58 Kit car manufacturers

A kit car is an automobile available as a set of parts that a manufacturer sells and the buyer then assembles into a functioning car. Usually, many of the major mechanical systems such as the engine and transmission are sourced from donor vehicles or purchased new from other vendors. Kits vary in completeness, consisting of as little as a book of plans, or as much as a complete set with all components to assemble into a fully operational vehicle such as those from Caterham.

Ruska was a car manufacturer based in the Netherlands from 1968 to 1981 that manufacturered several open-seater fibreglass-bodied cars and beach buggies. The cars bodies were built on Volkswagen chassis. Ruska are now an automobile repair garage in Amsterdam.

Almac is a New Zealand-based kit car company founded in 1984 and located in Upper Hutt. Almac cars is a part of Almac Reinforced Plastics Ltd fibreglass product manufacturing a company founded in 1971 by Alex McDonald. McDonald's interest in kit cars started while he was living in England, having purchased a Jem Marsh Sirocco. Jem Marsh founded the Marcos car company.

Alpha Sports (ASP) is an Australian kit car manufacturer. It makes sports cars originally based on the styling of the Lotus Seven but have evolved to construct their own distinctive designs.

Alternative Cars Limited is a New Zealand-based kit car company that manufactures fiber-glass bodied cars based on the 1950s MG TF. The company was founded by Russell Hooper, a medical supply representative, as Kit Kars Limited in 1984. In 1996 Kit Kars Ltd changed its name to Alternative Cars Limited. Initially the company operated from the owner's home, until moving to a small 600 square foot workshop in Auckland.

Apal is a small-scale automobile company originally from Belgium.

Ashley were manufacturers of body shells and chassis for specials from 1955 to 1962. They also offered a range of products for special builds: radiators, header tanks, lighting sets, steel tubing, sheet aluminium, various suspension parts, water pumps, tires, tubes and wheels. The company also made bonnets and hardtops for other mass-produced sports cars, including the Austin-Healey Sprite and Jaguar E-Type.

Banham Conversions (Banmoco) was a coachbuilder and manufacturer of kit cars from the late 1970s until 2004. The company, based in Rochester, Kent, was founded by Paul Banham who started off as a coachbuilder converting vehicles into convertibles. He made convertible versions of the Ferrari 400, Aston Martin DBS and V8, and the Rolls-Royce Corniche.

Beauford is a British family run automobile company based in Biddulph, Stoke on Trent. The cars are supplied in kit form and are therefore highly customisable. Beauford are founding members of S.T.A.T.U.S..

Blackjack cars, founded by Richard Oakes in 1996, was a manufacturer of three-wheeled kit cars based in Helston, Cornwall, England. The company's first car, the Blackjack Avion, was produced from 1996 until 2004, replaced by the VW Beetle-engined Blackjack Zero. In 2008 a lighter variant of the Zero known as the Blackjack Guzzi was introduced, the name derived from the Moto Guzzi motorcycle engine that powers it. Blackjack Zero kits have been unavailable since June 2013.

Blakely Auto Works was a manufacturer of automobiles and of kit cars, working from premises located in a series of US midwest communities, including Princeton, Wisconsin, in the 1970s and 1980s. Blakely produced several kit car models, the Bantam, Bearcat, and Bernardi.

Bolwell is an Australian company that originally produced sports cars between 1962 and 1979. A new company of the same name began production of new cars in 2009 after several years of concept and show cars.

N H Buchanan Motor Co Pty Ltd was an Australian kit car manufacturer. It made sports cars in the 1950s.

Burlington Cars was a British kit car company originally based in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. They moved to Northampton in 1988 becoming the Burlington Motor Company reforming as the Burlington Design Group in 1989. Kit production seems to have stopped in around 1992. Founded by Haydn Davis the cars were at first of the "plan and pattern" car) type similar to the JC Midge. Like the Midge it uses a Triumph donor and constructs a body of plywood on top of it, i.e. a body-on-frame design.

The Burton is a Dutch sports car based on French 2CV technology. The Burton is an open, nostalgic-looking sports car built on the chassis of the 2CV with a modern fibreglass body-kit. The car can be built as an open two-seater, or with a hardtop with gull-wing doors or with a custom made convertible roof. From the beginning of 2002, Burton is available all over Europe.

The Bush Ranger is an Australian permanent 4WD buggy that was redesigned and manufactured by John E Davis Motor Works and derived from the United Kingdom Dakar but is considerably different, although both use Range Rover or Land Rover Discovery parts. Options like roofs, front and rear butterfly doors and canvas doors and roofs are available. Red Bull has a Bush Ranger as a promotional vehicle.

The Clan Crusader is a fibreglass monocoque British sports car based on running gear from the Hillman Imp Sport, including its Coventry Climax derived, rear-mounted 875 cc engine. It was first made in Washington, Co Durham, England between 1971 and 1974, but since then several efforts have been made to bring the car back to production. Plans were made by Martin Phaff to re-resurrect the Clan in 2009, but nothing seems to have come of the project so far.

