Motors Pssst! Want to buy a fake Ferrari?

That doesn't surprise - they're quite a similar structure really. Having said that, it'd be a shame to lose a 406C to a stupid idea like this, why spoil a beautiful car to imitate another?

 

1) Copyright is the problem yeah, but do you honestly think someone genuinely in the market for a Ferrari would buy one of these replicas?
2) Most of the kits aren't "cobbled together". The original chassis stays completely in tact.

 

The average joe can't afford a Ferrari or Lamborghini. So what's wrong with having a replica/knock-off of something that you like the looks of? The average person wouldn't be able to tell the difference looks wise.

 

The thing with replica kits, is that people will hear and/or see the difference, and instead of getting people turning heads in awe, they might be turning their heads and
shaking their heads or worse yet laughing!
This would make it embarrasing to drive, and spoil the experience. I've seen a few kit cars drive by, and when you first see them in the distance it's like "mmm, ferrari..." but then when they get closer it's like "...wait a minute...THAT'S A KIT CAR!!" *shake head* "close, but no cigar"

The mr2-355 kit looks pretty well done, but it's obviously a bit small with someone standing next to it. And you can't do alot with the sound of a 4cyl, it's got that "tinny" quality to it, the best 4cyl exhausts still have no where near enough bass to them, and the rev's rise too quickly So thumbs down, unless you are a really light short guy.
The mr2-360 kit is obviously short/squashed in the nose. They made the nose much better in the 355 kit, this 360 kit looks kinda cute, like a kids toy or a r/c car Actually, it would be quite funny to see & hear one of those mr2-360's drive by cute
The 406 kit is pretty bad - well it does look nice, the 406 is a pretty car, but anyone that knows what a ferrari looks like wouldn't be fooled for a second, even from a fair distance. There would be a better potential for sound with a 6cyl, but the standard body is a beautiful thing, the 406-360 kit looks like a rice sports kit - i've seen a pic of a 406 with nicely bulged out guards, that looked good

A couple of those ferrari & diablo pontiacs look ok, from the pics anyway, and with a bit of work you'll be able to get a nice sound out of the v8, so that's the best bet i guess. The countach kit looks good from the side, but the edges are too sharp making the car look far too "square", in the couple of pics i saw anyway. I dunno if those pontiac kits look the part irl? I wouldn't want one unless it was a 100% perfect replica, well, 99% at least

I reckon a toyota soarer/lexus sc400 would be a great platform for a ferrari kit car - small light alloy v8 so a real nice exhaust tone can be made, real nice dash, the car has good proportions, and not too heavy - the weight can be cut down a fair bit in that car aswell, i imagine we'll see these kits popping enough before long?

 

There are obvious signs with all of the kits I've seen. For instance on the MR2-360 kit, the door line looks ridiculous and the ankle/size of the windscreen just looks wrong.

 

Have you seen the pontiac based kits? The few pics i've seen bar the countach look good, maybe?

 

Some countach and diablo kit cars look pretty good. Here's an example of a good 25th anniversary edition:

Replica:


Original:



The interior is what gives the good replicas away. I only noticed a couple of differences, but seeing the replica going down the street I don't think I would notice them.

And a bad example is at this ebay auction

 

That's a pretty damn good rep.

Although I feel the spoiler ruins it.

 

The indicators are too big for me, i like the small countach indicators, but that's an easy fix. The rear guards need some fibreglassing aswell, to bulge out that dip - again, not too hard to fix. I wouldn't care about the interior being an accurate replica or not, as long as the interior is nicely shaped and everything is covered in a nice tan leather with black suede steering wheel & shifter - and there HAS to be a chrome shift gate!
The yellow one also has too long of a lower front spoiler, can be fixed tho - this probably stands out the most, and that yellow doesn't suit the lambo. The lower side skirt is too thick, which would be hard to fix, but it still looks ok. I don't like the "grill" features of the 25th anniversary model too much, either, so i wouldn't order the 25th an. replica
All in all the yellow one is pretty good and it wouldn't take alot to get it looking really good, especially if the few issues are addressed during construction.
I used to absolutely love countach's & testarossa's when i was a kid, but when i see them these days, they look so squarish/boxish I guess i'm that old, that the supercars i grew up with are now classics

That ebay item was shocking I'd be embarrased to drive that on the road even when no-one was around.

 

I think the red one IS real

Anyone else notice that the line of the bollard / car / building over the door of the red one makes it look photoshopped? Not saying it is, jut that it really stood out to me for a second.

 

glaeken did write "original" above the red one, but if the red one isn't real then it's a beautifull replica!
The yelow lambo is actually a near perfect copy of a real 25th anniversary edition - i think it's mainly the color & the angle of the car that are making it look a little different than the red lambo. The front spoiler is definitely not correct but it may just be a copy of another spoiler that got released?
This is my fav countach, the quattrovalvole:

I like the diablo's better tho, know of any links or pics of nice diablo kits glaeken? Or nice ferrari kits?

 

I'll have to look them up when I get home. I do know that there are kits where the chassis is an exact replica of the Diablo. You can find it if you google it. Kits made with this frame usually look identical.

Edit: here's one. Based on a Fiero chassis.

