Is it worth it
- Thread starter DanielD
- Start date
The GT40 is more than its basic performance. I remember as a child staying up all night to watch the win at LeMans. The thril of building one is a dream that will come true with my son. This is something that you can not get with a "factory" car, no mater how sopisticated.
The Z06 is a fine car (I have a friend who just bought a 2001 for $35K and it is fun), but it is just not the same - something is missing. The closest thing I have is my Testarossa - it is a brut of a car, and actually very similar to a GT40, particularly some of the replicas, but a lot heavier.
Value is in the eye of the beholder and if a gt40 does not do it for you good luck with what ever is your choice.
The Z06 is a fine car (I have a friend who just bought a 2001 for $35K and it is fun), but it is just not the same - something is missing. The closest thing I have is my Testarossa - it is a brut of a car, and actually very similar to a GT40, particularly some of the replicas, but a lot heavier.
Value is in the eye of the beholder and if a gt40 does not do it for you good luck with what ever is your choice.
G
Guest
Guest
Ron,
Actually, the "cheap Chevy interior" in my Z06 ain't half bad.
TT
Actually, the "cheap Chevy interior" in my Z06 ain't half bad.
TT
I'm not inflamed. But, based on all of the
responses, there are many that feel that
building your own is worth it.
Also, you get to personalize your car. Not
many companies will let you do that (or at
least, not for under $150K). Every 40 kit
will be slightly different.
And, let's talk maintenance. You put it
together yourself, have a straightforward
302/351 based engine, about the only real
worry is transaxle. No more spending ungodly
rates at your local authorized Lambo or
Ferrari shop
Even my Integra is pretty
expensive to maintain.
Plus, you get the pride of building it. You
know every wrench turn, every nut, every
rivet. Nobody can take that away from you.
It's not for everyone, but it is for me and
many others.
Ian
responses, there are many that feel that
building your own is worth it.
Also, you get to personalize your car. Not
many companies will let you do that (or at
least, not for under $150K). Every 40 kit
will be slightly different.
And, let's talk maintenance. You put it
together yourself, have a straightforward
302/351 based engine, about the only real
worry is transaxle. No more spending ungodly
rates at your local authorized Lambo or
Ferrari shop
expensive to maintain.
Plus, you get the pride of building it. You
know every wrench turn, every nut, every
rivet. Nobody can take that away from you.
It's not for everyone, but it is for me and
many others.
Ian
Danial, i know you are just seeking info. Here are few things to look at. I feel the lowest cost super car on the market that is even close to comparison to the RF-40 is the Ferrarri 360. It will cost over 200K to buy one and if it ever needs service it's $5000 when it hits the door of the shop. It is also hard to compare the drivability of the newer GT-40 over the originals. I have driven and raced an original Mark 1 and Mark 2 as well as the RF. The RF is a much finer car to drive. The modern technology and design makes it a car that can be driven daily if you want to and raced on the weekends. I have driven the car I have here on 115 degree days with the A/C on and the car doesn't over heat, I have driven it in rain and it doesn't have water leaks. The performance will out do a Viper or ZO6 everywhere except maybe the drag strip. It's not what the car was designed for.
The new Ford car is not the same car. It longer, wider, taller, and much heavier. I can almost guarrenty that it won't be the same car that you have seen in the magazines once it does hit the show rooms. If they built the car that was in the magazines it will cost over 150K.
I can get financing on a turnkey car built by us. I have a couple of companies that I have worked with in the past.
The choice is yours on what you want out of your car.
The new Ford car is not the same car. It longer, wider, taller, and much heavier. I can almost guarrenty that it won't be the same car that you have seen in the magazines once it does hit the show rooms. If they built the car that was in the magazines it will cost over 150K.
I can get financing on a turnkey car built by us. I have a couple of companies that I have worked with in the past.
The choice is yours on what you want out of your car.
