DF Goblin Kit Car Delivers Thrills On A Budget

Titled and located in Ardmore, Oklahoma, this is a DF Goblin Kit Car available at auction right now. It doesn’t make much horsepower, just 155 ponies, but it weighs just 1,550 pounds (703 kg) at most. No matter how you shake it, that’s a killer power-to-weight ratio for someone who’s into driving something that just happens to be a little dangerous.

That danger comes from its light weight, lack of safety equipment, and in this case, some questionable tires. We’ll come back to those later though. For now, let’s chat about what this actually is. DF builds the Goblin kit in Texas and it enables buyers to add their own running gear from a Chevrolet Cobalt or Pontiac G6.

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This owner chose the base configuration, a naturally aspirated 2.2-liter inline four-cylinder from the Cobalt along with an automatic gearbox. Sure, it’s not going to set your hair on fire but consider this: it has a power-to-weight ratio hovering right around that of an original Dodge Viper RT/10. Having driven one of those, I can tell you, it’s a proper laugh and I expect this Goblin is too.

Now, let’s chat about some of the potential pitfalls or downsides of owning this kit car. First, there’s an age-old adage about not buying another person’s project. It’s hard to know how to maintain this unless you’ve been around it. Secondly, it’s running Vercelli tires which aren’t exactly what we’d call the pinnacle of tire technology these days.

On something like a minivan, it probably doesn’t matter. On a lightweight kit car, it’s important to have as much grip as possible. Of course, maybe less grip is more fun in this case. Perhaps those are concerns that you’re comfortable handling. If that’s the case, head on over to Cars & Bids where this thing will probably go for under $10,000 based on its current high bid of just $6,400 with a few hours left in the auction.