A friend just tipped me off to this very unusual GT-40 inspired kit car for sale in Salt Lake CIty, Utah. The seller describes it as being made in 1972 by “Unique Mobility, Inc.” (who appear to have been a kit car company that primarily built electric vehicles, but I’m not sure), but says it wasn’t finished finished until 2003 and might be the only one of its kind. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another like it. Asking price is an unreasonable $35,000 unfortunately.

The body is a one piece design (and looks like it has an inner skin as well), with modern modifications like shaved door handles with remotes for the doors and trunk, and a VW floor pan that’s been modified to accept a mid-engine V8 design (Ford 289) using Corvair rear suspension and transaxle. The car is essentially new (and comes with all of the recent receipts), having been driven 125 miles, and is registered as a special.

If anyone knows more about this car’s history, please let me know.

Looks like that odd little “Gumby” car that I mentioned recently has ended up on eBay (#280266174027) which means that we get a little closer look at it… The seller doesn’t know much about it other than it’s a one off, with the one-off fiberglass built around the tube chassis and VW mechanicals (a VW bus I think, judging by the engine?). I think he’s reaching a bit with a $4,000 buy-it-now price, as this seems like the sort of project that anyone who could fix it would rather build themselves from scratch.

You know, even packed away in a crate the Manta Mirage is one of the best looking kits out there. This is Eric’s (svntyfrcvt@centurytel.net) project. Unfortunately he’s short a windshield, and Manta Cars doesn’t have any left for him and has no plans to make more…

On one hand this looks like a pile of scrap, but on the other hand, it’s an untouched Aztec 7 kit that hasn’t been cut up, meaning everything is nice and straight (no sagging louvers). It also comes with the highly coveted windshield intact, so this is a great find both for someone looking to build a new one from scratch, and for someone looking for a car to use as replacement parts for their own. You can actually see some older pictures of it here which are far more appealing.

Ed had actually bought the car as a father-son project, but then his son was shipped off to Iraq. Four years later, and interest has been lost. Drop Philip an email at mungusorungus@yahoo.com if you’re interested in the kit — asking price is $2,000… and it even comes with a Fiero that you could potentially mount the car on. If you don’t want the Fiero, they might be willing to negotiate for a little less.

One of my all-time favorite kit cars — although one could argue this is more of a limited run specialty vehicle built in the style of a kit car — is the Brazilian Hofstetter Turbo, built during a period where Brazil had restrictive auto import laws and foreign exotics were hard to come by which invigorated domestic designers. The prototype came out in 1980, said to be based on Bertone’s Carabo (which also inspired the Aztec 7) although to me I also see the Bulldog, the Boomerang, and the first generation Lotus Esprit in the design. While Mario Hofstetter had hoped to build thirty a year starting in 1984, only about twenty were made in all when production ended in 1991. Early models used an engine from a Passat, with the later ones using a 2.0L engine out of the VW Santana, claiming a top speed of 236 km/h with the Garret turbo. The chassis was custom with VW components (although it originally used Chevette suspension), the gullwing doored body was made of fiberglass, and the interior was done in leather with digital instrumentation.

Sources: 1, 2, 3.

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.

Just noticed this kit car / buggy on a VW chassis, identified as a “Gumby” (perhaps because it looks like Gumby, I don’t know) for sale on Craigslist (#831133738) in the Los Angeles area… The seller got it in an estate sale and doesn’t know much about it either — anyone recognize it?