Crappy Replicas thread

Well, difference is many people very wrongly use the word replica when they mean sh!tty car with a bodykit.

To most people below 100 IQ the word "replica" is just as suitable as the word "literal" when they describe things that are vaguely resemblant.

 

Lotus simply got an exclusive on the motor, they where caught out of the water on a motor for '67 season, and managed to pull Ford in to make a new motor. The real ones to work on the motor was Ford's Cosworth based in England. Lotus's input on the motor was pretty much just to insure it fit in their car.

There are three American V8's I would switch my car to if I could. One of which would come in lighter than its current four cylinder European motor(although it would be less HP/L, but if it weighs less and makes more power....???) Another would weigh about the same, and the third would weigh more, and have the most HP/L. Just because something(American V8) is common, does not make it useless. Perhaps its not exotic, but doesn't mean its crappy. For example, semi precious gemstones are very usefull, but don't have the same value due to quantity available. Yet we rely on them in many important things of our lives without realizing it.

Check it out, "almost" could of been a cool replica, but I'd say the builder kinda lost it...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=017&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=270169655338&rd=1

When it comes to engine's for replicas. I think it depends on how available the car the replica is being made of is. In the case of a Ferrari P3/P4 replica, honestl, it needs a European motor, and Ferrari V12 more specifically. If you where to use a chevy motor, make a Mclaren replica instead... Whereas for a car that can be bought, but either is still more expensive then you want to pay for, or has problems that building your own replica would solve, then an American V8 makes perfect sense.

 

From a Porsche 944... You realise you have to compare with contemporary? Even if you are, you have to imagine that it doesn't cost 7 times the actual value of the car to make the swap.

hp/litre matters in the terms of when power is achieved with lightness.

Eg... My first car was a Mitsubishi Sigma - a car that weighed 1300kg with an engine of 2.6L which put out 80hp+ in 1982 - God knows what it had when I owned it in the late 90's.

Then I had a car weighing 900kg with a 1.6L engine from 1969 - 13 years older than my mitsubishi engine - it was dyno'd in 2003 and had 101hp at the wheels. Go figger!

mmm, quartz licking

 

Two of the motors are much older than the 944's motor. So yes, not contemporary, but I don't think that really matters when you are out looking for a motor. In California, you can only do a motor swap to a same year or newer. If you want to compare modern Porsche motors, I'd say a Chevy LS1 would still be a superior engine swap to trying to cut a Boxster motor into my car... The Cayenne V8, haven't looked into it at all, an I'm sure it'd far out cost any performance advantage.

Baring serious trouble, my '84 944 will maintain a Porsche motor for the rest of its life, but my '86 with a hole punched through it's block, will likely get something else to replace it, hopefully by next year. Most European motors are heavy compared to their engine capacity. Rather than getting caught up with how many liters a motor is, its HP/Lb is MUCH more important to a street legal road car.

 

I agree with the first statement, I absolutely love the sound of Yankee V8s, the sound of a 351 in a Pantera GTS I heard on the w/e was so good I must have one sooner or later.

Your second statement above is misguided at best, if by exotic you mean expensive I agree but if you mean exotic because they are highly efficient then you're wrong.

It's just the old fast food syndrome settling in that makes you settle for such an inefficient engine that has been around since year dot , just becuase modern metals and oils allow the engine to perform better today does not make them efficient and the big manufacturers COULD make a better engine for you but the bottomline is the dollar and they are getting better dollar for engine by serving up hamburger for $100/kg than rib eye fillet at the same price.

 

Everyday to work huh I suppose if my work place was walking distance from my place I can make my 2M4 look very reliable, How does it do durring the winter months? . But again I have seen vettes and Fbodys with more than 150k on them daily drivin cars that are weekend warriors with all sorts of aftermarket suff on them.


Ashsimmons has no idea what hes talking about when it comes to replica/kitcar talk, the guy is knoleaged on real word supercars but replicas don't think so. I can remember his baist, unintellgent trash talk from the days when I used to play with L/P where he would keep ranting about how bad replicars suck and just keeps ranting about it when he has no idea what he's talking about. It sounds like bitter hate towards kits than anything else.

as for my car I got a fiero, yeah its just a fiero which Iam doing all the work myself on. I want to drop a Buick Grand National 3.8Turbo in it or a 350 Chevy small block in it which would deliver some damn good performance if you ask me coming from a 2600pound car and it will cost me less than 5k to do so. Once iam done with it ill be able to play with vettes, vipers and even a couple ferraris like the 355F1 and up. It will be daily drivin as well as a weekend warrior so ill be working on it through out the wintertime. also I have had my sights on a Buick Grand National for the last couple of weeks, a badass car so I may or not go for it.

