Find Kit Cars For Sale Here
If you love cars and would like to try your hand at assembling one on your own,
there are many kit cars available. Kit cars are basically cars that you can
assemble on your own. You would buy the different car parts that you need to
make a car. For major mechanical parts like the engine and transmission, you can
approach people who may be willing to donate these parts to you. Kit cars can
vary from just simply a book that contains plans for assembling your own car to
sets that come complete with all the parts you need to build your own car.
Usually the parts used in a kit car would be made by different car
manufacturers. When you build your own car from a car kit, your car would be
termed a "Special" car.
A Brief History of Kit Cars
Kit cars began during the early days of automobiles. It was Thomas Hyler White,
an Englishman, who first developed car kits. In 1896, White created a design for
a car that people could assemble at home.
The English Mechanic magazine
published Whites's technical designs for this kind of car. A later type of car
kit called the Lad's Car was introduced in the United States in 1912. A fully
assembled Lad's Car sold for $160 ($3,000 in 2006) and $140 ($2,600 in 2006) if
bought as a kit.
Car kits didn't really take off until the 1950s, when car production
significantly went up. The demand for cars also went up at the time since the
older cars were beyond repair and rust proofing was still in its infancy.
Because the older cars couldn't be repaired economically, they were instead sent
to breaker yards; buying a new car at that time was more sensible. From these
older, irreparable cars grew an industry since these cars usually only needed
new bodies and chassis. The other car components were still useful and could be
used for other cars. Up to the mid 70s in the United Kingdom, kit cars were
often regular cars that were not completely assembled. These cars were not
levied taxes since they were considered more as car components instead of
complete vehicles. For instance, the Lotus Elan could be bought in car kit form.
Most car kits could be easily assembled over the weekend.
|
