Richard Stewart founded Robin Hood Engineering in 1980 in Sherwood, Nottinghamshire, and began with Ferrari Daytona replicas based on the Rover SD1 and later the Jaguar XJ12. He then turned to the Lotus Seven, copying the Series 3 rather than the Series 4 whose rights Caterham had bought. In 1989 a Triumph TR7-based Robin Hood was introduced for just £995 plus VAT, and the Triumph Dolomite soon replaced the TR7 as the donor.
High Court action by Caterham almost stopped production, but an agreement was reached under which Robin Hood would not use the word “Seven” or green cars with yellow nose cones in its promotions. The monocoque-style chassis was made of sheet steel rather than tubes, for Dolomite, Cortina and Sierra donors, and the company’s selling point was simple: “one kit + one donor vehicle = car on the road”.
In 1996 and 1997 sales peaked at more than 500 kits a year, and the company moved to a 30,000 sq ft factory at Mansfield Woodhouse, once collecting 125 kits in a single day. The arrival of Single Vehicle Approval in 1998 hit the whole kit-car industry, but a new tubular-chassis kit, the “2B”, followed, and 205 were collected in late 1999. In 2006 Stewart sold the assets to Great British Sports Cars, which went on to build the Zero.
