Proteus, maker of hand-crafted replicas of bygone sports cars, is coming to America. Recently purchased by Enduro Cars, Proteus plans to restart production of its carbon copy Jaguar XK120 C -- the record-breaking Le Mans-conquering roadster -- that you'll be able to purchase for $133.000.
In addition to the XK 120 C, the company is looking at making a Lightweight E-Type and perhaps some early F1 cars. Last year, Proteus showed a C-Type coupe to the public to gauge reaction. No decisions have been made yet on that car, but the 21-year-old company is planning to begin fabricating three more Jags -- the SS100, XKSS, and D-Type – as well as the Aston Martin DB3S and the racing version of the gullwing 300SL, the 300SLR.
The company builds about 150 units of the XK 120 C per year, and each all-aluminum car comes with a 5-year, 60,000-mile warranty. Sure, it'll cost you $133,000, but that will get you a one of the most beautiful cars ever penned and cost a lot less in the long run than the original.
In our day-to-day, we come across a fair number of replicars. Some are especially convincing, while others are just plain bonkers. Far more so than the Miata-based AMX07 we brought you back in 2006, this Aston Martin V12 Vanquish replica could have had us fooled.
Made by Ontario, Canada-based Exclusive Motor Cars, this Aston replica is based on a previous-gen Ford Mustang. Ten companies are then involved in the transformation -- stretching the wheelbase, widening the track and lowering the ride height with suspension mods; crafting, painting and fitting the 34 composite body panels; custom upholstering the interior and fitting interior trim pieces; and mounting all the extra details from the headlights to the badges.
The end result, at least as far as we can tell from the pictures (you can judge for yourself in the gallery below), would appear to fool anyone but the most trained eye. Exclusive even plans to offer a "spy package" complete with (what we'd hope are fake) grille-mounted rocket launchers and hood-mounted machine guns in an effort to complete the "Die Another Day" 007 package. Although the company's pricing page is currently blank, you can bet it costs a heck of a lot less than the authentic, now-discontinued V12 Vantage itself. You very well might be the only one who would know the difference.
With far more people wanting Ferraris than those who can actually afford one, replicas based on lesser donor cars are nothing new. Some are more convincing than others, and while we'd recommend a nice Corvette over a faux-rarri, once in a while there's an example that catches our attention, for better or worse.
If you're in love with the 250 GTO and don't have the millions it takes to buy one, this car might be the closest you can get. Follow the jump to find footage – nicely edited footage, actually – of a 250 GTO replica based on a Datsun 240Z that's set to the rather apt soundtrack of The Who's "Won't get Fooled Again", which you may recognize from CSI.
The recreational car show season is about two-thirds of the way done for 2007, at least here in New England. There will be good cruise days sprinkled in until about Halloween, but as the summer winds down, so does the practice of four-wheeled gatherings. Every year as I stroll past rows of shiny fenders, my thoughts wander to what fun there is to be had with that vehicle that doesn't participate in workaday drudgery.
For project cars, it's a veritable prerequisite to have a garage. Note the shot of my driveway, and its distinct lack of a garage. Lacking a place to store all the accoutrements of the vehicular addiction hobby, let alone provide a proper roof over the heads of my vehicles makes upkeep of even our regular rides that much more difficult, never mind keeping the shine on anything special.
I like Bugs. I like Porsches. Not together. Taking a historical bent, you could draw a line from the Porsche 911 back to the Volkswagen Beetle without it having too many kinks and corners in it. The flip side of that relationship is that while there are some similarities in the broad-strokes sense, the two cars are more dissimilar than they are alike. How we wish we'd coined the name, but alas, Creative Cars (whoever they are) came up with the Porrera moniker when they started producing 911 retrofit kits. It's close, kind of, but not really. Maybe in that small area in the lower part of the rear quarter where the taillights meet the fender flares. Hm. No. All the nose jobs and fanny surgery in the world can't change the fact that this is, at its core, a 1970 Type I. The greenhouse is too bulbous (a proper chop job might help), the front overhangs are reminiscent of something penned by Matt Groening, and out back continues to chuffle a filthy 1300.
Double sacrilege, or sincere tribute? We sincerely love Mazda's RX-7, yet we've also got a place in our hearts for E-Type Jaguars. We're a little sad to see that a 1985 RX-7 was sacrificed to create this very convincing E-Type replica, but maybe we can console ourselves by thinking back to Mazda's own Wankel-powered pseudo E. The pictures really are quite convincing, and unless you parked it next to a real Jaguar, only the engine note would give it away. On the plus side, you could double-dip on enthusiast events, Jaguar and Mazda fans alike would embrace this car. The replica sold for $16,000 on eBay recently, and we hope the new owner is out enjoying the raspy whine of the 13B and the way light clings to the curvy hood panel as you motor about town, turning heads.
A bunch of guys are sitting around at the local watering hole, throwing back a couple cold ones, and they get to talking. It's the usual, familiar scene. 'If I had my own sports car company, I'd do it all different.' 'That Russian kid who bought TVR doesn't know what he's doing.' 'Why can't anyone make a decent roadster like the Porsche 356?' The difference in this case was that the guys had the money to make it happen, and have put it right where their mouths are.
