The world's ugliest GT40

[Mike Dozier]

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

Meat

Perhaps we can agree that we disagree...

GT40's as most of us using this BB see it,
is a very specific car that happens to be
very expensive, even as a replica.
If your budget does not allow you to execute
a good quality GT40, you should look at
another car to build (for example Cobras),
that someone with average skills can complete
and enjoy.

Your suggestion about using sweat equity
to help finance a project is right on,
and one many of us used to reach our goal.

However I think your suggestion that a beginner tackle a Kelmark/Avenger/Valkerie/
ASP/etc etc is ill advised. Been there...
done that! There's a real good reason
many of those were never finished.

And to hope that this BB will expand to help
people with these SEPs is just that...
wishful. Those early kits in particular
are great conversation pieces, but not good cars...and certainly not GT40s.

MikeD

 

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

My first build is a 40.
Lot's of help and lots of new skills to sharpen.
It is possible you just have to want it bad enough.
The wife wanted a cobra but... it's not like she's going to have a key to the car anyway

John

 

[Howard Jones]

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

John, I could'nt have said it better. "You just have to want it bad enought!"

 

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

MEAT,

I own a GTD 40 and a Cobra. And guess what? I like your posts!!

20 years from now when Ford has fully developed it's new GT40 (big assumption, I know), someone is going to look at my GTD 40 and say "what an Ugly looking.... %$#@".

I used to think My cobra was beautiful,,,now more and more it looks like a frog!! Couple years from now, that GT 40 may look like a.....can I say it...ooops...

It is healthy to disagree

 

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MikeDD:
"...Perhaps we can agree that we disagree..."

<snip>

"...However I think your suggestion that a beginner tackle a Kelmark/Avenger/Valkerie/
ASP/etc etc is ill advised. Been there...
done that! There's a real good reason
many of those were never finished..."<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well, I can't agree to disagree, because I don't necessarily disagree...which means that on some level we're in agreement.

I had thought that I pretty much made my point, and I don't think this needs to go any further.

However, I did not say or suggest that a beginner "tackle a Kelmark/Avenger/Valkerie/
ASP/etc" EVER. So if you're 'agreeing to disagree with me' over that, then you're mistaken in your assumption that I said something that I did not. Also, there are quite a few of the Valkyries, Avengers, ASPPs, VW-GTs, Sebring Mk IIIs, Sirocci GTs, etc that are on the road - I would hazard a guess that (based on the Fiberfab registry) most of the cars have been completed; something that can't necessarily be said about a full-blown GT40 replica. A rebody is not time or labor intensive to the level of the GT40.

What I would recommend is that we should all be respectful of the work, sweat, and tetnus shots that others have endured in their efforts. They may not be up to the level that you envision your car will be finished to, but someone put a great deal of effort into making their GT40 replica ... replica. Appreciate the efforts of others; they can do nothing but make your cars look better.

Your pal,
Meat.

[ January 09, 2003: Message edited by: meat ]

 

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

Faili F & Meat, you guys started me thinking back...... I never though of myself as a pioneer in the Kit Car world, but after reading your posts, I guess I am or was part of it. In the mid sixties I worked at a company called Autodynamics where I helped shape out the body of a Kit Car called the "HUSTLER". I just dug out an old picture of the car to see if it looked ugly to me..... nope! still looks kool to me! Ya! it was a LOTUS ELAN body stuck on a VW chassis, but kool at that point in time. We put a lot of work into that car & were plenty proud of it. We did the best we could with what we had at that time. So be respectful of all thoes old Kit Cars, yours will be one someday.

 

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Datonabill:
Faili F & Meat, you guys started me thinking back...... I never though of myself as a pioneer in the Kit Car world, but after reading your posts, I guess I am or was part of it. In the mid sixties I worked at a company called Autodynamics where I helped shape out the body of a Kit Car called the "HUSTLER". I just dug out an old picture of the car to see if it looked ugly to me..... nope! still looks kool to me! Ya! it was a LOTUS ELAN body stuck on a VW chassis, but kool at that point in time. We put a lot of work into that car & were plenty proud of it. We did the best we could with what we had at that time. So be respectful of all thoes old Kit Cars, yours will be one someday.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

And Autodynamics also made a dozen or so mid engine chassis for Fiberfab...they guys who did the Avenger/Valkyrie...The world is very small place!

Your pal,
Meat.

 

[Mike Dozier]

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

Sorry Bill/Meat...

Once again I beg to disagree.
I suspect 10,20,30,40 years from now,
no one will remember or care about these early kits. However the same will not be true
about GT40s since they are a part of racing
history.

