Burlington Cars was a British

kit car A kit car is an automobile available as a set of parts that a manufacturer sells and the buyer then assembles into a functioning car. Usually, many of the major mechanical systems such as the engine and transmission are sourced from donor ve ...

company originally based in

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...

, Warwickshire. They moved to Northampton in 1988 becoming the Burlington Motor Company reforming as the Burlington Design Group in 1989. Kit production seems to have stopped in around 1992. Founded by Haydn Davis the cars were at first of the "plan and pattern" car) type similar to the JC Midge. Like the Midge it uses a Triumph donor and constructs a body of plywood on top of it, i.e. a

body-on-frame Body-on-frame, also known as ladder frame construction, is a common motor vehicle construction method, whereby a separate body or coach is mounted on a strong and relatively rigid vehicle frame or chassis that carries the powertrain (the en ...

design. As of 2008, the plans have been made available again for home constructors.

Burlington car models

* Burlington SS, a

Morgan Morgan may refer to: People and fictional characters * Morgan (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Morgan le Fay, a powerful witch in Arthurian legend * Morgan (surname), a surname of Welsh origin * Morgan (singer ...

copy, later sold as Dorian SS.Mike Lawrence, ''A to Z of Sports Cars, 1945-1990'', The early SS had no doors and only the top flat parts of the bonnet halves opened. The SS MK2 was provided with doors and full opening bonnet halves. It could also be built as a 4 seater. * Burlington Arrow, a two-seat, doorless roadster with cycle wings (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. The series included the MG TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, and MG TF Midget models. The last of these models, the TF, was replac ...

) inspired by the 1935

Triumph Dolomite The Triumph Dolomite small saloon car was produced by the Triumph Motor Company division of the British Leyland Corporation in Canley, Coventry between October 1972 and August 1980. Background The Dolomite was the final addition to Triumph's ...

Straight Eight. Built according to plans and using a modified chassis from 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, est ...

. Later chassis plans were made so it could be built using parts from

Triumph Spitfire The Triumph Spitfire is a British sports car and manufactured over five production iterations between 1962-1980. Styled for Standard- Triumph in 1957 by Italian designer Giovanni Michelotti, the Spitfire was introduced at the London Motor Show ...

, Vitesse, or GT6. Over 6000 copies of the plans were sold resulting in an estimated 500 cars built. Some using donors such as

Lotus Elan Lotus Elan is the name of two separate ranges of automobiles produced by Lotus Cars. The first series of cars was produced between 1962 and 1975 as a rear-wheel drive vehicle. The second series was produced between 1989 and 1995 as a front-wheel ...

Triumph TR4 The Triumph TR4 is a sports car produced by the Triumph Motor Company from 1961 to 1965. As the successor to the TR3A, the car was based on the chassis and drivetrain of the previous TR sports cars, but with a modern body designed by Michelot ...

Reliant Scimitar The Reliant Scimitar name was used for a series of sports car models produced by British car manufacturer Reliant between 1964 and 1986. During its 22-year production it evolved from a coupe (GT) into a sports estate (GTE), with a convertible va ...

and even the

Volkswagen Beetle The Volkswagen Beetle—officially the Volkswagen Type 1, informally in German (meaning "beetle"), in parts of the English-speaking world the Bug, and known by many other nicknames in other languages—is a two-door, rear-engine economy car, ...

. Burlington also made the radiator surround (nose cone) and scuttle top, but about half of the builders made their own instead of buying them. * Burlington Berretta, same as the Arrow, but with fixed wings and running boards. * Burlington Chieftain, World War II style Jeep also on Triumph Spitfire or GT6 chassis. The design did not require any alterations on the chassis except for cutting some parts off. The plans also allowed you to scale it down and make one for the kids. * Burlington Centurion, a futuristic Triumph Spitfire based car designed by the American Quincy-Lynn compan

References

External links

{{commons category, Burlington Cars
The Burlington Register

Haydn Davies' site
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of England Kit car manufacturers Companies based in Leamington Spa Manufacturing companies based in Northampton