 

Damn that looks good I had a look around and the few fiero kits i saw, did look nice from a couple of angles, but they looked quite bad from a few other angles The windscreen, the doors, the rear end, the roof, lots of things look bad. The yellow one you found looks 100%, well maybe the bonnet is a little flat, i dunno, i'd but the rest of it looks perfect very nice indeed, i'll take one thanks

I found these guys Extreme have 3 kits that look perfect... I saw a crap 406 kit from someone else b4, these guys have a perfect 406-360 kit, and perfect mr2 355 & murcielago kits, well from the exterior anyway. They have a few interior parts so it seems you will have a rough copy, oh well. The body panels are moulded from the original panels so it's supposed to be a near perfect replica.
I noticed 2 main problems tho - well 3 if you include not having a fully replicated interior.
1) you have either a 4cyl toyota or 6 cyl peoguet fwd engine, so you can spend big to get big power, but you wouldn't wanna be seen wheelspinning a fwd ferrari
2) the cars aren't wide enough so there is significant lost/wasted space in the body but worst of all large hub-wheel spacers are used This is a big problem, it puts a massive increase on the pressure the wheel bearings take = failures = very unsafe. Custom made increased length suspension arms would be the way to go but getting macpherson struts modified would be even more expensive.
Another issue is that they have custom made roofs - so how strong are they? Any crash testing on these things? I dunno how safe they are, so 4 problems i guess...
The kits aren't cheap, so with the cost of an mr2 or a 406 + the replica kit + the huge amount of labour + engine work/parts + suspension + trimming + who knows how much other stuff you'd end up buying = big $$$ for a knock off - i'd rather spend my cash on a nice genuine jap or euro sports car which has been developed by many engineers over many years & kms/miles. I'd hate to think about how many weird problems/suspension breakages/noises/panel cracks/water leaks/air whistles/etc you would get so there's probably alot more than 4 extra problems with them compared to a mass produced car.

I would like to have a nice ferrari or lambo on the cheap using a cheap to run car as it's base, but it's alot of money to spend for some that's fake. I suppose if you buy a completed, well built, head-ache free kit-car, then that would be nice indeed. Maybe you can, i haven't ever gone out looking for them or even driven one, maybe one day? Or maybe i'll just save a little more and buy an NSX instead The NSX basically is a really fast, reliable, cheaper to run, probably as good handling, ferrari.

I guess fake is what it is - nice to look at and fun to touch, but not having the real thing can have problems, and you know it's not the real thing. It doesn't matter if you are talking about kit cars or silicon implants. I gotta get back to work now...

 

Those look pretty nice. That is one of the things of owning a kit car, you better know how to fix it. And some of them are pretty expensive > 75k. But even if you could afford a 75k ferrari/lambo, the maintenance costs would eat you up.

 

:S then why does the article say...

?! I can only work with the information im given!

Im not in the market to buy crysis.... does that make it OK for me to pirate it ? I'm not in the market for a new nike tshirt but does that make it OK for me to support the people who make **** replicas?

 

For the kit cars that simply have panels that attach to a donor car, they aren't a cobbled together chassis - the "sports-kit" may get cobbled together but the car is still intact - from what i have seen these aren't that good looking - the best ones i have seen have at least the roof altered/cobbled so the car is potentially weaker especially in a rollover - unless ofcourse the job has been designed and built well. The 406-360 kit from extreme, linked above, retains the car's orginal structure i think, so there is a 100% complete car under that kit i think - so you'd actually have a car + plastic armor, but that's an oxymoron

There are many kits out there with completely custom chassis however which can indeed be cobbled together/poorly designed & built, but of course, they can be done well!

If i was Enzo Ferrari then i would definitely be hiring chuck norris to cease the manufacture of all the copy cats out there! If there was a ferrari kit car in every street, the car would cease to be unique/special/rare, we wouldn't be in awe everytime we saw one, we'd get bored of them. So it would just be an overpriced sports car, loose it's demand, and little sales would mean the end of the company copycat bar$tad$

 

Since when have you trusted every word of a journalist? The police said they're highly skilled, yet the journalist says "cobbled together", purely to sensationalise it.

 

Unfortunatele I dont make a habit of following up all the leads on news articles, going out there, seeing for myself etc, reading police reports... I read the article published.

What kind of retard reads an article of this type and then just goes ahead and makes up their own assumptions :S Whats the point in reading it at all!

 

TBH I love kit cars. Especially if you build it yourself. It's really great for the guy who works construction and could never afford a Ferrari in his life. But personally I'd rather have a dodge viper.

And for all of you guys who think Ferrari's are that fast, think again. There are a ton of eclipses and civcs that are built faster for $20k including the price of the car. I garuntee if you went out and bought a eclipse GSX (which is usually around $7,000) and put $10,000 into the car (engine, suspension, brakes, turbo....) you'll have a 11 sec car that can beat a Ferrari. Of course it won't look the same but if you're just after performance...

If I was going to spend a ton of money on modifying a car I would build this



I believe it's a Supercharged/turboed gts with full racing modifications (in the body kit). It'd probably cost about $20,000 on top of whatever you payed for the viper in the first place. It would be SICK though

 

It doesn't cost much to go fast in a straight line, but turn a corner and the viper will be left behind the ferrari or lamborghini, and the civic will be very far behind - this is when both drivers are skilled race drivers that is - but this thread isn't about which cars are the fastest, it's about kit cars.

The diablo kit glaeken last posted really is amazing - the chassis is a full replica - check out the link - the car is nearly 100k which is half the cost of a second hand original, but this car really is a true replica, chassis, interior & exterior The engine isn't really that close but good enough