The British motor industry has always been propped up by smaller manufacturers, with companies like Lotus and Caterham starting from humble kit car beginnings. Many kit car companies fell on the wayside but it’s not unusual for whole concerns to bought by new companies and relaunched. Most use existing donor parts such as mechanics and engines from the likes of Ford or BL, and will also utilise the rear lights sourced from existing mass-produced cars.
Prolific during the ’90s the Evante sports was another Ford-based car, utilising the Zetec engines. This is one of the last cars, after a single figure production run. Taillights from the VW Golf.
While this is clearly a hairy-chested version of the Triumph TR7, around 350 Grinnall bodied cars mated up to 4.5 Litre V8 engines gave them a little individuality and a lot more power than the standard TR7. Taillights from the Ford Orion.
Finally, we have the well known TVR, who was already in the process of becoming a mainstream company when these two sixties based cars were released. The Vixen and Vixen S4 were actually hand-built cars rather than kit cars but still showed evidence of its cottage-industry roots. The taillights were sourced from Ford, the original Vixen used MK1 Cortina items and the S4 used the MK2 Cortina lights.