Derek Johns started DJ Sportscars as a glass-fibre moulding company in 1968, and it became the first British company to make a kit-based replica of the AC 427 Cobra. In 1975 John Tojeiro, who had designed the chassis of the original AC Ace, became a director, and the car was renamed the Dax Tojeiro.
Continuous development turned it into the Dax 427, which from 2003 was offered with a de Dion rear axle as well as independent rear suspension, and could take most American V8s and Jaguar engines including the V12, with manual or automatic transmission. Dax also built the Californian, a Porsche 356 lookalike on Volkswagen Beetle parts, and the Nevada off-roader, both announced in 1985, and the Rush, a two-seater that took anything from a turbocharged four to a Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle engine.
In 1996 the company launched the Kamala, a radical supercar designed by former Ford designer Peter Walker with a two-litre Cosworth turbo engine and a claimed 0-60 mph time of 3.5 seconds. In August 2017 John Kox acquired production of the Dax 427, and a new Dax Coupe based on the 427 appeared at the Stoneleigh show in 2018.
