Photography Credit: Tom Suddard
Bill Thomas Cheetah.
Most kit cars offer a simple concept, at least on paper: Buy this kit, and you can build the car of your dreams from scratch.
From there, the sky is the limit. Three wheels? Sure. Make it look like an airplane? Why not? Want your modern sports car look like a much older version? We can work something out.
Of course, some of these ideas might sound half-baked, but that doesn’t mean we love these oddballs any less. When it comes to kit cars, there are no wrong dreams–some just seem more refined than others.
So, what are some of your favorites?
Bill Thomas Cheetah.
What's that? You wish your fourth-gen Camaro looked more like a Bel-Air?
Easyrods has you covered with its Belaro kit:
I can't explain it, but there's just something about this kit that makes me smile.
In reply to Colin Wood :
It certainly looks better than the 4th gen came from factory.
Thank you for putting me on to this, I was looking at 3rd gen Camaros because I want a mullet mobile but 4th gens are more prevalent and cheaper. This kit will help the looks department quite a bit.
I'd love to see a Catfish-maro with this kit run in a CAM class.
My favorite kits have to be:
Superlite SL-C. Supercar looks for new 'vette money (though the C8 may change this opinion because it is quite literally supercar looks for new 'vette money).
The Factory Five Daytona Coupe replica (with wing, of course). Affordable way to get into a racing classic.
And I'm unsure if this counts but:
4 wheel Slingshot
The original Fiberfab had some pretty good ones in the looks department, like this Avenger GT:
Thunder ranch riot. This is one I actually built. At least I think it is. Not a lot of gen 1 riots in silver with those wheels so likely my old car.
I want it back. If you have one for sale I will take it.
hunter47 said:In reply to Colin Wood :
It certainly looks better than the 4th gen came from factory.
Really? My hideous 4th gen gets more love from my neighbors than just about anything I've brought home recently.
I started modding cars with a thirdgen firebird so the Evoluzione kit always sparked things for me.
Meyers Manx
Bradley GT
Every Fiero-based kit car. Yes even the Enzo one. I love the idea of showing up to a car show with one of these bad boys and parking in the exotics section.
Least favorite: those tacky Gazelle Mercedes kits.
Definition of "kit" needs to be nailed down, since I tend to look at most interesting cars as a kit car. My current fleet is an amalgamation of several cars: 1973 Porsche 914 with 302 whp Subaru engine & modded Suby transaxle, a 1985 BMW 524td getting an M54B30/5sp manual swap (on the lift right now!), and we recently swapped a Tiburon 2.7L V6 into our 2005 Hyundai Elantra 24 Hrs. of Lemons car. The latter finished the grueling/hot race at T-Hill in late-May. My buddy's 2003 BMW 325it wagon is in my yard awaiting a M54B30/manual swap, too. Living and swapping in CA can be tricky, but I've become quite familiar with Bureau of Air Resources referees over the years.
I've sold two recent swapped cars to fund subsequent ones (S52 swap into 1996 BMW 318ti, and a juiced AHU tdi & 5sp manual into 1993 VW Eurovan Westy), and really wished I still had the Sidekick-swapped Suzuki Samurai rock-crawler that I built in the 1990s, the GTI-swapped 1981 VW Vanagon Westy (ex-diesel, built for Burning Man in 2000), and the now crazy $$$ Suby-swapped 1986 VW Vanagon Syncro Westy that I sold for $9k (!!!) in 2006.
Of course, I had a wheel-standing Meyers Manx clone that I built and drove to high school in San Francisco in the early 1980s -- prolly the only "true" kit car I've owned, and obviously the least practical one, too.
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