This sort of thread has got be made into an FAQ?
Anyway, to add my thoughts. As Norman suggested in a different thread just now, the price of an airline ticket is not enormous compared to the whole cost of a 40.
Robert, you said you wanted to see head to head, RF, DRB and GT40NZ. That is exactly who I wanted to see so I took 5 days and 24000 miles at the end of May to go visit all 3 from the UK.
I had eliminated ERA, CAV from my search by then, and MDA and Tornado could not meet my particular (peculiar?) requirements of a manufacturer of my 40.
I don't think I can stress too much how important it is to get YOUR own requirements straight.
The visit was VERY educational, and I was pleasantly surprised by all 3 manufacturers.
Now that I have made my choice, and ordered, I will write a post soon detailing what I was looking for, my personal requirements, how I went about choosing, and why I made the decisions I made.
Most importantly I would also strongly suggest that you take EVERYTHING you are told with a HUGE dose of salt, until you see whatever it is with your own eyes. It has been stressed before that owners are obviously biased towards the choice they made, and manufacturers obviously have a vested interest. Even (especially?) on this forum there are certain individuals who are over the top about 'their' manufacturer, so BE CAREFUL. You are going to invest a lot of time and/or money into this project, so don't waste it. So I'll say it again, take Everything you are told with a Huge dose of salt, until you see whatever it is with your own eyes. And at the end of the day, you still won't be able to see absolutely everything and will have to go with your instinct. Note - this forum is also jam packed full of wonderful, enthusiastic owners with loads of excellent ideas and experience which would be impossible to find elsewhere. I am privileged to count myself as a member of this group.
I am now looking forward to receiving a chassis/ body package plus various other bits sometime in the middle of next year, and hope to have my car on the road early 2006.
Anyway, to add my thoughts. As Norman suggested in a different thread just now, the price of an airline ticket is not enormous compared to the whole cost of a 40.
Robert, you said you wanted to see head to head, RF, DRB and GT40NZ. That is exactly who I wanted to see so I took 5 days and 24000 miles at the end of May to go visit all 3 from the UK.
I had eliminated ERA, CAV from my search by then, and MDA and Tornado could not meet my particular (peculiar?) requirements of a manufacturer of my 40.
I don't think I can stress too much how important it is to get YOUR own requirements straight.
The visit was VERY educational, and I was pleasantly surprised by all 3 manufacturers.
Now that I have made my choice, and ordered, I will write a post soon detailing what I was looking for, my personal requirements, how I went about choosing, and why I made the decisions I made.
Most importantly I would also strongly suggest that you take EVERYTHING you are told with a HUGE dose of salt, until you see whatever it is with your own eyes. It has been stressed before that owners are obviously biased towards the choice they made, and manufacturers obviously have a vested interest. Even (especially?) on this forum there are certain individuals who are over the top about 'their' manufacturer, so BE CAREFUL. You are going to invest a lot of time and/or money into this project, so don't waste it. So I'll say it again, take Everything you are told with a Huge dose of salt, until you see whatever it is with your own eyes. And at the end of the day, you still won't be able to see absolutely everything and will have to go with your instinct. Note - this forum is also jam packed full of wonderful, enthusiastic owners with loads of excellent ideas and experience which would be impossible to find elsewhere. I am privileged to count myself as a member of this group.
I am now looking forward to receiving a chassis/ body package plus various other bits sometime in the middle of next year, and hope to have my car on the road early 2006.