I picked up a copy of total kit car this morning as i had a long train journey. I had finished reading it within 20 minutes but that's another
moan. Safe to say i will be keeping my money next month, anyhow that's not my point.
They are running a piece on the extreme murcialego (sp) copy which is built from a mk2 mr2 with the roof and panels cut off it seems. Now it looks as
though the fibreglass is good and granted the thing looks okay.. that is until you look at the wheel spacers and under the boot!
Has anyone seen the pics?
What i was wondering is at well over £20grand build cost is there really a market for a four pot lambo that looks frankly rough under the skin?
I'm not really into slagging off other peoples efforts, but i spent the best part of 2 hours trying to work out who would buy one. If you want a
flash supercar for 20k you can buy a good porsche 996. If you want a kit-car you can have something pretty special for 20k.
I was wondering if i don't really get it? I pondered buying quite a well known kit car manufacturing project recently but this has got me
thinking that mabye i don't understand the market at all. It seems a hell of an investment for something i cannot see selling?
[Edited on 9/3/09 by grazzledazzle]
I wonder the same thing, but it's been going on for years. Some people are just obsessed with that sort of car, seems a rather chavvy sort of
thing to do, IMO
John
Come on...you can spin the Kit Car mags out for more than 20 mins (as long as you're happy to read the re-hashed articles and adverts).
i agree, id rather keep my indy and spend another 10 grand on it than buy something thats a not so good copy. everyone will know the second it starts to the second it cant keep up with a real one that its fake...
on a similar subject, I see some lovely kit cars that are old porsche replicas, they look beautiful - are they a hash job under the skin too?
The best I have seen is the Ferrari 360 replica based on a 406 coupe.
Ok you can have a V shaped engine but still the wrong end of the car and powering the wrong wheels. At least the MR2 based reps get that right even
though they are missing at least 4 cylinders. 8 in the case of the Lambo replica!
There's always somebody with too much money who will buy something like that.
So I'm not the only one who's noticed the repitition in the mags currently then. How many articles have you seen on Total Head Turners in the last six moths?!
I think your comparing two different crowds of people. There are the normal enthusiast, who wants a driving experience.... Ala the locost, BEC etc
etc. Then you have the poster fans, who wants a certain look, and doesn't care about handling or performance. Plus you can't hide an MR2
under a mountain of fibreglass. You can spot them a mile off.
I'd rather have performance and handling over looks any day. However, saying all that, I do agree with Dangle on the proper, scratch built,
classic replicas. GT40, Cobra, Porshe, Dino etc.
I think that some of the old porsche's and gt40's look great, but as ^^^ you can't hide an mr2. Interestingly a friend of mine went to a rolling road day with lots of tvr's one guy turned up in a f355 and nobody believed it was real, they all thought it was an mr2 until they saw the engine!
quote:
Originally posted by deezee
I think your comparing two different crowds of people. There are the normal enthusiast, who wants a driving experience.... Ala the locost, BEC etc etc. Then you have the poster fans, who wants a certain look, and doesn't care about handling or performance. Plus you can't hide an MR2 under a mountain of fibreglass. You can spot them a mile off.
I'd rather have performance and handling over looks any day. However, saying all that, I do agree with Dangle on the proper, scratch built, classic replicas. GT40, Cobra, Porshe, Dino etc.
You can always tell the fake Lancia Stratos replicas, they all have better panel fit than the originals. 
Other than that the supercar 'replicas', especially the bodykit on MR2 style, are generally pale imitations of the real thing made worse by
owners not having the skills or the attitude of getting them looking 'right'. At least all the countach copies from the 80's/90's
are now gone - iirc there was one based on the beetle floorpan+mechanicals
Well what kind of idiot builds a so called "kit car" for the price of a Caterham - albeit a second hand one? Wait, I know. THIS idiot sitting right here at the computer.