- This is Collin, he's 17, and he's building a project
car from scratch in his garage. To any of you who have put
time into a project car, this might sound like a tall order. It's tough for a first-timer cause no matter how common a chassis is or how straightforward a build might be, no matter how many forms you go on or how many YouTube tutorials you find, you always get stuck because there's never an instruction manual
for your exact build. But what if there was? What if you had a step-by-step guide to get from a pile of parts
to a running project car? (car engine roaring) That's what Colin has
cause he got a kit car. If you're thinking that I'm
talking about some Fiero-based fiberglass, Ferrari knockoff then you're missing out on
what kit cars are today. We talked to all kinds
of builders and owners to get the low down on what it takes to build a modern kit car. So whether you're an
experienced builder or a newbie, a classic car-lover or a track rat looking for the best
power-to-weight ratio, I guarantee by the end of this video, you'll be looking for a kit car of your own. (upbeat music) Big thanks to Raycon for
sponsoring this episode. When I'm riding, I love
listening to music to focus but sometimes those Money Pit guys, they can get a little
loud and distracting. (banging) That's why I use my Raycons. They're doing things differently
than other brands out there from the way they're designed
to the way they're priced. Personally, I love my
everyday E25 earbuds. They give me six hours of playtime, seamless Bluetooth pairing, more bass, and a compact design for a
comfortable noise-isolating fit. The best part is Raycon
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only costs you half the price. They come in a range of
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45-day return policy. 45 days. If you're trying to take
a break from screens but don't want to feel totally unplugged, Raycon wireless earbuds are the best way to bring your favorite content
with you everywhere you go. So click the link in the description box or go to buyraycon.com/donut to get 15% off your Raycon purchase today. Now let's get back to Wheelhouse. (beep) Before researching this
video the term kit car, for me at least, was a four-letter word. (beep) Kit cars have a stigma of being machines built to look like a super
car or another rare car but was actually a slower,
cheaper car underneath. And for a long time, that was the case. These are the pretender cars, designed and built with
aspirational views. I've since learned that there's a few other types of kit cars, but let me build to that. The idea of a kit car actually
blossomed in the 1950s. With rust-proofing in its infancy many older vehicles were getting scrapped because their body work was beyond repair. So people figured why not get
a new, lighter fiberglass body and slap it on as a replacement. It wasn't just a way to make
the car look faster or cooler. It gave a chassis a second life. By the 70's however, small manufacturers wanting to get into the auto business had found that selling a car as a kit was a great way to get
your foot in the door. In the UK, kits were seen as
components, not new vehicles so they could be sold without
imposing the purchase tax which was an extra 33% tax on luxury goods in the UK until 1973. Since kit cars weren't
considered luxury goods, all you needed was a donor vehicle and there was no car
that was better suited to being a card-carrying
donor than the Beetle. The Beetle was cheap, mechanically simple, and had an unusually sporty layout with the engine sitting on the rear axle, driving the back wheels. Also by that time, VW
had sold over 15 million of these suckers. So donor chassis and any
repair parts were plentiful. Cars like the Bradley GT, Aquila GT, and the original Dune
buggy, the Meyers Manx were all the result of
builders catching the Bug bug. Also, rest in peace to Bruce Myers, passed away very recently. The Beetle wasn't the only
solid base for a kit car. The Fiero was a two-seater, mid-engine, rear-wheel drive coupe, and one of the only times
the US has ever made a midship car that was
this cheap and popular. The V6 Fiero GT was being
called the poor man's Ferrari and if it's already being called a Ferrari for what's on the inside, why not make the outside match as well? Since the Fiero was built
on a space frame chassis covered with plastic body panels, it was easy to pull off the original ones and slap on new fiberglass ones. Because of this, it
was super easy to build a Faux-rarri a sham-borghini or, a poor-sche. Guys, if you love my
hilarious car-based jokes, check me out at Chortle Fest
in Montreal this summer. I'll be doing a tight five
every night of the festival. Many Fiero-based kits landed somewhere in the uncanny valley of aesthetics. Think of that car drawing
you did when you're 12 and your mom was nice enough
to put it on the fridge. It's got all the details but the proportions are just a little off. This is what most people imagine when they think of kit cars. Even though the Fiero made
this type of build accessible, it actually backfired because so many poorly-constructed kits
and unfinished builds gave the words kit cars a bad reputation. (beep) Instead of being a serious build it was viewed as a car cosplay. But surprisingly some kits were actually designed pretty damn well. The Pontiac Mera was a Fiero GT kit designed to replicate the Ferrari 308, and it was so accurate and so popular that Ferrari actually sued
Mera over the styling. Regardless, the Fiero
was a great blank canvas, and even though the Fieros were prone to catching on fire some of the time, that's still about the same
reliability you could expect from a real 80s Ferrari
in the first place. So, fair play. So kit cars were all about building a car that looked like a car
you actually wanted, but couldn't afford. And this is where kit cars
started to change a little bit. If you could make a car that looked like it was expensive to buy, why not make something that looked like it was impossible to buy? (upbeat music) If you've ever seen
Ford GT 40 at a car show or a cars and coffee,