The Dakar 4x4 is a kit car - the successor of the Rotrax - though unlike many it is based on a Range Rover chassis rather than the more usual sports car style. Originally developed in 1991 by Barry Chantler of Dakar Cars in Dartford, Kent, they are now manufactured and built to order by Steve Bennett's company Dakar 4×4 in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. There are around 120 known conversions in the UK, with more in the Netherlands and also the similar Bush Ranger ("Bushie") in Australia.

The Deronda Type F is an extreme performance, road going, track day car. It has been designed and developed by professional motorsport engineers and utilises racing car technology.

Devin Enterprises was an American automotive manufacturer that operated from 1955 to 1964. Devin was mainly known for producing high quality fiberglass car bodies that were sold as kits, but they also produced automotive accessories as well as complete automobiles. The company was founded by Bill Devin.

Eagle Cars Limited was an English company, based in Lancing, West Sussex, originally operated by Allen Breeze, although it has undergone a number of ownership changes since. Originally making a Jeep lookalike called the RV, between 1981 and 1998 they built several iterations of a gull-winged car called the Eagle SS. The SS was based on an American kit car called the Cimbria, and was brought to the UK by Tim Dutton. In 1988 Eagle Cars moved inland, to nearby Storrington.

Elva was a sports and racing car manufacturing company based in Bexhill, then Hastings and Rye, East Sussex, United Kingdom. The company was founded in 1955 by Frank G. Nichols. The name comes from the French phrase elle va.

Fairthorpe cars were made in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, England between 1954 and 1961, from 1961 to 1973 in Denham, Buckinghamshire.

Falcon Shells was a British company that produced specials/kit cars from 1956 until 1964.

The Fraser Clubman is a component based car similar to a Lotus Seven Series 3, built in Auckland, New Zealand by Fraser Cars Ltd. Scott and Ida Tristram are the current managing directors of Fraser Cars having taken over the company from Neil Fraser in 2006.

GCS Cars traded initially from Orpington in Kent, UK and produced the Hawke. Although similar to the Burlington SS in some respects, the GCS Hawke was developed completely independently by the partners in GCS Cars with considerably different dimensions overall. The Dorian/Burlington was designed to fit on a Triumph chassis, although Dorian later developed a chassis that it is believed was using Escort parts. The GCS Hawke was designed to fit on a ladder-frame chassis to accept Cortina/Sierra parts. This led to the bodyshell and wings being considerably wider than the original Dorian/Burlington car. It is an open two seater modelled fairly closely, but differently enough, on the Morgan. Whereas the Burlington body tub was constructed of glass-fibre, wood and aluminium, the Hawke has a one-piece GRP bodyshell with integral floor. It can take a variety of engines from Ford and the V8 Rover. The company was founded by Garry Hutton and Collin Puttock.

The Gentry is a British kit car styled to resemble a MG TF. It was offered for sale to the public by RMB Motors of Barwell, Leicestershire from 1974, the original prototype having been completed at the end of 1973. 15 kits were supplied in this first year, rising to over 80 per year produced in 1979.

GTM Cars is a component kit car manufacturer located in Kingswinford, UK.

Hi-Tech Automotive is a low volume car builder and design house located in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Most of the vehicles produced are exported, notably to the US and UK. The main distributor of the cars built by Hi-Tech is Superformance. In December 2005 Hi-Tech Automotive transferred the ownership of its subsidiary, Superformance, to the Hillbank Automotive Group, which is privately owned by Lance Stander.

The Hustler was a Mini-based project designed in 1978 by Aston Martin Lagonda designer William Towns and later developed into a kit car by his Interstyl design studio.

Jago is a British company which used to produce a range of kit cars principally Jeep styled between 1965 and 1997. The company is still based in Chichester, West Sussex and now manufactures for a number of industries including, concealment work for councils and telecommunications, theming and the arts.

JBA Motors was a company based in Norwich, Norfolk that makes the JBA Falcon. The company was originally named JBA Engineering and the name came from the first letter of the surnames of the three partners who founded the firm, Kenneth Glyn Jones, John Barlow and David George Ashley. They were all engineers at British Leyland. John Barlow later left the company, but it was run by Ken Jones and Dave Ashley until 2004.

JC Midge is a hand built car i.e. a "plan and pattern" car designed by John Cowperthwaite. Like the Locust the body is made of aluminium skinned plywood or MDF and using a purpose made grille or one from a donor, such as a Wolseley 1500. Unlike a Kit car only a few parts were available, the rest being from the donor car or hand made by the builder by sticking paper patterns on plywood or aluminium and cutting round them with a jigsaw. The starting point was a set of patterns and instructions costing £35 and the designer claimed it was possible to put a car on the road for £800.

