Since I’ve been talking about the Astra and the early Aztec models, I thought I’d toss up a bit more classic kitcar history, starting with what I think may be the first car of this general style.
You could argue that alongside cars like the Devin, the Ferrer GT is the car that started the American [kit] sportscar trend that dominated the late sixties through the mid-eighties with cars like Fiberfab’s Avenger. Frank Ferrer, at the time an aircraft parts salesman, bought a VW-based kit to build with his sons, but the longer he got along in the project, the more he realized it had serious design flaws — and I believe the literal quote that followed was “I know we can build a better one”.
So Terry and his kids (22-year old son Gary was put in charge of the body design itself) went out and bought a big collection of his favorite cars — the GT40, the Porsche 904, the new ‘Vette prototypes, and so on… He picked what he saw as the best features, and with the help of Dick Buckheit, they had a finished car within eight months and showed the car in Miami. The public went wild for it!
The car was well designed, with good visibility, comfort, entrance and exit, and so on, and about three hundred were produced between 1966 and 1967 — and were it not for this car, one has to wonder whether the kit car trend would have gotten quite as big the way it did.
Tyson Ferrer (Terry’s other son) with the car at a show
Here’s some more pictures of my friend Karl’s unfinished Ferrer GT that he sold in the late-nineties after other commitments forced the sale (I think he let it go for just $1,000). He actually thought it was an Avenger when he first bought it — because the Avenger ultimately became one of the best selling kits of all time, I think this is actually quite a common misconception.
Karl was, by his reckoning, the seventh or eighth owner of this car (his brother being the previous one, and before that it hopped around Wisconsin for a while). Even though it was over thirty years old and in rough shape by the time Karl got it, he described the fiberglass thickness and quality as better than we see on most modern kits.
Anyone else got one? There must still be a few on the road! Send in your story and pictures please.
See, this is why people who can’t draw or sculpt shouldn’t make cars. I hate to slag something that someone has obviously put a ton of effort into, but all I can think when I see this is “world’s ugliest 80s Camaro — someone call Guiness!”. If you disagree with me, it’s on eBay as item #4636844659… so far, zero bids with five days to go. It’s basically a sloppy set of flat fiberglass panels put over a 1970 Chevy Chevelle SS chassis. Personally I think they’re insane with a starting bid of $2500.
Jeez, I feel so guilty now having written all that.
It’s already met the reserve, and honestly, I’ll be shocked if it goes much higher. It looks pretty complete though, and if you read the info below (click the “Astra GT” link above), you’ll see that if you buy this kit assuming nothing is broken you might be able to get it running over just one weekend. It’s a very simple car to put together.
Those are the shots from the eBay auction, and it’s Ite, #4636128020. Only two days of bidding left! Like I said, I don’t think the owner knows what a rare piece of US specialty car history he has here, so this thing’s a steal if you understand the basics of, say, using a wrench. No special tools are needed to finish this car!
Gary in Seattle sends in these photos of his 356 Speedster finished in 1988 after 18 months of construction — everything was taken apart, fixed up, and put back together. Among many other mods, it’s got a 2110cc engine with nitrous… VDO gauges, disc brakes, and on and on and on until about $25,000 was invested, resulting in a long series of show trophies. It’s also a daily driver, not that Seattle lets you have a daily driver with no real roof, ha…
Above are some pictures as the car looks now, and below are some pictures of the construction.
I’m told this was built for a James Bond film in 1978, around (oddly) a VW Thing chassis… Anyone know any more?
Why is it that the North American kitcar market is dominated by Cobras, Ferarris, and Lamborghinis? Sure, they’re pretty cars, but are they really what kitcars should be?
If you read a kitcar magazine from the early 80’s or older, you’ll still see plenty of replicas, but the market wasn’t dominated by any specific design, and there were also plenty of original creations. Yes, it meant that there were a lot of ugly cars, but there were also plenty of exotics that held their own when put up against any design house from Italy.
A production car, even an exotic is deisng to meet market needs — the company needs to turn around a lot of dollars to break even. A kit on the other hand was usually built around the whims of the indivual designer. They built it for themselves at a minimal cost and made it available to others as a hobby. With a small number of exceptions, kitcars has never been a high-profit industry.
The question is: do you want to own a car that will always be a low-budget copy of a real supercar, that snooty people will always laugh at you for owning? Wouldn’t you rather own an original design, a rare supercar design that you know is far more unique, and far more exotic than any Countach will ever be? I for one vote for the originals. Kitcars let designers express themselves with cars that would never make it to market in any other way. They allow the public to buy a custom built one-of-a-kind supercar at a reasonable price. Can a Cobra do this?
Most replicas are highly inaccurate when put next to the real thing. Do you really want to be in a situation where you sink $30,000 to finish your car and then get made fun of by every kid that knows what the real thing is? Wouldn’t you rather have a car that no one else in your state has ever even seen?
Judging by the feedback that this webpage gets, there is a market for original designs, but unfortunately the few companies selling them are selling 20 year old designs. Why are there no new ones?
(Originally posted in 1998)
My friend Joe Lee sends a few pictures of what he says is a “Siva Saluki” (more information here at this Siva history site), but to me (and to him) it also looks an aweful lot like the UK based Charger kit (slightly more common). I don’t know which is a copy of which. He thinks it’s inspired by the Lancia Stratos (the wild looking prototype, not the production vehcile), whereas I am starting to far less stand by my original theory that it’s inspired by the Aston Martin Bulldog (click the “Mystery Cars” link above to see that Charger). Anyone know anything more or know the source of the pictures? Please email me or post what you know as a comment!
The leftmost picture is the Lancia Stratos concept. Thanks again to Joe! Here’s what I’ve been able to find out so far:
The car originally came out in 1973 and sold for 395 pounds (just under $6000 in 2006 US dollars). It is of course VW based, only twelve were made, and only one is believed to exist (but I think that may be incorrect).
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