Replicas what do you think?

the only thing i dislike more than replicas are their owners....

ernie

(edit: i should probably note that when i say replica i am reffering to the lamborghini/ferrari kit cars on fiero bodies and the like. the well built cobra replicas are pretty damn nice)

 

Don't even go there.

Maybe with all this free time you could fill out your profile?

Have Fun.

 

brigitte,

im not sure what your implying, but in my experience the only thing more distasteful than a poorly built kit car is the owner trying to pass it off as the real thing. fine if you disagree, but please avoid the cryptics

ernie

 

Ernie,

She simply is implying before you damn these replica owners ... can we have some more information about you to see if you actually are any better?

Come on lets not degrade this thread with personal attacks. This was actually the best thread on replicas until we started talking about owners. Who cares we are talking about cars here ... it is not www.PersonalityChat.com.

Pete

 

pete,

point taken. i should have clarified my original remark, i apologize for not being more clear about exactly what i meant. what i meant to say is that the owners of these replicas are typically much more interested in appearing to be wealthy enough to own an exotic car than being actually interested in the car itself. to me, thats distasteful. i dont think of myself as a "better" person because i dont drive a rebodied fiero, but I am someone who loves the marque and the cars for what they are. that makes me a true enthusiast, but not a superior human being.

ernie

 

I'll be building a '63 Corvette Grand Sport replica when I finish up with school...and my friend just got his 598BBC engine for his Cobra replica finished.

 

i recently picked up a mg/vw kit. the car had been built by a dad and his son about 10 years or so ago. just needed a little tlc to get it right. i drive it every day. lots of fun, like an overgrown go kart. i don't pass it off as real. why would you. it has a style of it's own. an english style roadster with german powerplant. it's the car that might have been if operation sea lion had succeded. i must admit i don't get the ferrari/lambo replicas though. the appeal of the hobby to me is the affordability and simplicity. mistakes are cheap. parts plentiful and easy to get. if i owned an original i certainly wouldn't be able to say that. i used to have a tr3 in my youth. i still can't reach for a headlight switch or turn a key without feeling a pang of doubt. it seems if you've got the money to put a high end kit together why not restore the real thing. there are lots of 308s out there that would make great project cars.

 

Okay I can agree with your comments ... if that is really the reason they built the replica.

But I can think of many REAL Ferrari owners that have bought a Ferrari as they are 'more interested in appearing to be wealthy enough to own an exotic car than being interested in the car itself' too. To me also that is distasteful . That IMO is one of the stigmas in owning an exotic car ... one that I am not sure I want to be part of.

Thus lets assume that we are talking about people wanting to create replicas to enthusiastically allow themselves to enjoy a car they would otherwise not been able to .

Pete

 

pete,

i agree with you wholeheartedly in all aspects! its very true that there are many real ferrari owners who buy a ferrari in order to ensure that others comprehend the extent of their wealth, and that it creates a stigma which unfortunately plagues those who buy ferraris to TRULY enjoy them. theres no question that its not something i want to be associated with. for those replica owners who build or buy their cars for reasons other than those i mentioned, i apologize and i hope you understand that i bear no ill will whatsoever.

ernie

 

As with most things, there are good reasons to do things and bad. Copying a Daytona Coupe is acceptable, if done right, because a real one is so unattainable and you'd probably not drive it if you owned it. You are paying homage to the vehicle. Building a poor imitation of a great car on a poor platform (read Fiero) is what gives the term replica a bad name.

Case in point:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6212&item=2493305522&rd=1

 

I own 6 real Ferraris and also owned a replica. Wish I didn't sell it; it was a great car.

Everyone that saw it and drove it loved it, and it wasn't meant to impress. It was a replica 328 called a Mera.

So Ernie, what does that make me?

Being the true aficionado that you are, and the expert judge of personality by what one drives, which Ferraris do you, or have you, owned?

