Oh, mate. I had no idea. I had read about the Rocket, of course – the tiny sports car designed by Gordon Murray and made by the Light Car Company in the early 1990s.
When it was new and I was a skinny teenager, I would have devoured every word and remembered every statistic from Autocar’s Rocket review and performance test.
And some numbers just stick, no? You will never need to look them up again. You will forever know that the Jaguar XJ220 did 217mph and the McLaren F1 made 627bhp. So when I accepted the generous offer from a reader to have a drive in his Rocket last week, and as we stood looking at it, I said: “385 kilos, isn’t it?”
“That’s what [LCC founder] Chris Craft told me,” replied the owner, “and he was a pretty straight guy.” I’ve since been back to check Autocar’s test. The Rocket tipped our scales at 400kg carrying more than 20 litres of petrol, so Craft’s 385kg claim would have been spot on.
Which makes the Rocket the lightest road car I’ve driven on the road. Presumably a Sinclair C5 doesn’t count. I have driven (very few) lighter cars with engines and numberplates – Austin Seven specials – but only on a circuit. These 750 Motor Club racers tend to be in the low-300s. Murray once designed one (for racing only) at just 280kg.
The short of it, though, is that if you like lightweight road cars, the Rocket is about as good as it gets. I’ve written about how motorcycle-engined cars can frustrate, because, congrats, you’ve reduced the engine size but now the car is too big. The Rocket was designed small to fit a Yamaha FZR1000 engine, making 143bhp and revving to 11,500rpm.
Among a few modifications, this particular car has had its passenger seat (as standard located behind the driver) deleted and the fuel tank moved there, from above and behind the engine.
The seat is a Tillett kart-type one, fabric not vinyl and leather, so as grippy and supportive as in a good kart. It rides on lighter wheels too.