The Rossion Q1 Is The Underrated American Supercar Everyone Forgot Existed
"Kit car" is rarely a compliment. The phrase summons up images of unwieldy synthetics wrapped haphazardly around deeply ordinary vehicles, hoping to score the image of a supercar without any meaningful investment of time, care, skill, or money. The muzzle whines, the plastic flaps, it's just sad for everyone.
At least, so goes the stereotype. In fact, the overbroad phrase "kit car" obscures some genuinely good vehicles. On occasion, a clever carmaker marries the external elements from one source with the internals from another to create something better than either. ECD Automotive famously builds all-electric rigs with the bodies of old-school Land Rovers and E-Type Jags. V8Archie united the looks of a Lamborghini Miura with the guts of a Pontiac Fiero to make a killer 500HP muscle car.
Maybe the finest example of what a kit car can be is shamefully forgotten, however. The Rossion Q1 was an all-American supercar that could seriously worry European and Japanese competitors with no more than a chassis makeover and a little extra love.
Good engineers borrow, great engineers reimagine
At first glance, many well-informed motorheads might call the Rossion Q1 a Noble M400 with a body kit. Certainly, that's what CarScoops thought. That, of course, is the point. Noble has always understood the power of remixing a winning formula; its current M500 is a handful of fiberglass wrapped around the engine from a Ford GT. It only makes sense that one of its platforms would make an equally excellent platform for modification.
This, Rossion did. Per Car and Driver, the Florida-based startup simply bought the M400's manufacturing rights, named its version the Q1, and went to work. Rossion completely rebuilt the Noble's body for the Q1; when it was done, the only piece of the M400 left was the windshield. A new suspension ate rough road, a clear departure from the comparatively finicky original. Kit car bodies are sold separately from their drivetrains, of course (that's the "kit" part of "kit car"; you have to put them together yourself) but Rossion recommended a turbocharged Ford V6 laying down 450 horsepower, edging out the M400's 425.
The result, according to Car and Driver, was stiffer, safer, and more responsive. Just one-tenth of a second slower to 60 than the M400, the Rossion outperformed its parent at high speeds, hitting 120 faster than a Ferrari Scuderia. CarScoops also reported quality-of-life improvements, including a smoother six-speed manual gearbox and a major upgrade of Noble's infamously clunky analog cockpit. All in all, the Q1 was almost enough to give kit cars a good name.