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The JBA Open Day was held on Sunday 19th September 2004.
What
made this open day special was that after twenty two years JBA
Engineering Ltd was under new management.
Tim Banwell the new
owner took over the company on the 1st of August. Ken and Dave helped Tim to get started by making extra chassis and introducing him to the kit car show scene and holding open days. |
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Many owners turned up with their Falcons to provide an
excellent display despite the weather conditions as they left
from home. The sun came out at the factory and stayed all
afternoon although it was a bit windy. |
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Dave and Ken were also in attendance answering questions and
taking customers on test drives in the factory demonstrator Sports SRi.
I had a few to ask as well for a member who was rebuilding a
Cortina based unfinished kit.
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Kits in various stages of construction. |
| There were a few kits awaiting collection, some being built
and others in for restoration. |
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Pete our Chairman was busy too, in constant demand from
customers and members.
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A part built JBA was on show to give people a few ideas of how
a Falcon is put together. |
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JBA Falcon kits everywhere. |
And More
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Eric Watkins
Falcon Tourer Cortina based was admired by everyone and was
absolutely spotless, which is quite unbelievable when you
consider all the holiday trips to Scotland and the Lake
district that Eric has done with his Falcon. Many have admired Eric's Falcon on the JBA Stand at Stafford and Stoneleigh shows in the UK. |
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A view of Eric's
dashboard. |
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Eric's radiator and some
Stainless Steel items. |
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Two Falcon TSR's together Les Morell's two tone and |
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Mick Sykes yellow Falcon TSR. |
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Phil Whittaker's
Falcon TSR is always a regular at the factory open days.
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Keith and Val
Hays Falcon Sports SRi is often seen on the JBA factory stand
at shows in England. |
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This is a JBA Falcon Roadster known as the Original Falcon within the club, this one is fitted with a Ford V6 engine and has been bought by Tim as a restoration project for himself. |
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This
Falcon is a Sports Cortina based and requires some work done before it
is sold by the factory. |
| The two cars here are a Falcon TSR in two tone and a Tourer in
green. The difference is that the Tourer is Cortina based and the
TSR is Sierra based. |
An original JBA Plus Two
visited the open day.
Plus 2 Interior
Plus 2 Rear View
JBA Demonstrator ready for a rest at the end of the open day.
The
factory demonstrator was busy all day.
Yes it was nice to meet up with some old friends and to meet
Tim Banwell the very enthusiastic new owner of JBA Cars.
I was
surprised at how young he was and no I did not ask his age and
on reflection Dave and Ken must have been quite young too when
they started.
I
did take a couple of photos but Tim must have put a jinx on
the camera, it did not save them to the disc.
Tim's family including his mum and dad kept us all supplied
with biscuits, sandwiches and pork pies and enjoyed joining in
the chat with members about their cars.
A very enjoyable
and satisfying day knowing that the marque JBA will live on
and may I pass on the thoughts of JBA Owners Club members and
wish Tim every success in his new venture.
August 2009. This page was written in September 2004. Little did we know that the new owner would be unable to supply parts and put the firm up for sale in May 2005. The company was dissolved by Companies House in 2008.
The proposed new factory in 2007 predicted wonders but has failed to produce any models by August 2009 nothing but excuses and their estimated date is now 2012.
Amazing how many of us managed to build our JBA's within two years and some owners much quicker in under one year and the new factory cannot three years on.
I think it will be a long, long time before we can see open days like the one above that Ken and Dave managed three times a year.
Copyright © www.robbiegibson.com
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Safe Driving All the Best Regards Robbie 
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