kit cars/replicas

I have a friend who is making body panels from a mold he made from my panels, he is proficient in fiberglass, bodywork and paint AND he has a market for the panels... he doubts that he will make money.

He rebuilt his motor by himself, made unique body panels, interior work etc but would not venture down the path you mention because of the stigma associated with kit cars, clones etc.

He will make the molds and please several people and then be done.

You on the other hand are thinking about biting off even more, I can't see this happening without a name in the sports car world already or some sort of high profile fabrication shop.

What's the ball park for a price? Under $25,000?

 

Its best you hit up the kitcar sites to find out how many kits are sold each year. It really depends on which market you choose I guess I know its not that many a year depending on which kit it is I know for those Diablo replicas when they where in they sold roughly 10 a year for about 80k a pop.

 

You'll be suprized

www.lambobuilder.com

 

As you have noted, there are already a lot of Lotus 7 replica's/clones out there right now.

With all of the competition out there, how do you avoid coming up with a "me too" kind of product?

The 7 was a particularly simple car and that tends to make it relatively easy to get one made inexpensively, the same can be said for somebody who wants to compete with you, it isn't going to cost them a lot to copy what you are doing.....

Unless you have a lot of racing or car building experience it is going to take a good bit of time to develop and then to produce something that you can sell. At that point, unless there is some type of "product differentiation" that makes yours something special, or something that everybody wants, the only thing that you have to make a sale is on a price basis. That's a bad area to be in, because then you have to cut your margins down to nothing to make the sale. Where the same thing is going on with your competition, who may have already paid for their tooling and will be willing to sell it for what small profit they can make on it.


While the 7 worked for Chapman, and he made enough to stay in business by building it, even he saw that it was becoming a commodity and he sold the rights off to Caterham....

If it is something that you want to do for fun, go for it, but don't expect to make any money on it...

 

For $80,000, I'd want something that not everyone can tell is a fake POS.


Wait, scratch that. I'd rather borrow another $30,000 and just buy the real thing. These kit cars are coming to close to the used market and looking like the fakes they are.

 

1) Its not a POS, Dales car is packing a LS1 powerplant with exhaust and other things to it backed by a Porsche tranny and word is with that same setup you can run with the real deal at the strip all day. Also northamerican exotic replicars kits where based off the orginal cars so pretty much the only way one will know its a replica and thats if they fire it up or the owner tells them otherwise to the naked eye it will be very tough to tell the diffrence which is orginal or not. Keep in mind even the chassis which its built on is also replicated like the orginal to. Practically the only thing thats gonna give it away is the engine and most people will probably think its still an orginal with a Small block swap. This is not a fiero based kit where just by the position of the seating you can tell its a replica.

2) 1+

with that said with just 80k you could buy a used real time Diablo 91-95 models or the 2WD drive models with that price, iam sure Roy can find you one at that price I have seen them time after time again in that price range so there's really no need to go borrow another 30k. But there is an advantage to building a car like this its the maintancence costs will be much cheaper than an orginal plus you could drive it everyday. I don't care what anyone says you can't go wrong with an LSX powerplant.

 

1+

Thats like bringing out another cobra replicar manufacture to the market. Its gonna be very tough to get people to buy your kits.

Needcash have you thought about doing an all orginal design like a GTM, DDR or Noble, Ultima insead? Thats where the future of kitcars seems to be headed in that dirrection and leaving more of the replicar scene these day. Go read mad about kitcars or kitcar mag these days, you don't see many replicars in there unless its a Cobra or a Super7 or something like that otherwise I have noticed a huge movement in this homebuilt supercars like the GTM over the last 5 years and that seems to be the hottest thing on the market scene the Solid Sterling.

Just an Idea i thought id throw out there.

 

A nice Miura rep would be cool...

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

 

I don't care what he has under the hood. His Diablo looks like a POS, and I'll laugh even more if he tries to pass it off as a real thing.

NA Exotics is the only company who builds decent replicas. At the end of the day though, they're still selling them at prices that would easily buy better quality cars.

If you can afford a Diablo, maintenance shouldn't be a problem. As for the LSX powerplant, that's fine. Dave's car is still a joke on trying to look like a Diablo.


The time & money invested into Lamborghini replicas is so much sometimes, that these folks don't realize they're just within inches of the real thing. If I want a Diablo, I'm not going to take some shortcuts. I want my Diablo to look like a Diablo, to sound like a Diablo, to have the presence of a Diablo and the only car who can give me that is the real deal.

