What is an Exmo?

The Robin Hood Exmo is a kitcar. By that I mean you buy a bunch of bits as a package, add a few of your own, and stick 'em together. Most American kitcars take a rather different approach - heavily modifying an existing car with body kits - usually to imitate something more expensive.

Robin Hood Exmo and Lotus Elise

What it isn't.

The Exmo is styled after the Lotus Seven which was first produced in 1957 by Colin Chapman. The Lotus design steadily over the years, and was eventually sold to Caterham Cars in '66, where it continues to evolve, and is still at the leading edge of its type.
Modern Caterhams are still basic in many respecs, but along with other high end kit cars like Westfield, they are at the upper edge of performance. (With a 0-60 time of 3.44 seconds for one model it held the record for production car acceleration for a time).

As Caterham performance improved, and their kits became more comprehensive, so their price increased.Currently I believe the cheapest kit is around 9000 pounds, up to around 30000 for a fully finished car. This opened up the market to competitors - at the momment in England there are around 14 companies selling "sevenesque" kitcars, from Westfield who compete at a similar level to Caterham, to Formula 27 and similar - who simply sell you plans for around 100 pounds.
 

Robin Hood.

Robin Hood is somewhere toward the bottom of the price range, while still providing a comprehensive kit that minimises the extra parts you need to buy. Their aim is for a "single donor" kit - i.e. buy the kit, and one old car, and you have all you need. In some respects they succeed, but most people building a car will choose to spend extra on reconditioning parts their live will depend on.

Robin Hood is a unusual company in the Sevens market - most build their cars from tube steel spaceframes - strong, light, but time consuming to build. Richard Stewart - the company's boss - takes the approach of most modern cars. Build the chassis out of folded steel sheet, spot welded and bolted together. This is much less time comsuming to build at the factory, so allowing the cheapest kit with a ready built chassis on the market.

Over the years, Robin Hoods have used a variety of donor cars for engine and suspension - TR7, Triumph Dolomite, Ford Cortina,  Vauxhall Chevette and even a 5.8 litre Jaguar V-12. The Exmo uses Ford Sierra components.

The Exmo ("EXport MOdel") was pitched as a minimum cost Robin Hood - the main difference between it and other Robin Hoods is the front suspension - it uses Macpherson struts like many production cars in place of the more usual (for Sevens) double wishbones. The kit sold at 1000 pounds plus tax for a mild steel version, with 80% of buyers spending an extra 350 pounds to upgrade to stainless steel. Optional components - like the roof - were exrta.

The Exmo was sold as a kit on 3 occasions during 1996, each time about 140 people collecting kits from the factory in Nottingham, but production has now moved over to the Mk3 - back to double wishbone front suspension, more complete kit specification, and even an option to fit a Rover V8 engine.

Back to the Exmo page.