ThebodyshapeofthenewNagariisstillbeingworkedonbutisinfluencedbyLotus.Picture:SimonSchluter.

Mention Bolwell at the family dinner table and you're sure to get a mixed reaction. Children's blank stares will show that it means nothing to them. Older siblings may mention the trendy, imported motor scooters they've seen that bear the company's name, and think no more.

However, at the head of the table, the patriarch's lips may show a trace of a smile. For him, the name is a throwback to the 1960s and '70s.

Back then, the likes of the Ford Falcon GTHO and the Holden Torana GTR XU-1 conquered mountains and introduced a generation to cars with so much power that the well from which it was drawn seemed limitless.

At first, the three Bolwell brothers used their parent's garage in Seaford, in Melbourne's south-east, to build a sports car that could take on the world. Over 14 years almost 800 kit and production cars bearing the Bolwell badge rolled out of the brothers' Mordialloc factory. The effort eventually broke the company but it left Australia with a legend that next year, almost 40 years after the first sports car rolled out of the factory in 1969, will be reborn.

Yes, the Bolwell Nagari is back.

Well, it's not quite back yet, but Drive was given exclusive access to see how the remaking of the new Nagari, with its carbon-fibre body, is coming along, and early indications are that it will be every bit as desirable as the one it replaces.

Bolwell's director, Campbell Bolwell, one of the three brothers behind the first sports car, showed us the test chassis and buck on which the outer shape of the prototype Nagari is slowly taking form.

We can't show you much, but hopefully these words can paint an image of what's to come.

Where the old model was deeply rooted in flared trousers, beer and showy '70s machismo, the new one will show its metrosexual side, with an emphasis on chardonnay-set comfort along with driveability. The old Nagari lacked a lot of the former, but gave the latter in spades. The new one will not be a faded lily, however, when compared with the first.

The heart of the new model is likely to be a transverse, mid-mounted supercharged version of the alloy, 24-valve quad-cam 3.0-litre V6 engine used in the superseded Toyota Camry. Instead of a paltry 145 kW from the naturally aspirated version, the worked engine in the Nagari is expected to produce 260 kW, almost the same level of performance as the latest model Holden Commodore's 6.0-litre V8 and on par with Ford Falcon's 5.7-litre V8. The engine's "intentional grunt", says Campbell, should push the Nagari from 0-100 km/h in the low four-second mark. The Camry engine is the choice now because of its "light weight and indestructibility", but Campbell says there are other options being considered.

A carbon-fibre centre capsule with a front and rear welded space frame will give the Nagari its strength. The prototype has a big front-mounted radiator, with Campbell's design for a four-wheel independent suspension set-up with a double-wishbone configuration. Track-day racers are catered for, with adjustable Koni springs and shock absorbers planned for the production model. The high-performance brakes are vented and slotted discs - 330 millimetres on the front and 295 mm on the rear.

Design elements carried over from the original will include the swooping sill line running down the side of the car, and the deep flying-buttress pillars at the rear. The shape of the windows on each door will also hark back to the original.

The technical manager for the Nagari, Graeme Bolwell, worked for Lotus in Britain before returning and co-designing the original car with Campbell, and design elements in the front of both the old and new Nagari speak loudly of that experience; comparing a 1965 Lotus Europa and modern-day Lotus Exige with both Nagaris is interesting.

On the new one, its Porsche-like outer dimensions include a big air dam between two brake cooling inlets that will push air through the radiator, exiting via bonnet-mounted vents. The bonnet is nestled between two wide arches that bulge in anticipation of the 18 x 8.0-inch, 225/40-profile wheels they will house. (The rear will use 18 x 9.5-inch, 265/35-profile wheels.) The wedge-shaped rear will be proportioned to show off the vast, large-bore stainless steel exhaust system below the boot space. Big air intakes for the engine run like a low vertical slash behind the door pillars.

The design is far from complete. One of the quandaries facing Bolwell is how to incorporate the cosmetic slots that graced the fenders of the original Nagari. They may reappear as an air vent over the supercharger.

The plan at this stage is for no wing on the back of the car.

Like its predecessor, the Nagari will use mechanical parts from other manufacturers. On this prototype, Toyota is the source of the motors for the powered windows, airbags, engine and gearbox. Why make your own when all the parts are already out there, Campbell says.