 

I've got my parachute on and jumping out of this thread ... ... its going to get ugly

Pete

 

darolls,

theres no need to be patronizing. in my 3 posts i have made my point extraodinarily clear. if its not sufficient i guess youll have to look elsewhere for validation as to what you are. enjoy your cars.

ernie

 

Brigitte,

I have tried both...
I like the real ferrari vs fake
I like "the real thing" vs the blow up

Please don't get mad, but as mentioned many of these "exotic" owners actually really do pass these things off as real. Case in point, I know a group of guys building a diablo replica with "exact" dimensions from a fiero. They've even taken a bmw v12 rebadged it with lamborghini on one side and the diablo logo in the other. Total cost to them including labour ~$35000 CDN.

They're asking $130000!!!!

WTF??? why the jack up? Because.....they're actually pawning this thing as the real thing. According to them "they only need one buyer"

Take a lot as these pics - I pulled up next to this guy in my testarossa and said in a friendly non condescending manner' " nice kit, man"

His reply - "It's not a kit."

WTF#2!!!!

I don't know if you have a replica or what but honestly , buttheads like these two guys devalue exotics when they try to pass this crap off as "real"
Yes I appreciate the labour and the sweat that goes into these, but c'mon.
A great 308 is no more expensive than an Acura TL. Hell, I bought my testarossa for the same price as a Navigator.

Anyway, I didn't mean to offend, but I have learned two very important things
1. Don't pee on an electric fence
2. Do things right...there is no shortcut or half way jobs.

My testarossa is not just for me to flash my money. I have none any longer because my wife is very high mainatinance. My testarossa was a gift for myself many hours of hard work, 28 hour work days, sticking my hands where hands shouldn't go and trying to remember why I do what I do at 3 in the morning.

The replicas guys just violate rule number 2 and put the rest of this in the toilet.

Doc myhorse
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Yes, perhaps you should, James - especially as I see you're using a photo of MY Noble P4 replica as your avatar, LOL ! No problem. I'm flattered
Didn't think yours looked so bad, though:
http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24246
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2485040918
and I'm sure she'll look just as good when you've finished your rebuild !

 

I wish people would stop building replicas. Much worse buy them. If they can buy a certain make/model just buy the one that they can afford. It's just like buying imitation clothes, bags, watches etc. If they can't afford the real thing, just buy what's affordable.

 

I met a gentleman once who had a 330 America that was used regularly as a track car. The car was old, unrestored, and pretty beat - rode hard, and put up wet many times. However, the body was starting to deteriorate, the interior was shot straight to hell and the paint was pure chalk. The running gear on the car was still working like a champ, however, so there was no reason to keep it on blocks. Also, the value of restored 330 Americas (only 50-70 ever made) wasn't where it needed to be to justify a full-on restoration. What to do?

Said gentleman knew some folks in Italy.....folks from the Vignale or Scaglietti Coachbuilding shops, I can't remember which. He had one of the coachbuilders hand-fabricate some aluminum bodywork to fit the chassis of his 330 America - in the shape of a 250 GTO. The two large sections of aluminum were sitting on the floor of his garage, waiting for the right time to marry the chassis up to the new aluminum skin.

My feelings on the matter? I would rather have seen the 330 America restored, but it wasn't my car. The money spent by some fools on Replica construction could have been spent to restore a damaged version of the real thing. One gentleman here in the Charleston area has a Countach Kit car with $65,000 spent on the motor alone (Chevy small block). Why???

 

not a replica but just a small step over the borderline into the wannabe land ...
Radical: All replicas should be destroyed. They are bad for Ferrari but poison for us.
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I think we see at trend here, outright predudice, and acceptability if done right.

The key issue is was the "recreation" done right or is it a kit car. Here we can list such cars as era gt40 era cobra proteus D,C types Hawk stratos and others.

Kit cars are fieros with rebodies, cobras with mustang suspension etc.

