A kit car that he fell in love with at first sight when he was in high school

The official name of the futuristic supercar is the Purvis Eureka. It was built as a kit car by an Australian coachbuilder in 1975. This car, which is thought to be the only one still in existence in Japan, has been transformed into a futuristic car by its owner, “Ryu-chan”.

Only about 700 were produced worldwide

The machine’s looks, which look like they could have appeared in a Super Sentai hero movie from a long time ago, are very exciting. The gimmicky canopy that rises above the head is also irresistible. The styling is as cool as any modern supercar, but the car was manufactured in 1975.

A check of the records shows that it was a kit car called the “Purvis Eureka”, manufactured by Purvis Cars in Australia from 1974 to the early 1990s, with around 700 units produced worldwide. Of these, only a few dozen made it to Japan, and it is thought to be the only one still in existence. Incidentally, this car was produced under license from the ‘Nova’ kit car, which was created in the UK in 1971.

Owner “Ryu-chan” first met the Purvis Eureka when he was in high school. Ryu-chan has been a car enthusiast since he was a child and wanted to build a custom car that he could showcase at shows one day. It was at this time that he discovered kit cars from all over the world on the internet and fell in love at first sight with the style of the Purvis Eureka he happened to find. He couldn’t wait to have this car.

However, as this is a rare car, it was difficult to find it easily, and he had a lot of trouble finding it. He had never even seen the actual car, but he wanted to have it so badly that he spent three years in high school, and four years in university, and even after he entered the workforce, he spent his days searching for a Purvis Eureka. He didn’t know the market price, so he didn’t even know how much it would sell for. He was so in love with the car that he kept thinking about it, wanted to see the car, and was willing to buy it for a realistic price.

It was an immobile car in need of restoration

Maybe these feelings were reciprocated, as by chance he discovered a Puervis Eureka at a car shop in the place he moved to for work. Although he was moved by this fateful encounter, the car was badly damaged and in need of restoration. Therefore, when we asked if it was possible to buy it, we found that there was a prior customer, who was in the process of discussing it as an object to be displayed in a restaurant.

However, his strong desire to acquire the car was conveyed and he managed to sell it to us. The proposed selling price was about 1,600,000 yen (approx.  10,500 USD) for the current condition. As he was thinking of restoring it, he felt that the price was cheaper than he had expected and it was a bargain, so Ryu-chan decided to buy it immediately. At last, he was able to acquire the Purvis Eureka that he had been longing for.

Since then, the days of restoration have continued. With the help of my father, who is a car enthusiast, the restoration process started with his experienced and accurate advice. On closer inspection, it was found that the car had been submerged in water, and the engine, transmission, and all other parts were unusable.

The Purvis Eureka, originally a kit car, was built based on the air-cooled Volkswagen Type 1 (Beetle). Therefore, it was fortunate that it was possible to use reprocessed or rebuilt parts from the domestic market for functional parts. However, there were so many parts to be repaired that the road to being able to drive the car was endlessly long.