Factory or Kit- You decide

I know you probably hear this as well, but it keeps coming up, "your car is nothing more than a kit car". I can live with it, and actually when I first bought the Mini Mark I had suspicions it was as well. The more I researched the car and its rich history I learned otherwise, a factory or "coach built" car.

Original factory pictures discovered show around thirty five different Bremen cars coming down the line. Of those thirty five cars, a mixture of Creightons, Sebrings and Mini Marks, I can count around fifteen Mini Marks just on the day this picture was taken.

Coach-building goes back to the 1450’s when wagons were built. In fact there were so many coach-builders that almost every city had one. In the late 1800’s as horseless cars came to life, coach-builders began to customize the frames and engines coming off the assembly lines. From those beginnings until around 1920 coach-builders bought artistry to the square boxy cars coming off the evolving assembly lines. The more the assembly lives developed: thanks to Henry Ford, and cars started to have curves and character, coach-building diminished. By the war years only the rich could afford the work of a coach-builder, and car companies were not willing to sell frames to coach-builders. They were designing their own stylish bodies during those years. With the end of the wars, most of the coach-builders had disappeared, and only the assembly line designs were available.

This brings me to Bremen Motors. Although they were not known as traditional coach-builders, they took a chance to bring artistry to a simple and plain Bug type Volkswagen. Their cars were not cheap by any means, actually around 9-10 times what the Beetles were. If you purchased one of the original 300-400 factory built Mini Marks, you had to like the design and be able to afford it, around $15K, expensive for the day. 

Here is a list of some of the documented coach-builders in the USA, Brewster & Co., Brunn, Budd Company, Derham, Earl Automobile Works, Fisher, Fleetwood, KEM Motorworks, LeBaron, Locke, N2A Motors Inc., Murphy, Rollston, Willoughby, SSZ Motorcars. Some of you may recognize the Earl Automotive Works, it was the company of Harley J Earl of GM and Corvette fame. I am not putting the Mini design in the same league of the Corvette, but it is stylish and innovative. It didn’t copy the much duplicated MG design of those years, that many “kit cars” did. It had a character of it’s own, and yes it did borrow other car designs, but have you seen a "new: design in any car brand or design?. 

There was a “kit” option for the Mini Mark, and I found the factory sheets on assembled and kits. I was told that at least up until the 80’s when ownership changed hands, not many, if any kits were sold. If you notice the date on the "kit" paperwork it is 1981, near the end of production. 

So you decide, there are probably some hints in craftsmanship on what you have, but with this many coming down the line, chances are you have a factory built, let someone prove otherwise, and many will try.