Dutton Cars are the best-known UK kit-car maker and have an international reputation. Tim Dutton began producing cars in 1967 having learnt his skills from his father, who specialised in restoring Bentleys and Rolls-Royces. Tim supplemented this with an apprenticeship in toolmaking after leaving school. Dutton Cars went on to create thirty-five different models, at its height employing eighty people across four sites and producing twenty-two cars a week. In 1989, after supplying in excess of 10,000 kit cars, Tim switched to making amphibious ‘floating cars’ until 2024. Now he has gone back to his roots and is preparing to launch a new kit car.Steve Hole details Dutton Cars and the colourful character that is Tim Dutton through a wealth of rare and previously unpublished images.
