Sorry to report, but it is still happening - 3 cars lost :-(

[PSk]

Okay, I can see Tom's point. I'm only fueling the fire. I've tried before not to respond but I will try harder.

It seems to me the more noise about replicas there is, the more people take notice of the threads and then more non-enthusiasts get excited about making a replica.

The first time I came across FChat, I thought it was a joke then I found Tom's site. It is a pity because there is a lot of good info on FChat ...
Pete

[kare]

God help me, I contributed to that debate again, breaking Bayer's adage about feeling good . . . . .

10-15 years ago I decided that I am going to stand up against reclothing old cars because the replicas will never have any real historic value and won't appreciate as the time goes by like an original car. Most of them will look look a little funny in a 20 years time (have a look at the Alfa and Ferrari rebodies of the 80's - they scrapped numerous Alfa Romeo Touring Coupes to make kit cars of racing cars because the Coupes were thought to be boring and the racing car replicas were thought to be so much fun!). Now these "exact recreations" look so ugly that it's hard to believe they were not built upon a VW platform...

I think that respect for a car comes from group of enthusiasts who love them and the owners are in a key role. I don't really care what kind of impression people get of me as a person (why should I?), but I will stand up and fight till the day I die. If I save one car by making somebody think that it might not be a good idea after all, it's all been worth it.

[PSk]

God help me, I contributed to that debate again, breaking Bayer's adage about feeling good . . . . .

10-15 years ago I decided that I am going to stand up against reclothing old cars because the replicas will never have any real historic value and won't appreciate as the time goes by like an original car. Most of them will look look a little funny in a 20 years time (have a look at the Alfa and Ferrari rebodies of the 80's - they scrapped numerous Alfa Romeo Touring Coupes to make kit cars of racing cars because the Coupes were thought to be boring and the racing car replicas were thought to be so much fun!). Now these "exact recreations" look so ugly that it's hard to believe they were not built upon a VW platform...

I think that respect for a car comes from group of enthusiasts who love them and the owners are in a key role. I don't really care what kind of impression people get of me as a person (why should I?), but I will stand up and fight till the day I die. If I save one car by making somebody think that it might not be a good idea after all, it's all been worth it.

Completely agree, and was annoyed last year or so when I heard of an early Alfa Romeo being restored in New Zealand, and they had 2 cars to make one from, the better one was a coupe (or both were) and they were going to make a spider out of it ... just fncken stupid. If I was rich I would have tracked down the owner and given him/her a cheque and saved both cars.

But this thread on Fchat is being trolled I think and it has generated too much interest and thus become an advert (which is what Allan wanted) for this process. I think it would have been better if his post was completely ignored and thus he would have rightly felt that he was unwanted and nobody else would have noticed it ... hopefully for long enough for it to be completely lost. If I was Rob (who runs Fchat) I'd delete replica posts.
Pete

[kare]

[quote="PSk"]It seems to me the more noise about replicas there is, the more people take notice of the threads and then more non-enthusiasts get excited about making a replica.[/quote]I don't think so. The replica industry has been around so long that a large group of people "knows" that ugly old cars can be converted into a better ones. They also know that the replica industry is building 100% accurate replicas and that they drive exactly as a real thing.

I think about half of the people who commission replicas to be built do not really appreciate or care for originality, they don't really care if their replica is not very accurate as long as they can be a king for a day, believe it provides them good time on street/track and a delusion that they now know how GTO drives. These can't be stopped.

With this disinfo widely spread, new-comers often think that it is the right thing to do and that it will provide them a place in the sun too. I am sure that many of these will get dissapointed in the end and think they should not have done it in the first place. Then they sell the car and walk away leving permanent damage behind. These people could be stopped if they realized in the first place that a replica will usually look a little funny (on a rare occasoin it will look very funny) and it will not get them invited into GTO owners club. Some of the don't really understand that a converted GTE is not the same thing as a real GTO.

[PSk]

We've been had by trolls : http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showth ... 054&page=2

LOL
Pete

[kare]

Hardly a surprice for anyone. You can almost hear PMs flying back and forth in the back ground and they still can't keep it together. As said earlier 12-year-old kids can pull it off better these days. Best wishes, Kare