The result was the formation of Tygan Motor Company and its acquisition of Chesil, a company that successfully produces and markets replicas of Porsche 356 Speedsters based on VW Beetle components. Tygan is gearing up to offer variants with a customer's choice of 1.8- or 2.0-liter, air-cooled, four-cylinder, Volkswagen-sourced, twin-carb boxer engines. To back it up with competent handing, Tygan is fitting an independent rear suspension, and to back up its reliability, a one-year warranty. Buyers can chose a two-seater or – shock! – a 2+2 configuration, at a projected cost of £28,750 in the UK.
After acquiring Chesil Motor Company's assets, Tygan expanded the production facilities to double output, while retaining Chesil's staff. Tygan is aiming to become the UK's and Europe's biggest producer of classic sportscar replicas, and with an injection of capital and a driven new management, they stand more than a half-decent chance.
When you read about gearhead guys -- like the kind who put two engines in an Integra -- it's like, "What else is new?" But when you read about gearhead gals, especially the kind who have created the car you see above, it's like, "Uh ... call me."
Michelle bought a 1977 280Z on eBay that had been turned into a Ferrari 250 GTO replica with an Alpha1 kit. She and her best friend Haley then turned it into a replica unlike any other. They changed every single body panel, made a lot of the cosmetic parts functional like the vents in the rear and the trap door on the nose, and fashioned completely new parts like the rear trunk. Deeper fabrication efforts include stretching the wheelbase, moving the firewall back, and making the car RHD so it's not like other American replicas. Then, not happy with the 5-speed V6, they grabbed a V12 lump from a BMW 850 CSI, made it dry sump and installed manual Dellorto throttles, then put it in the engine bay they revised for better balance and a lower center of gravity. They've done a lot more as well -- click the "Read" link to check out all the details and pics. If you want to know the way to an Autoblogger's heart, this is a great start.
This faux Jeep gets a pass, because it comes out looking so close to the real thing, though Jeep faithful will likely pick it to pieces. Pieces is how the story begins, with a Bejing Jeep 2020 that has a tryst with a Sawz-all. Predictably, the 2020 gets all broken up after its torrid affair, and needs to be put back together. Two talented Chinese bodymen took up the mantle and reinvigorated this unloved, down and out conveyance.
The outcome sees the Jeep better than has ever been, which is the hope of anyone who ever partakes in an intervention, isn't it? While this facsimilie has been whipped up most of the way around the world, it's definitely got some Jeeper spirit going on. There's plenty of backyard-assembled CJs here in the homeland that don't look anywhere near as good as this totally fake Rubicon. Sure, the paint's not great (well, it does look shiny, that counts), and the mechanicals are a crapshoot, but the caution (and safety equipment) be damned attitude that these fellas show as they forge ahead and make something from nothing is true Jeep ethos. Besides, we'd much rather cruise the streets of China in the red faux Rubicon than the Chairman-Mao Green thing it started as. It's not the first time someone's made a replica out of a totally unrelated car, anyway. We're not generally fans of the practice, but we see the effort here and applaud the results.
Why is it that people feel the need to saddle perfectly good cars with replica bodywork to make them look like exotics? There's nothing wrong with the last generation Toyota MR2, true, it's no Ferrari, but then again, you can buy an entire MR2 for very much less than a Ferrari 360; an amount closer to the downpayment, most likely. We'd keep the bodykit away from the MR2 and spend the extra dough on suspension and engine mods. If you really must project the image that a Ferrari brings (you know – this car costs more than your house, and I'll sell it for more, too. Yes, that does make me better than you) you could follow the lead of this MR2 Spyder's owner.
If you can stomach the truncated proportions that haven't survived scaling well, your MR2 will make a solid basis for you to become a total poseur. From what we can see, the car pictured has had time and energy lavished on it. The extra-wide door gap is not pretty, but overall, there's a lot of detail here, and the pictures show something that's reasonably turned out, instead of a total hack job. It's a very well done tribute, in fact. At least you can be fairly certain that the MR2 will have more uptime than the Ferrari, and when it does need to go see the doctor, the prescription's cost will lean more toward ibuprofen, not radical walletectomy.
The recreational car show season is about two-thirds of the way done for 2007, at least here in New England. There will be good cruise days sprinkled in until about Halloween, but as the summer winds down, so does the practice of four-wheeled gatherings. Every year as I stroll past rows of shiny fenders, my thoughts wander to what fun there is to be had with that vehicle that doesn't participate in workaday drudgery. 
A bunch of guys are sitting around at the local watering hole, throwing back a couple cold ones, and they get to talking. It's the usual, familiar scene. 'If I had my own sports car company, I'd do it all different.' 'That Russian kid who bought TVR doesn't know what he's doing.' 'Why can't anyone make a decent roadster like the Porsche 356?' The difference in this case was that the guys had the money to make it happen, and have put it right where their mouths are.
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