Specialist Sports Cars

[240Z]

Walking around auto shows and reading various automotive publications, I've noticed that there seem to be a high volume of emerging sports/pseudo-exotic manufacturers. It seems like every time I pick up a new issue of a car magazine, there are five new Bugatti Veryon rivals being made by random people who I've never heard of. Cobra replica makers plague the earth! It seems like everyone wants to slap together a vaguely Shelby Series 1-like roadster and sell it for $70,000! Who buys these cars? Do most of these companies die off? What's up here?

 

[YSSMAN]

I really cant explain what exactly is going on. While the Shelby knock-offs have been being built since the '70s, the new brands are showing up awfully fast. I think most of the time the cars are comming from millionaires who have nothing better to do and decide to build the ultimate sports cars... Or they are former racers that decide their name carries enough weight where they can build their own cars... Maybe they are sick of the corporate world and want to build their own cars their own way...

The new Fisker cars are a good example. Fisker had worked for many automakers over the past few years, and I belive had a hand in the styling department at Aston Martin for quite some time. His new coachwork models based off the 650ci and SL500 are great cars, but no one in their right minds are going to buy these $70K stock cars and have them completely torn down and rebuilt for another $70K...

Then again, look at companies like Saleen and Mosler. They have been rather successful, and although Saleen has been building cars for years, he has managed to deversify even into the truck market with modified F150s. Mosler has been selling the MT900 sucessfully both in street and track setups, and even the Photon was given major props for being to match the S7, Enzo, and Ford GT in most performance categories, even when down on HP.

Indie companies are going to continue to thrive, I dont think that there is any question in that. The thing that keeps them alive is the fact that people want to drive cars that are different, and with so many people with different ideas on how to build them, the trend shal continue.

Thats why my brother and I want to start a custom car shop, but not to the extent of anything spectacular. A few custom touches here and there, mostly under the hood and in the interior, but nothing too drastic.

 

[TheCracker]

It seems like everyone wants to slap together a vaguely Shelby Series 1-like roadster and sell it for $70,000! Who buys these cars? Do most of these companies die off? What's up here?

Dont think i've ever seen a Series-1 like roadster before - plenty of Cobra reps, but never a Series-1 rep.

 

[240Z]

Dont think i've ever seen a Series-1 like roadster before - plenty of Cobra reps, but never a Series-1 rep.

Well, not replicas exactly, but the 2 seat V8 powered roadster seems a popular formula. And many of them seem to look vaguely like the Series 1 or a 'Vette.

 

[TheCracker]

Well, not replicas exactly, but the 2 seat V8 powered roadster seems a popular formula. And many of them seem to look vaguely like the Series 1 or a 'Vette.

Britain and America have been building 2 seat, V8 powered, front engined, rear driven sports cars since the early 60's - its hardly a new phenomenon.

Looks are generally driven by the cars layout.

 

[Dave A]

I've never seen a Serie's one replica, Ive seen cars that are similar in the same way a Jax XK8 is similar to an Aston DB7 but thoes kinds of similarities are down to the cars layout as TheCraker just said.

 

[Joey D]

Best Specialist Sports car ever is the K1 Attack. I love the thing.
http://www.k-1attack.com/menu.php

 

[240Z]

I've never seen a Serie's one replica, Ive seen cars that are similar in the same way a Jax XK8 is similar to an Aston DB7 but thoes kinds of similarities are down to the cars layout as TheCraker just said.

I understand similarities required by layout etc., but there seem to be a ton of small manufacturers creating 2-seat convertibles powered by American built V8s. The reason I invoked the Series 1 is that I was at the Barrett-Jackson Sunday, and there was one of these sports cars there, and it looked vaguely like a Series 1. This is what inspired this whole train of thought, so I worked it in, using a little hyperbole.

Anyway, regardless of the layout or design of these cars, I'm wondering who buys these cars (if anyone)?

 

[Dave A]

Best Specialist Sports car ever is the K1 Attack. I love the thing.
http://www.k-1attack.com/menu.php

Oh yes, I love that car as well, I like the 5exi from the front but not so much the back. not as nice as the K1 though.

 

[McLaren]

From what I heard, most of the Fiskers sold very fast.

As long as there are rich folks, there are people willing to buy their cars.

 

[YSSMAN]

Really, someone actually bought a Fisker? I really dont see any reason to buy one other than the slight possibility that you have so much money a Mercedes-Benz SL-class or BMW 6-series isnt good enough for you...

...To further elaborate on the topic at hand, people are building custom two seat, V8-powered sports cars because thats what most people would want to drive. The Panoz Esperante comes to mind, but the car mostly exists to fund the Panoz race team, not the production car company itself. The cars borrow heavily from the older Mustang GT and Cobra, and they are still pretty fast and pretty "affordable" when in the more baisic form. Getting up to the top-line Esperante GTP that floats around just below $140K, its still a pretty good deal considering how rare it is, and the ammount of performance you get in return... Kinda reminds me of an American TVR...

