Best/worst kit cars ever?

paranoid_android74 wrote: At the expense of dating myself, didn't the Banana Splits have a ride like that?

Don't think so. They rode around in Argos

Curmudgeon wrote: Fiberfab Aztec 7. Hard to believe it came from the same people who made the Jamaican.

IMO that Aztec + box-flares would look pretty damn sweet!

Quite right.

Maybe these (better) vehicles would benefit from some renaming. Instead of calling them kit cars, maybe call them boutique sports cars or something- in the same vain as an all tube boutique guitar amplifier.

Zomby Woof wrote:

paranoid_android74 wrote: At the expense of dating myself, didn't the Banana Splits have a ride like that?

Don't think so. They rode around in Argos

bravenrace wrote: Speaking of fiberfab:

Is that an effort to put a Superbird nose on an early Mustang?!?

In reply to MadScientistMatt:

IIRC, the first fiberfab kits for Mustangs came out before the Superbird.

bravenrace wrote: In reply to MadScientistMatt: IIRC, the first fiberfab kits for Mustangs came out before the Superbird.

That looks awesome, sort of Mk I GT40 nose. Horrible for lift, awesome for cool. White with blue stripes, yummy

I did not know Fiberfab made anything like that. Damn it's sharp looking.

How about some Pangra?

Turbocharger, "Can-Am" suspension, and pop-up headlights: What else could you possibly want?

slantvaliant wrote: How about some Pangra? Turbocharger, "Can-Am" suspension, and pop-up headlights: What else could you possibly want?

I could rock that. I wonder if any still exist? Mechanical pop up head lamp lever.

So many kit cars look so wrong when they try to mate production car parts with their parts - the windscreen angle is wrong, or the proportions are out.

I'm pretty picky. I've owned a lot of cars, but only two kit cars. The first was an early TVR Grantura Mk 3 (the first model with decent, i.e. non VW suspension. It had proper race car style tubular steel fabricated A arms all round. I raced it for several years with a built 1800 with HRG crossflow head and twin Weber DCOE (yes, the front sway bar was increased in size after that picture was taken). Very sensible design and effective use of various British production car parts - MG drive line, some TR parts etc. I did run it briefly with my prototype 2 litre MG Twin Cam motor (bottom pic)

Second was the Jamaican bodied MGA, a natural for me as I've been racing MGAs for 40 years and the Jamaican was one of the few kit cars I thought were really attractive in their own right, not being a copy like a Cobra. This one got a GM 3.4 V6 and T5 trans.

Not much else I'd give garage space to as far as kit cars go.

I would lo e a GT40 kit car, or one of those McLaren replicas (manta? Montage?). Light, mid engine & V8. What's not to like?

That said, the industry can keep all their Ferrari & Lamborghini replicas, though.

Proteus C type replica, more of a re-creation than a kit. Definitly in the super high quality realm.

Proteus D type too, ditto

And both of those Proteii go for big bucks.

spitfirebill wrote: And both of those Proteii go for big bucks.

Kit cars don't have to be cheap.

The whole 'continuation' thing is wild in Europe. The FIA will even recognize and certify 100% recreations for historic racing meaning the billionair owners can keep their original full history car in the museum and pay a retired F1 driver to beat the E36 M3 out of their 100% correct re-creation on the track.

Please note, this is not a criticism.

Cheaper option. JAguar replicas do an alloy and GRP C type replica. The plastic one is 'only' 42K GBP's (approx. $68k USD)

I'm sure you could do a good 'inspired by' vehicle a lot cheaper.

There used to be a company called Predator Performance in FL that made a nice D-Jag. Dunno if they're still in business, though.

carguy123 wrote: For worst kit, it would be anything with a VW chassis & suspension.... ......the VW based ones were so bad that the whole genre still has a black eye.

These things kicked some serious butt in the AutoX community back in the day. I think they did pretty good in hill climbs also.

What is that? It's like a swoopier manx?

Deserter GS.

Essentially a mid engined (many times) Corvair powered Manx.

http://www.bimelliott.com/GSpage.html

In reply to aircooled:

So, if I understand that ad correctly, apparently being successful with the ladies comes from autocrossing a dune buggy? Wow, so that's the piece of the puzzle I missed...

petegossett wrote: So, if I understand that ad correctly, apparently being successful with the ladies comes from autocrossing a dune buggy? Wow, so that's the piece of the puzzle I missed...

Having $$$$$, then you don't even need the dune buggy...

Nothwithstanding some seriously horrible kits that have been posted, I can see why kit cars don't seem to make it if you guys are the target audience.

NOTHING seems to tickle your fancy. For every positive post there are many more that pick them apart because they don't have flux capacitors or something else.

It seems to be a trend that you guys focus on the negative rather than the positive fact that they even exist to give you an option.

Wow, who needs a passenger when you have big hydraulics...

carguy123 wrote: It seems to be a trend that you guys focus on the negative rather than the positive fact that they even exist to give you an option.

Makes it easier to say "told you so!". I am sure somebody is waiting with that one in regards to my Rover