I bought a kit car magazine the other day and it got me thinking about kit-based replicas. Are they just cheap imitations of great cars or do they actually offer similar thrills for a fraction of the price? Certainly you should never try and pass off a replica as the real thing and it would be unrealistic to compare them in conventional terms. But there are some great replica kits available and the finished product is quite convincing. So what are the downsides? Well, first there is the obvious fact that the car is a replica, a wannabe and will never be held in as high regard as the original and second you have to build it! Apart from that there isn’t really much else. On the plus side the kit will probably cost less to buy and build, spares will be available from the kit or donor manufacturer, it will probably cost less to insure and finally it would probably be more reliable and have better performance since it will be made using mostly brand new components. You may even enjoy the build, certainly seems like a more attractive prospect than trying to fix an old car with a million rusted bolts! So, in my next few posts I’ll talk about some kit replicas that I think are particularly good and are a worthy nod to the originals!
