it the oldest of the Chinese automobile manufacturers, although the comparatively younger First Automobile Works was the first to actually make cars.The group's products have included cars, trucks, and...

 to buy the MG brand in order to produce a number of sports cars based on the out of production Smart Roadster
Smart Roadster
The Smart Roadster is a two-door sports car first introduced in 2003 by Smart GmbH. Sales of the Roadster and Roadster Coupé met expectations, however warranty claims resulted in a halt of production of both models in November 2005 after 43,091 Roadsters were made...

 design following discussions with DaimlerChrysler
DaimlerChrysler
Daimler AG is a German car corporation. By unit sales, it is the thirteenth-largest car manufacturer and second-largest truck manufacturer in the world. In addition to automobiles, Daimler manufactures buses and provides financial services through its Daimler Financial Services arm...

 to buy the Roadster's design, technology and equipment for approximately £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

13 million. The equipment would then be transferred from the Smart
Smart (automobile)
Smart is an automotive branch of Daimler AG. Smart is a German manufacturer of microcars produced in Hambach, France, and Böblingen, Germany...

 factory to a former Dunlop
Dunlop Tyres
Dunlop Tyres is a British company owned 75% by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and 25% by Sumitomo Rubber Industries, which bought the right to sell Dunlop-branded road tyres....

 tyre factory in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...

 where the Roadster would be built under the MG brand. It was understood that Project Kimber was being funded by Grant Gazdig's Access-Capital firm, as well as a private equity firm called European American Securities. Barrie Wills, another key member of Project Kimber, formerly of Jaguar
Jaguar
The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Southern United States and Mexico...

, Reliant Scimitar
Reliant Scimitar
Reliant's first Scimitar was a coupé based upon the styling of a Daimler SP250 prototype and the chassis of a Reliant Sabre. It was first displayed in 1964. It was powered by a 2.6 L Ford straight six from the Ford Zephyr / Ford Zodiac...

 and DeLorean
DeLorean
DeLorean may refer to:* John DeLorean, American businessman who founded the DeLorean Motor Company* DeLorean Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer, based in North America* DeLorean DMC-12, the single automobile produced by the DeLorean Motor Company...

, and founder of de Montfort Resources which held the Agreements with Smart
Smart (automobile)
Smart is an automotive branch of Daimler AG. Smart is a German manufacturer of microcars produced in Hambach, France, and Böblingen, Germany...

.

On 20 July 2006 motoring website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...

 4car reported rumours that David James was in talks with Alan Lubinsky
Alan Lubinsky
South African-born Alan Lubinsky is the current owner of AC Cars, having purchased it from Brian Angliss in 1996, and has produced cars sporadically ever since. Lubinsky moved production from England to Malta, and following financial irregularities there in the fall of 2005 announced plans to begin...

, the owner of AC Cars
AC Cars
AC Cars Group Ltd. formerly known as Auto Carriers Ltd. is a British specialist automobile manufacturer and one of the oldest independent car marques founded in Britain...

, to use the famous British name on his sports cars. In a press release dated 31 August 2006 it was stated that agreement had been reached with Acedes Holdings, the current owners of the AC brand, to use the AC name on the new car.

On 4 September 2006, AutoWired reported that engineer Gordon Murray
Gordon Murray
Prof. Gordon Murray , is a renowned designer of Formula One race cars and the McLaren F1 road car.-Early life:...

, who created the McLaren F1
McLaren F1
The McLaren F1 is a supercar designed and manufactured by McLaren Automotive. Originally a concept conceived by Gordon Murray, he convinced Ron Dennis to back the project and engaged Peter Stevens to design the exterior of the car...

, was to lead the Project Kimber engineering team. Also joining was John Piper, formerly of the Williams Formula One
WilliamsF1
Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited, trading as AT&T Williams, is a British Formula One motor racing team and constructor. It was founded and run by Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head...

 team who recently worked on the JCB Dieselmax car which in August 2006 set a new diesel land speed record. The revised car was to use a 1.0 litre, three-cylinder Mitsubishi Motors
Mitsubishi Motors
is a multinational automaker headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. In 2009 it was the fifth-largest Japan-based automaker and the 17th-largest in the world measured by production...

 engine in both normally aspirated (71bhp) and turbocharged (84bhp) forms as used in the Mitsubishi i
Mitsubishi i
The is a kei car from Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors, first released in January 2006, twenty eight months after its debut at the 2003 Frankfurt Motor Show...

. Also the original Smart clutchless transmission was to be replaced by a Getrag
Getrag
Getrag is a leading manufacturer of automobile manual transmissions. The company was founded on 1 May 1935, in Ludwigsburg, Germany, by Hermann Hagenmeyer; as the Getriebe und Zahnradfabrik Hermann Hagenmeyer GmbH & Cie KG...

-supplied manual gearbox.

Though remaining similar to the Smart original, the Roadster was planned to have minor makeover. Former Jaguar
Jaguar (car)
Jaguar Cars Ltd, known simply as Jaguar , is a British luxury car manufacturer, headquartered in Whitley, Coventry, England. It is part of the Jaguar Land Rover business, a subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors....

 designer Keith Helfet
Keith Helfet
Keith Helfet is a distinguished automotive designer.After demonstrating little academic promise in South Africa, Helfet turned to art. He had a natural affinity for automotive design and was accepted as a student into the most prestigious automotive styling programme in the world at the Royal...

 was signed up to restyle its front and tail ends to freshen it up, and to distinguish it from the original Smart Roadster. Artists impressions of the new car, now referred to as the AC Ace, were released in December 2006, and while delays to the project were acknowledged at the end of 2006, production was scheduled for 2007 despite a £65m investment not being formalised.

The tooling brought from the Smart factory at Hambach was planned to be installed at Project Kimber's factory in South Wales and production was expected to start in the summer of 2007, but by June 2007, Barrie Wills, chief executive of the Project Kimber consortium admitted they were "still soldiering on with funding Project Kimber" but with no sign of prototypes or production vehicles.

Prices for the new AC were expected to start at £13,000 with 8,000 Roadsters planned to be built in the first year of production. By December 2008 Project Kimber's official site appeared to have been closed down and in April 2009 a new AC Ace V8 project was announced in Auto Express suggesting that the Kimber Project deal had fallen through.

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