Automirage 250 SWB replica

The lines aren't too far off....

Auto Mirage

 

Lol....lines are very very far off

 

Please explain what exactly is very far off.

Bob Z.

 

Very bloated/heavy looking

 

Correct
Overall shape wrong

 

Well, if I could buy one for what I used to sell them for, around $5,000, I would. I wonder what the frame material is; it looks heavy. Next question: Will the factory go after them?

 

Maybe they already did! (I can't get the automirage.co.uk site to load at all)
No problem though, I was just curious. That kind of car would be fun to only drive in bad weather when some people would not know what they just saw.

Cheers!

 

Can you imagine that as a daily driver?

 

Why would Ferrari go after them? its not claiming to be one, or using anything associated with Ferrari.

Its a retro inspired kit car with a bmw engine, and a lot of hard work has gone into it.

Would I want one, no thanks, looks like it weighs a ton and probably handles like a bus

 

Agree........So much effort entailed but yes it does look wrong. I would love to see the finished car but the nose appears too flat to me.

 

Looks pretty good to me. I'm sure it's a matter of time before the factory goes after them, can't imagine they sit back given past history.

 

Might be fun to put a 550 motor in it.

 

A fake is a fake.

Period.

 

And while we will certainly agree this is a a fake, the question is could it be a fun car, is it well engineered lightish and what woudl it do with a 550 motor in it.

No question its a fake. A Lynx XKSS is a recreation, as is a allgretti swb, and most old race cars are data plate rebuilds(ie recreatiosn with plausable claim to data plates.)

Can a fake be fun? Or is the term Fake used to imply it never can be?

I like cars, and cool cars, the badge is secondary.

As it is this thing looks like a lash up.

 

The worst thing to happen to the Cobra was all the fakes that were made. When you see one now you immediately think "fake".

What a tragedy for those who own real ones...

We criticize "fake" goods from China and copying intellectual property. But when someone makes a fake Ferrari we say....?

 

Yep I agree.

 

Why would Rolex go after a company making watches that look like Rolexes?

Amen.

 

That may be because the authentic Cobras are worth so much that they are almost never driven.

All the cars you see on the streets are replicas.

 

Registering as a 1965 allows you to avoid emissions and crash test regs, otherwise you couldnt drive the car at all. Yes many kit owners may like to pretend too.

As to the fake vs real. Is an autocraft ac Mk4 more or less real than a kirkham.
Autocraft held the type from AC, they were even blessed by ford, aluminum bodied but there were changes includign smogged 302's. A Kirkham is nuts bolt the same as a 66.

Some cars are fakes, kits, some are continuations and some are recreations. No need to be a snob, and no need for owners to pretend a cool car is anythign other than what it is.

Is a cut 2+2 into a Gto a real ferrari, well the chassis motor gearbox and many bits are, far more so than some resurtected racers, so technicaly it is and more than one "real" owner has one. Yet these cars are pretenders.

Far more honest to have new build allegreti swb without the horsey but in every way as origional. Better to accept a car like that than to have priceless old cars destroyed to make soemthign that has a chassis plate and a horsey. Most recently the can am ferrari butchered. But hey its a ferrari, has the chasiss and motor. Better in my book to sanction new build p4's.

There is no black and white here and lots of grey.

But yeah the Auto Mirage car is just a fake.

 

FIA and various sanctioning bodies now reckognises and accept recreations built to spec for historic racing, thereby expanding grids and preserviong the very few surviving period artifacts. Thats how come we have new Chevron B16's and Lola T70s not to mention Gt40s and others on historic grids in Europe. Given the life of the origionlas being destryed and rebuilt mutiple times the only thing serpating them from the recreations is the data plate.

Many origional manufactuerers make new old cars(recreations) including most recently jaguar, so it wouldnt be illgal if licenesed by the type holder, but might still make the owner a fake if they pretend its a period origional. Then w ehave cars licensed but far from the origional in spec, certain shelby licensed cobras come to mind.

Of course I think many an origional race car is a george washingtons axe fake, how much 50s metal remains, that to me is really pretnding, wrapping it all in provenance. But as with recreations the market and prices discern acordingly.


I agree, why call it somehting its not on a placard, but then thats what you get for going to car shows instead of driving. Peronaly I think concors and shows has done more to destroy the art of drivign than anything, creating cars as something to posess show off and putter around in without really using as designed.

If you own a cool car whatever it is be proud of what it is. Mostly I come down on the side of the drivign experience, so I think sancytion 2 zgatos new etype lighweights and a whole host of others are just great. Recreations are fine if done properly and known as what they are. Kit cars those are silohettes of something.

If you ever see a spitfire flying its a recreation, they used magnesium rivets in the 40s no "origionals" really fly. Personaly I dont care whether the spit has a coroded data plate dug out of a wreck or not, if its a spit its a spit, same with cars. Of course data plates add value to spits and multiples to new build old cars. Or as someone in the aircraft field said, if it has a data plate its a reconstruction and if you cant dig up the data plate then its a recreation.

I do see value in mystique in theroeticaly farting where fangio did, although real old cars should be in museums saved for posterity while recreations can be raced in real anger without fear of destruction. To the extent there is civilization and historic racing 100 years from now they will probably be all recreations. Better to control it with authenticity as FIA does then, at least imo.

How many of the Gt40s at goodwood do you think were Gelescoe and SPF cars, you would be surprised. I am good with it as long as no one trys pretend its an old build and there I agree with you as most do try pretend.

In fact besides the driving, the most fun you can have with a recreation is telling people who come over to ask exactly what it is, mostly they are amazed something so awesome and exact is new built and that you dont have to be a billioaire to own one, they also love seeing that type of machine driven in anger as opposed to paraded around a track for fear of dmage. In other words it puts histroric racing/tracking/enjoying back in the hands of the types of enthusiasts who saved unloved old cars back in the 60s and 70s because they valued them for what they were and the experience they provided the owner, when everbody else thought they were just used up uncompetitive cars.

A few years ago at the LRP historics I spoke to the lady owner of a RHD 250GTO. She told me her fater under protest had gotten the car for her when she graduated college in the 60s. He had pronmised her anew car upon graduation but was reluctant to buy an old clapper. She just wanted to drive a GTO, she said over the past 40 something years a few husbands had come and gone but the car stayed. It was never bought as an inevestment or to impress, purely to enjoy. Since many great old cars are now expensive "art" and new ones bland, recreations offer the same enjoyment today that this lady sought when she bought a used Gto 40 something years ago.

Rob I know you may not agree, but its a perspective.

Kit cars, if people are into it, I have no problem I like all car people, just dont pretend, then you are not a car person but car posessor. Not sure how I feel about all those old polished vettes driven by grumpy old farts at 30 mph from one field to the next, I guess its a social thing but I feel sorry for the car.

 

Instead of Ferrari engine, just drop BMW V12 with carbs in it and dont brand it as F car, all should be well.