It may not look like much now, but in Tuckerton, NJ, Joe has a really special kit car sitting in his back yard. It’s an ultra-rare March Hare kit car. I know of only three of these so far — the prototype that’s in the first March Hare entry, and two unfinished kits. It’s a rare gem that will be quite beautiful if someone can put in the effort to finish it. This one was started — it looks like the first person cut out the light pods and must have had a plan to redesign them — but was then abandoned. Joe has decided to sell it, so if you’re interested, give him a call at 609-618-6219 between 8AM and 9PM EST.
I’m doing my best to get some info on the other one and maybe even post the assembly manual, so if you buy this one, please drop me a line… It’s one of my favorite kits, and fits in nicely with the recently posted Shalako and the Manx SR and other sports coupes designed to fit on a dunebuggy chassis (ie. a VW pan shortened by 14.5″).
Seriously, this may not look like much right now, but this is a very, very special car and it’s unlikely you’ll have the opportunity to get one again.
This car is very cool. Its a great candidate for electric conversion because its so small.
The real problem with the March Hare is that it doesn’t use a DOT approved windshield. The rear glass from whatever car (Vega, Mustang?) that fits there is not a laminated windshield, and would shatter catastrophically if a stone hit it. That could easily blind you (think of having a million shards of glass blown into you at 60mph) and just can’t be used safely. That’s why you are required to have a laminated windshield (with an inner plastic sheet that holds the glass
together) to meet DOT safety regulations. This car is simply unregisterable in any state that pays attention to kit car registrations. I’m presuming the manufacturer offered a proper windshield with the car when it was new. If so, that no doubt made the kit very expensive. If not, the project was doomed from the start, and accounts for the very low production numbers.
Its too bad, really. The car certainly is neat. If you could get away with registering it without a DOT windshield, you could use a 3/16 Lexan windscreen, but that would probably have to be oven-molded to shape, and even then it will probably need to be braced in the middle, because the Lexan is so flexible.
With some modification to the windshield frame a flat piece of laminated safety glass cut to the right dimensions could be fitted. It’s not like the kit isn’t going to require several gallons of resin and a whole roll of glass mat to get it on the road anyway. But for all that work it would be almost as easy to make another, better looking car from scratch. I like the concept of a kit based on a shortened Beetle pan, it would be a perfect candidate for a downsized or high milage VW engine installation, possibly even a cut down 2 cylinder ACVW.
PS
It might also be possible to find a windshield in a junkyard with the right curvature or one that’s close, pull it and cut it to size with a diamond wheel. Still a lot of work though and very tricky work at that, I would probably break one or more windshields before getting it right.