Whilst not a Fugitive the Shogan has been included here as it was one of UVA’s other vehicles.
The UVA Shogan was another Beetle based kit car. The kit was easier to build than most as the original running gear was left intact. The rear wings and body of the donor Beetle were cut off behind the front seats and the new rear was bonded on. Estimated build time was around 5 days excluding painting.
The parts required for the conversion were few :- New rear body section, new roof panel , new rear wings, bumper, two rear lights with wiring, floor panels, two side windows and a rear window.
The UVA Shogan was launched around the end of 1985 after being in development for around 3 years.
UVA chief Alan Arnold admitted that the design was heavily influenced by an American kit available at the time called Van-detta. UVA imported one of these kits with the aim of giving it a more European flavour and then taking moulds from it. This however did not happen as UVA were allegedly appalled by the quality of the kit and only retained the roof panel.
The following info was kindly sent to me in May 2001 by an ex-employee of UVA:
“In 1983 I worked for UVA and made most of the buck that the Shogan moulds were taken from. A Van-detta kit was imported from the USA and assembled on an old Beetle.
To keep transport costs down the US kit consisted of many separate parts all designed to fit into one large cardboard box. The quality was not all that bad but the panels were made using a sprayed resin fibre mix rather than the hand lay up method. All the US parts were used but all but the (two) roof panels were modified in some form. It was decided that for the UK market a one piece body shell would be more appropriate.
I have only seen two Shogans, one being the company demonstrator and the other owned by a VW garage on the Isle of Skye.”
The Pictures
The following are links to photos of UVA’s Shogan demonstrator and a scan of the magazine adverts promoting the car:
The following are links to photos supplied by Martin of the Shogan he built back in the 80s :
How Much?
I have not yet seen a secondhand UVA Shogan advertised.