Almquist Engineering made the bulk of their money from their large mail-order hot rod parts catalogue. They got into the kit car business by purchasing bodies from the defunct Clearfield Plastics company. The body was the basis of the Saber I, based on a modified Fiat Topolino chassis. The Saber II was shorter with a higher deck, while the Speedster I, II & III were longer versions of the Saber. The glitzy El Morocco used American based mechanicals. The last Almquist body was the Thunderbolt, which resembled the newly introduced 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.