Jim Rosenthal
Supporter
Value, or worth, is one of those terms that is very much in the eye, or heart, of the beholder. When you look at impractical, wonderful cars like a GT40, which no one "needs", value as a concept becomes particularly elastic. If you are satisfied owning the same performance car that everyone else has- for example a Z06 Corvette, then, good for you. I think the readers of this forum a) don't want what everyone else has and b) are willing to go to great lengths to have something different; including building it ourselves.
That doesn't mean the Corvette is a bad car. It just isn't what I want. There are a few cars out there faster than a GT40, maybe, although not many, there are many that have more room, better AC, are more practical, and so on. Interest in GT40s is not about room, or practicality, or bang for the buck. It is about loving GT40s, which as a design have one quality that very few cars will ever come close to, and that quality is timelessness. A car that was drawn just right from the beginning doesn't need to be improved, although I agree with using modern materials and systems to make it run better, or faster, or more reliably, within limits. A car like a GT40 DESERVES to be reincarnated time and time again simply because it is so beautiful and every one is a little different. That is what this hobby is about, and that's why the folks engaged in it will spend two times what a Z06 will cost to have a GT40 in the garage- for those times when you just walk out to look at it and it is so pretty, you get chest pain seeing it. And that's with the engine shut off and standing still.
That doesn't mean the Corvette is a bad car. It just isn't what I want. There are a few cars out there faster than a GT40, maybe, although not many, there are many that have more room, better AC, are more practical, and so on. Interest in GT40s is not about room, or practicality, or bang for the buck. It is about loving GT40s, which as a design have one quality that very few cars will ever come close to, and that quality is timelessness. A car that was drawn just right from the beginning doesn't need to be improved, although I agree with using modern materials and systems to make it run better, or faster, or more reliably, within limits. A car like a GT40 DESERVES to be reincarnated time and time again simply because it is so beautiful and every one is a little different. That is what this hobby is about, and that's why the folks engaged in it will spend two times what a Z06 will cost to have a GT40 in the garage- for those times when you just walk out to look at it and it is so pretty, you get chest pain seeing it. And that's with the engine shut off and standing still.
Yep Jim you are spot on. The GT40 they got right back in the sixties the corvette they are still trying and it is in the eye of the beholder as to whether they are on the right track!!!!!!! The GT40 is probably the nearest thing to a race car able to be driven on the road so to compare modern " super cars" with it is missing the point entirely. I did a few very fast circuit laps with one of down unders best drivers in a twin turbo race prepared porsche recently which was impressive but it did not stir the blood like a GT40 does.
Robert Logan
Defunct Manufactuer - Old RF Company
Jim, Normal et all,
I have to concur with all the GT40 lovers out there. The cost to me to manufacture everything to build my own GT40 has been large to say the least. I could have had a fleet of supercars but I would not chane it for the satisfaction of the design and build. I still get the 'goose pimples' everytime a new baby takes breath for the first time. Every car has a part of me in her and the GT40 ranks above almost all cars for inovation and style.
The word 'timeless' is the best way to define HER.
I often wish that cars ment only getting from A to B but they dont to me and therefore I will always be poor in the pocket but so much more wealthy in many other ways.
To those of you not bitten by the GT40 bug out there, are there any of you who have actually been in one as I find it hard to believe that once tried never forgotten !!!
Keep HER on the black stuff,
Happy motoring to all ,
Best wishes, Robert
I have to concur with all the GT40 lovers out there. The cost to me to manufacture everything to build my own GT40 has been large to say the least. I could have had a fleet of supercars but I would not chane it for the satisfaction of the design and build. I still get the 'goose pimples' everytime a new baby takes breath for the first time. Every car has a part of me in her and the GT40 ranks above almost all cars for inovation and style.
The word 'timeless' is the best way to define HER.
I often wish that cars ment only getting from A to B but they dont to me and therefore I will always be poor in the pocket but so much more wealthy in many other ways.
To those of you not bitten by the GT40 bug out there, are there any of you who have actually been in one as I find it hard to believe that once tried never forgotten !!!
Keep HER on the black stuff,
Happy motoring to all ,
Best wishes, Robert
Advanced apologies to Corvette lovers.
