Model History

My thanks to Terry Whiteman for these pictures. Hopefully more to follow, along with PDF files of some of the early magazine features.

Car Craft had been a kit car manufacturer for some years before the Cyclone appeared in 1994. This family company was run by Terry and Eileen Whiteman, and their son Leigh. As well as the kit car business, Car Craft's bread and butter income was provided by more mundane general car servicing, MoTs and paintwork (Leigh's area of expertise).

Car Craft had dipped its toes in the kit car scene with the CC Zero, a quirky little roadster based around Fiat 126 mechanicals. Launched in 1989, 20 Zeros were sold, having received extremely positive reviews in the kit car press. The one over riding factor of those reviews was the quality of the engineering and surprisingly capable performance delivered by the seemingly humdrum donor car.

By the end of 1993 Car Craft was ready for a new challenge. A background in motorsport inevitably meant that the Zero's limited potential was never going to completely satisfy Terry or Leigh, despite the fact that they both competed in a 'Cosworth' derived version of a Zero in hillclimbs and sprints, to the point of actually winning the 1300cc class in 1991!

As 1994 got underway, Car Craft started playing around with ideas, considering donors and doing some drawings. The chassis was the first thing to actually take shape, but the car still had no name. According to Terry, it was Which Kit? magazine (which had got wind of the new car and booked Car Craft into its forthcoming annual kit car guide) that forced the issue, by announcing that Terry and Leigh had one week to think of a name before the Guide went to press! Terry resorted to looking through the dictionary and the CC Cyclone was born.

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