Enough to make a Porsche purist's head explode...

[Schumi]

What are these? Who the hell buys/builds this stuff?

http://www.covin.co.uk/home_page.htm


For the time and money spent preparing something like you could
A) build your own, uniquely styled kit car
B) restore an actual Porsche

And some people don't like the idea of a LS1 in a 944 or 928... but at least you still have good handling and a fun, fast car if you do that.

These things look like they have tractor motors in them.

I just don't get some people. Don't get me wrong, those cars look beautiful (as any 930 does) but honestly it's like those people who spends thousands and thousands turning their Fiero into a Lamborghini...

[HardDrive]

Confused. These a 911s that they strip down and make into Turbo look alikes, yes?

[Schumi]

No.. it seems they are kit car-like builds utilizing a square tube frame underneath and fiberglass panels taken off molds to look like a 930.

I have a hard time believing that one of these, up close, in person, would not feel like a cheap toy.

[dewolf]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

Confused. These a 911s that they strip down and make into Turbo look alikes, yes?

No, they is VW's they strip to chassis and build a replica on. Weird.

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by dewolf

No, they is VW's they strip to chassis and build a replica on. Weird.

With a 4 banger and Type 3 brakes...

[svandamme]

technically the idea is no different then many of the 550 or 356 speedster replicrap based on a Vw chassis...Make something to look like something it's not.
But it just shows why replicrap really makes Baby Jezus cry... and he cried a lot over the Covin's already, as he did for the 550 and 356 replicrap cars...

[Schumi]

Most of the 550 rep's i've seen have nice, built, 180HP+ type 4's in type 4's in them.

A lot of these have filthy, eurotrash iron block inline 4's out the ass.

One fellow did it right it seems and threw a 930 3.3L in there. Which still begs the question- if you can afford to go through that much trouble, you can afford to buy the real thing.

Torsional rigidity of these boats must be absolute nill. But I guess torsional rigidity doesn't mean crap when the suspension can't corner worth anything anyways.


I'm all for building kit cars and homebuilts, but it should be done right a-la Lotus Seven-esques and 550's with 3.6's in them... :-)

[spuggy]

Originally Posted by Schumi

Which still begs the question- if you can afford to go through that much trouble, you can afford to buy the real thing.

Check out the prices of 911's in the UK sometime, it might make more sense to you then.

[Won]

Also the insurance cost on a real 911 is a killer, or so I heard. For me it's no different than any other replica, maybe we're just spoiled here what with everyone driving one Porsche or another, but it's just a different scale of things.

[jsb944]

It's weird.

To me, a kit car is either something unique....or something unobtainium.

A 911 is neither...lots were made and lots are available in various states of disrepair that one could pickup a real one and rebuild/restore probably for equal money as one of those.

It's like steven wright's joke about getting a full body tattoo of himself, only taller.

Underneath it's still just a bug...and outside....it looks like a rather common car for most people to see.

It somehow reminds me of that body kit to make your miata look like a BMW Z3....mehhhhh.


Seen them before and have yet to understand it.....

[DanielDudley]

A 550 replica is a serious car that I would consider owning. Even a 356 replica is a fairly close approximation of the real deal.

I'm not too attracted to these puppies though. To each his own...

[Dave L]

looking for the positives; they list the curb weight as 1500 - 1725lbs in the technical section. If the car had a cage in it for safety and rigidity they could be quick with a decent engine.

I would have no hesitation in building a lotus 7 replica but for a 911 I think you would be miles ahead just to buy a real one.

[BARON5011]

