KAZ, who’s been building kit cars since the seventies, scanned a few photos from his archives for us. From start to finish below are a Bradley GT, a Kelmark GT, a Laser 917, a Marauder GT, a 40s-style Willy VW conversion, and a Talon.
He built lots of Bradleys, including three Bradley GT cars for a Bradley dealership that opened in Houston in ’76, who unfortunately went under months later. He also built four Kelmarks — this one below with the great paint job was done by Richard Hildebrandt of Houston. He also bought a Kelmark from the insurance company that had been built by Kelmark themselves and was stolen, then recovered it at the Mexican border where the thieves were apprehended. It was fast, with a 2100 cc dual carb VW engine, and an awesome Blaupunkt stereo.
This beautiful red Kelmark GT just showed up on eBay (#120361418098) in Middletown, NY. The opening bid is $5,900 and no reserve has been set, which seems fair. It’s on a 1980 VW chassis and has been driven weekends since the current owner purchased it three years ago. The car looks really nice, but admittedly needs the interior redone (door panels, one of the side windows, etc.)… Apparently it drives great, although it comes without a title.
You may have noticed that I’ve updated the layout here… hope it works!
This nice looking Kelmark GT is for sale in Edmonton, Alberta for an asking price of only $4,000. It’s on a 1972 VW chassis and the engine has an updated intake, carb, and header performance exhaust, as well as chrome on on the engine, electric pump, billet aftermarket gas tank cap, shifter, and so on. It’s got a full set of gauges, nice wide rims and tires in good shape, and is currently finished in a black gel coat. As well as some interior work before getting it on the road, it will need the brakes replaced and minor elbow grease. Contact Martin at masheptycki@shaw.ca if you’re interested.
A lot of the time people with VW-based kit cars will make the claim that they have a “Porsche driveline”… After a bit of prodding you discover that they’re actually just exploiting the shared VW/Porsche lineage and have nothing more than the normal 1600cc Beetle engine… Joel (joel.leer@sbcglobal.net) in Long Beach, CA recently sent me some shots of his Kelmark project that’s running a genuine Porsche 911 engine and transmission — check it out!
I asked Tucker if I could post about his two kits he’s got up for sale, a Kelmark GT and a Fiberfab Valkyrie (both located in Tahlequah — near Tulsa), and he said, “fine with me… the more potential victims, er, buyers, the better!!!”
It’s so true!
Kit cars seem to be these albatrosses that hang around people’s necks until they eventually land in the garage of the person that turns them into the amazing beauties they have the potential to be. Both the Kelmark and the Valkyrie are some of my favorite kit cars, and Tucker is asking only $1,500 for the first, and $2,000 for the latter. The Kelmark is on a VW pan, and the Valkyrie is on a square tube frame with a Corvair transaxle and a radiator up front. As Tucker says about the Valkyrie — and I think this really applies to both cars — “it won’t be a weekend project by any means, but for the right guy it will make a super car.”
Willing victims should write him at W*****@aol.com.
He’s decided to keep them!
I don’t see many kit cars for sale in Canada, so I thought I’d mention that there’s a 1600cc VW-based Kelmark for sale in Trenton, Ontario (a bit less than two hours east of Toronto) on Kijiji (#72804640). According to the ad, the car runs but isn’t yet road worthy — that said, the Kelmark is well designed and these are rarely much work to get running nicely. It has an Ontario registration and lots of paperwork, and you could in theory be driving it with some brake work and a tune-up.
Greg has this Kelmark GT listed for his sister — when I first saw it, I actually thought it was a later variant of the Kelmark, but on closer inspection it appears that the builder has done quite a lot of work to the car to get it looking more like the 246 Dino, including side/door scoops and other vents around the car. The body is in great shape, but mechanically the car needs lots of work including an engine rebuild, tires, and more… So this would be best for a person that’s willing to undertake that work. They weren’t sure what to list it for, and are willing to entertain offers as low as $4,000, which I think is more than fair for this car.
[Edit: Sold]
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