Is there a market for a 4 seater kit car?

[289]

What is out there just now that could be described as a family kitcar?
Intersted to see photos of such a car.
I'm thinking of decent headroom and legroom for rear seat passengers - not a 2+2

[Equus]

The genre is now dead, though: modern production cars are just far too well-built and sophisticated for kit cars to compete with.

[Frankthered]

Vindicator make a 4 seater 7 style vehicle.

Not sure how many they've sold though!

[289]

More like this fibreglass body conversion
Something that'll not look out of place on the road and not draw too much attention

[Equus]

289 said:

Something that'll not look out of place on the road and not draw too much attention

That was the intention behind the Quantum 2+2 and the Rickman Metisse Coupe (both pictured above).

The Quantum was quite successful in its day, but its day was back when production cars rotted away to nothing after 5 years and weren't very refined or well specified. The basic idea of an 'everyday' kit car was discussed to death on this thread, quite recently

You might as well buy yourself a Reliant Scimitar or TVR Cerbera and have done with it: it'll be cheaper, the quality will probably be better, and it'll hold more residual value.

[andygtt]

Trouble with building a 4 seater car that's both fun to drive and nice fit and finish, is it will cost a proper amount of money, you wont do it for £20k with decent performance.... It's going to be ultima money and you can buy a lot of car second hand for that money.

However, sometimes people just want a project rather than to simply buy a car outright...

Ive put my GTT on hold and am now scratch building my own front engined 4 seater car so I can go to lemans and euro road trips in comfort with tons of luggage... Will have to make moulds and be full carbon body with tubular chassis.

Car will owe me a proper penny to build because of the cost of moulds and development and the big M5 V10 that's in it, but will also probably be worth a fraction of what I spend if I sold.... But it's a hobby so I don't care, much!

Shock horror, it's sort of a replica.

[ugg10]

Just buy a Clio 172/182 cup.

That is the issue with a 4 seater kit car, there are dozens of capable and fun four seaters from the mainstream manufacturers - Clio as mentioned, fiesta st150/180, Megan's renault sport turbo, civic type r, Audi s3, golf gti and te list goes on, all can be had for less than a kit car chassis pack will set you back and will do 100k plus miles with just oil changes and the odd cam belt.

Sorry to be pessimistic but currently the kit car market has dwindled down to very low weight, moderate -high power, great handling, sunny weather, semi-race cars or out and out high cost replicas, the only exception is the MeV Replicar that straddles the two.

Quantum h2+2 is probably your best bet, basically a rebodied mk2 fiesta.

[gtmdriver]

When kit cars were cheap compared to production cars they were a viable alternative vehicle so the cars shown above found a market but as kit quality rose so did the price. At the same time the skills base among the target market has diminished considerably so kit car buyers/builders are looking to the high quality niche market rather than a practical every day car.

[cymtriks]

Yes there is, but only if it does the things that mass produced cars won't do!

A pretty, small, simple and light RWD convertible would sell simply because the mass makers seem to have forgotten that such cars exist.