Re: NBC, but story about cool "exact" Spyder 550 replica

[www.bloomberg.com]

The car looks like a real beauty. They've sure gone to a lot of effort to make it as close to an original as possible.

Interesting that they list the Worst feature of the car to be that there is only one in existence. You'd think for a collector, that would make it one of the best features (if you owned it.)

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

We passed one on a street a couple of weeks ago and marveled at the car--leather strap on the engine compartment access and all. I knew it couldn't have been an original but it looked to good to be a kit car of some sort. $300K+-wow; I love nostalgia as much as the next guy, but..

Come to BRBS and stay at the Mast Farm Inn and they'll rent this 550 replica to you.



(This was from 2008. Not sure if this is still offered or operating.....)

There are a couple of companies making 550 replicas. A friend owned a Beck for some time and really enjoyed it.

Beck 550 Replicas

Thunder Ranch 550 Replicas

A real beauty. FWIW I found it surprising in terms of the poor quality of the video- not the pixel quality but the fact that almost all of the shots appear to be taken from a fixed position camera that they kept on a perfectly horizontal line. No creativity nor emotion in the filming to match the beauty and effort of the replica.

“When I say this is an exact reproduction, I mean exact,” says co-owner Rob Edwards. “The word exact has no wiggle room in its definition.”

I wasn't going to say anything until I read that.

Let me first say that the car is very well done and that I would love to own one.

But if your going to say "Exact" with no wiggle room...

The video shows chrome 5.5 x 15" wheels. The original cars had painted 3.25 x 16" wheels; chrome wheels weighed more than the painted ones so Porsche would not have put them on a 550, and the 5.5 x 15" wheels did not come out until 1967 anyway.

The video shows the area around the rear shock towers to be incorrect as well as the chassis area under and around the rear of the car. This could very well be because of laws regarding manufacturing vehicles in 2013, but if there is no wiggle room, this is not correct.

There are a few more nits to pick like the exhaust being completely wrong, but, well, I'd still love to have one of these.

A friend of mine has a saying in the vintage Porsche world that "fiction becomes fact in a hurry if you don't cut it off at the pass". If this car were to be held up as an "exact" reproduction like the Auto Union cars being reproduced in the UK, well, it is not. A very fine car and WAY better than any other reproduction out there, a resounding YES.