Kit car

China Product


History

Kit cars have been around from the earliest days of the automobile. In 1896 the Englishman Thomas Hyler White developed a design for a car that could be assembled at home 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 equivalent in 2006) fully assembled or US$140 ($2600 in 2006) in kit form.

It was 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 into new vehicles, particularly into sports cars. Fiber reinforced plastic (aka "GRP," or "fiberglass") was coming into general usage and made limited-scale production of automobile body components much more economical. Also, in the UK up to the mid 1970s, kit cars were sometimes normal production vehicles that were partially assembled as this avoided the imposition of purchase tax as the kits were assessed as components and not vehicles. The Lotus Elan, for example, was available in this form. It was often claimed that the kits could be taken home and completed in only a weekend. suede car seats

During the 1970s many kits had bodies styled as sports cars that were designed to bolt directly to VW Beetle chassis. This was popular as the old body could be easily separated from the chassis leaving virtually all mechanical components attached to the chassis and a GRP-body from the kit supplier shop fitted. This made the Beetle one of the most popular "donor" vehicles of all time.Examples of this conversion include the Bradley GT, Sterling, and Sebring which were made by the thousands and many are still around today. Volkswagen based dune buggies also appeared in relatively large numbers in the 1960s and 1970s based usually on a shortened floor pan. air purifier ionizer

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. These replicas are conceptually like the original, but their bodies are often made of fiberglass mats soaked in polyester resin instead of the original sheet metal. The AC Cobra and the Lotus 7 are particularly popular examples, the right to manufacture the Lotus 7 now being owned by Caterham Cars who bought the rights to the car from Lotus founder Colin Chapman in 1973. Replica kit cars enable enthusiasts to possess a vehicle of a type that because of scarcity they may not be able to afford, and at the same time take advantage of modern technology. ionic purifier

Many people 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 control (road worthiness test) that is required in most countries. For example, to obtain permission to use a kit car in Germany, every such vehicle with a speed over 6 km/h without a general operating license (ABE) or an EC type permission (EC-TG) has to undergo, as per the 21 of Road traffic licensing regulations (STVZO), a technical inspection by an officially recognized expert of a Technical Inspection Authority. In the United Kingdom it is necessary to meet the requirements of the SVA (Single vehicle Approval) regulations.

A survey of nearly 600 kit car owners in the USA, England and Germany, evaluated by the author Dr. Ingo Stben, showed that typically 100-1500 hours are required to build a kit car, depending upon the model and the completeness of the kit.

Several sports car producers such as Lotus and TVR started as kit car makers.

Kit car manufacturers

Australia

An Elfin Type 3 Clubman kit car.

Alpha Sports

Bolwell

Pellandini Cars

PRB

Purvis Eureka

Elfin Sports Cars

Bushrangie

Canada

Spex Design Corporation

Estonia

ESTfield

Rexer

Germany

Apal

Michalak Design

Mexico

Unidiseo Mastretta

New Zealand

Chevron Engineering Ltd

De Joux

Fraser Cars Ltd

Sweden

Dala 7, is a sevenesque kit-car made in Stora Skedvi, close to Ster in Dalarna.

Technically, kit cars are not allowed in Sweden, but provided that most of the components and material are sourced by the builder personally 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 with most companies basing their kits on the VW Beetle chassis. When amateur built vehicles again were allowed in 1982 all kit car companies in Sweden had disappeared.

The inspection (SVA equivalent) in Sweden is handled by the car builder's association SFRO who make two inspections. One when the car has reached the rolling chassis stage and the other when the car is finished. Amateur built cars are limited to 15 kW (20 hp) per 100 kg. Earlier the limit was 10 kW (13.4 hp) per 100 kg so for very light cars (like a Lotus 7 type car) it was a problem to find a suitable engine.

Boes Motor & Mekanik

Dala7

Esther

GOX Teknik

Hult Healey

Mania Spyder

Mascot

Ockelbo

Pagano

Racing Plast Burtrsk (RPB)

Roadline, Porsche Speedster and Porsche Boxer RS replicas

United Kingdom

Dutton Sierra kit car chassis and GRP bodywork prior to installation of mechanical components.

Vehicle regulations in the UK allow the production of up to 200 vehicles a year without the extensive regulation and testing requirements applied to mass-market vehicles. This has led to an expanding industry of small producers capable of offering partial and complete kits, some for export, and finished vehicles for domestic use.

