When you have Champagne dreams and a caviar wishes but your wallet is more about homemade wine and canned tuna, this 1986 Lamborghini Diablo replica may be just the ticket. This kit car is listed on eBay with ten bids.. whoa, there are ten bids! Sorry, it’s listed on eBay with ten bids and a current price of $7,200 and there is no reserve. It’s located in beautiful Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
I’m kidding about this car, of course. Although I’ve never been a fan of kit cars or replicas, for a fraction of the price of a real Diablo I guess can see the appeal of a car like this. Some of these replicas can sell for quite a bit, like $50,000 or more sometimes for a spot-on car. The seller says that it “uses Nissan 300ZX headlights and from what I can tell is the same headlight used in the real Diablo.” For the record, there wasn’t even a Lamborghini Diablo in 1986, they weren’t around until 1990.
Upon a quick glance I can see where a person could halfway wonder if this was actually a real Lamborghini Diablo. But once they stop and really look at it, yeah, it’s not. But hey, again, it’s not supposed to be an exact copy, it’s for having fun with and isn’t that what life is all about?
The interior isn’t really even close to matching what a real Diablo interior would look like, but it’s hard to do an exact match on a budget. The “hard and EXPENSIVE part is done and the finishing work and details are what will be needed.” The “gullwing doors function well” and that’s a big part of the Diablo mystique.
Here’s at least spiritually half of a Lamborghini V12 in the form of a Pontiac Fiero V6. This one isn’t going to have 500 hp, it’ll have more like the 140 hp that the Fiero had. The seller says that “there is a whole lot of room in there to fit something bigger, much bigger. Automatic transmission functions fine.” Have any of you owned or built a kit car, i.e., a replica?
“…there wasn’t even a Lamborghini in 1986”
Are you sure?
We were trying out a new invisible ink for that line, edh.. (cough)..
I inadvertently left out “Diablo”, but I think we all knew that. Thanks for reading every single word and pointing that out!
My neighbor had a white one of these, built on the Fiero platform. After a couple seconds of staring at it from a distance, you pick up really quickly that it isn’t real. The proportions are way off. Cool for it’s time but weird now.
https://www.lamborghini.com/en-en/brand/history
Hey – it says ” Lamborghini Diablo on the back,
so it MUST be real.
……..I saw it on the Internet,so it must be true!
Pretty sure I had a poster of a white Countach in 1986. For sure, I had the hotwheel by 1987.
There’s this thing on the internet called “Google” and you can find out all kinds of stuff. Of course, it’s predicated on a basic understanding of language and reading comprehension. In fact, I just found out that Lamborghini produced the Countach from 1974 to 1990 and the Diablo from 1990 to 2001.
But as far as I could tell they never produced a Fiero.
When I see a ‘replicar’ like this I wonder how many times people see it and ask if it’s genuine.
Then I wonder how many times the owner has had to admit that it’s not genuine, and how many times that happened before any regret set in.
I used to go to the SF Bay Area kit car show in San Leandro. There were some very well done Porsche Speedster, Shelby Cobra, Ferrari and Lamborghini replicas on display. I guess the question is, “Is the owner trying to present the car as an authentic example?” If that was the goal, then I would guess that they are frequently embarrassed by people that know and can spot the difference. If their attitude was that they just wanted to have some of the experience of owning an exotic car and could communicate that reply to onlookers, then it would be okay.
Manufactures often make replicas that look somewhat like an original car, but do not look like an out and out fake. That might be a better route.
If I either built or bought a replica car I would not use authentic badges on it.
Jose, stick some Studebaker or Chrysler badges on it, maybe even a Hondaka or Kawasuki and really screw with their brains.
@Dolphin. I wear a Rolex Submariner wristwatch and on a regular basis somebody will ask me if it’s a real Rolex or a replica. I never tell them. Only I know so I leave them in wonderment.
Throw down drag race with the Aquila, then douse with tequila and ignite.
Well, to answer a question Scotty posed, but no one has answered, I’ve got a replica (not a “kit kar”) but a British built fake Cobra from 1977 and I’ve also driven a few real Cobras and frankly for most of us, the driving experience is essentially the same – a primitive, brutal car that squeaks, shakes and rattles, rides rough and noisy but at the same time is the absolute perfect example of what a sports car should be – performance, handling and driving experience first, comfort and practicality are mere afterthoughts! Now, I’ve been lucky, in the course of my lifetime I’ve owned two Aston Martins (DB5 & DBS), several Porsches, untold numbers of MG’s, Triumphs, Austin-Healeys and Jaguars, a few Ferraris (250 GTE, 330 GT, 330 Spyder) 308GT4 but my absolute favorite, and the one I’ve owned the longest (20+ years) and driven the most (85,000 miles so far) has been my little fake Cobra. But it was built to a much higher level of detail and craftsmanship than the “Lamborghini” at hand here. There is a very real place for fake sports cars – witness the ever increasing numbers not just of Cobras but Porsche Speedsters and 550 Spyders – I think they beautify our highways, a great counterpoint to all the anonymous “jelleybean” shaped cars that proliferate.
You have a very good point, sir. I cringe every time I see a new car with the crazy sharp-edged lines or the melted bar of soap look. It seems like most of them have followed Hyundai’s suit by being overly-busy and having a line running up the side of the car that starts low in the front and end up high in the back and lines up with the door handles and all of those predictable cues. Give me a 550 replica or a Cobra replica any day of the week as far as beautifying public roads.
I’ve wanted a 550 Spyder replica for a while. It’s possible to recreate the performance envelope with very plausible components, and have the driving experience without the million-dollar anxiety that goes with putting a real one on the street.
I think Dolphin and Ken hit the nail on the head. It seems there are so many kit cars and reproduction cars, in glass or steel, and for some reason the general public recognizes this, and when ever they see a neat car ,they ask if its a replica or fiberglass. I have a 1934 steel 34 coupe and people ask that all the time, I have a friend with a real Cobra, and he would just shake his head and say, if you don’t know, I am not going to tell you. The other side of the coin, I have seen people, when they fin out a car is the real deal, like a Duesenberg or a Alburn ,or Cord, they become somewhat irritated, because they think the owner is advertising his wealth!
It’s a Lamborjina, not a Lamborghini
Kit car owner here. Kelmark gt.
I don’t get “is it real?”, I get “what is it?”.
Last years answer is 1973 beetle.
This year it will be a subaru powered beetle.
Now I need to do something about the non powered 4 wheel drum brakes.
If you have the money to properly finish this kit, you could always transplant a modded LS3 that produces 500hp, mated to a reinforced 6-speed transaxle if you want to shift gears yourself.
Need’s more Exhaust maybe 6 to out do that last Kitt Kar 4 Trumpet ugly monster.
the ( 1986 ) lambo was and still is one of the most sought after cars today. Fact. I have two gazelle kit cars right now. Problem is i’m 6′ 2″ tall and can’t get in the darn things. Nice little cars.
So many of these kits are just horrible. I once saw a guy rattling past in a fiberglass “Porsche 959” kit on a VW bug pan– the front and rear overhangs literally flopped up and down as he negotiated the Boston potholes. If I were to get something, it would be a Factory Five model– they have models for (almost) every budget and taste, but with the important aspects of modern chassis, safety, handling,and performance. I used to live an hour away from their factory in Mass., but only got as far as ordering their info package.
I was at the Concourse D’ Lemons in CA a couple years back. A guy had a REAL Lamborghini but put that it was a Fiero kit car on the tag. Got lots of laughs, lots of odd looks. I heard comments like “wow, that’s a really good job”