
Many an automobile enthusiast has dreamed of building his own car. Do it yourself and you have a choice of engines, transmissions, suspensions, brakes and steering. Inside the vehicle you choose the seats, the instruments, the steering wheel, the upholstery. Depending on your skills you may even be able to customise the styling. Personalising a car allows you to put your own stamp on it, determining how you want the car to look and perform. Buy parts second-hand, do the work yourself, and you could end up with a handsome "new" vehicle that costs less than a production car.
For the less-skilled a kit car may be the answer, for it usually comes as a "package," with finished body and key components ready to be bolted together. As a rule the buyer can choose from two or three engines and transmissions, offering a choice of performance at different price levels. The 2-seat open sports car is unquestionably the most popular, for the layout is simple, purely functional, and demands little of the comfort and convenience required in a coupe or sedan.
Sounds good? Alas, the era of the kit car is all but over, probably because today's unit construction coupled with complex safety technology makes it difficult to find suitable parts at a reasonable cost.
In the 1950s and 60s, however, things were different. There was no end to the availability of frames and chassis from which to start and the range of affordable engines gave the home builder a chance to be truly innovative. Kit car manufacturers existed by the dozens, especially in the UK but also in North America. Some offered kits in a variety of configurations and a few expanded to become makers of production automobiles, Lotus being the ultimate example.
Among the most successful was the Devin, created by American Bill Devin, whose cars were fitted with an amazing variety of engines, testimony to the quality of the original design and engineering. Devin's car were well-suited to racing, in which they had considerable success. The 1956 SCCA H-Modified National Champion was a Devin powered by a 2-cylinder Panhard engine modified with Manx Norton motorcycle cylinder heads. Wikipedia says "this may have been the first-ever automotive use of belt-driven (double, in this case) overhead camshafts."
Devins were also built with powertrains from VW and Porsches, Corvairs, Triumph TR3s, MGs, and (the SS) 283ci Chevrolet V-8s. The Devin SS, a serious attempt to get into custom building with a high performance sports car, was said to be capable of 160 mph and could accelerate to 60 mph in 4.8 seconds. It was also strikingly beautiful. Bill Devin had the chassis built in Ireland, with the balance completed in the US, but the cost of delivery, which included maritime strikes and delayed shipping, made the price prohibitive. Had all gone well the Devin SS might have been a serious competitor to the Corvette and it certainly was on the race track.
The intention was to build 100 examples to meet production requirements by the SCCA but in the end only 30 were built. Thankfully a number of Devins still exist and can be seen successfully competing in vintage races. I was reminded of the Devin by an e-mail from my Tokyo friend Harley Ferguson, who in turn had received an e-mail and photo from his high school best buddy, Don Wilcox, who now lives "on the little finger of Grand Traverse Bay in MI." Harley says his friend recently retired as Director of Bands at WVU and "is also a first-class car nut." His present project is a Devin, an earlier model than the SS, similar to one he raced years ago. That's his Devin in the photo above, on display at a show in Northport, Michigan.
Incidentally, though the variety and production numbers are far less than they were in their heyday, kit cars are still being made and sold in various parts of the world. One of my favorites is the Intermeccanica Porsche 356 replica, while Caterham successfully continues its version of Colin Chapman's Lotus Seven, which began life as a kit car.