The DVLA regulate kit cars in the UK, which helps to ensure that vehicles used on the road are safe and suitable for the purpose. The current test for this is Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA), which has replaced Single Vehicle Approval (SVA). When SVA was first introduced in 1998, many believed this would kill off the kit car market, but in reality it has made the kit car market stronger, as the vehicles produced now have to meet a minimum standard. IVA was introduced in summer 2009 and it is too early to tell what impact this will have on the industry.

Many, but not all, kit cars are given a 'Q' registration plate which signifies a vehicle of unknown or mixed age. All kit cars are subject to a Vehicle Identity Check, VIC, by the DVLA to determine the registration mark a kit car is assigned. This will be either, a new, current year, registration; an 'age-related' registration; or a 'Q' plate. Once a kit car has been correctly registered, a V5C, or log book, will be assigned and then a kit car is treated in exactly the same way as a production car, from any lager manufacturer. A kit car must pass it's MOT test and have a valid road fund license, or have a valid Statutory Off-Road Notification (SORN) declaration.

According to figures given to the magazine Kit Car (The UK's Top Selling Kit Car Magazine) the most popular kit in the United Kingdom in 2005 was made by Robin Hood Sportscars who sell 700 kits a year.

Aeon

AKS Continental

Arkley SS

Ashley Laminates

ADD Nova

Banham Conversions

Beauford automobiles

Buckler Cars

Burlington Cars

Car Craft Cars

Caterham Cars

Carlton Automotive

Clan

Covin

Dakar 4x4

Dax

Davrian

Diva

Dutton Cars

Elva

Fairthorpe Cars

Falcon Shells

Fisher Sports Cars

GCS Hawke

Gentry Cars (replica MGTF)

Ginetta Cars

GKD

GTM Cars

Heron Plastics

Hustler

Jago

JBA Cars

JZR Trikes

Kougar

Locost

Locust

Lomax Motor Company

MAC#1 Motorsports

Marcos

McCoy

Marlin

MINUS

Midas Cars

MK Sportscars

NG sports cars

Onyx Sports Cars

Opperman

Peel

Peerless / Warwick

Piper Cars

Quantum Sports Cars

Raw Engineering

Robin Hood

Rochdale

Scamp

Sylva

Spartan Cars

Tiger Racing

Tornado

Trident

Turner

Ultima Sports

Unipower

Westfield Sportscars

West Mains Automotive

United States

A Bernardi roadster, from the Blakely Auto Works

A glider kit is a term used in the United States for a kit used to restore or reconstruct a wrecked or dismantled vehicle. Glider kits include a chassis (frame), front axle, and body (cab). The kit may also contain other optional components.

A motor vehicle constructed from a glider kit is titled as a new vehicle.

Examples include:

Blakely Auto Works

Bradley Automotive

DDR Motorsport

Devin Cars

Factory Five Racing

Fiberfab

Frese Motorcars

Sterling Sports Cars

La Bala

La Dawri

Lad's Car

McBurnie

Meyers Manx

Brunton Automotive - V6 Roadster originally based on the Chevy S10.

Superformance

Kit vehicle

A kit vehicle is a wider concept than a kit car. A kit vehicle is a motor vehicle (car, truck or motorcycle) that is built by an individual instead of a manufacturer.

See also

List of Mini based cars

Coachbuilder

Manufacturer's Certificate of Origin

Vehicle inspection

Vehicle registration

Notes

^ Alan Sutton, "Mr White and his Motor Cars", The Automobile, June 1986

^ Georgano, Nick (Editor). Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. ISBN 1-57958-293-1. 

^ The Big Guide to Kit and Specialty Cars, Harold Pace, 2002

^ The Big Kit Car Buyer's Guide, Harold Pace and Jim Youngs, 2002

^ Published in: Bausatzkraftfahrzeuge (Kit Cars) als ein Beispiel technischer Freizeit- und Mobilittsinnovation, Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2000

^ List of the top ten selling UK Kit Cars in 2005

^ Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles : Salvage

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kit cars

Kit car at the Open Directory Project

How to build the FFR MK3 Roadster

kit car resource

Russian kit car club

Categories: Kit car manufacturers | Kit cars