The Corvette a super-car? Have I missed something here? As far as I’m concerned, a Corvette is purely a muscle car - Z06 or not. Straight-line acceleration does not make for a super-car.
Apart from anything else, it has its engine in the wrong place
The GT40 re-wrote the book on super-cars so much so that no self respecting car manufacturer has since been able to claim super-car status with its engine anywhere other than mid-ship. Mid-engined cars ARE in a class of their own and have been since the 60s. For proof of that, you need not look any further than your Indy 500 when Jack Brabham brought a Cooper across the pond and proceeded to clean up everything before him – only finishing 2nd after mechanical problems. Indy cars have never been the same since.
Having said that, if straight-line speed is what satisfies you, then the Z06 is the car for you, but lets not kid ourselves. Its no match for a well built GT40 (replica or otherwise) as an overall package.
The Corvette a super-car? Have I missed something here? As far as I’m concerned, a Corvette is purely a muscle car - Z06 or not. Straight-line acceleration does not make for a super-car.
Apart from anything else, it has its engine in the wrong place
Having said that, if straight-line speed is what satisfies you, then the Z06 is the car for you, but lets not kid ourselves. Its no match for a well built GT40 (replica or otherwise) as an overall package.
G
Guest
Guest
Chris
I think you'll get a few arguments on this one. The Viper is front engine, and having
ridden in one, I thought it was pretty darn
super. And it did win Lemans a couple times,
beating out Porsches pretty regularly.
If you define a Supercar as only mid engine, then the Z06 and Viper are not.
But if you use acceleration, braking,
top speed, and lateral G-force as a barometer
I think most would categorize them as "Super".
The problem with the Corvette is that there
are too darn many of them, loosing that
exclusivity factor. The Viper is so low
production that it has much greater
curb appeal than the Corvette.
FYI, You should hear all the arguing in the US over what constitutes a muscle car!
For example, what about trucks?
Dodge is about to release a truck
with a Viper engine and trans!
MikeD
I think you'll get a few arguments on this one. The Viper is front engine, and having
ridden in one, I thought it was pretty darn
super. And it did win Lemans a couple times,
beating out Porsches pretty regularly.
If you define a Supercar as only mid engine, then the Z06 and Viper are not.
But if you use acceleration, braking,
top speed, and lateral G-force as a barometer
I think most would categorize them as "Super".
The problem with the Corvette is that there
are too darn many of them, loosing that
exclusivity factor. The Viper is so low
production that it has much greater
curb appeal than the Corvette.
FYI, You should hear all the arguing in the US over what constitutes a muscle car!
For example, what about trucks?
Dodge is about to release a truck
with a Viper engine and trans!
MikeD
The GT 40 will be an everlasting icon of motor racing. Can the Corvette boast the same? As a road car, yes, as a race car, no.
Chevrolet has had thirty years of R&D to help
the Z06 become what it is today. A nice, very
recognizable, road car. However, GT 40's remain basiclly unchanged. Sure there have been tweaks to suspension, and engine improvements, but nowhere like the scale of the Vette from the early 50's until today.
Put a race prepped GT40 replica and a race
prepped Z06 side by side, with the same horsepower, on a road course, before you decide which one is better. Until you do, all of you rhetoric, GT40 vs. Vette,is nothing more than a hypothetical pipedream.
The GT40 was built for racing, the Vette as a
status symbol for poorly endowed wannabes!
Bill
Chevrolet has had thirty years of R&D to help
the Z06 become what it is today. A nice, very
recognizable, road car. However, GT 40's remain basiclly unchanged. Sure there have been tweaks to suspension, and engine improvements, but nowhere like the scale of the Vette from the early 50's until today.
Put a race prepped GT40 replica and a race
prepped Z06 side by side, with the same horsepower, on a road course, before you decide which one is better. Until you do, all of you rhetoric, GT40 vs. Vette,is nothing more than a hypothetical pipedream.
The GT40 was built for racing, the Vette as a
status symbol for poorly endowed wannabes!
