Building a RCR GT40

[Chet Zerlin]

Hello everyone. Today I put down a deposit with Fran at Race Car Replicas on a MK1 GT40! As much as possible this will be a father-son build with my son Adam.

I've been lurking on this forum for number of years while trying to make a decision so it only took me 5 short years to decide to make the plunge (retirement did help move that along...) In addition to Fran, I can also credit reading the build blog from Chuck and Ryan, Keith's build blog and also their responses to my questions here with helping me make this decision.

Really looking forward to the build! It's my hope to have my own build blog here once I get started.

And now the waiting begins!

Chet

 

[bryanf]

Congratulations on your purchase!

 

[Joel K]

Congrats on the purchase. Once ordered, I spent a tremendous amount of time reading every build thread and putting together a detailed build plan. It kept me quite distracted and I think it paid off once the kit did arrive.

 

[James Shaw]

Very nice!! Looking forward to following along with your build. When do you expect delivery?

 

[Chet Zerlin]

James, the lead time on the delivery is speculative at this point but most tell me to expect 5-6 months. Apparently the deposit just means the end of the decision making process of whether to buy it or not and the beginning of the waiting for it to be delivered! .
Joel I absolutely agree with you and I plan on making use of that time to read (and reread) all of the build blogs on this forum as well as acquiring any tools that I don't have but will need for the build.
Bryan thanks for the congrats!

 

[Keith]

Chet,
Congratulations on your purchase. You have a great adventure ahead of you. All the planning you do now will help speed the process later.
Welcome to the forum, I am looking forward to seeing your progress.
Keith

 

[Chet Zerlin]

Thanks Keith!

 

[Chet Zerlin]

Today I got the first pictures from Fran of my car! Well....not the entire car.....but the chassis and some of the body work. Still it's a huge step forward - especially considering all of the challenges RCR/Fran has faced (and is still facing) in 2020...My congrats to him and his crew!

More to come as the RCR team assembles it into a roller for delivery to me!

 

[Jim Albright]

Today I got the first pictures from Fran of my car! Well....not the entire car.....but the chassis and some of the body work. Still it's a huge step forward - especially considering all of the challenges RCR/Fran has faced (and is still facing) in 2020...My congrats to him and his crew!

More to come as the RCR team assembles it into a roller for delivery to me!

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Chet - You're a very lucky guy! I placed my order with Fran in January for a turnkey minus Lola T70 and got 4 pictures in June. I have been unable to get him to send any updated status pics in the last five months. I hate to be a pest about it as I know the COVID situation has caused him challenges, but I am deeply disappointed in the ongoing lack of communication.

 

[Keith]

Chet,
Those photos have to get have to get you excited about your build. Looking good!!!!!!
Keith

 

[Stephen Ducker]

Congratulations on your new toy ! Time to start a thread on the build log section.
Steve

 

[BruceGR]

Congratulations on your amazing project Chet!
Any more recent photos?

 

[Rod Dittmar]

Chet,
Congrats on your choice of the RCR GT40! And, this forum is a great resource for solutions to any question you might ask. Anyway, I hope you get your car really soon....like, right after I get mine. I placed an order for my GT40 last December and still don't have it. The only thing I've been doing in my garage lately is sweeping the floor! At least you have some pics to drool over which is more than I do. I know Fran is aggressively trying to play catch up because of the shutdown, supply chain and some employee Covid issues. Lots of things totally out of his control. We'll just have to keep our fingers crossed, or maybe a group prayer might help?
Rod

 

[Chet Zerlin]

Hi all and thanks for your good wishes. Right now all I have are the pictures I've uploaded since the chassis is still at RCR in an unfinished state. Hoping it gets the assembly treatment in the near future....I'm also still waiting on my engine from Craft to be finished (backordered parts related to Covid shutdowns there too) which will then be shipped to RCR for Fran and crew to install for me.
Challenging times but I truly believe the wait will be worth it.
Chet

 

[Chuck]

Chet

Great news from Fran with the progress pictures. 2021 will be a good time building that GT.

Chuck

 

[John Fox]

I'm happy for you... it's now officially a project that has started.

The best part is that my D-Type order of early July might not be too far off. Fingers crossed.

-John

 

[Dave Hood]

Chet, this will be an awesome experience for Adam. Congratulations!

 

[Chet Zerlin]

It's....getting.....there.....!

 

[Chet Zerlin]

Fran sent more pictures today! Body has been installed. Now waiting for my motor from Craft to be shipped to RCR. Unfortunately Covid has really done a number on their supply of parts so it is looking like one more month or so until that happens. But very happy to see this progress!

 

[Keith]

Chet, all I can say is WOW!!!!!
Looks great. Bet you can’t wait to get your hands on it. As far as the engine goes, I am hearing this a lot lately. Seems to be many parts shortages out there.
Keith