Almac is a New Zealand–based kit car company founded in 1984 and located in

Upper Hutt Upper Hutt () is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropolitan area. History Upper Hutt is in an area originally known as Orongo ...

. Almac cars started as a part of Almac Reinforced Plastics Ltd fibreglass product manufacturing a company founded in 1971 by Alex McDonald. McDonald's interest in kit cars started while he was living in England, having purchased a

Jem Marsh Jeremy George Weston "Jem" Marsh (15 April 1930 – 2 March 2015) was a British engineer, motor manufacturer and race driver, born in Clifton, Bristol, England. He entered the motor industry through his company Speedex Castings and Accessories Lt ...

Sirocco. Jem Marsh founded the Marcos car company. On the 31st of May 2024 the company was purchased by Malcolm Sankey of Matamata Panelworks

First car

McDonald continued his interest in

kit car Kit may refer to: People and fictional characters * Kit (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Kit (surname), a list of people Places * Kit, Iran, a village in Mazandaran Province * Kit Hill ...

s when he migrated to New Zealand. At that time the most common kit cars in New Zealand were Beach Buggies based on a

Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

chassis and a wedge shaped sports car, the Australian

Purvis Eureka The Purvis Eureka is a sports car which was produced by Purvis Cars at Dandenong in Victoria, Australia from 1974 until 1991.Lotus Elite The Lotus Elite name has been used for two production vehicles and one concept vehicle developed and manufactured by British automobile manufacturer Lotus Cars. The first generation Elite Type 14 was produced from 1957 until 1963 and the second ...

and based on a Volkswagen chassis. This car was sold to Phil Derby who uses it as a track car. No further models were made.

Almac 427

McDonald's friends suggested he create a replica car instead as Volkswagen based kit cars were reaching their end. With the help of George Ulyate, McDonald created scale drawings and started work on a replica

Shelby Cobra The AC Cobra, sold in the United States as the Shelby Cobra and AC Shelby Cobra, is a sports car manufactured by British company AC Cars, with a List of Ford engines#8 Cylinder, Ford V8 engine. It was produced intermittently in both the Uni ...

427. McDonald contracted KiwiRaceCars.com (Then Graham Berry Race Cars Limited) to create the chassis and build the Cobra using McDonald's Fiberglass body. The first car was shown at the 1984 National Hot Rod Show. Seventeen cars were sold that year. None were badged as Almac's, and some have been mistaken as genuine Cobra's. More than 450 Cobras have been produced using Almac made fibreglass bodies.

Almac TC

As the Cobra was selling well, in 1986 McDonald decided to add another model more of his own design. The car was loosely based on the

MG TC The MG T-Type is a series of body-on-frame open two-seater sports cars that were produced by MG Cars, MG from 1936 to 1955. Known as the Midget, the series included the TA, TB, TC, TD, and TF models. Although the design was contemporary in the ...

. It was not a replica and designed to fit a

Triumph Herald The Triumph Herald is a small two-door car introduced by Standard-Triumph of Coventry in 1959 and made through to 1971. The body design was by the Italian stylist Giovanni Michelotti, and the car was offered in saloon, convertible, coupé, es ...

chassis. Twenty-five kits were sold in two years. McDonald also began to build turnkey models of this car. Construction of these and their kits ended in 1988 because sound Triumph Herald chassis were becoming difficult to obtain and the engine size was limited by the chassis. The specification for one owned by Mike Boven compared to a TG of Roy Hoares:

Almac TG

Production and work began on the TG in 1988. Although similar to the TC, the TG had an Almac designed chassis and used

Holden Gemini The Holden Gemini is a compact car that was produced by Holden and sold in Australasia from 1975 to 1987. It was based on the Japanese Isuzu Gemini, one of the many models based on the GM T platform (RWD), GM T-car platform. __TOC__ First gene ...

as a donor car. The first kits went on sale in 1989. The TG model did not sell as well as the TC and demand tapered off after about sixteen had been made.

Almac Sabre and Sabre Series 2

McDonald had still not been able to build a car that was a unique Almac. McDonald and his son Stuart started work designing a modern interpretation of the Cobra. The first design took some of its design cues from the MGB. While the prototype was under construction McDonald became disenchanted with it and consigned to the tip. In 1991 redesign began using a purpose built chassis and

Ford Cortina The Ford Cortina is a medium-sized family car manufactured in various body styles from 1962 to 1982. It was the United Kingdom's best-selling car of the 1970s. The Cortina was produced in five generations (Mark I through to Mark V, although of ...

parts and a

Leyland P76 The Leyland P76 is a large car that was produced by Leyland Australia, the Australian subsidiary of British Leyland. Featuring what was described at the time as the "standard Australian wheelbase of 111 inches", it was intended to provide the c ...

V8 engine. Named the Almac Sabre, it was featured in the

NZ Classic Car magazine ''NZ Classic Car'' is a monthly automotive magazine that has been published since December 1990. Its first issue was January 1991. The magazine also has an associated website that covers all things related to classic and historic cars, events, ...

in May 1994. By this time the market had changed. The

Mazda MX-5 The Mazda MX-5 is a lightweight two-person sports car manufactured and marketed by Mazda. The convertible is marketed as the or in Japan, and as the Mazda Miata () in the United States, and formerly in Canada, where it is now marketed as the ...

was available and, due a legislative change, cheap second hand Japanese cars were being imported. A new MX5 was only a thousand New Zealand dollars more expensive than the Sabre kit. Also the Ford Cortina did not have a good lineage for a sports car. Despite having good publicity through Driver magazine in 1995, Which Kit in 1996, and Classic Car again in 2000 production ceased in 2001 after only nine models had been made. With a revival of the kit car industry, in 2002 McDonald began development the Almac Sabre Series 2. A newer and stronger chassis was designed, the Cortina windscreen was retained, a Toyota Lexus V8 motor was added, and the body received a significant face lift. The new Sabre was launched at the Hamilton Motor Show in March 2004 and with five being ordered.

Almac Clubsprint and Clubsprint XL

When kit car production slowed down towards the end of the 1990s McDonald began to look for alternatives. Graham Berry had a completed chassis for a

Lotus Seven The Lotus Seven is a sports car produced by the British manufacturer Lotus Cars (initially called Lotus Engineering) between 1957 and 1973. The Seven is an open-wheel car with two seats and an open top. It was designed by Lotus founder Colin Ch ...

–based car. His intention was to a cheap kit car that could be built for less than $10,000. The kit used Mark 1 or 2 Ford Escort parts and was launched through Classic Car magazine in 2002. The XL was created to meet a demand for a slightly larger chassis.

References

External links

* {{Lotus Seven Kit car manufacturers Car manufacturers of New Zealand Lotus Seven replicas New Zealand brands Cars of New Zealand