Dave,
From my point of view all of the cars, except the few 100 and something chassis built in the 60´s by FAV or JWA are replicas/copies.
Even the Safir cars, no matter if they called them MK V or what, are replicas/copies.
The philosophy behind that car is pure "replica"! Peter Thorp was looking for a GT 40 for himself, and as he could not find the right car for him, he decided to build his own. At that time he was one of the principals of Safir Eng. Although they used many original parts, out of the original moulds, the chassis is totally different from the real thing, and those chassis were not built by Ford with the original purpose in mind. So, no matter what they say, for me it is a replica/copy (even if they were allowed to use the chassis number sequence continuing the original chassis numbers)
Then in the broad replica land, you can use different words to define the different types of cars that occupy that broad span, and I guess both the Webster and the Oxford dictionaries will be very close on their definitions of each of them: Clone, look-alike, silhouette...
The terms "real" or "fake" are always used in a different scenario.
In order to use the word "fake" for one of those cars, there has to be a previous premise: someone trying to pass a replica/copy as an original. Then the semantics of fake or real are appropriate.
As far as the owner of the car realizes and is aware that he owns a replica/copy the word fake should not be used. Fake has the negative connotations of someone trying to cheat in first instance.
I guess most of us (almost all in this forum) know what we own and do not pretend passing our cars as anything except what they are.
As a matter of fact "real" could be used in any of the cars, because all of the cars are real, no matter if they are original or replicas.
Original cars, the ones built in the 60´s by FAV and JWA. Period
Replicas/copies. All the rest, Safir MK V, Sbarros,...Gelscoe, ERA, SPF, RCR, GTD, CAV...Goran´s, Mirage....
Some closer to the original than others, but nevertheless all of them are "copies"
Back to the main topic of the thread, I guess the best kit is the one that matches best what you are looking for, originality, possibility of self-build if you are a hands-on guy... and the one that matches your finances! The differences here are enormous!
Cheers!