UK Kit Car Maker Wins £2m Grant To Develop Hybrid Sports Car

A small company that builds Caterham-style kit cars out of a tubular chassis has been granted over £2 million to develop a lightweight hybrid sports car.

Great British Sports Cars (GBSC), based in Broughton in Nottinghamshire, has won the £2.1 million grant as part of a wider government spend on new and emerging technologies. The new money will help the company design and test a petrol-electric hybrid version of its Seven-type sports car, with a target of 100 miles in EV mode in real-world driving and a range-extending engine for longer trips.

At present the company only builds the GBS Zero, which has the Seven-type body but a bespoke frame that allows the engine to be mounted further back towards the driver for better weight distribution.

GBSC can install any one of a dozen or so engine options, with ready-made engine mounts and exhausts for everything from Pinto and old Ford Crossflow units to the F20C Honda S2000 unit, which must be staggeringly good. There are also options for motorbike engines, V6s and even rotaries.

We’re looking forward to seeing what the company can do, because the idea sounds pretty amazing.