Onyx Sports Cars

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Onyx Automotive (1990–1998)
Onyx Sports Cars (since 1998)
legal form
founding 1990
Seat Grimsby , Lincolnshire , United KingdomUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom 
management
  • David Golightly
  • Carla Smith
Branch Automobile manufacturer
Website www.onyxsportscars.f9.co.uk

Onyx Bobcat
Rear view

Onyx Sports Cars , previously Onyx Automotive , is a British manufacturer of automobiles .

Company history

1990 David Golightly founded the company Onyx Automotive in Mildenhall in the county of Suffolk . He started producing automobiles and kits . The brand name is Onyx . In 1995 the company moved to Grimsby in Lincolnshire and in 1998 the company was renamed Onyx Sports Cars . A total of about 265 copies have been made so far.

vehicles

The first model was the Firefly . This was a small two-seater roadster . A tubular steel frame formed the basis. Fiat Panda engines powered the vehicle. Onyx produced 54 copies from 1990 to 1998. Formby Kit Cars from Formby , Merseyside , continued production until 2000, selling three copies. Dart Cars from Summerleaze Crescent near Taunton in Somerset made one between 2005 and 2006. Alphax Kitcar Engineering from the Netherlands then took over the project.

The Firecat was a little bigger than the Firefly . It had a semi- monocoque . Engines from the Fiat 127 , Fiat Uno and Lancia Y powered the vehicle. Production at Onyx ran from 1993 to 2000. RPM Sportscars continued production from 2008 to 2009. Pajer Engineering & Media has been manufacturing the vehicles since 2010 .

From Tomcat came about 50 copies between 1997 and 1998. This was an open leisure car with two seats based on the Mini .

The successor Bobcat appeared in 1998. This was either a tricycle with a rear single wheel or a four-wheeler with a rear narrow gauge. A spaceframe developed in-house formed the basis. Once again, a four-cylinder engine from the Mini powered the vehicles. Around 60 copies were made by 2001.

The Firefox sparked the 2001 Bobcat from. It again had four wheels with identical track width at the front and rear. A four-cylinder engine from the Rover 100 series propelled the vehicle. By 2009 the model had around 15 buyers.

Of the Roadcat , which was similar to the Mini Moke and based on the Mini Metro , around five copies were made between 2003 and 2004.

The Fastcat , which had a slightly larger body than the Firefox , found around four buyers between 2004 and 2006.

The Mongoose had a spaceframe chassis, a four-cylinder Rover engine behind the seats and a particularly light open two-seater body. About eight copies were made between 2006 and 2009.

The only current model from Onyx is the Type EB 37 . This is the replica of the Bugatti Type 37 from the 1930s. The body is made of aluminum . The vehicles are powered by a four-cylinder Rover engine. Around 18 vehicles have been built since 2007.

literature

  • George Nick Georgano (Editor-in-Chief): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Volume 2: G – O. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , p. 1149. (English)
  • Steve Hole: AZ of Kit Cars. The definitive encyclopaedia of the UK's kit-car industry since 1949 . Haynes Publishing, Sparkford 2012, ISBN 978-1-84425-677-8 , pp. 189-190 (English).

Web links

Commons : Onyx Sports Cars  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d George Nick Georgano (editor-in-chief): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Volume 2: G – O. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , p. 1149. (English)
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Steve Hole: A – Z of Kit Cars. The definitive encyclopaedia of the UK's kit-car industry since 1949 . Haynes Publishing, Sparkford 2012, ISBN 978-1-84425-677-8 , pp. 189-190 (English).