Adrian Evans, a structural engineer, built a series of cars called Davrian from 1965 in Clapham, south London, based on the Hillman Imp, whose Coventry Climax-derived aluminium engine, transaxle and suspension they used. By 1967 the design had settled into a two-seat glass-fibre monocoque coupé, the Davrian Imp, and Davrian Developments was formed to sell it in kit form. It weighed only about 410 kg.
Over the years the car went through Marks 1 to 8, with a variety of engines including the mid-mounted Mini of the Davrian Demon, rear-mounted Volkswagen and Renault units, and a mid-mounted Ford Fiesta engine. Davrians proved very popular with amateur rally and circuit racers. The company moved to Tregaron in west Wales in 1976 and to Lampeter in 1980.
That year the Mk8 was offered as a complete car, the Fiesta-engined Davrian Dragon, but the company did not have enough capital and went into receivership in 1983. The Dragon became the Corry Cultra, built in Lisburn in Northern Ireland, while the original design was revived in the Lampeter factory as the Darrian, which won outright honours in the British GT Championship in 1996 and is still built and raced from Llangybi, near Lampeter.
