The 1950s through the early 1980s were the Wild West of kit cars. Once people figured out how easy fiberglass was to work with, it seemed like everyone went into the kit car business. Starting with the Woodill Wildfire and ending with a plethora of different Cobra kits, the quality and complexity of these put them together yourself cars were highly variable. You could easily break the various kits down into two large categories: sports cars and classics. While many of the sports cars weren’t very sporty and the classics were classic only in name and styling cues, people loved these project vehicles. One of the many kit cars available, at least for a brief time, was the Stallion. This 1982 Stallion, built on an S-10 chassis, is claimed to be one of just two built before production stopped. Even more interesting is that the seller claims that the other car is missing, making this electric blue convertible possibly the only survivor. Thanks to Tony P. for the tip on this kit car rarity!
Before we dig into the Stallion’s short history, let’s lay the foundation for how the kit car industry worked first. Fiberglass as we know it was first produced by Owens-Corning in 1938. It is a mix of glass fibers and resin that, when combined, form a glass-reinforced plastic. This material is usually laid over a buck, or mold, of the item you want to produce, and allowed to cure. Once cured, the resulting material is very strong. It wasn’t long before people like Woody Woodill figured out that fiberglass was perfect for building a body that could be then placed on the frame of a donor car. This wondrous material soon attracted scores of inventors and craft persons who found many different and colorful ways to use the material. Another famous early adapter of fiberglass was “Big Daddy” Ed Roth, whose wild custom creations were nearly all made with fiberglass.
The biggest advantage of using fiberglass in automotive pursuits was that making body parts was very cheap and easy. There was no need for huge presses or an industrial setting. Many people formed fiberglass parts in their garage. The drawback was that it was hard to produce any kind of volume considering that much of the work was done by hand. Later, automakers found ways to produce fiberglass vehicles such as the Corvette with little waste. Then, people like Ralph Eckler found ways to make replacement fiberglass parts for the Corvette and even came up with wild body kits made of fiberglass that customers could install on their fiberglass Corvettes.
Kit car makers used fiberglass to build complete bodies to sit on either an existing chassis or one that was custom-made. Many small parts were purchased off-the-shelf from parts distributors and/or stripped off the donor vehicle. Back during the kit car heyday, vehicles like the Volkswagen Beetle and the Chevrolet S-10 pickup were used frequently as donors for the frame, chassis, and running gear. These types of vehicles were referred to as body-on-frame for obvious reasons. As time has worn on, finding a suitable chassis for a modern kit car has proven problematic. Nearly every automobile built today benefits from unibody construction. Most of what you could call kit cars today are built as a set of add-on panels to an existing unibody vehicle or a frame is custom-built for the car. Due to the lack of appropriate chassis, people’s general disinterest in garage-based projects, affordability, and liability issues, kit cars are somewhat rare today compared to their heyday.
The Stallion you see here could be considered one of the least successful kit cars to be produced. Following the classic look popularized by Excalibur Automobile Corporation, which was the most successful automaker to produce “factory-built kit cars,” the Stallion was perhaps too close to the Excalibur Phaeton in design and execution. The seller tells us that the company was sued by Excalibur for violating their copyright on such vehicles. Excalibur’s lawyers must have been on the ball because only two Stallions were ever built. We are told by the seller that nobody knows where the other Stallion is.
While it is a little difficult to interpret what is being said in the ad, it seems like the vehicle was never titled as a Stallion. There is a title for the Chevrolet S-10 this kit car was built on, but it has never been on the road since it was completed. The car has been trailered to shows and has lived in a warehouse its entire life. Unfortunately, we are not told if it runs and/or drives. The ad tells us that it is powered by a V-6 engine, and we can see that it is equipped with air conditioning. It does look to be complete and has many different parts that look familiar to people who have owned or driven custom vans. We are also not told if the stuffed animals come with the car. Perhaps they could be part of the negotiations.