 

So how is it a POS? Whats your experiance with replicars and kits? I bet you've seen some nasty awfull fiero based kits in the past that where just god awfull to sit there and make a statment about Dales car like that and haven't seen a well built replica in your life is the only way someone could not apprcatate the kind effort that was put into that car. There's only two so far that I have seen that look that great. not all of them are POS fiero based cars, most of these are engineered from the orginal specs so calling a POS is like call an orginal Diablo a POS. To be truthfull the car looks very complete like an orginal diablo weither you like it or not. But trying to pass it on is something very silly if your building it for that purpose, your playing a completely diffrent game trying to pull a prank on someone

Not all Lamborghini replica projects make it only 10% or less from start to completition actually make let alone be accurate to the orginal which is less than 5% of those who build these cars. Buying a real Diablo is cool but building one iam sure is alot of fun to do, I had alot of fun working on a Manta Montage(Mclaren) which ill never forget that. I guess some people do it for the fun, heck if I had the money id buy a real one and go build a replica just for the fun of it but otherwise it depends on what that person is looking for, not all orginal lamborghinis are for everyone nor replicars aren't for everyone and yet people wants to get there bite of the apple.

 

Its been attempted by very few while very fewer people have tryed to replicate it and so far nobody has succeeded in doing on.

I would love to see that. Do it on a tube chassis like the GT-40's and Cobra replica's I think you've got something.

 

You need to learn how to read. I said it LOOKS like a POS, and it does. It's so easy to tell it's a fake. I don't care if he has a LSX under the hood, the DESIGN is ****.

I didn't say all of them were. Read.

Anyone can attempt to engineer something from the original. Whether or not you actually succeed in doing so is where judgement counts. Dale failed at engineering his to the real thing.

You've never seen a Diablo if you think Dale's looks like an original. Try starting with the spoiler, and working your way to the front.

It might be fun, but you're not building a very good replica if any enthusiast can spot the off-spoiler which is the usual clue the cars are replicas.

 

Take at look at this one then and tell me what you think . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_hVK5paVUQ no spoiler here Same company pretty much same car and all.

BTW those spoliers from NAERC's is molded off the orginal thing as much as the rest of the vehicle. I have even heard of those spoliers being used on orginals because of how accurate they are I know it sounds very chessey but I have seen it done manytimes before so it must be good for something. Look around on his site he has both of his car and an orginal same color and all and its very difficult to tell which is the replica and which is the orginal without knowing which is which . I have been around replicars for awhile now and those are probably the best Diablo's I have seen in the market period! down to the bone nothing else I have seen comes close without something missing or barrowing from another diablo model these guys really put alot of hardwork into building these cars the right way. If you can show me a replica thats done the right way id love to see it but so far i haven't.

If it was one of those fiero based kits then I would totally understand but most of these are using specs of the orginal. I couldn't imagine anyone thinking its a POS or complaining about the looks.

 

Yeah, now I def. don't think you've ever seen a Diablo. A 6.0 VT is not the same as Diablo VT Roadster. There are very easy differences.

Then whoever molded them did a poor job. Looks fake as well.

Ok. NOW, I know for sure you have never seen a real Diablo.

Those are nothing like NA Exotics.

Oh my god, this is the funniest sh*t I've read all day! Someone tell Rob to put a LOL smiley on the forums.

LOL!


Ok, I want everyone reading this post to tell me which is real, and which is fake. I mean, if Dale's Diablo is done so well, it should be easy right?

Oh my, someone, please tell me which is real.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

First question you must ask your self.how many kit car millionaires do you see? Besides Factory Five I don't see any. The way the industry is going is the cheap super car like the Factory Five GTM. I think they have sold about 200 of them. This is a very difficult business to make money in.

I was looking at doing the same thing but decided to just build one or two cars for myself. I am working on a 340 Mexico update with a Ferrari 575 motor and transmission which is a 5 year project and then building a P4 type midengined car like Bob Norwoods. I may or may not use a Ferrari motor in the mid engined car. The big problem with thse cars is the assembly time involved. It takes just as much time to do a Lotus 7 as it does a super car. I may just scrap my Lotus 7 project and use the steel in the 340 Mexico.

 

Ok then be more speciefic next time. You know he did build three cars so how was I suppose to know which one you where refering to?

That roadster is an IFG for one which isn't exactly the most accuarate on the market once again, that company did theres out of a cad progam. Two its fiero based which means regardless of which body you use it will never work because the seats will never be in the right position like the orginal. So just be more specific before making a big deal out of nothing next time.

Sorry buddy but I have seen two Diablos in my lifetime and both where the real deal I have never seen a replica but I have seen two orginals. Don't believe me here's proof http://videos.streetfire.net/video/d763ecf3-74e9-4772-95a8-98410111306f.htm my buddys Diablo.

sure its in terrible shape but its all orginal. BTW this video was taken a few blocks from where I currently live.

 

Even the most popular companys would be very lucky if they made profit from selling kits in large numbers. Its a very tough business to play in let alone stay in the game and make money.

 

I think you might need to be more specific. You're talking about Dale's car, and the car he talks the most about on that website is that Roadster. He also a gallery dedicated to it, or did last I checked.

That's fine, but I was saying that as I assumed you were talking about Dale's Roadster.

However, I don't see how you can suddenly say any of Dale's cars are built to any good/high quality if you're admitting you've never seen a replica in person.