Rose, I think the car you saw belongs to Brian Coe, I found a pic of it on the Triumph register. (number plate has changed since first pic, now says, BC***)
http://www.tr-register.com.au/Files/coeb.htm
It's called a Kougar, they can come assembled or in kit form, prices start at £ 8995.
http://www.kougar-cars.com/kougar-sports.php
Here is some back ground:
(Taken from Atlas F1 Bulletin board)
When the name of Crosthwaite & Gardiner is mentioned in conversation, folk will conjure up their own idea of what those two names represent. Having got together, Dick and John started the business back in the Sixties and rapidly established a rapport with one another that would last for decades. They moved to Buxted in 1969 and started to build the business.
Throughout the Seventies various challenges were undertaken which ranged from dabbling in FFI600 racing to running a full blown Le Mans entry for Alain de Cadanet, achieving a pretty impressive result in 1978 finishing 3rd!
Whilst all this racing activity was going on the guys still found time to create some, (nowadays well documented), Frazer Nash replicas and also to come up with a design for a `kit' car, resembling the aforementioned FN, powered by Jaguar engines which was known as the `Kougar', the project was sold on and is still being produced today.
The Kougar Sports began life as a Crosthwaite & Gardiner project although it was employee Rick Stevens who was apparently responsible for the car’s design. Stylistically, the Sports was meant to evoke the Frazer Nash Le Mans Rep and cycle-winged HWM, and it originally featured running gear robbed from the Jaguar S-Type (plus MGB steering rack).
The Cougar (soon changed to Kougar so as not to upset Ford) was officially announced at the July 1977 Pageant of Motoring at Lingfield racecourse, Surrey (although as many as six body/chassis were already in varying stages of completion by then). The prototype was bodied in aluminium although ‘production’ cars had glassfibre shells.
Initially, the Kougar Sports was produced under the Storcourt Wells Ltd banner with Buxted Motors of Sussex handling the marketing although, and I may be wrong about this, the car was still being built by Stevens during the 1980s. During this time, the Kougar line-up was bolstered by the arrival of the Ferrari 750-ish Monza. Production rights passed to Phil Street in 1990 (I think) before moving on again in 1994.
The timing seems right for it to be John Killick who took over the venture in 1994. John had built a very nice dark blue Kougar in the early 80s while he was working as a body development engineer at Jaguar (many parts of the car received expert "help" from various members of the Experimental shop!). At the time, he was one of the crowd of misfits who were lodging with Norman and Nan Dewis at Mill Farm, and it is rumoured that the mortal remains of the S-type which gave up its components to the Kougar actually got buried at the farm one weekend - some judicious work with a tractor-mounted backhoe covered up the evidence!
John sold the car when he embarked on a major renovation of a Daimler SP250, but kept an interest in the fate of the Kougar brand. He came from the Brighton area, so regarded them as a "home" team of sorts. He left Jaguar shortly before I did (1990?) to take control of Red Triangle Motors, the Alvis spares company. After this, he somehow gained control of Kougar - the details are hazy - but I don't know how long this went on, but there is a picture on the web showing him driving a Kougar in a speed event in 1997.
http://hugop.users.btopenworld.com/kougars/racing.htm
I moved to the US around this time and lost contact with him. Last I heard, he was Director of the Mulliner division of Bentley, producing bespoke motor cars for the gentry, so his ongoing passion for special cars was no doubt in play.
One amusing story about John's Kougar - he drove it to Le Mans one year (as did a large crowd of Jaguar employees) and somehow got involved with the start of one of the historic demonstrations and was waved out onto the track for a few laps! The Kougar did have a very authentic look, so it is possible the gendarmes were confused, but it is also possible that Julian Ghosh (latterly President of the VSCC) was involved in the scam since he was good friend of John's and I think had a C-type (legitimately!) in the parade.
Better start saving up Rose
Regards,
Matt.