Tim Dutton-Woolley started Dutton Cars in a small workshop in Worthing in 1970, building a series of cars called the P1. In October 1971 came the B-Type, based on Triumph Herald parts, and the company moved to a larger factory at Tangmere, near Chichester. Most Duttons used a steel ladder-frame chassis carrying the parts from a donor car, at first the Herald and later, for most models, the Mk1 or Mk2 Ford Escort.
The B-Type grew into the Phaeton roadster, built until 1989, and in 1979 Dutton launched the Sierra, an Escort-based estate with off-road looks. When Ford chose the Sierra name for its Cortina replacement three years later, it served Dutton with a writ, but the High Court ruled that kit cars were a separate category and Dutton could keep the name. The “David and Goliath” case brought welcome publicity, and the Sierra became Dutton’s best seller, at up to 22 cars a week.
In 1982 the company moved back to larger premises in Worthing, with glass-fibre bodies made at a separate works in Lancing, and by 1984 it employed 80 people across four factories and was making more than 1,000 cars a year. That October it launched the Rico, a modern-looking sporting saloon on Escort mechanicals. By 1989 Tim Dutton had tired of the kit-car scene and sold the designs.