Bill
Bill, As a guy who races and builds car on a regular basis here is a little insight. Not long ago I raced a Cobra on DOT race tires against a race preped ZO6 on slicks. It was no compitition. On the same track on the same day I ran the RF GT-40 on DOT race tires and was turning laps 2.5 seconds quicker than the Cobra and I wasn't driving the car as hard as I could. I think I even had the A/C on.
Food for thought.
Food for thought.
MikeD,
The mid-engine is only part of it. You can have a mid-engined car that is not a super-car, but you can't have a true super-car that’s not mid-engined. Having said that, I would agree that there is not any one definition of a super-car, but to me, it must be a standout in EVERY department.
As for the Viper (sorry Viper fans - in my eyes it is a muscle car) I think that you will also find that the Viper only won its CLASS at LeMans, and that the outright front-runners were all mid-engined - except for the Panoz which is still going around I think
.
Also, we have a production car series here in Aus for which the Viper gets the most concessions just to be competitive. Its standard brakes are quite woeful so are therefore replaced, and its permitted to use much of the LeMans aero package, yet it still lags behind the mid-engined Lamborghini, Porsches, and Ferraris.
Hope I havn't rubbed anyone too much the wrong way, but this is a GT40 site
The mid-engine is only part of it. You can have a mid-engined car that is not a super-car, but you can't have a true super-car that’s not mid-engined. Having said that, I would agree that there is not any one definition of a super-car, but to me, it must be a standout in EVERY department.
As for the Viper (sorry Viper fans - in my eyes it is a muscle car) I think that you will also find that the Viper only won its CLASS at LeMans, and that the outright front-runners were all mid-engined - except for the Panoz which is still going around I think
Also, we have a production car series here in Aus for which the Viper gets the most concessions just to be competitive. Its standard brakes are quite woeful so are therefore replaced, and its permitted to use much of the LeMans aero package, yet it still lags behind the mid-engined Lamborghini, Porsches, and Ferraris.
Hope I havn't rubbed anyone too much the wrong way, but this is a GT40 site
As to the original question of spending 70K on a replica GT40 or on something else, it is hard to compare power windows, etc. with those that don't even roll down, not much comfort, and no factory CD sound system. You could get an NSX, Vette, or Viper for around the same money. I say get what you really want. I love the looks and lore of the GT40 and so I traded the technology for rarity and legend.
G
Guest
Guest
I bought the Z06 because at this point of my (financial, etc.) life, I couldn't justify a GT40 purchase. As I said previously, I like the Z06 very much, but I love the GT40, and fully intend to do one when it works within the bounds of the rest of my life. So, fellas, I'm not trying to argue that the Z06 is a match, or will ever be a match, for a well-turned out GT40 replica, whether you're considering esthetics, pedigree, or track performance. However, uninformed comments about the Z06 and handling are way off base. This is not just a straight line car for posers. Out of the box, it is a very competent track car. The car is widely recognized as competitive in that regard with cars costing two and three times more.
TT
TT
About 90 degrees C
The GT40 will always remain in a class by itself. If cars were wine, the GT40 would be a Rothschild, while everything else would be Ripple or Thunderbird.
Park a GT40 next to a Corvette, or Viper, or Porsche, and the crowds of people will gather around the GT40. I know, as I have seen it happen. Even parking a nicely done Cobra next to a Corvette has the same reaction.
We aren't building these cars as a claim to be the best supercar on the road, we are building them because we love the style, grace, and performance they exhibit. They a one-of-a-kind. PERIOD!!
Bill D
Los Angeles, CA
Park a GT40 next to a Corvette, or Viper, or Porsche, and the crowds of people will gather around the GT40. I know, as I have seen it happen. Even parking a nicely done Cobra next to a Corvette has the same reaction.
We aren't building these cars as a claim to be the best supercar on the road, we are building them because we love the style, grace, and performance they exhibit. They a one-of-a-kind. PERIOD!!
Bill D
Los Angeles, CA