Weight is kept to a minimum. The drive train assembly comes in at about 230 kilograms, and the final product should tip the scales at about 850 kg, about 150 kg lighter than a 61 kW Honda Jazz. That makes it almost 20 per cent lighter, and more than four times more powerful, than one of the lightest, smallest passenger cars on the market.

Still, about 65 per cent of the Nagari's weight distribution is likely to end up over the rear axle. No fear, though, as in-car safety technology has come a long way since the 1970s. Expect a full compliment of electronic driver aids, including ABS and airbags, although all-wheel-drive is not an option.

Meanwhile, it's a cycle of more suspension tweaks and testing on closed tracks, including Calder Park and Phillip Island's grand prix circuit, and a long wait until the work on the body is signed off.

Bolwell is dedicating about 150 hours a week to bringing the Nagari back to life. Like the original, it's still a family business. Campbell is the director and head designer, brother Graeme is the technical manager, and Campbell's sons Owen and Nagari co-designer Vaughan will look after marketing and production respectively.

Campbell says he never lost the dream that one day Bolwell would produce another Nagari, even after the company was forced into liquidation in 1974, weighed down by "onerous" legislation designed to stem the flood of high-performance cars taking to Australian roads. After its collapse, Bolwell resumed doing what it did best - making spas and boats, playground equipment and car parts - and has since grown from a "backyard" operation, as Campbell calls it, into a diversified group that specialises in making plastic and fibreglass parts for the rail and transport industries and even selling imported motor scooters.

Another area of diversification is a partnership in commercial assembly, putting together items such as mobile phones and motor mowers on behalf of manufacturers. It has businesses in Taiwan and Thailand.

This, Campbell says, is why the Nagari is being reborn. Bolwell now has the skill, as well as the financial and manufacturing clout, to take it back on.

"Always beating in the old heart is the thought that we'd love to do it," he says. "There's always been a plan to do it but we've never been commercially strong enough or secure enough to do it. Now we are."

Campbell won't speculate on the final price, other than to say it will be more expensive than a Lotus, which starts from about $80,000. He's quiet too on the number of Nagaris the company will be able to sell each month. However, he expects interest here and in Britain, to where Nagaris will be exported, to be keen. A left-hand-drive version hasn't been ruled out.

The new Nagari may get its first public airing at the Australian International Motor Show in Sydney next September.

Although it's the first Nagari in 40 years, it may not be the last. A roadster is a possibility. But sales of the coupe will need to fly before the roadster gets its wings. There's no rush, and Campbell is quick to recall the last time Bolwell grew too much, too quickly and paid the price. This time he's thinking with his head, not his heart.

The whole kit and caboodle

Bolwells's car-making heritage has its roots in kit cars. In the '50s, the three Bolwell brothers - Campbell, Winston and Graeme - started assembling their own versions of cars cobbled together from whatever spare parts they could scrounge. They soon found a ready market for kit cars, and Bolwell the car maker was born.

• The first commercial kit car that Bolwell made was the Mark IV (right), a fibreglass-clad steel-tube space frame that came in gullwing coupe and roadster form. It used a Peugeot, Hillman, Cortina or Simca four-cylinder engine, or a Holden or Ford Zephyr six-cylinder engine. About 220 were made from 1961-65.
  
• From 1964-66, Bolwell sold the Mark V bubble-back kit coupe. It used a backbone chassis with a fibreglass shell, and was powered by a Holden 161 six-cylinder engine. Only 75 were produced.
  
• In 1966, Bolwell brought out the Mark VII (right), a fastback coupe that showed many of the design elements that found their way into the Nagari. It, like the Nagari, used a folded box chassis and a Holden 186 six-cylinder engine.About 350 were sold in kit form until 1972.
  
• The Bolwell Nagari - "nagari" is an Aboriginal word meaning "to flow" - made its debut in 1969. Early ones were sold in kit form, but Bolwell soon started assembling them to maintain quality control. Using Ford 302 and 351 engines attached to a folded box chassis, 120 coupes and 13 roadsters were built until 1974. One was even given away as a prize on the TV comedy show Candid Camera.
  
• The Ikara, a kit-based Targa roadster powered by a Volkswagen Golf engine (some of which could run on natural gas), was produced briefly in 1979. Only 12 were made, and the tooling and design were sold to a Greek company that sat on the concept.

Old is new again - the Nagari reborn