Funny I orginally bought the car as a platforum for a Lamborghini Diablo replica but just as I was gonna buy the kit, I found out that most of these companys gone belly up.

 

My LS1 got mpg in the high 20's, with over 400 hp at the flywheel. In town mileage was still in the high teens. If that's not efficient, what is?

 

10+

Agreed if you got beef with replicars or anything kitcar related this is the place to talk about it regardless if its engines, trannys or donorcars, kits in general it should be disgust here on this topic. Id much rather talk about the GM vs ferrari v-8 comparison here than oh say in the general topic section. Although I think this should be called crappy replicas topic its still goes on to 64+pages how? I don't know.

Why can't we disgus it here? Its still a part of the kitcar world, you put an engine cover over it suddenly its a V-12!

 

I don't know some of those look pretty good.

 

Umm..... I would have thought the title left no room for interpretation.

Its only in the last few pages that this has become a chev vs ferrarri discussion. I see the point if the discussion was chev engine in a replica vs ferrari engine in a replica..... but its not...its ferrarri vs chev... or is it ferrari vs corvette.... which is stupid and boring..... but I am still watching.



http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t=446160

http://www.gt40s.com/forum/ - most of the interesting stuff is in the section "Other Sports/GT Racers, Can Am, Lola, Porsche"
http://www.ffcobra.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi
http://superlitecars.com/phpBB2/
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/forum.asp?f=20&h=0

Mine's not been on the track yet - I am in Hong Kong and not so easy to get to a track.... but here's some stuff http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t=446160

 

Thats exactly was I was trying to talk about but we went for a serious bird walk.

Chevy vs Ferrari is a never ending topic that could easly go for more than 20pages if not carefull it almost reminds me of the days when I was on L/P and the Z06 guys where ranting to the Lambo guys. god those where the days.

That was never my intention.

 

Now this IS a crappy replica .... of what, I'm not quite sure.

See: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=171048

Quote: I'm gonna make your eyes BLEED!
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Dude, give it up. I posted my thoughts in this thread and probably others on LP years ago regarding kitcars etc, here's a cliff's notes version for you...

No matter how amazing you think your kitcar is - I am NOT going to get in one and do anything even remotely close to what can be called performance driving. The money you spend on the high-end brands reflects the R&D that goes into making the cars capable of actually handling the manufacturer's claims - and with a warranty. All a kitcar guy can do is talk about how on-paper his numbers are comparable or better than a given car.

You're so misguided to think I have "bitter hate" - why have I been contributing in this thread for over 3 years? Go back and read from the start - I'm very enthusiastic about replicating cars which are otherwise unavailable or undrivable on the road due to their value. It's only your complete and continued stupidity which I have to reply to in terms which are negative.

Being called "unintellgent" by you is seriously one of the most left-field things I've ever seen.

 

So, you would never consider a good Lotus Seven replica a good performance driver? If I where to get a track day car - it would be a kit car.

 

I'm not giving blanket statements - most of those are well-developed cars which are done properly by folks who can afford to finish it - hence the term replica.

Redneck guys who squeeze 600hp out of their engine and stick it in a car with a bodykit that resembles a Lamborghini and can't quite finish all the bits necessary but say it has better performance than the real thing (read back through loads of Pantera's posts) can quite frankly go to hell in the POS they came in.

 

that's called high gearing, IF you use the power you pay the piper, if you idle around town then you might as well buy a Toyota Prius.

Look, you gusy are taking this way too personal, America makes a lot of great things, engines just ain't one of them

 

still got a comprehension problem I see

yes everyday to work , and guess what, work is over 80kms away so 160 kms/day for the mathematically challenged

read my lips, EVERY DAY

BFD, I see a FERRARI do 180kms per day and do w/e trackdays and long (really long) trips each year ... did I mention it has never broken down ONCE ??!!!

so this is your attempt to discredit someone who gives a "real world" account of true exotica as opposed to your YouTube crap, get over yourself , your posts are illiterate at best and downright uninformed mostly

well I call BS on this one , a Fiero was a poor attempt at a car in the first place which is why everyone is putting a crappy replica body on them to hide it, but it's like ugly women that colour their hair green to draw attention to the fact they're ugly ... like wtf ???

thank goodness

 

It's crazy - for a road car I'd much prefer something that topped out at <150kph (90mph) but had low gearing down the bottom for good take-offs and close gearing the rest of the way for maintaining speed.