Once again I must point out that the purpose
of this Forum is to share information and ideas regarding GT40s. If you continue to
include these early "kit cars" in the same
sentence as GT40, I'm going to have a supply
of used Yugos delivered to your house.

MikeD

 

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

Just looking at things from a different perspective, time should have a value placed on it, and the old saying that time is money is very true.Apply this to building kits and assuming 800 hours for a quality job the cost of your time is very high. So instead of investing this time in something that will never be excellent and may very well end in tears,it makes a lot of sense to maybe using those hours to accumulate the money needed to buy the best at the beginning. It may delay the start date but when you do invest those hours it will be "money" well spent

 

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

Mike DD, I'll take thoes Yugos if they have a trnsaxle that will take 500 horse power.
Being in the aircraft, race car & Kit Car business,I meet many people. Much to my dismay, I'm metting more & more people that have know idea what a GT 40 is. Very disturbing to me!
I think someone should keep track of the history of the GT40 race cars and the replica GT40's. I think it will help keep the facts clear in the future.

 

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

Datonabill You are spot on with people not knowing what a GT40 is. The two main age groups inclined to recognise the cars are those old enough to have been around in the 60's and their grandchildren who have had exposure to the 40's on I think it is Playstation two. The generation in the middle mostly does'nt have a clue,unless they are true car lovers. Regards

 

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

Norman, I have a replica of a Cobra Daytona Coupe. People look at the Coupe and are totaly lost, haven't a clue! I love it!

 

[Steve Toner]

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

From Ford GT40 by John S. Allen:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR> Almost from the moment the GT40's stunning shape first appeared, enterprising people have been copying it. It began in the 1960s, when an American company, Fiberfab, built GT40-like bodyshells to fit onto Volkswagen chassis... To describe such vehicles as 'replicas' would be too kind, since cars like these would never appeal to the connoisseur.

For the purposes of this text, let us settle on the following terms: replica: a car so similar to the original that only an expert could tell it from the real thing; copy: a car built along the lines of the original, but incorporating various modifications to make it cheaper or easier to build, or even -- dare I say it -- to make it a better car; lookalike: a car which outwardly resembles the original, but is a very different animal beneath the skin.

The 1960's offerings could at best be described as 'look-similars', and so have no place here... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It is my understanding that this forum is meant to discuss:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>The genuine article
<LI>Replicas (as defined by Allen)
<LI>Copies (as defined by Allen)[/list]

 

[Mike Dozier]

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

Bill

The world is divided into two groups...
people who see cars as only transportation,
and those who see them as much more.

The former group never cared and never will.
You are correct that the latter group is
in constant change as older generations
pass on and new generations emerge.

I'd like to think that the GT40 will always
be remembered as a great racing car, and that
our replicas will increase the number of
car fans, young and old, who will get to see what they were about up close.

That's why I get a little "concerned" when
I hear people compare the early kit cars to current GT40 replicas...
as if somehow these early cars "evolved"
into the fine replicas of today. They didn't.
Shall we ask ERA how many Avengers they
studied before they released their GT40s?

Your Cobra Coupe is much rarer than a GT40.
I knew exactly what a GT40 looked like long
before I never knew the Coupes existed.
I guess they never got the press they deserved because they didn't have the full
backing of Ford and never won Lemans outright

MikeD

 

[Ron Earp]

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

That definition of forum use is correct, that is what is was started for. Although it changes due to what the members want, if it ever strays too far from this definition then I'll have no interest and hand it off or take it down.

Ron

 

[Mike Dozier]

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

It's all Mark's fault...he started this thread.

MikeD

 

[Mark Worthington]

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

Actually, it's that Ebay seller's fault!

 

[Howard Jones]

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

Ron don't get carried away. I NEED this forum. It is really the only place I can go for help building my 40. I just fixed my gearbox in about 4 days because of you guys. Can you amagine me trying to find a renute, or hell I can't even spell it, shop to help me in Calif.that quickly and for free. This is what this forum is for, people who LOVE GT40's and want to own one them selfs. Some of us even build them and encourge others to begin their own. Their are even some REAL ones here!
I rode in a real GT40 when I was about 14-15 and have always had a picture of one on the wall somewhere in the house ever since. At least I believed it was real at the time. I am sure it wasn't a fiberfab.

 

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

im sorry but you misstaken, it fell out of the, hit ever branch on the way down,then the uly tree toppled onto it


ugh, its ugaly imho

 

Re: The world\'s ugliest GT40

All discussions of the relative merits of the original kit designer or the condition of the particular car aside.

How can one not just fall off their chair carefully reading the description.

My favorite line is: "Look at it this way, it is a kind of car that you buy not because of what it does to you, but for what it does to those who see you in it."