Based on some cars we found a few years back, my brother, my father and I set up an LLC and started to do some investing - basically buying fire sale cars with a good rate of return. we have bought and sold a few, held on to a few - it has been pretty fun. We have been watching the older porsche stuff for some time - but deals are few and far between. The cars we have found with the greatest rate of return always seem to be the british stuff. Thats fine - they are neat. Per my older post on the 1957 XK140 we restored, I had a really good time working on that car. But the bottom line is that while they are cool, they all seem like fragile museum pieces. As investments, they are great, but none of them really get me fired up.The big Healy is the only one I even find comfortable to drive.

...until now....

Today I took my maiden drive in a newly acquired 1955 Long Nose D-type replica. The actual body is glass. The frame is an upgraded version of the real deal. other than the seats, the interior is all aluminum. It is running the correct motor with webbers, Dunlop spline drives wrapped in pirelli P5's. It was built to comply with some UK racing series in 1994. The guy we bought it from said Stirling Moss saw the car and did not know it was fake until he touched it. It is fantastic. it has about 1000 kilometers on it. The motor was just completely rebuilt last year.
Today we had the steering column adjusted so we could actually drive the thing. I was a little scared as it is right hand drive. It simply hauls - and the sound from the side exhaust is rediculous. As you can imagine, the looks I got were pretty funny.

The best part? Last week when it arrived, my wife came down to see it. Out of all the cars (including the 914) it was the only time she said "woah, is that cool". She actually wanted to sit in it. (see pic).

I only have a couple of quickie pics - more to come.

I have always wanted a 550 spyder replica. I think this fills that void. I need to figure out a way to buy this thing out from under the LLC umbrella and make it just mine. I absolutely love it.

I am buying my dad and brother some RAF goggles for Christmas however!!!

Sorry for the off topic post - but I always feel that this place is full of simply "car guys" - not just 914 guys.

Very cool. The replicas are so much more fun since you don't have to be scared of dinging it !!

What? Don't be silly about being off topic, that's cool.
B

Scott,

I really wanted to stop by your place after the RRC this year but it wasn't in the cards. I would love to tour your shop. You are a serious car guy!

Is that the one with the 4.0 liter or so big six? I remember being shocked at just how fast those cars were when they were new.
Steve

--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(scotty b @ Oct 16 2009, 05:00 PM) </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
Very cool. The replicas are so much more fun since you don't have to be scared of dinging it !!
[/quote]

Boy ain't THAT the truth. Look at this, the saddest thing I ever witnessed, and try to imagine this guy's pain. It was a vintage race at Castle Combe three or four years ago, a Jag that was coming out for the very first time from a ridiculously complete restoration:



Camera phone so not good quality, sorry. I was looking up the straight just as it came into view. As it came out of a curve and onto the straight it must have broken a tie rod, veered left straight into the barrier. Until then it was the sexiest car on the track. After that it was the saddest.

Beautiful car...

-- Rob

That's very cool!

ps got your harness in the mail yesterday Scott.