Bill Devin was an early pioneer developing kit cars during the 50’s and 60’s. He had a strong interest and a developing skill using fiberglass (at that time an emerging construction material) as a means of reproducing some of the most iconic race car styling of the period. His goal was to marry that great design, using fiberglass bodies, to readily available chassis’ from various manufacturers and thus make a reasonably priced exotic kit car available to all.

One of his first efforts was to develop a mold based on a LeMans DB Panhard body and then produce molded fiberglass versions of that design. With a great car design in hand he mated the bodywork to a Panhard race car chassis and drivetrain producing the Devin-Panhard kit car variant. Following that Bill turned his attention to reproducing, in fiberglass, the stylish Italian Ermini sports racer. He was now armed with a couple of great looking sports car designs he could combine with various readily available chassis and offer people a low cost exotic sports car.

With a couple of nice body designs that could be adapted to chassis made by Crosley, Healey, Triumph, MG, Fiat, Hillman, Volkswagen and Morris, Bill Devin started turning out sports car bodies and components that could be assembled by the mechanically adept sports car enthusiast. By the mid 60’s many body/chassis variants were created, by Bill and many enthusiasts, including the Volvo based version that we at 3R are going to restore for a customer. This Devin-Volvo version is based on the PV444/544 chassis and a B16 engine. The customer has stockpiled, over the years, parts for this effort which will aid in returning the car to period specific condition.