If there was ever a bad example of someone getting into the market, it would be the Quavale Mangusta... Performance and looks are both sub par... You are mostly paying for the exclusivity and custom fit... What a deal!

 

[eliseracer]

Other than being loud, I can't imagine anything cool about a sportscar based on an Accord. There are no dynamics whatsoever under the wild body. It's an Accord for heaven's sakes.

My pick? The Farboud GTS. Ferrari said he wasn't good enough for a Ferrari, so he borrowed some extra clams and started his own company. Still looks stellar after 3 or 4 years:

 

[Joey D]

That thing look like a Carrera GT had sex with a ZZII.

 

[retsmah]

Other than being loud, I can't imagine anything cool about a sportscar based on an Accord. There are no dynamics whatsoever under the wild body. It's an Accord for heaven's sakes.

That K4 thing borrows parts from the accord, like the engine, but it's not at all based on the accord. You can tell that just looking at it, the inboard mounted springs are sticking through the top of the hood!

 

[Joey D]

Also the engine sits in the back....but if you want to see it in action pick up a copy of Mischief: Dynasty.

 

[eliseracer]

I was informed that the chassis is mostly Accord. I'm diggin' the OZ wheels though. I haven't heard much exciting reports on the car, and it has been available for quite a while now.

The GTS was designed by a Lotus designer, if I remember the article from that long ago. I also remember hearing things that Lotus had built some of the ZZII, so there may be a reference there. I don't think that the Cerrera GT was new enough to have any influences in the Fabroud GTS design. Although I seem to remember there being some design problems with Porsche with the Fabroud GT, a Le Mans style supercar.

Back of the GTS:

 

[Joey D]

Still looks cool though I must say.

 

[240Z]

The Farboud GTS looks vaguely like the new Europa.

 

[retsmah]

Yeah, that K1 Attack thing has a tube frame chassis, nothing accord about it other than the mounting points for the motor.

 

[TheCracker]

My pick? The Farboud GTS. Ferrari said he wasn't good enough for a Ferrari, so he borrowed some extra clams and started his own company. Still looks stellar after 3 or 4 years

I don't think Farboud have made made a single customer car yet - after 3 or 4 years

 

[McLaren]

That thing look like a Carrera GT had sex with a ZZII.

He had a Porsche 911 GT1 look a like too.

 

[Dave A]

I don't think Farboud have made made a single customer car yet - after 3 or 4 years

The car hasn't been put on sale yet, though they are taking orders.

 

[Dave A]

He had a Porsche 911 GT1 look a like too.

That was going to be his original car, but Porsche turned around and said no you can't build that, he'd been okayed initially but it was a gentlemans okay, and after a year or so developiment, they said he had to change the car, because I think they'd sold the license to that shape to another company.

 

[eliseracer]

At the time when Farboud was getting press coverage, he had already half a dozen or so deposits. I'm betting that has changed over the years. More customers or less, I do not know, but people certainly did have an interest back then.

 

[Dave A]

He was taking deposits when I took thoes photo's, he'll probably have more now, he's had good press over here but then no-one outside the company really knows how his cars drive yet.

 

[Pebb]

The car hasn't been put on sale yet, though they are taking orders.

You can test drive it in PGR3 anyway lol.

 

[Poverty]

Gumpert appollo.

 

[Dave A]

Yep, thats a fast car indeed, you can buy a road legal model that's similar spec to GT race cars. Apparently you can actually drive it to a GT race, then enter it into be race and be competitive.

 

[YSSMAN]

... I dont think John Q. Public would be that compeditive even if given the Appollo. I assume the car requires the use of both feet to drive, and most Americans don't know how to drive stick... So sad...

 

[Poverty]

... I dont think John Q. Public would be that compeditive even if given the Appollo. I assume the car requires the use of both feet to drive, and most Americans don't know how to drive stick... So sad...

Nope it has a F1 style shifter or you can have sequential twin clutch gearshift similiar to audi's DSG. So you wouldnt need two feet to drive it but you would be quicker if you did.

Some Gumpert Apollo Facts.

Mainly uses audi parts.
Weight is only 2,161 lbs
0-62 mph in a whiplash inducing 3.0 seconds, hitting 124 mph in 8.9 seconds.
Top speed 224mph
2205-lbs. of downforce at 224 mph (Thats more than the car weighs. Around the same amount of a DTM race car)
8-piston calipers with 15-inch rotors at all four corners
Rolling rubber at the front are 255/35-19 Pirellis and even wider 345/35-19 Pirellis at the rear.
4.2-liter V8
650-hp at 6800 rpm and torque to 597 lb ft. at 5000 rpm. That result is a whopping 156-hp per liter.
power-to-weight ratio of 583bhp per tonne.

A potential customer has managed a 9min 25sec lap of the combined Nürburgring circuits (GP track and Nordschleife) which would leave it at close to 7min 10sec over the Nordschleife alone. This would give the Apollo the production-car lap record if it were attempted.

A ugly car but when its will pawn everything and anything else road legal on a track I dont care.