If you are looking for a distinctive kit car that you could claim a large degree of exclusivity with, then this 1982 Stallion is for sale on Craigslist in Fort Worth, Texas. The asking price for this distinctive car is $34,000.
I know people type LOL all of the time, but the asking price actually did make me laugh out loud
What would’ve been really cool is having some company make a kit for a Mercedes 300 SL coupe that you could build on this chassis. Then add
a turbo to the 3800 V-6, a tremec 5-speed and some bits to make it handle like a rocket sled on rails. Now THAT’S the kit I’d want!
Another “Only one in the whole wide world. And I know what I got” price. Yeah buddy…
The only thing missing from seller’s description is lowercase letters and more exclamation points.
Tacky when built, still tacky.
The seller telegraphs it has registration issues, this is a huge red flag and needs to be addressed prior to exchanging any money, even for a deposit. The seller also says in the ad he “needs to move it”, good luck with that. The one thing it has going is that it will draw a crowd at a coffee and cars, there are a lot of other cars out there that will do the same for a fraction of the price.
Steve R
Condition: Like New………….Good One!!!
Interesting vehicle. Seller could and should have done a better job taking more pictures of various areas and angles.
There’s lots of ugly on this thing but that front bumper is probably the worst.
Or maybe the worst part is the price.
For me the worst part is the really fugly dashboard!
I had a lot to choose from.
I want to give the seller $34,000 just to turn off the CAPS key and stop with the exclamation points.
This car certainly shows that it takes some education and refinement to design a good looking car. A not so good looking car – easy – we see the “Stallion” as an example! But can you imagine the indignity of being sued by – Excalibur – all all people, that paragon of tasteless styling cliches? Gee, I don’t think Excalibur ever went after that other “timeless classic” the Gazelle so you know this had to be really bad! Seller doesn’t seem to understand, rarity alone does not equal value, particularly when something is so bad that after they make the first, you really have to wonder why they ever made a second!
Couldn’t have said it better.
How does the seller know that “nobody knows where the second one is”. Perhaps the person that has it. Or the person that junked it knows.
Now we need to find it….
“Noboby”, according to the CL ad!
It looks like they took body moulds from an Excalibur to build it. Most likely why they got sued. Neither were or are good looking automobiles.
OK, Back about 2010, I had a weekend gig driving limos for a company that had one of these that was made into, you guessed it — a stretch limo !! I was given the short straw to pilot that beast for a high school senior prom. When you got into it, you had to step in over the running boards with one leg, duck down below the roof, sit down, and pull your other leg over the running board. You did the reverse to get out. The car had no problem accelerating in a straight line, as it had a big block GM engine (not a Chevy) in it. Going down the road, that car shuddered side to side above 50 mph. You’d swear it was going to come apart. There was no leaning into curves on the interstate, for certain. You just backed off the fuel and let it find its happy place. The fit and finish inside was questionable —everything rattled. The mechanic hated it and the company’s owner thought it was cool. The car seemed as if it was made for exterior looks, kind of a “50 at 50” car.
Beyond the title issues and the asking price, the prospective owner should take this on a lengthy road trip — like Oklahoma City and back !. Just my $.02
B careful (do ur due diligence well/long). Fella just brought ina new ’32 Cheb. He is nota beginner. Had his own motor (427 became a 435?) machined, etc.
Lotta problems w/the basic. All so far small (fit’n finish) like battery cables fell off, ball joint not tq-ed to specs, wire rout very poor choice, we hadda weld the coil spring bucket (held on w/a zip tie!?! – other side OK) starter snagged up every start (fancy mini-starter beginning to chew up fly wheel). Fantastic car (all glass, chop top, well engineered frame, ford 9 inch in 4 link). But, still, for 30K$, not right…
It’s painful attempting to read your posts.
They used to aggravate most of us until he told us what his problem was and since then we just have to work out what he is trying to get across to us. No problem.
This certainly test the limitations of spell check. You can only hope there is some redemptive qualities. If not spelling mechanical aptitude. Forewarned is forearmed.