Ferrari Mailing List: Re: My Experience with a Kit Car Owner

[Jeff Greenfield (coyote]

<BTW - Why doesn't anybody ever get worked up about Replica Boats? Is there 
such a thing....Oh I couldn't afford a REAL Hunter Yacht so I built
one.....No, 
a person like that would get great respect for having the ability to build 
their own boat....whys a car so different??>

There are in fact replica boats. Chris Craft & Hackercraft are the big ones
to knock off, but there are others two. Plans are readily available, so if
you have the time, ability and funds you can certainly build one. 

There are also companies that build 'retro' boats. Modern boats that look
like the boat of yesteryear. There is a fine line between a 'new' boat that
is built in the style of the classics, and one that is actually intended as
a replica of a specific model.

In the latter, as with cars, they are often represented as what they are
intended to be, instead of what they actually are. 

Of course in the case of wooden boats, when does an original cease being an
original when it gets rebuilt from a pile of rotten wood and an ID plate?

I don't really have a problem with people building replica cars, or boats as
long as they don't try to pass them off as the real thing, which they often
try to do. Can't tell you how many times I've seen Jags, cobras, Ferraris,
Lambos, etc at local car shows represented as the real thing when it is
clear they are replicas.

Funny thing, there is a big car show here every July 4th weekend. Strange
restrictions on what can be entered ... anything built before 1973, all
corvettes and kit cars are all that is allowed to enter. I've often
contemplated entering my 308 QV as a Fiero ... I figure the worst they could
do is kick me out and banish me from the show :-) 

Jeff