Hi Midas, just noticed your questions and thought I'd offer up some answers as I see them:
1) The kit-car industry has evolved into a number of different strands these last few years, including but not limited to:
Track day specials, think Westfield/Tiger/Caterham;
Performance road cars, Vortex for example;
Replicas/lookalikes of classic (and phenomenally expensive) Ferraris/Lamborghinis/Porsches etc;
Panel kits or rebody of donor chassis/monocoque to give an existing car a different identity, Sammio/Miglia/Tribute, etc.
Obviously there's a fair bit of overlap amongst the different categories, with Tribute, for example, evoking 90% of the looks of the Ferrari 250SWB by changing the panels on a BMW Z3, resulting in a high performance road car (donors with around 200bhp available for under £2k) that could hold its own on the track if you fit the right tyres.
Customers stumping up their cash ultimately drives success/failure for kit-car manufacturers, and the different categories need to pull different strings in the potential buyer's head -
A track day car MUST have the potential to be
very fast;
A performance road car MUST look and feel like a high end car from a bespoke manufacturer;
A replica or lookalike MUST look, sound and drive as much like the original as possible;
A panel kit or rebody MUST look fantastic when finished to a good standard and be based upon an easily available donor car that you won't mind chopping about.
2) After three decades of wanting to build a replica Porsche 718 RSK, but never being able to afford (or actually fit inside) one, I own a Sammio Spyder, rather unsubtly disguised as a 1953 Lancia D24 Spyder -
3) I couldn't use my Spyder as a daily driver as it has no roof and you get
soaked when it rains. I do plan to build a Tribute 250SWB and use that as a daily driver eventually though.
4) I'm a chap and I'm fifty odd. I'd wanted to build my own car since I was 19 though, and finally got round to starting it when I was 49. I don't think I'm untypical of the builders of the Sammio/Miglia/Marlin/Tribute A352 type kits, but I have noticed that the Tribute MX250 (GTO) tends to attract younger buyers.
5) As I see it, there is no longer a market for everyday road cars based on humble budget mechanicals, like the Midas. That niche was peculiar to the 70's/early 80's and appealed to those who wanted to build a new budget car out of a rusty old clunker in the days when even mediocre second-hand cars were seriously expensive and everything rusted to dust before its tenth birthday. These days a decade old focus would be a far cheaper option for that category of buyer. Also bear in mind how expensive proper Minis have become in their own right if you were thinking of using them as a donor. If you do want to offer a practical, everyday kit car, make it look like a 1950's or 1960's Ferrari, Maserati or similarly exotic coupe or convertible and you'll definitely find a market.
6) I've covered about four thousand miles in 17 months on the road, including two trips to Goodwood Revival (from Norfolk) racking up over 500 miles on each visit.
7) Any design that looks drop-dead gorgeous, either an homage to something classic or a unique design (
very hard to pull off) will always catch my eye.
8). Stunning, buildable affordable.
Oh, and avoid IVA requirement if you can as it's the kiss of death as far as a lot of us kit-car builders are concerned.
Good luck at Uni!
Kitcar research - a future new design?
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