Foulkes Impala

The Foulkes Impala was a British kit car produced by Foulkes Developments Ltd. in Dartmouth, Devon, from 1981 to 1985.

Founded by Alan Foulkes in 1981, the company offered the Impala as a replacement body kit designed to fit the chassis of either a Fiat 500 or a Fiat 126.

The Impala’s body was hand-built from one-piece reinforced fibreglass, or GRP, and its styling drew comparisons with the Mini Moke.

Early cars built between 1981 and 1983 had square wheelarches, while the restyled second series introduced in 1984 used round wheelarches and slightly reshaped wings.

When production ended in 1985, Foulkes also abandoned plans for another Fiat 126-based model, a 2+2 coupe that never reached production.

The basic kit was priced at around £600, though one surviving example was sold in the UK as a kit in May 1982 for £723.50 including extras such as a color upgrade, roll-over bar, hood and frame, side screens, and a set of mats and cables.

The Impala could be fitted with several optional items, including a hardtop roof with a molded-in roof rack, a folding convertible top, side screens, bumpers, and even a pick-up conversion called the Burro.