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Here’s an interesting barn find, a complete, never started Replica Speedster kit for sale here on the samba.com. Would you love to have a Porsche Speedster and can’t afford one, can’t even afford a kit? The asking for this complete kit is $4,800! If one could find a reasonably priced donor car, could this be completed for a reasonable price? Or would be better to purchase an already completed replica? Once completed, it sure would be a fun little machine to cruise around in! It might not be the real thing, but you could build an outlaw Speedster without having to feel bad about it! So what do you think, would you put this kit together?
I’m not a fan of the kit w flares like this one. Stock looking would be better for me.
Tagging for more info in later comments!
It’s a bit of a double standard for these early Porsche replicas. If this were a Ferrari Testarossa replica, the angry / dismissive comments would be off the scale!!
I have to admit there are a lot of kit cars that I don’t like (Bradley GT) but I do like speedsters. Because they use a VW engine and drivetrain, and they’re very simple cars anyway, the replicas are very similar to the spirit of the original and the performance is, if anything, a bit better.
A lot of exotica kits are entirely show, with no go
I have seen some pretty convincing Ferrari replicas, but they are so much more complicated and luxurious that I think it’s harder to pull off.
VW speedster kids are awfully faithful to the original Porsche and I think that’s why they’re OK.
The exotic kit car owners could be a part of the problem as well, a kid brought his Fiero Ferrari kit car to our shop one time expecting to get service. It was very well done, but we did not work on Pontiacs.
Stupid is what stupid does
I liked the idea of these things when they first came out back in the, what, early 80’s?
I’ve given them semi-serious thought from time to time. This one seems to be a reasonable price for what you get, with a couple of exceptions.
First, I’ve never really been a fan of the flared fender look, preferring the stock appearance. I could certainly live with it, however.
The fact that it comes from CMC is a bit more off putting. An early producer of Speedster kits, they didn’t have the best reputation for quality or customer service, especially when it came to shipping kits with missing parts.
They also had a fairly extensive history with legal difficulties, IIRC. Being a Florida based operation, they must have really gone out of their way to achieve that status.
Be that as it may. They’ve been gone from the kit car game for a while, so finding the missing parts, that actually will fit this car, could be an adventure.
Looks like a good home for one of those complete rolling Corvette drive trains that are on Ebay these days.
Greetings All,
Pete, you are definitely correct about CMC, that place moved more times and reconfigured themselves than a tapeworm. They always positioned themselves at airports for extra traffic advertising. Probably had a frequent flyer discount from moving the company.
Younger days found a friend and myself stuffing a turbocharged VW into a slab fendered version. CMC was not forthcoming with the paid for and back-ordered parts. Finally finished but gave up on Classic Motor Carriages.
Eventually my buddy decided to sell the finished product and go for a 550 replica. Original idea was to power it with a Corvair engine, it ended up with the normally aspirated Subaru XT, the six cylinder, which eventually received a turbo. The turbo kit was aftermarket as Subaru only made the turbo for the four not the six.
Never understood the wood dash motifs on this car. Reasonably complete and the doors have been hung. Be interested to see if it goes over $8K.
I don’t have a problem with replicas like this one. I DO have a problem with the owners calling them a Porsche, as often happens. Those of us who have real 356s know the difference.
What is the VW platform on which you build these and what do you have to supply separate from the kit? As for the kit, the flares are a turn off, but that is a matter of taste. I’d want to carefully check to make sure every kit piece is there before proceeding. This is a project for somone who has “been there, done that” and knows exactly what he’s getting into. Not for the faint of heart, or wallet. This would be a good one to donate to a HS auto mechanics class for a project (and a tax deduction).
Leme have at it…would be a fun project and more fun to drive, even with a 36 horse vdub motor…
Hmmmmm…..I wonder if this would fit on the 456 Maranello chassis.