La Dawri Coachcraft was founded by Leslie Albert Dawes in British Columbia, Canada in 1956 and is credited with making Canada's first fibreglass car, the La Dawri Cavalier. The company moved to the United States in 1957 where it became one of the largest fiberglass sports car body companies during the rebody/specials craze of the 1950s and 1960s. The company ceased operations in 1965. Its name came from a combination of L A Dawes and his friend Don Wright. Dawes was born on 7 July 1933 and died in 2002.

The Liege is a lightweight two-seater car. An original design by Peter Davis, inspired by the classic sporting car era of the 1950s.

The Lomax is a British kit car based on mechanical components of the Citroën 2CV. It has been in production since 1982 when it was introduced by the Lomax Motor Co of Willoughton, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. In the late 1980s the production was transferred to the Mumford Motor Co. of Gigg Mill, Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, where it was produced until the early 1990s. From then it was built at Cradley Motor Works in Cradley Heath, West Midlands. By 2009 the car was being made by Cradley Motor Works of St Leonard's-on-Sea, East Sussex. It was designed by Nigel Whall. From the early 1990s the Lomax has also been sold in the Netherlands and Germany.

Marc Nordon Racing is a kit car manufacturer specialising in bike engined cars or BECs and in particular, Lotus Seven Replicas. They are based in Harrogate, England.

Marcos Engineering was a British sports car manufacturer. The name derives from the surnames of founders Jem Marsh and Frank Costin.

Mastretta Cars is a Mexican car maker and design studio established by industrial designer Daniel Mastretta in Mexico City in 1987. During the 1990s, Mastretta developed a small number of kit cars under the brands Tecnoidea and Unediseño, but the 2010 MXT is the first developed vehicle to reach international commercial availability. Mastretta is often incorrectly claimed to be the first Mexican mass-production car maker, but other Mexican automotive companies Dina, Ramirez Industrial Group, VAM and D.M. Nacional had developed their own vehicles since the 1950s to a small national scale.

McBurnie Coachcraft was a US bodywork company mostly known for their replicas of Ferrari Daytona Spyder. McBurnie also manufactured a Ferrari 250 GTO replica in the style of the Alpha One GTO, and the Velo Rossa.

The Midas is a British made kit car initially using Mini running gear.

The Mini Scamp is a Mini based kit car manufactured by Andrew MacLean and the Scamp Motor Company in West Sussex. The Mk1 Mini Scamp was built in 1969. Shortly after, BMC Mini Moke production stopped in Longbridge.

The Mini Wildgoose was a motorhome based on a Mini. It was particularly designed for the "retired couple" and was believed to reach speeds of 70 mph (112 km/h) but a cruising speed of 50 mph (80 km/h) was probably more realistic.

The Murtaya is a lightweight, all-wheel drive (AWD), turbocharged flat-4 roadster based on the GC-generation (1992–2000) Subaru Impreza WRX STi. The Murtaya is the only low volume MSA-approved category 2, specialist rally car currently available. The Murtaya Sports car is built, sold and is currently being further developed by ALS Sports Cars LLP, based near Tyne and Wear

Ockelbo-Lundgren was the nickname of Erik Lundgren, a Swedish racing driver that produced replica cars and boats under the name Ockelbo.

S E Opperman was a tractor manufacturer in England. After he saw the Bond Minicar he decided to build his own four-wheel microcar at a factory in Elstree, Hertfordshire.

The Purvis Eureka is a sports car which was produced by Purvis Cars at Dandenong in Victoria, Australia from 1974 to 1991.

Quantum Sports Cars was founded by Mark and Harvey Wooldridge in 1987.

Robin Hood Engineering Ltd was a British kit car manufacturer based in Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire. The factory covered 30,000 square feet (2,800 m2) and was on a one and a half acre site.

Rochdale cars were a series of mainly glass fibre bodied British sports car made by Rochdale Motor Panels and Engineering in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England between 1948 and 1973. The company is best remembered for the Olympic coupé made between 1959 and 1973.

RW Kit Cars Ltd. was an English manufacturer of kit cars, founded in 1983 by Roger Woolley.

The Siva Motor Car Company was a British manufacturer of automobiles active from 1970 to 1976.

Spartan Cars was a manufacturer of kit cars based in Pinxton, Derbyshire, United Kingdom, which operated from 1973 to 1995. The company was founded by Jim McIntyre.

Speedex Castings and Accessories Ltd. was a company manufacturing sports car bodies between 1958 and 1962 in Luton, Bedfordshire.

Sterling Sports Cars is an American automobile company that designed and manufactured assembly kits for replicars and supercars.

Tornado Cars Ltd was founded in 1957 by Bill Woodhouse and Tony Bullen based in Mill End, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, England.

Trident Cars Ltd was a British car manufacturer based originally in Woodbridge, then in Ipswich, Suffolk between 1966 and 1974, and again after being restarted in 1976 from premises in Ipswich. The new company stopped production in 1977-78.

Ultima Sports Ltd. is a sports car manufacturer based in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England.