We are really talking about three types of car, orgional build, recreation ie very close to orgional in mechanical bits although body may be in glass for cobras, and kit cars real from far but far from real.

If youre not a poseur and just enjoy your gt40 dtype for what it is surely you have no objection to a recreation that is the same vehicle. This is not about value it is all about enjoyment of the type of car. In Argentina they totaly recreate bugatti's and these are acceptable to the bugatti crowd who are probably the origional supercar connisours. The old wooden boat crowd accepts new builds too. In both cases these are people who enjoy the vehicle old or new purely for what it is, because Joe q public would have no idea anyway. The enjoyment is based on the feel artistary and performance of the vehicle, not on how wallets of poseurs percieve value.

One thing I agree, we should not be cutting up restorable old cars for this hobby. Perhaps in Australia ferrari 400's last. Here in Noth East usa rust destroys the car beyond anything remotely restorable, some cars have also been wrecked, so whats wrong with donating parts. I like the old car comitee idea. Maybee if an oirigional car is donating parts the comitee will have to detirmine if the donor is restorable before allowing the recreation to be sanctioned. After all there are a number of totaly rusted or wrecked Jaguar MK2's, Ferrari 400's and testarossas whose mechanical bits should live on.

THe principle many of seem to agree on is that a recreation be it a shelby gt350 using a 60s mustang, a good cobra, gt40, Stratos, and even a ferrari is acceptable and has legitimacy as long as something truly orgional that is savable is not destroyed. In fact such legitimacy would probably lead to rules for what makes a legitimate recreation, expanding the pool of available cars, their quality and places to use them. In a sense this happens already as the origionality of a number of famous old racers is based on chassis plates with the bits having been recreated a number of times.

100 years from now people may be racing exact maserati birdcages and flying exact p51 mustangs only they were built in 2102 not 19.. This is a future trend and we should not condem recreations to the "kit car" crowd. Kit cars and recreations are two very different things.

For those of you have have strong opposing views, enjoy your "real" resale red with tan interiors, loud tubi exaust ferraris, while the rest of us enjoy the drive. Somewhere between vehicle snobbs with car portfolios, those correctly wanting to preserve origional cars, and pure enjoyment of the machine for what it is lies legitimate acceptance of new build old cars in the old car community. If the boat people can do it for the pleasyre of the hobby why cant we.

 

Funny that you should mention Argentina, Boxerman.
See:http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?p=134553709#post134553709
With many thanks to Andrés at Pur Sang http://www.pursangweb.com.ar/ for helping to put me in touch with 'Mac'

 

She's part beauty, she's part beast.
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If you replicate a Cobra, a Shelby, Z28, Yenko or a Hemi(whichever), etc... with all the specs to original, that is not as offensive as a Fiero (or a Vette) with a Ferrari body on it.

DL

 

I had to look for a second, but the rims gave it away. They are too small. There is no fooling me. This is no Ferrari!

 

I have noticed a few things here. Most, not all, of the people who flat out hate replicas or kit cars, have not even taken the time to fill out a profile. What are you trying to hide. You strike me as the kind of person that judges someone on the type of car they drive instead of the person that they are. The money doesn't make the man.
Also, how many replica owners have you actually met? I mean in person or even on a site like this one where you get to talk and get a bit of a feel for what kind of person they really are? I get the feeling that the only kit car people you encounter are the likes of Lamarossa, LamboCar, or the people who try to flip these cars on Ebay. I have never met a kit car person that tried to pass their car off as the real thing. Most are very proud if they did the work themselves. Given, I don't usually spend much time talking to the people who build a crap looking car. I did meet a guy with a real 25th ann Coutach that was a total jack off. I was looking at the car and he says to me "It's a nice Fiero huh?" I said I was going to ask if it was real since it looked very good. Then he opens the boot and there is a v12. I realized this guy was dork so I just walked away. Again, the money doesn't make the man.

 

Amen, and any naysayers have a look at the pur sang site