Think Kit Cars Are Something New? Think Again

I don’t know about you, but often when my wife and I drive down some quiet street, my wife comments how beautiful the houses are, but all I can ever think is, "What’s parked in that garage?" It never ceases to amaze me how many exotic, classic, or antique rides get locked away and all too often are forgotten about. But then every once in a while someone opens their garage door and you get a glimpse that can make your heart stop.

This weekend, as I rode my bike by my friend’s house, just such an event took place. When he waved at me to come on inside his open garage I could see him working on a friend’s car, one that was just the sort of car that grabs any gearhead’s attention–a 1 of 15 built 1958 Devin SS. If you think fiberglass body kit cars are a relatively recent development, think again.

Continue reading after the jump.

During the late 50s Ferraris were the performance car to be beat, but they were expensive, too. Being the good businessman he was, Bill Devin decided to try to build a race car that could compete with Ferrari at half the cost. Ferraris in the same class were selling for $12,000, but a completed Devin SS race car only set you back $6000. About this time Irishman Malcom MacGregor approached him regarding a sports car he had manufactured that was without a body. And the rest is history.

Not only was Bill Devin a well known racer, he won the very first Pebble Beach race in 1949. Interestingly enough, he started his fiberglass business selling fiberglass bodies for less than $300 each. By the end of the 50s he was shipping almost 100 bodies a week all over the world.

There were only 15 Devin SS models built between 1957 ands 1959, and they were sold as ready to race or for street. The tube chassis were built in Belfast Ireland by Malcolm MacGregor. The front suspension was fabricated using equal length parallel A-arms, coil over springs and shocks and 13 inch Girling disc brakes. The rear axle used a pair of adjustable trailing arms on each side of a three inch Dion tube with inboard disc brakes. Steering was done with a rack and pinion unit and Dunlop wire wheels helped put it on the ground.

After the tube chassis was completed they were shipped to Devin’s factory in California, where they were fitted with a 339 CI Chevrolet (375 HP) complete with Rochester fuel injection, T10-4 speed, and a Corvette rear end. Then the fiberglass bodies were installed and completed with chrome side pipes.

Devin’s raced successfully in SCCA C/Modified class against Maseratis and Ferraris. Andy Porterfield who was the winningest driver in SCCA history was the original Devin factory driver, and Pete Woods won the 1959 Cal Club C/Modified Championship.

You can still see some of these rare beauties race at the Monterey Historics. As a mater of fact, Andy Porterfield drove one in the 2006 Monterey Historic’s Race, and the one in these photos ran at the Monterey Historics as well as other racing events, which really gets me excited since I am a real advocate of driving beautiful machinery and not putting them in some museum to die a quiet death.

In the meantime other Devin SS’s continue to run at many of the great historic race events such as the Coronado Festival and the Wine Country Classic. During the 2006 RM Auction in Monterey one of them was expected to sell for $385,000 with no reserve, but the winning bidder took it home for a mere $247,500.

So I will continue to listen to my wife comment on how beautiful a particular house is as we drive down some of those quite streets, but my mind will still be asking, "I wonder what’s in THAT garage?"