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

Discover many one of a kind car and auto parts at bargain prices. Lots to choose from: decals, GPS, body parts and much more!

Kit Cars

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. more...

Home

Automobilia

Car Accessories

Car Manuals & Literature

Car Parts

Car Tuning & Styling

Car Wheels, Tyres & Trims

Cars

Alfa Romeo

Aston Martin

Audi

BMW

Chrysler

Citroen

Daewoo

Daihatsu

Ferrari

Fiat

Ford

Honda

Hummer

Hyundai

Isuzu

Jaguar

Jeep

Kia

Kit Cars

Lada

Lamborghini

Lancia

Land Rover/ Range Rover

Lexus

Lotus

Mazda

Mini

Nissan

Perodua

Peugeot

Porsche

Proton

Reliant

Renault

Rolls Royce & Bentley

Rover/ MG

Saab

Seat

Skoda

Smart

Ssangyong

Subaru

Suzuki

Toyota

TVR

Volvo

In-Car Entertainment & GPS

Motorcycle Clothing &...

Motorcycle Parts &...

Motorcycles & Scooters

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.