Update from JP

[petercoll]

Hi,

Just a short note to let you know that I have vacated the Horncastle workshop. I shall for the time being operate the sales of the Riot and J15 from my house near Cadwell Park and have the chassis made by a local fabricator. For quite a while now it has been a challenge to cover even the overheads at Sylva so some changes have had to be made.
After thirty years in this business I feel quite confident that the two car line up that I have are the finest Sylva's ever. However as the years have gone by my passion for this business has sadly diminished and working through the night to get a racer ready for the track or spending endless hours working on the next new project doesn't quite have the same appeal as it did when I was in my forties.

Back in the pre SVA/Ron Champion days selling one hundred kits a year was not unheard of and at Manby in the nineties I employed four full time welders/laminators. Lately working on my own I would be delighted to turn over twenty kits.

This decline in sales I realise is not all due to the worldwide recession everybody keeps talking about. Marketing has never been my strong point and advertising and website perhaps need a bit of an upgrade. When Sylva were active in racing the cars sort of sold themselves. I have not attended many of the kit car shows over the years. Contrary to popular belief I have actually quite enjoyed the ones I have done but never felt that the yield was worth the costs and effort. It is a pity that there are no one day shows, for a small manufacture like Sylva this would be a much better option.

Eventually I like to think that I can tie in with an individual with the energy and enthusiasm to put the Sylva marque back at the forefront of this industry where it belongs.
Have no fear I am not retiring for a while and can be contacted by email or phone should you have any queries or need parts.

Very best wishes,

Jeremy Philips

[jeffw]

Interesting read. I did have the discussion about shows with Steve at Fury Sportscars and I reckon you would need to sell 1 - 1.5 cars just to cover your costs at somewhere like Stoneleigh.

I think Sylva have gone in a specific direction (mid-engined cars) which the kit buying public have largely ignored . If you look at the ex-Sylva kits the Front engined ones (Striker, Fury, Phoenix) do pretty well still but the mid/rear engined ones have struggled and disappeared. The top 3 members cars on here would be the same Fury/Striker/Phoenix (probable in that order) with a number of older Leader/Stars for good measure.

So Sylva where a niche player in a sea of Caterfields/7 Reps and now have chosen a niche within that niche.

[RobMsport]

Interesting read. I did have the discussion about shows with Steve at Fury Sportscars and I reckon you would need to sell 1 - 1.5 cars just to cover your costs at somewhere like Stoneleigh.

I think Sylva have gone in a specific direction (mid-engined cars) which the kit buying public have largely ignored . If you look at the ex-Sylva kits the Front engined ones (Striker, Fury, Phoenix) do pretty well still but the mid/rear engined ones have struggled and disappeared. The top 3 members cars on here would be the same Fury/Striker/Phoenix (probable in that order) with a number of older Leader/Stars for good measure.

So Sylva where a niche player in a sea of Caterfields/7 Reps and now have chosen a niche within that niche.

Agreed Jeff ---- and although I just absolutely love the' ELVA 'esque look of the J15 , the jury is still out on it's track ability until someone develops their J15 set-up in a racing environment with some success. Having said that '' I really want to see that ''