Robin Hood Engineering

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Robin Hood from 1986

The Robin Hood Engineering Ltd. was a British kit car manufacturer based in Mansfield Woodhouse (Nottinghamshire) from 1984 to 2006 . The factory area was 2800 m².

Company history

The company was founded in Sherwood (Nottinghamshire) in 1984 and initially produced replicas of the Ferrari Daytona based on the Rover SD1 .

In 1989 the product range was completely turned inside out: The Robin Hood S7 , a kit car inspired by the Lotus Seven , was now produced.

Also in 1989 a Robin Hood based on the Triumph TR7 was introduced and offered for an affordable £ 995 + VAT. The car was well received by automobile enthusiasts and some kits were sold. The car was continuously developed and it became clear that a number of different engines were required for more customers to be able to afford such a car. The Triumph Dolomite replaced the TR7 as a donor vehicle; the engines between 1.1 l and 2.0 l displacement were very popular.

An injunction filed by Caterham Cars with the Supreme Court nearly brought production to a standstill, but the lawyers were eventually able to fix the problem. Robin Hood Engineering made every effort not to deviate from the agreements negotiated in this context.

Similar to the beginning at Caterham, there was a monocoque chassis with the Triumph Dolomite, the Ford Cortina or the Ford Sierra as donor vehicles. Although the donor vehicles and the constructions have changed over the years, it was still company policy to always deliver very good quality. Other kit car customers were forced to roam the junkyards looking for components for their cars, but Robin Hood always followed the principle: A kit and a donor vehicle make a roadworthy car, which was an important selling point.

In 1996 and 1997, Robin Hood sold more than 500 kits per year, so they bought a lot of premises and new machinery to keep up with production. In 1998, the individual acceptance at MOT (corresponding to the German individual acceptance at TÜV) was introduced, which unsettled customers and preferred to wait and see what would happen. The introduction date was postponed several times by the government and the entire kit car industry in the UK suffered.

This bad sales period made the owner of Robin Hood Engineering, who was now in his 50s, critically looking at the activities of his company and would have liked to sell them to pursue other interests. However, since there were no interested parties, the license to manufacture the monocoque chassis was about to expire and the investment in CNC machines had swallowed up a lot of capital, the only option was to continue the business with a completely new model.

Together with a number of chassis experts, a revolutionary new chassis was designed. It consisted mostly of 38mm thick tubing and was an impressive feat of engineering. It only took about 5 minutes to bend the pipes and it took about 1 hour to put them together and weld them together, a perfect recipe for a new Sparkit.

The new chassis was called “Tubey” by the workforce and the name “Project 2B” was chosen as the sales name. Between August 21, 1999 and December 11, 1999, exactly 205 kits were sold.

On September 25, 2006, the remnants of the now bankrupt Robin Hood Engineering Ltd. from Great British Sports Cars Ltd. accepted.

Web links

Commons : Robin Hood Engineering  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Great British Sports Cars Ltd.