Trying to find out more information on the better looking variants of the Invader, I came across this Spanish forum post in which a member posted a picture of their father racing an Invader. Another poster followed up with some pictures of a factory in Torrejon de Ardoz, Spain making them, as well as a customized one, and a great looking one in an Autokit brochure with filled in doors or side pods which also went a long way to fixing the lines. Here are those pictures in order:
Edit: I think I have my terminology wrong; an earlier car was the GT-5… I’m not sure what this one was called — although it may have shared the name?
The Invader GT-5 is a car that came a little too late — it’s extremely striking, and fixes all of the visual problems with the lines of earlier cars in the series, but unfortunately by the time it was released the design (and the general interest in this type of kit car) had lost its steam. I believe the molds for this design are still held by Kaylor Kit, but I’d be surprised if there are even ten of them in existence.
It needs finishing, but this ultra-rare Invader GT-5 is currently up on Craigslist (817433159) in Springfield, OR (near Eugene). If I thought I could get it into Canada* I’d buy it in a heartbeat, as the owner wants $2,500 or best offer… And I do get the impression they’d let it go for less — they’ve listed it as a “Mantis” and I don’t think they know what they have. Seriously, this is a special car, and you’ll probably never see one on the market again.
* And if you think you can import it, write me!
Robbie in San Diego, California has a really nice looking Invader GT that he uses as his daily driver. He’s missing the plexi doors though — which he can get away with due to being in San Diego — and was hoping that someone could suggest where to get a new set short of fabricating them himself. You can reach him at redcapsociety@gmail.com.
Recently ubugnme74@aol.com in Mesa, Arizona has been posting a really interesting kit car on Craigslist lately that looks to me like it’s a shortened Invader GT, although he’s not sure. It’s on a 1600cc VW pan that’s been shortened by 12″, and he’s asking only $1,300 for it. There are no doors on it — if it was me, I’d fill the doors in a little so the front and rear fenders connect, giving the car more coherent lines. It’s still a little awkward in the rear unfortunately.
Huge improvement if you ask me.
Speaking of Invader GTs, Sam has a regular unshortened one up for sale in Colton, California — a total project car for $1,000 (it does have an engine, but it needs a rebuild)… Might be a good car for someone to pick up if they’d like to attempt something like the car above. You can reach Sam at twohipp45@yahoo.com or at 909-519-0276.
They do say the last 5% is always the hardest, right?
Herman (junkmanherman@yahoo.com) has got this Invader GT up for sale in Millington, Michigan. He says it runs well and has good tires and a solid 1500cc VW chassis, but the windshield has been knocked out and will need to be replaced as well as a wide range of cosmetic and interior work being needed. I believe the windshield in these was from a Karman Ghia — later versions raked it back a little more which improved the look of the car quite a bit.
Asking price is only $500.
Many times here I’ve mentioned how much I like the Invader GT kit car… It’s an “awkwardly exotic” but endearing design originally prototyped by plastics student Bruce Weeks (Autokit) that’s been through a number of iterations, with a production run lasting from the early 70s, both domestically and in Spain, until at least the late 90s (under Kaylor Kit) — there’s even talk of more being produced, using Roy Kaylor’s high performance 100+ mpg hybrid setup.
Anyway, I was happy to see this beautiful example, one of the cleanest examples out there, up for sale (#220244019018) here in Ontario, Canada. The car is built on a ‘71 VW Karman Ghia chassis as has about 200 miles on a rebuilt 1650cc engine (currently driven on weekends). The lockable gullwing doors were fabricated by the owner out of heavy lexan… If it doesn’t sell on eBay I’ll try and go see it in person next week and post some more pictures.
It hasn’t been driven in over twenty five years, but I think this Invader GT still has a ton of potential… It’s a notoriously hard car to sell, and this one (#130227788619) may not hit its reserve by the June 9 end of auction… There were a few generations of Invader (if you click the Invader GT tag, you’ll see a number of body types), and I think this is one of the early ones. The seller has the doors, but it looks like this one comes without the rear louvers.
The thing that’s always bugged me about the Invader GT is that it looks great in the front 2/3, but then gets very, very awkward, as if the designers started at the front and got tired and quit partway through the creation… If I bought this car, I’d glass the lower doors in permanently, and reshape the rear so it at least matches the shape of the windshield — the current transition from round to square doesn’t work at all. Still, one of my favorites.
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