Ha Ha ,
Not a lot of positive comments for a car that that means a lot to some people.
Some of these cars looks better than some real Porsches.
I own a real 911 and also owened and built a Covin Cabrio some time ago and will build one any day again.
Not everybody is so lucky to pick up a cheap car and then restore it at an affordable price.
Here in South Africa a Porsche is an expensive car with about 100% tax mark up on the price. Cars therefor dont get dumped at the end of their life cycle but get snapped up and reworked to return to the streets--- in a legal or ilegal way --- Prices for old worn down cars are probibly higher than what you Americans and Canadians pay for good well looked after cars.
In America Porsches are cheap and freely available and it is probibly easier to restore than building a kit car. It is actually a different experience and can be fun to produce something from nothing and make it look better than the real thing.
I lost my Covin kit car project in a run away fire a year ago after I pumped a lot of money into the project.
I dont see a problem with a replica car as long as you dont try and introduce it as a real Porsche.
By the way they some came out on purpose build frames others was mould to take either a shortened beetle or type 3 vw floor pan. Gearboxes are mainly aircooled vw or Porsche and engines are up to the builder with any air cooled vw,Porsche or Subaru the favourites.
So its horses for courses and it is just as much fun to build a covin --which by the way is a very high quality body -- than to rebuild an oldPorsche.

Here is an examle build out of nothing by a very proud owner and the car that inspired me to also build one
My car when it arrived at my house.

[Gogar]

All anyone has to do if they're skeptical about "kit cars" is look at the Lane's speedster.

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by BARON5011

I dont see a problem with a replica car as long as you dont try and introduce it as a real Porsche.

i beg to differ, the fact that they are built to be cosmetically like a Porsche when they are not, to me means they try to introduce themselves as a real Porsche, to whoever sees em on the road...
Maybe it would be better if they have some speed striping written on the side, in big fluorescant letters " COVIN " or "FAKE PORSCHE"

I can understand it to some level with the 356 speedsters and the 550's... But it just generally bores me that each time i see some nice car like that, i have to ask the owner "is it a real one ?!?!?"... with 9/10 of the time, it ain't.

but 1/10 , asking the owner means you pretty much gotta ask him if he drives a fraud or the real thing, which i'm sure must be tedious if indeed he does drive the real thing..

[BARON5011]

Poin taken Stijn,
But what would you call me then if;-
I built a RS replica ,all fibre glass, on a original 3.2 boby
I take up metal shaping and reproduce a complete alluminium 911 body
I restore a rust bucket and I relace 80% of the body with new plate bought from China
Would I still be a cheap cheat.
cheers
baron

[Oh Haha]

Some of them look pretty darn good. I bet most "normal" folks wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

What I don't get is why the Porsche lawyers haven't shut them down. I mean nothing else looks that close to the original car. Most other relicars built on stock chassis have some detail that you can pick out pretty fast.

I think the kit cars of the Speedsters and the 550 Spyders are way cool but pretty everyone knows they are not built anymore.

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by BARON5011

Poin taken Stijn,
But what would you call me then if;-
1 I built a RS replica ,all fibre glass, on a original 3.2 boby
2 I take up metal shaping and reproduce a complete alluminium 911 body
3 I restore a rust bucket and I relace 80% of the body with new plate bought from China
Would I still be a cheap cheat.
cheers
baron

1, fine, it came out of the factory in Stuttgart, RS'es at one point started out on the same metal press as the "ordinary" 911's did.. same unibody , different finish.
So an RS replica to me is not a replica, but a clone... All Porsches in their heart have the RS spirit in them... maybe not the Pepper wagon, not sure on that one yet
They all do well when lightened, and made more dedicated to track or rally or whatever...

2, good luck trying, but it will still be replicrap to me

3, fine, it came out of the factor, steel is steel.. if you're comfortable with the chinese platesteel, and it fit's the car the way it supposed to fit.. eg, if it's the right thickness, shape and size for you to build that Porsche so it looks like a good restoration... why not.

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by Oh Haha

Most other relicars built on stock chassis have some detail that you can pick out pretty fast.

convertible roof line sit's wrong... there's the detail, picked out pretty fast

[speeder]

Originally Posted by BARON5011

Not everybody is so lucky to pick up a cheap car and then restore it at an affordable price.
Here in South Africa a Porsche is an expensive car with about 100% tax mark up on the price.

If I was somehow forced to live in such a place, I would forget about cars and just save every cent that I could get my hands on to buy some fake documents and a plane ticket out of there. I just can't imagine living in one of your countries where the citizens do not revolt at 100% taxes on anything. Those are not the kind of people I want to live amongst.

Just a hypothetical question: At what point would people there revolt? A 100% tax on the 100% tax? A 200% tax on the extra 100? Do they tell you that it's the greatest country on earth? Just wondering...