As most people know, I'm an ex-pat Brit. I grew up attending kit car shows in the 80's with my dad and have a long love affair with some of those old cars. I started posting some crappy ones in the worst replica post, so I thought I'd post some of my favorites here.
First up is the UVA Fugitive 3. UVA made sand rails and after someone started racing one in one of the Kit car race series with a Pinto in the back they made the Fugitive 3, a mid engined Rover V8 powered road race style sand rail. As a teen I loved these.
Next up the UVA Fugitive CanAm. Basically the Fugitive 3 with enclosed bodywork. At the time I throught it the most amazing and eligant car on the planet. OK, I've grown up, but let's face it, it hasn't stood the test of time as well as my memorie recalled. Either way, I love the simple concept.
Everyone knows the Ultima, but before they made the 'new' curvy bodywork made famouse by McClaren using it as a test bed for the BMW V12 for the F1, they made the original angular version, primarily as a racer for the kit car series of the time. Again, I loved these.
Although Marcos were making cars back in the 60's, in the 80's they were just a kit car maker with the then steel chassis car.
The Dutton Phaeton. OK in reallity this was a crappy kit. But it was a nice update of the original 7 and was dirt cheap so made in massive numbers. If you look at the chassis pic below you can see whay it was a) cheap and b) crappy. It retains the Escort leaf springs, very little triangulation of any sort and just look at that amazing front spring/shock mount.
But due to the numbers there were some good ones built. I once helped a friend in uni put one together, dirt simple. Sadly most of them lived down to the quality of the basic kit.
The fugitive CanAm looks like a bigger Radical SR3 with a full cage.
Jeremy Philips went on to much fame and acclaim for the Sylva Striker, fury, Phoenix, Mojo, Riot etc. But he started with the Sylva Star which was followed up with the similarly styled Leader. Like the Dutton it was a simple 7 ish vehicle. Unlike the Dutton it was properly engineered and hat a lot of success racing. Personally I like the styling.
The Mini Midas was a very cool fiberglass monocoque in the style of the original Mini Marcos, but far better styled. The Mk I was the more angular and the Mk2 was the more rounded. They became famouse when Gordon Murry the Brabham and McClaren F1 designer was so impressed he bought one. It was also the first kit car to pass the 30mph front impact test.
I <3 this thread. 
The GTM, another mini based kit car. This time mid engined using two front subframes. This was another kit that was launched in the 60's and still going in the 80's and beyond. I actualy had one (from the 60's), but the bathtub steel chassis was so rusty It was beyond my megar abilities as a teen and I sold it on.
Two front subframes and they only put one engine in it? What were they thinking!?
GP buggy's RSK Spyder. A very simple shortened VW bug chassis for an RSK replica. I actually prefer the styling to the more accurate replicas out there. And for something like this you didn't need super suspension.
Wasnt the Lotus Seven originally a kit car? If so, that's my choice for anything positive about kit cars.
In the early 80's Ginetta launched an updated version of the G4 called the G27. Again this was popular in kit car racing at the time.
Whoa I like the look of the Ginetta with pop-up lights. With a hood that long I bet you could stuff anything in there.
This is another one I love. It's in the gray area between kit can and produciton car at the time. This is the Ginetta G32. It was mid engined based off the Mk I Fiesta, if you look you'll see it used Fiesta doors, windscreen and dash etc. Great looking cars, I would love to own one today.
Not really a kit car. Another Ginetta, this time the Imp based G15 built from the late 60's to early 70's. It used a simple ladder chassis with Triumph Spitfire/Herald front suspension with Hillman Imp running gear and rear suspension. A very pretty car.
The Clan Crusader. Another Imp based car, this time using the front and rear suspension with another fiberglass monocoque. This was a very strong and light car. It was so strong that it had a dispensation from the RAC MSA Motorsport rulling body in the UK) that it didn't need a roll cage for rallying.
The Clan Crusader above was a British kit of the 70's. In the 80's the moulds were sold and it went back into producion in Ireland with slightly updated styling and the quintisential 80's pop up head lights.
One final development of the Clan theme, there are more but I don't want to loose you all! The Clan Clover. Still based off the same basic fiberglass monocoque and Imp Suspension, this this time with a mid mounted flat 4 and gearbox from the FWD Alfa Romeo Alfa Sud's of the time. Great looking car with 80's box flares
The Davrian Mk VI. Davrian were yet another fiberglass monocoque with Imp running gear. They came in various version over the lates 60's to mid 70's. I'll come to the later cars in a mo. The Mk6 is a favorite of mine as I ran one as my only car for a couple of years aroun 90-92. Yes, it really was that small. No heater, no blower no nothing. I sat on the moulded monocoque floor! Really a race car that could be registered for the street. Mine was BRG with pop up lights. I must find some pictures next time I'm back at my parents in the UK and post them here along with me in my 1990 greatness!!
Another Davrian. in the late 70's the car was updated. Still the same basic chassis, but now with mid mounted transverse engines. Initialy Mini, then Ford Crossflow/Kent from the Fiesta.
The final and ultimate development of the Davrian theme. The Darrian T90. Still the same basic chassis layout, even with a detrivative of the imp swing arm front suspension at least initialy. But now with some serious power. Longtitudinal mid mounted Ford YB and derivatives. An amazingly fast race and rally car. Some were even built for the street!
Back to the crappy end of the spectrum. This is the Dutton Sierra! Dutton launched this in 1980 just before Ford anounced the new Sierra! That lead to a law suit which Dutton won allowing them to keep calling their car the Sierra. It really was a craptastic POS. One neat idea was that you used your donor car (MK I Escort) doors and bonded a panel over them to match the shape. This can clearly been seen on the fine example below!
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