Kit car

A kit-car is an automobile that is available in kit form, i.e. you buy a set of parts that you have to assemble yourself. Usually many major mechanical parts such as the engine and transmission are taken from one or more donor vehicles. Kits vary in completeness from as little as a book of plans to a complete set of all the components required. The definition of a kit car is usually taken to mean that a number of examples are produced by a manufacturer for sale to the public. A car built at home as a one-off to the designs of its builder is termed a Special.

History
Kit cars have been around from the earliest days of the automobile industry. The Englishman Thomas Hyler White developed a design for a car that could be assembled at home in 1896 and technical designs were published in a magazine called The English Mechanic. In the United States the Lad's Car of 1912 could be bought for US$160 ($3000 in 2006) fully assembled or US$140 ($2600 in 2006) in kit form.

It was, however, not until the 1950s that the idea really took off. Car production had increased considerably and with rust proofing in its infancy many older vehicles were being sent to breaker yards as their bodywork was beyond economic repair. An industry grew up supplying new bodies and chassis to take the components from these cars and convert them particularly into sports cars. Also, in the UK up to the mid 1970's, kit cars were sometimes normal production vehicles that were partially assembled as this avoided the imposition of car tax as the kits were assessed as components and not vehicles. The Lotus Elan, for example, was available in this form. Often the cars could be taken home and completed in as little as a weekend.

Current kit cars are often replicas of well-known and expensive classics and are designed so that anyone with a measure of technical skill can build them at home, to a standard where they can be driven on the public roads. The AC Cobra and the Lotus 7 are particularly popular examples. These replicas look like the original, but their bodies are usually made of fiberglass mats soaked in polyester resin instead of the original sheet metal. These kit cars enable vintage or classic car enthusiasts to possess a vehicle of a type that, because of their scarcity, they may not be able to afford, and to take advantage of modern technology.

Many people are unaware of such vehicles although the Volkswagen based dune buggy appeared in relatively large numbers in the 1960s and 1970s. Many car drivers react sceptically when they first hear about kit cars as it appears to them to be technically impossible to assemble a car at home and also use it on the public roads. They may also be worried that such a car would not subsequently pass the mandatory quality inspection (road worthiness test) that is required in most countries.

Several of today's sports car producers such as Lotus and TVR started as kit car makers.

Australia

 * Alpha Sports
 * Bolwell
 * PRB
 * Pellandini Cars

Canada

 * Lemans Prototypes
 * Pigeon Performance
 * Spex Design Corporation

Netherlands

 * Burton
 * Charon
 * Dakar
 * Deauville
 * Voglietta

Estonia

 * ESTfield
 * Rexer

Germany

 * Apal

Mexico

 * Unidiseño Mastretta

New Zealand

 * Almac
 * De Joux
 * Fraser Cars Ltd

South Africa

 * Kit Car Centre

Sweden
Technically kit cars aren't allowed in Sweden, but provided that you source most of the material yourself it is possible to register them as amateur built vehicles. Before the law requiring a mandatory crash test in 1970 there was a booming kit car industry in Sweden. Most companies based their kits on the VW Beetle chassis. When amateur bilt vehicles again was allowed in 1982 all kit car companies in Sweden had disappeared.


 * Dala7
 * Esther
 * Hult Healey
 * Mania Spyder
 * Mascot
 * Ockelbo
 * Pagano
 * Racing Plast Burträsk (RPB)
 * Boes Motor & Mekanik

United Kingdom
According to figures given to the magazine Total Kit Car the most popular kit in the United Kingdom is made by Robin Hood Sportscars who sell 700 kits a year.
 * AKS Continental
 * Arkley SS
 * Ashley Laminates
 * ADD Nova
 * Banham Conversions
 * Buckler Cars
 * Burlington Cars
 * Caterham Cars
 * Clan
 * Dakar 4x4
 * Davrian
 * Diva
 * Dutton Cars
 * Elva
 * Fairthorpe Cars
 * Falcon Shells
 * Fisher Sports Cars
 * GCS Hawke
 * Ginetta Cars
 * GTM Cars
 * Heron Plastics
 * Hustler
 * JZR Trikes
 * Locost
 * Locust
 * Lomax Motor Company
 * Marcos
 * McCoy
 * Midas Cars
 * MK Sportscars
 * NG sports cars
 * Onyx Sports Cars
 * Opperman
 * Peel
 * Peerless / Warwick
 * Piper Cars
 * Raw Engineering
 * Robin Hood
 * Rochdale
 * Sylva
 * Tornado
 * Trident
 * Turner
 * Unipower
 * Westfield Sportscars

United States

 * Bradley Automotive
 * Factory Five Racing
 * Superformance
 * Brunton Automotive
 * Lad's Car
 * La Dawri
 * Meyers Manx
 * Chuck Beck Motorsports
 * Wombat Car Company
 * Aldino Car Company