Kit cars are generally sold as a bare chassis, body panels, windshield and some accesories or electrical wiring and the customer is responsible for sourcing and assembling everything else that is required to complete the vehicle before inspection, registration and insurance can be purchased to drive it on the road.
Kit cars are registered with your driving or insurance authority as UBilt or custom non manufactured vehicle and as such is not required to comply with Transport Canadas Motor Vehicle Safety Standards which requires crash testing 15 vehicles and a million dollars in tests.
The process for importing and registering kit cars varies depending on where you live. Check the province or state that you reside before ordering any products.
The cost for a kit car generally consists of the following:
The vehicles we have built from our platform generally split cost into three equally sized portions,
This puts our prototype cost in the range of $120,000.00 CAD which is comparable with other vehicles such as the Factory Five GTM, RCR SLC, 2020 C8 Corvette, 2006 Ferrari F430, 2006 Lamborghini Gallardo. These vehicles have similar seating, visibility, power, braking albiet different fit and finish quality.
Some advantages to building a kit car is that used parts and self assembled parts can save a significant amount of the cost. Additionally in Canada luxury car taxes don’t apply to kit car parts used to assemble these vehicles.
We sell the Arma 1 1 kit platform with some customization options for a base price of $37,449.00 CAD with other accesories available. The suggested finishing cost of the kit is $50,000 - $90,000 CAD. This makes the total estimated vehicle cost $87,000 - $127,449 CAD or ($67,000 - $96,000 USD).
Factory Five Racing sell several kit car platforms including two seat supercars the GTM, Type 65 and hopefully an upcomming F9 front mid engine vehicle. The GTM is currently sold out for 2022 but the kit was priced comparable with our Arma Kit with the currency exchange. The GTM uses many of the same components from the C5-C6 generation Chevrolet Corvette as the Arma 11 such as the LS Engine, control arms, and hubs.
Before the GTM became unavailable the price was $25,000 USD with a sugegsted finishing cost between $35,000 to $50,000. Making a total cost of $60,000 USD to $75,000 USD, which is $80,000 - $100,000 CAD.
Superlight Cars sell several kits being the SLC, GT-R and others.
The SLC Kit sells for $51,000 USD and assembled versions can be bought for around $75,000 USD which is $100,000 CAD.
Ultima Sports Ltd. sell an Ultima RS and EVO models.
Completed RS vehicles can be purchased for $120,000 USD or $158,000 CAD.
DDR Motorsport offer a GT4 and GT8 models. The GT4 is based on parts from the Toyota MR2 and the GT8 is based on the Chevrolet C5 Corvette.
The GT8 kit sells for $19,000 USD ($25,000 CAD). A completed GT8 sold for $58,000 USD ($76,000 CAD) in 2020 on the public market.
Caterham Cars has several models of their 7 platform. The 310 sells completed for about $37,000 USD ($50,000 CAD).
Arma Kit Prototypes use the Chevrolet LS or LT crate motors. These engine crates can be purchased with all of the ancilary components needed to run. Used LS engines can also be purchased from donor vehicles for a lower cost as long as you have the capability to service them. An LS3 Crate motor with the ancilary components canbe purchased for approxamitely $10,000 USD ($13,200 CAD).
Most of these kit cars are longitudinally aranged mid engine requiring a transaxle. Arma has used the Porsche Boxster S G87.20 from the 2006 model year. These transaxles are affordable about $3,000 USD ($4,000 CAD). An adapter plate, flywheel and clucth to mate the two together can be purchased from Kenedy Engineering for about $2,000 USD ($2,600 CAD).
Kit cars will generally require custom half shafts to connect the transaxle to the wheel hubs. We have used https://driveshaftshop.com/ for our shafts and the price is around $1,800 USD ($2,400 CAD).
Other engine options and transmissions are available to suit your preference. Generally an LS3, Prosche transaxle drivetrain with all of the ancilary components will cost $19,000 USD or $25,000 CAD. The LS3 has about 480 HP with 476 ft lbs tourque and higher power systems have an exponental increase in price as the power requirements go up.
We keep a database of components that we recomend for our vehicles however many of the parts are suitable for other kits or scratch home built projects. Part Database
If you live in Canada and are in the market for a car above $100,000 CAD there is a 20% luxury car tax fereally and also another 20% tax if you live in British Columbia. Building a kit car does not incur this luxury tax as it is not a manufactured vehicle.
In short, no. A very common question is if the kits can be finished for $10,000 or there abouts. The issue with a less expensive version of a car is that you will always be trading in quality parts and your time for the service, installation and repair of used parts.
There are definate savings on used components like engines, wheels, brakes, etc. The primary issue is that used components will eventually require service and disassembly which involves costs of labour and service time. You can save money by assembling the vehicle yourself however if you have the skill to do the assembly you could also hypothetically be using that skill and time to be earning income instead of building the kit car. You are making a trade for the portion of the vehicle cost in time instead of currency. Ultimately a car of value that is worth the investment of your time is going to be the same value regardless of who builds it and higher quality parts will always make for a higher value vehicle.
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