It's funny, after a year hiatus of driving "sports oriented" cars like the X, I almost totally forgot just *how* to drive it! This car isn't fast, this car isn't quick, but god dam it is fun! I'd been driving around my gf's Hyundai for the last couple years, and you soon forget how lazy you become behind the wheel when that wheel isn't really connected to the road. The last couple months I've been retraining myself for proper driving - ie. spending most of the time within 2k of redline and at least 80% throttle - that is AMAZING fun in such an otherwise crappy car. For the same price I could go and get a 400hp Mazda that weighs nothing and does 10flat 1/4 miles but is absolute crap to drive.

If you'll suffer this analogy, most American/muscle-car fans are basically just trying to make a fat-person strong - like a bouncer, performance car enthusiasts are about making the whole car the ultimate athlete.

 

For those who don't know - this means Big F*cking Deal.

FWIW, I would like to try out a Fiero. We only see them maybe 3 or 4 times a year on the streets here in Oz, but I think they had some potential.

 

They actually handle very well. If somebody beefs up the engine (read that as installing a different one), then they can easily outrun a 308. Happened to me (and many others) on a track. They are very well balanced and a serious contender in race trim. At the fraction of a 308 cost.

 

Hmm, just looking back at what I wrote...

I sat there thinking for a while what a Fiero has to offer... ok it's mid-engine which I really admire, really I do... in fact if you look at my posts on all the time I've spent in M3/M5/etc cars you'll note I'm not a fan of front engined cars whatsoever...

Then I got to the looks... It looks... ok. Kinda. The big problem is that it looks like it's trying hard to look good, but failing. You know, like that girl at the club who if she wasn't wearing all that make-up might actually be worth talking to?

In the end we already have Australian delivered cars in a similar configuration which look, sound, and go better - and if you're one for badge snobbery - you can say you car is Italian, German, or Japanese... all a big step up from Australian or American.

 

Ever tried a Mera? Pretty decent as well. I know two Ferrari owners who have/had one as their "day to day Ferrari".

Personally I prefer front engine cars with rear wheel drive. Easier to handle than the snap oversteer of a mid engine car.

 

Well, that's the useless point, isn't it... You can make *any* car go quicker than anything known to man.

I have this one resounding memory in my head which I apoligise if I bring it up frequently as it was quite a moment of crystallisation for me.

Basically, 15 years ago when I was... 15ish I was working in a video store and rode a pushbike to work, a mate of mine was working at McDonalds and took the bus, but was "building a car". We used to make fun of him how we were getting drunk and partying every weekend while he'd go home early to work on his car... he had enormous passion for this thing, but also (somehow!) the wisdom to not brag about something that didn't exist yet.

So anyhoo, a few months pass and we're all still sitting around the same backyard drinking beers and pretending we got laid as usual, and this guy from McDonalds turns up in this absolutely mint Mazda... something! 808 I think, but basically he shows us his timeslips from the drags where he laid a pretty much flat-10 at the 1/4. We're aghast and patting him on the back talking about all those losers in Ferraris who will never be able to keep up and stuff. Even went for a ride and the car was a bit of a pig down low, but it got up and boogied the more you stuck the boot in, and it cornered sort of okay, I had a gf with one of these cars and this dude said he'd done a whole bunch of suspension work to it but in the end it still handled sort of meh.

Well, a year or so goes by and I haven't heard from him for a while, I ask the rest of my mates where he's been at lately - expecting a Datsun that can blow off top-fuelers... they casually tell me "oh yeah, Jason wrapped that car around a tree a few months back on the Esplanade - he was toast and Emily his passenger is a vego now."

So, there ya go. :\

 

Not sure what is useless about that point. Isn't winning around the track the goal of the game? This guy in his souped out Fiero was winning against Ferraris (and Alfas). We were all pretty much bummed out and he went home smiling.

Sure I got the more prestigious car, but he beat me. I could make the 308 faster but it would cost me tons of money. Certainly more than he spent on his Fiero.

I don't have an issue when a modern Subaro or Evo beats me, but it does sting if a car of the same era beats me. Particularly one that cost a lot less to begin with.

 

"Personally" is the key word... I don't really know what to say without sounding condescending when I requote "easier to handle"...

All I can say really is that I've been in many mid/rear engine vehicles driven at "the limit" by me and others and... well, I'm still here, for now. (but also admit to many time I *could* have not ben here...)