insulted by a kit car

Sounds like he skipped the "sunk costs" lecture in ECO101.

 

I don't get it... why ruin a Fiero by turning it into something that it never was. If I were to build a Fiero-based kit car there's only one option:
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The red "Diablo" in this show was at Cars & Cafe yesterday. Trim parts were falling off and the owner hit his head on the door getting out. It was obviously a 6 cylinder Fiero engine making that racket, the gas filler was on the wrong side and the shifter had a boot instead of a gate.

None of that prevented it from getting VIP treatment and a parking spot right by a nice REAL 512 BBI. The cameras were clicking and the crowd jostled to get a better look at such a treasure and possibly meeting the lucky driver.

Pathetic.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/161768/engine-block-lambo-dyno

Make sure you watch it to the end. The best part is when they do a comparison of the two cars on a chassis dyno. Not what you expect.

 

If you lived in Tampa I would say we saw the same car.

It was an older S-class I believe with TR gates. I couldn't not look at it.

 

Wow.. the ending was just jam packed with failure.

 

Too funny. That was exactly what I was wondering when they hooked it up...

 

Who was dumber, The Lambo guy or the genius with the dyno? When He was strapping the front wheels I thought he was going to make a new entrance to his shop!!

 

Those aren't really kit cars though... aren't they "authorized reproductions"?

Jedi

 

There are a lot of different Cobra replicas with varying degrees of faithfulness to the original. Some are virtually identical to genuine Shelbys. Carroll Shelby himself has de-facto "authorized" them by putting his autograph on a lot of them.

None that I've seen are anything like a Fiero with a fake plastic skin.

 

The few I've seen around here (Seattle area) look NICE... with the Carroll Shelby
signature plate on the dash and all.... I would have no problem owning one.

Beats the hell out of THIS:




Jedi
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Interesting thoughts.

What's the difference between these tragi-comedic monstrosities and the numerous 250GTO recreations out there.

By the standards here, the only difference between a "fake" and a "recreation" is the spelling?

 

?? An authorized recreation is made under license starting with all new parts - frame,
engine, body and is done in a factory - Cobra, Model T - LOTS of good examples. A
"fake" is a "kit car" - bondo a bunch of panels up on a worn out Fiero and call it an
F40. yes, there is a difference.



Jedi

 

That's the best kit car I've ever seen... it could almost pass for the real thing!



All the best,
Andrew.

 

When I had 348 10 years ago, I was walking towards it after eating dinner with my wife and a couple were just walking up to it as they were getting into their car. She says "isn't that a Ferrari" and he said "no way, that is one of them Pontiac Fiero kit cars." I wanted to correct the guy, but I said nothing and got in and left.

 

I doubt any of the T buckets or 32 Ford street rods are built under anyone's license from Ford. They are however frequently quality-built examples that are in fact improvements over the "real" cars. This is particularly true of the new production steel-bodied examples that I've seen.

The Cobras that I was referring to were not the ones actually being sold by Shelby as much as the replicas that I've seen that Carroll Shelby has personally autographed at car shows. He has a reputation for signing just about anything you put in front of him, for a fee.

 

a friend is building this kit car. inexpensive, reliable and looks like a good performer.

https://www.factoryfive.com/galleries/project-818/sema-2013-818s/

i couldnt find a kit car thread, so i put this here.
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Me want !

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvs5jRi4h80]Lancia Stratos replica: is the Lister Bell STR kitcar better than the real thing? - YouTube[/ame]

 

Kit car? Yes - those are crap; Aluminum "Tribute" car? Not so much.

Case in point;
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2-AYOUikY4]Hand made all-aluminum Spyder 550 Porsche tribute car - YouTube[/ame]

You can even get a real 4cam motor for an extra 200k.

There's also some Ferrari options like this one too;

1962 Ferrari 250 GTO Recreation

If you love these cars and multi million dollars per car is not realistic - are these really so bad of an option? I think I could get over the stigma of these not being real.

 

That looks like fun!

 

I too dislike the plastic Fiero-crap-bucket "kits". Just DUMB. I don't get the thought process. Heck, I even like Fieros in their own right. At least it was an interesting design in a time of lots of boring ones. The 1988 GT was actually a pretty darn good car with its Lotus-designed suspension and the GM V6. They should be taken care of, not destroyed by guys in trailer parks trying to build "Ferraris".

I also really like a few of the "recreation" type cars.

My personal favorites:



The new C-Type | Proteus Cars

C-Type | Lynx Motors
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Would not kick that out of my garage. Looks like a lot of fun.

 

Reminds me of a mix of a Lotus/Tesla Roadster Body, Alfa Romeo tail lights, and Honda S2k Headlights.

Nice ride.

 

When the rare time I take my 87 TR to a car show I always open the engine cover. My buddy tells every body its a kit car for kicks. It doesn't bother me at all. Any body with any car knowledge can see the flat 12cylinder.

 

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/ferrari-discussion-not-model-specific/434231-ferrari-reproduction-operation-shut-down-spain.html

Looks like Ferrari isn't amused by fakes/replicas.

 

To me there is a heirarchy of these types of vehicles.

Worst: VW or Fiero frame with a fiberglass body that "sort of" looks like the car they are going after. Almost always the proportions are off and the thing looks like a joke from the outside, a sad excuse for a vehicle on the interior. Should be crushed.

Bad: VW or Fiero frame with a goofy body that doesn't intend to look like any other car, but is still ugly and the interior is often standard fare from the donor car. Horrible.

Mariginally Acceptable: Component car that uses new tube frame and fiberglass body that looks almost exactly like the real thing from five feet away. Beck Spyder falls into this. Most Cobra replicas too. Acceptable if the original is far too valuable to drive every day.

Acceptable: Exact replication (as much as is possible) of an iconic car preferably with metal body and using as many original components as possible. Some GT40 reps are like this, the Favre GTO also comes to mind. They are very expensive for a fake, usually well into six figures. As long as the owner doesn't pass it off as the real thing or better yet has a real one with this as his throw-away, no problem from me.

Very acceptable: Component cars that have their own frame and mostly bespoke components, usually using someone's engine and frequently parts like steering racks or suspension from other vehicles. Ultima is one example. It really is its own car and doesn't look like anything else.