This week on the ABC.

Niche vehicles

While mass-market car production is over, boutique carmakers still exist and are even setting up.

PHOTO: Campbell Bolwell has been designing and building sports cars since the 1960s. (ABC RN: Fiona Pepper)

Bolwell started making sports cars in the 1960s and 70s and, after a long hiatus, has returned to producing even faster supercars in its factory in Melbourne.

But it's got competition setting up in Adelaide, with arguably Australian motorsport's most famous name, Brabham, building Australia's first hypercar, the BT62.

"What's a hypercar?" you may ask. Just one that can set the fastest lap recorded by a closed-wheel vehicle around Australia's most iconic racetrack, Mount Panorama.

PHOTO: The new Brabham BT62 will be built in Adelaide, South Australia. (Supplied: Brabham Automotive Company)

The BT62 set a lap time of just under 1:59 a year ago, shaving almost 5 seconds of the fastest lap by a V8 Supercar.

With a limited production run of just 70 cars and a price tag around $2 million, it certainly can't be described as mass-market.

Another speciality market that Australian vehicle manufacturers are looking to exploit is defence.

German defence giant Rheinmetall has just finished building a $170 million manufacturing facility in Queensland, which is expected to commence operations later this year.

It's been constructed to handle a $5.2 billion contract for the company to build more than 200 armoured reconnaissance vehicles for the Australian Army.

So, while the Australian auto industry has shrunk dramatically over the past few years, reports of its death are premature and exaggerated.