Cimbria Kit Car
Cimbria Series I
Sometime in the mid ’70’s yet another entrepreneur took hold of a Sterling and molded his own version. Joe Palumbo founded Amore Cars in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with the Cimbria (body basic to the Sterling, mounted on a VW Beetle chassis) and the later Cimbria SS with a fully integrated monocoque body and roll cage.
First generation Cimbria are roughly the same dimensions as the Sterling. First generation Cimbria featured doors that were not cut to the sills, but ended at the bodyline and were hinged very near the edge of the roof. The early SS featured a split rear hatch reminiscent of the DeTomaso Mangusta, but overheating problems with air-cooled powerplants led to the redesign with the monocoque body and open tail much like the Sebring.
Word has from original owners that the first Cimbrias were sold in 1974, which makes for some interesting time line comparisons, but verifiable paperwork is non-existant. In a recent discussion with someone close to CCC, a mention of “two guys from Chicago” going off on their own after having a Sterling distributorship for about a year. This was likely before the Midwest plant opened (and perhaps hastened that!), so who were those men?
Cimbria SS
In subsequent models which became the SS, the doors were cut deeper to the sill plate and were hinged closer to the centerline of the roof. One of the unique features of the SS was it’s well designed fresh air vent system. Early cars had vents at the base of the windshield and at the front of the car leading to integrated, molded pipes that lead into the cockpit. Later versions did away with the windshield vents, but retained the nose openings. Once again, production figures are not known, and estimates are around 500-600 vehicles built.
In the early 1990’s, Neria Yachts in Wilmington, North Carolina, built their own molds from a purchased Cimbria and had a limited run of cars called ‘Nerias’, with a severely modified shortened nose and the options of a full tube chassis and modern running gear.One of our members remembers seeing at least 10 finished vehicles in a Las Vegas dealership or car show, but I’ve never seen one come to market. One more builder in Canada who also has a version of the Cimbria, called the ‘Bernardi’. Sterling Auto Classics in Ontario shows a single finished car on their website (for sale last time I looked), but I have been unable to confirm any others produced.