Davrian cars were built by Davrian Developments at 65 North Street, Clapham in London, England, from 1965 to 1976, in Tregaron, Dyfed, Wales from 1976 to 1980 and

Lampeter Lampeter (; (formal); ''Llambed'' (colloquial)) is a town, community and electoral ward in Ceredigion, Wales, at the confluence of the Afon Dulas with the River Teifi. It is the third largest urban area in Ceredigion, after Aberystwyth and C ...

, Dyfed, from 1980 to 1983. Adrian Evans (d. 1992), a structural engineer and the car's designer, built a series of cars called Davrian from 1965, based on components from the Hillman Imp, including the front and rear suspension, the aluminium alloy Hillman Imp engine which was

Coventry Climax Coventry Climax was a British manufacturer of forklift trucks, fire pumps, racing engines, and other speciality engines. History Pre WWI The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, a joint venture by Jens Stroyer and Pelham Lee. In 1 ...

-based and the Imp transaxle.

Davrian 1965–83

In 1967, the design had settled to a 2-seat glass fibre

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

coupé, officially called the Davrian Imp and series production started with a company being formed called Davrian Developments. The cars were sold in kit form. Over time, a variety of power units were offered including the

Mini The Mini is a very small two-door, four-seat car, produced for four decades over a single generation, with many names and variants, by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors British Leyland and the Rover Group, and finally ...

-engined Davrian Demon (mid-mounted), Volkswagen Beetle Type 1 (rear-mounted),

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(rear-mounted), and

Ford Fiesta The Ford Fiesta is a supermini car that was marketed by Ford from 1976 to 2023 over seven generations. Over the years, the Fiesta has mainly been developed and manufactured by Ford's European operations, and had been positioned below the ...

(mid-mounted). The car weighed in at . Over the years, a series of improvements led the cars to go through Marks 1 to 8. They proved very popular in amateur hands as rally and circuit racing cars. In 1980, the Mk8 was offered as a complete car called the Davrian Dragon. This was mid-engined and used Ford Fiesta components and engine. The company was insufficiently capitalised for this operation, and went into receivership in 1983. This car was subsequently relaunched as the Corry and the earlier more basic versions continued being made in the same premises but under new ownership as the Darrian.

Corry 1983–85

The rights to the Dragon were bought by Will Corry and production transferred to

Lisburn Lisburn ( ; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with t ...

, Northern Ireland, to be built by the newly founded Corry Car Company. The body was restyled by Tony Stevens and the name changed to the Corry Cultra. Ford engines and were used and the suspension was based on that of the Mk III Cortina. The cars were mostly sold for competition use, but a few road-going versions were made.

Darrian 1986 onwards

The Darrian was a revival of the original Davrian in the old factory. The body was considerably modified and the car became mid-engined. Like the Davrian, the Darrian is built using a glass-fibre composite monocoque body construction. The engine was usually from a Ford, but the

Rover Rover may refer to: People Name * Constance Rover (1910–2005), English historian * Jolanda de Rover (born 1963), Dutch swimmer * Rover Thomas (c. 1920–1998), Indigenous Australian artist Stage name * Rover (musician), French singer-songw ...

V8 or

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16-valve units were options. In 1996, Swansea Institute Team Darrian (SITD) took outright honours in the Privilege Insurance

British GT Championship The British GT Championship is a sports car racing series based predominantly in the United Kingdom. The series was originally created by the British Racing Drivers' Club in 1993 and, for its first two seasons, was known as the National Sports G ...

. The company also built a limited number of replicas of the Renault Alpine A110 rally car, known as the Monte Carlo MC220 Berlinette. Now based in Llangybi, near Lampeter and owned by Tim Duffee, Darrians continue to be built and raced with great success, performing many giant-killing acts. The current model is the Darrian T90 GTR, usually fitted with the Millington 2.5 16v 4-cylinder racing engine producing 300BHP, mated to a Hewland transaxle.

References

Citations Bibliography * * {{refend

External links

The Davrian Register websiteDarrian CarsThe Corry Cultra
Car manufacturers of the United Kingdom Kit car manufacturers