Hot Rod article.
As a kiddo I always liked reading the occasional article about the UK kit-car scene but other than the Cobra stuff here in the States I have little idea what is going on over here.
So apparently the FAST act is for kits that resemble cars that are more than 25 years old.
Meh. Cobras are awesome. Factory Five are awesome but I always liked the oddball Mini based fwd stuff in the UK.
Ugly duckling stuff if you will.
My question is that if you were to take the guts of any fwd econobox that was say 10 years old and design a wacky two door coupe around it would you be allowed to?
And if so is anyone doing it? If not then that is a shame. Must every car be turned into a destruction rally type abomination in their latter years?
My vote would be for the slightly smooshed in the rear 110,000 mile 1st gen Versa HB sitting outside my window doing nothing. 
The world needs fewer 1st gen Versas doesn't it? 
And maybe more of these?
I found this old GRM topic whilst searching for the above images
You know the Moke above is not a kitcar? It was in fact a factory build based on the guts of the mini. Hence the name "mini moke". It was designed to be a lightweight military vehicle and was sold alongside the mini
To answer your question, I don't see why not, so long as either a) you're not selling it as a turn key vehicle, OR b) it resembles something older than 25 years. It seems the crux of the FAST act is the ability for the kit manufacturers to sell turn key cars which do not have to pass the stringent safety and emissions requirements that regular production automobiles do.
I believe you have always been able to sell a kit car based on a whatever that looked like a whatever, as long as the engine was not installed in the car. The turn key aspect is the crux of the FAST act.
Apparently the FAST act requires emissions compliance (in this case, by simply buying a whole drivetrain and emissions control package off the shelf) but not the crash safety rules.
And Furious_E is correct that you can get pretty crazy with things that aren't sold as turn key vehicles. The closest I can think of to a two door coupe based off an econobox out there now is the Czech-built K1 Attack, which has an Accord front subframe in a mid engined car.
In reply to mad_machine :
ah, it has been a very long time since I subscribed to Practical Classics and Car Restorer. Good Lord - over two decades now.
I just grabbed it from the images that had all the other fwd Mini kit cars and forgot its provenance.
In later years were there MiniMoke kits out there? I'll have to search I guess.
In reply to Furious_E :
the 'resemble' part is what gets me. I don't want it to resemble anything. I would want it to be unique.
In reply to mad_machine :
The illustrated white Moke is not an original Mini Moke, it is a currently available reproduction.
In reply to mad_machine :
I knew I was sort of right. MiniMokes were sold as kit cars. Quite a few. So yes originally they weren't as were Cobras etc etc.
The Jimini is the one I remember most talked about.
With all this in mind are there any US based and more importantly US designed kit cars that DON'T look like the donor car or any other historical car?
Can't seem to find any on the internets.
In reply to MadScientistMatt :
Nice but ultimately kinda spendy. Not terribly expensive but not cheap either.
In reply to nutherjrfan :
You mean like the Factory Five 818?
As long as we're talking about replicas, I always like to bring up the Superlite GT-R. Sure it's a replica of a Ford GT, but not the old GT40...rather it's a replica of the Robertson Racing GT that raced at Le Mans and in IMSA. I love this thing. 
http://www.superlitecars.com/gtr
nutherjrfan said:
In reply to Furious_E :
the 'resemble' part is what gets me. I don't want it to resemble anything. I would want it to be unique.
As long as you're not selling it with the engine installed, it can look like whatever you want.
I've always liked the idea of a fwd econobox powertrain in the back of something, like a Fiero, but better, and not ugly. If I drew something, it would be ugly, so I'd probably just do an R5 turbo or Shogun situation.
Dude here built an 818. It's pretty good, actually. And, he managed to get it licenced, which is certainly not a walk in the park here.
nutherjrfan said:
With all this in mind are there any US based and more importantly US designed kit cars that DON'T look like the donor car or any other historical car?
Can't seem to find any on the internets.
There was a kit car that was based on the S10 Blazer that retained the firewall and beltline-down part of the doors. It was striking but odd.
If I could remember the name, I'd find an image.
kb58
SuperDork
10/18/19 4:21 p.m.
nutherjrfan said:
In reply to Furious_E :
the 'resemble' part is what gets me. I don't want it to resemble anything. I would want it to be unique.
www.midlana.com (I'm biased :)
As far as I know, the K1 is no longer available.
In reply to MadScientistMatt :
I found those. I guess I'm forever broke but those are not super cheap and not fwd oddities but rather excellent toys for people with more money than I.
In reply to Knurled. :
I remember those, they used to advertise in super chevy and hot rod. Oof
DF Goblin? Chevy Cobalt plus kit
It seems "easier" to take a decent fwd car of your choice and make as many body mods as your imagination and talent allow. Look at the Yaris for example. You could do some amazing work in fiberglass with one of those. I'm sure you could make one unrecognizable if you wanted.
In reply to Knurled. :
Was it this one?
https://www.rodster.com/home.htm
_
HalfDork
10/19/19 8:57 a.m.
What is the cheapest kit car one can buy? Probably based on an old, hacked out vw pan from the 70's?
In reply to ebonyandivory :
I'm beginning to think that DIY abomination is the only route.