I can almost guarantee that it wasn't an actual GT 40, I'm sorry. That picture you sent to your grandma? It was a lie. Since the legendary
Lamar wins of the 1960s, the tiny Ferrari killer
has been a dream car for many people in the US but getting an actual
GT 40 is a tall order, since less than 100 of them were built and they regularly sell at auction for as much as $10 million. So plenty of companies
started making kits. Almost 20 companies have
offered some version of a GT 40. All of a sudden, this car
went from way out of reach to a legitimate possibility. And because of the kits
for such a rare, expensive, and storied cars were available, you actually see the GT 40
randomly pop up in movies. You got Velvet Buzzsaw, The
Man From Uncle, John Wick, The Punisher, Crazy
Rich Asians, Fast Five, just to name a few. All those GT 40s, and Ford vs Ferrari, those were kit cars that you
could build yourself as well. Factory Five Racing, who became famous for their AC Cobra replicas, started producing a Shelby
Daytona coupe replica that can be built with the
5.0 liter coyote engine or a 351 Windsor. Unlike the Fieros and Bugs of old, these kits were not
about being economical. While it is definitely
cheaper to get a kit Daytona than an actual Daytona, these builds are about
experiencing a classic car with all the heritage and
pedigree that comes with it without the risk of breaking
a priceless classic. Cause honestly, I'd hate to
get into a legendary race car and have to baby it for insurance reasons or something like that. But with these kit cars
you can actually drive them and drive them hard. And with modern engines and modern parts, you can get a faster, more
reliable, more comfortable and more economical car than the original. But as much as I love older American cars, these kits all feel a bit boomer-y, right? They feed off the nostalgia
for an era I wasn't around for. They aren't exactly cheap either. But there's a another type of kit car. The kind that is designed to be the best lap time per dollar investment and if you are a semi-skilled builder, you could have a car
that is lighter, faster, and easier to work on
than the Money Pit Miata, while still being cheaper. Let's look at some track-ready kit cars. Have they become a viable
option for car guys like me that are limited on budget and skill? In my case, definitely skill. You might've seen some
stripped-down, tube chassis'd, minimalist carts like
Hoonigan's Shark Cart or Leroy the Savage. The idea is that you take
off as much of the car as you possibly can, give
it a stiff tubular cage and make the car as light as possible. Even though the idea of track carts has gotten bigger in recent
years, it's an old concept. Lotus offered a stripped
down, track-minded kit car as early as 1957. The Lotus seven was an
open-wheel two seater that could be bought from the factory as a completed car or as
a slightly cheaper kit. It's light weight made it a
chuckable little track wagon. Try saying that five times fast. And the formula has barely changed. In 1974 the production of the Lotus seven was taken over by Caterham. And today Caterham is a
fully fledged manufacturer that still sells kits based
on the Lotus seven design. If you're looking for
something a little more of this century, kit cars
have still got you covered, and these might be some of the best bang for your buck options out there. Seriously, check this out. To keep costs down and
parts easy to source the donor car idea hasn't gone away. Take a look at the DF Goblin. James talked about this a few weeks ago. It uses a Chevy Cobalt as a donor and it turns it into a mid engine, open-wheel, lightweight monster. The average build ends up
being under 1600 pounds which is almost half the
weight as the original car. The kit is also designed to be as straightforward a build as possible. There's no welding and no
metal cutting required. If you're being particularly thrifty you could build this thing and get it on the road for under $10,000 and that includes all the tools you need, but like you'd really
have to like plan it out. I would not expect that
to be the norm, okay? If you built this with
the supercharged Cobalt SS as your donor, you'd have a Chevy with a better power-to-weight
ratio than the Z51 Corvette, and it would also be mid-engine. That's right, you heard me. These things relocate the engine
for the most fun possible. It does actually sound pretty sick. I want to drive Justin's car now. The Factory Five 818 uses
a 2000 Subaru Impreza as the donor, the
engine, trans, suspension and brakes from the Subaru
get dropped into the 818 for a mid engine to rear wheel drive car. You basically got a Porsche
Cayman that can be finished for under 15K or at least that's
what the brochure says. Can these cars really be built
for as cheap as they say? How good of a builder do
you actually need to be? What about the hidden
costs like tools, paint and other specialty processes? We've been building the hype pretty hard but now it's time for reality check. (upbeat music) Thing about reality. It always gets checked. Really check. Life's not fair. (upbeat music) Look kids while these
kits are better in quality than the fiberglass lookalikes
we used to think of, they're still kits. Even if you are the
most meticulous builder you don't have the budget and the R and D of an OEM manufacturer. So your car is going to be a
little rattly in some places. Some of the panel gaps
might not be the best and it's not going to be as
comfortable as an OEM car. We spoke to a Factory Five
818 owner who said that even though the car had body panels and looked like a road car, it didn't even feel like anything other than a hardcore track car. But that's where I think
we got it wrong in the 80s. Okay? Trying to build a
Ferrari lookalike is always going to fall a little
short of the real thing but building a track car or
a classic replica is perfect. Cause those are two types of cars that don't need to be
luxurious or refined. And the best part is
you built it yourself. And that's the reality, man. You've just been checked. (upbeat music) (beep) One of the biggest benefits to
