Peter Filby’s enthusiasm for Britain’s thriving kit-car scene became a mini publishing empire that caught the mood of a motoring nation
WORDS PAUL REGAN PHOTOGRAPHY MAX EDLESTON/PERFORMANCE PUBLISHING
Itʼs neither the beautifully kept Aston Martin nor the faithful Cobra replica that first draws the eye as Peter Filby swings open his garage doors. Itʼs the boxes. Uniform in height and stacked neatly across the full width of the back wall, this doesnʼt seem to be your usual garage fodder. “Those?” he smiles. “Theyʼre copies of Snakes Alive!, my latest book.”
Even in retirement, Filby canʼt help but put print to paper. He slides out a hardcover compendium of Cobra replicas. It is specific in subject, covering all models built during the 1980s kit-car boom – or at least what the author describes as “best of breed”.
Because, letʼs be honest, kit cars of the period werenʼt always known for their craftsmanship. The roots of the industry were well-meaning – home-assembled Specials of the 1950s and ʼ60s, such as Fairthorpe and Elva, led to interesting low-volume (and some not so low) makers such as Lotus. But they also sprouted a rash of weird and often not-so-wonderful glassfibre shapes of dubious quality and, at best, acquired taste.
That is, at least, one way of looking at it. The counterargument is one of democratisation of sports cars; of swapping hard graft and a little imagination for the chance to drive something closer to fantasy than the rusted family saloon you sacrificed to achieve it. This intrigue was probably the fuel that ignited Peterʼs career.
ʻProbablyʼ will be a feature of this story. As we sit in his kitchen, across a table filled with a lifetime of motoring books and magazines that bear his name, itʼs a struggle to piece together perfectly the patchwork of publications that make up his working life. Absolutely apparent after a cup of coffee in his convivial company, however, is that the particulars are not so important. What shines through is a single-minded determination to tell stories about a corner of our industry that he (mostly) loved.
“Iʼm really proud of what we did,” he says. “I wasnʼt brought up through the lower echelons of motoring journalism; I just went ahead and produced the magazines I wanted.”
Peter had always been interested in unusual cars. Before picking up a pen, he worked for specialist manufacturers including Davrian and the lesser-known Powerspeed, of limited Volksw
