http://www.completekitcar.co.uk September 2019 31A
typical English south coast pub in Worthing
sounds an unlikely setting for the genesis of what
was to ultimately become the world’s largest
kit car maker. It was here, 50 years ago, that a
gifted young engineer who had just successfully
completed a ve-year indentured tool making apprenticeship with
Pressed Steel in Swindon built his very rst car.
is 1969 one-o ‘special’ was a sporting coupé, named Mantis,
and created by a youthful Tim Dutton-Woolley. Within a year of
completing the Mantis, Tim had founded his own kit car company,
called Dutton Cars (a more preferable name than Woolley Cars)
with his rst self-assembly model – the sevenesque Dutton P1 –
made in a small Worthing workshop.
By late 1971, Dutton had replaced the P1 with the much
improved Seven-style B-Type, a Triumph-based two-seater that
proved instantly popular, with increasing demand necessitating a
move to larger premises in nearby Tangmere, near Chichester.
e success of the basic and a ordable B-Type quickly set
Dutton on the road to becoming the UK’s largest kit car producer
by the mid-1970s, with a regular ow of new and improved
models, most proving exceptionally popular – such as the Ford-
based B-Plus, Malaga and Phaeton – but with others like the
unusual Canter coupe and Spit re-based ‘retro’ DSL Spyder
proving rather less so.
A decade after creating his rst car, the Mantis, in 1979
Dutton-Woolley pulled o a major coup with the introduction
of his pioneering Dutton Sierra; a rear-wheel-drive Ford Escort-
based kit o ering a ordable motoring for the whole family, the
practical four/ ve seater ‘estate’ taking its inspiration from early
‘SUVs’ such as the Matra-Simca Rancho and Range Rover, but at a
considerably lower price.
You usually get what you pay for in life, and the bargain
price of Dutton kits was no exception; their low cost sometimes
re ected in the kits’ poor quality levels with inconsistent parts
t, questionable GRP moulding, and so on. is didn’t hinder
Sierra sales too seriously though, as the model was inexpensive
and unrivalled for some years in the kit car industry, with most
resourceful builders overcoming the kit’s shortcomings through
ingenuity and determination.“DUTTON IS THE MOST
SUCCESSFUL AMPHI
VEHICLE MAKER EVER”
GARY
AXON
In 1982 Gary Axon
penned his rst
published words
for Alternative Cars
magazine, precipitating
what has become a
lifelong obsession
with the more obscure
elements within the
automotive world. A
knowledgable and self-
confessed automotive
anorak, today he’s a
leading light in advising,
promoting and curating
suitable cars for leading
motoring events as
diverse as the Goodwood
Festival of Speed, Revival
and the Festival of the
Unexceptional.For 50 years, Tim Dutton has been involved in kit and specialist cars.
Gary takes a look back over those ve decades...
DUTTON AT 50
MISPLACED ENTHUSIASM | COMMENTIn 1982, the faux o -roader Dutton came both under threat, and
got a major high-pro le publicity boost at the same time, when
Ford replaced its best-selling Cortina with the audacious new
family hatchback, also called Sierra.
e might of Ford’s legal team came down heavily on Tim
Dutton-Woolley, insisting he ceased using the Sierra name
for his popular estate kit. He resisted, and in a real life ‘David
versus Goliath’ legal battle, the kit car underdog thankfully won,
humiliating Ford and costing it considerably in the process, with
the now-widely-publicised Dutton Sierra nding a new, previously
untapped audience, with pick-up, chassis, box van and drophead
derivatives added to the improved Sierra kit range.
Sierra kit production peaked at a healthy 22 cars a week before
the model was withdrawn in 1989, replaced by the boxier Escort-
based Beneto. By this time, Dutton Cars had 80 sta , spread over
four sites, having sold over 8000 kits since introducing the rst P1
in 1970. is made Dutton the world’s largest kit car maker, even
out-gunning the sizeable Classic Motor Carriages in the USA;
quite a feat for a component car manufacturer with less than 20
years under its belt.
Rather than resting on his laurels with the unprecedented
success of the Sierra – as well as his strong-selling Phaeton – Tim
Dutton-Woolley continued to decimate the UK’s early Ford Escort
population with further kits based on the once-proli c Dagenham
model. ese included the Melos and more re ned Legerra sports
cars, plus the Rico, an ambitious sports coupe/saloon with a
Dutton-developed glass bre body over a steel tubular frame, with
an unusual Shuttle MPV kit derivative later added to the range.
By 1989, Dutton’s rst non-kit turnkey model, the Maroc, was
announced as a modi ed convertible Ford Fiesta, the car later
made available in kit form due to its high price. By this time, with
11 di erent models in production, Tim had become disenchanted
with the kit car industry so he left the sector, sold o the
production rights to some Dutton kits, and formed a design and
development consultancy company, creating and building vehicles
for other companies around the world.
As an avid watersports enthusiast, based on the Sussex coast,
in 1987 Tim took a di erent direction when he combined his
automotive skills with his love of marine activities, to create the
world’s rst commercially viable self-build amphibious vehicle kit.
In 1995 the Dutton brand name was revived when the premier
production Mariner model rolled o the production line and into
the water; the rst of a long-line of Fiesta and Suzuki 4x4-based
amphibian kits, with Tim ultimately piloting one across the
English Channel – not once, but twice!
Despite a legal challenge setback some years ago, today Dutton
is the world’s longest-running, and most successful, amphibious
vehicle maker, proving that Dutton-Woolley’s record for becoming
a dominant force in some niche vehicle sectors, be it for kit cars
or oating vehicles, is unparalleled. Not a bad achievement for 50
years of kit car-based activity.031 Axon.indd 31 31/07/2019 3:09 pm