a kit car over a modified car is that apart from any use donor bits, you are working with clean fresh parts that are designed to go
together with common hand tools and are therefore designed
to come apart just as easily for maintenance,
replacement and repairs. It's like if you've ever installed brand new parts on your car. The old road worn grimy
ones are a pain to get out but the new ones slide in super easily. Imagine if your whole car was like that. One of the builders we spoke to said that the best part about working on kit cars over his classic cars is that
he could work on his kit car for a bit between dinner
and bed without getting so greasy he needed to shower. A good portion of the
kit assembly is more like building IKEA furniture
than it is being a mechanic. You just got to follow the steps. Not all kits to the same though. Kits like the Goblin
and the Exomotive Exocet are designed to be entry-level and can be completed with
about 250 hours of work. But then there are kits
like the one Cam Thai built. His car is an SLC from super light cars and it took about 2,500 hours to complete. Clearly this particular
kit is not for first-timers but Cam's road legal LS3 powered spaceship was worth the labor. But even with that, Cam
will admit that his SLC isn't the fastest, the cleanest
or the most cost effective. But the fact that he got
it built it all means that he dodged the fatal
flaw of all kit cars. The biggest killer of even
the easiest kit car projects is the while I'm in their effect. Let me explain. If you want to upgrade something on your regular project
car, let's say a new clutch. You drop the transmission and get to work. But while you're in there you might as well do a
new rear main seal, right? And that trans mount could be upgraded. And since you had to
disconnect the exhaust anyway you might as well put a cat back on there while you're in there. And pretty soon, this one
job snowballs into six. Now, imagine if that could happen with almost every single part. You could install the OEM
calipers from the donor car or you could get the
Wilwood big brake kit. I think a lot of times
the thing that keeps us in check when working on an
already running project car, especially a first project car, is that upgrading a part
is a two-step process. You've gotta take off the old
part and put on the new one. But with a kit car you're
going to have to put on all the parts anyway. So why not put on the best ones possible? Well, money. Money is why not. And because of this, many
kit cars end up sitting waiting for parts that will never come because the builder doesn't
want to put on the cheaper part because it's not any easier. Which kind of brings me
to the second problem with kit car projects. Until it runs, it's not a car,
it's just a pile of parts. When Joe got the Miata from Money Pit, he was able to drive it
every day if you want it to. It wasn't the best little
car but at least it ran and to get you from point
A to point B in a pinch or do a little canyon
cruising with buddies. Kit cars can be lonely projects though. Even with non running
projects with my Imperial I'm still closer to it running than a kit. The moment the engine
fires, I can at least drive my Imperial around the block but when the engine fires on your kit car, you're only halfway done. So with that said, what
about our buddy Colin? Well, he's about a quarter of
the way done with his Caterham and hopes to get it on the road in time for summer of this year. He's working on it every weekend and while the finished
car won't have a stereo or ABS or windows that
roll down, when it's done he'll have one of the most
unique cars on the block. And not just unique because it's rare but because even the
first day he drives it, it's already full of memories. I'd really want Colin to succeed
in building that Caterham. I think it's super cool that a 17 year old has taken on a project like that. If you want to cheer them on,
I'll put the link to his blog in the comments, along with Cam's. They're both a big help
in making this episode. As for kid cars overall, I don't think they're the cheapest option and they certainly aren't
an easy first project. But if you're the kind of
person that was already looking at spending over 10 grand
on a builder project and you want something unique that gets the most bang for your buck. And if you've got the
space and time to build one I'd say that kit cars have
become a solid option. You get to work with nice clean parts, straightforward instructions
and you end up with a car that you know inside and out. That's actually extremely important. You can easily diagnose issues cause you know how it goes together. And if you're not totally convinced yet just think about where kit
cars will be in 15 years. What about electric
motors and 3D printing? What will that bring to kit car building? I think it's safe to say
that we all want to see more of these things on the road and hopefully after watching this video, some of you might actually do it. Let me know what you would
build down in the comments. Did I convince you? I think kit cars have really
obviously come a long way and it's pretty exciting actually. Shout out to our boy Justin Reed for letting us use his Goblin footage. Check out all the builds and blogs of the guys that let us
show off their projects. I'll link them all in the
description down below. If you want to know more
about the Fiero or the Bug check out these videos and be
kind, take care of each other. I'll see you next time.
Electric “tabletops” for kit cars would be a game changer for sure! plop a body, suspension, tires/brakes, steering rack, and interior and you’re good to go
That looks like an Ultima RS... it's a $120K kit car. If a 17 year old is buying that and assembling it in his garage I wonder where he got that kind of money. I'd also be dubious of letting a kid that young drive that thing. I know that I would of promptly killed myself.
https://www.ultimasports.co.uk/Models/UltimaRS
Imagine driving the fake Ferrari that you built by yourself, in your garage on the chassis of some car much cheaper than Ferrari.