Just wondering if the following is real or a kit... for some reason certain things seem "fieroish" to me, but maybe because I stare at fieros all day. Unfortunately I have no other pictures.
Fiero. The windshield wipers are not hidden or straight and there is the little metal guide on the top of the passenger side window. Ferrari would not let those tiny details show.
[This message has been edited by IMSA GT (edited 09-23-2010).]
IP: Logged
07:47 PM
joshua riedl Member
Posts: 1426 From: watertown wi USA Registered: Jan 2004
Looks like a fiero hood to me. fiero side windows. fiero roof and windshield. I'ld still drive it.
Now that i look at it your right. The real 355's headlights are down towards the bumper and not really a part of the hood... deffenetley fiero kit. Also look at the side window's.. wherew the catch is... right in the same spot as a fiero.
[This message has been edited by pontiackid86 (edited 09-23-2010).]
IP: Logged
07:49 PM
doublec4 Member
Posts: 8289 From: Oakville, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jun 2003
I think its a fiero too... the side mirrors don't look proper, the side window looks like a fiero, the side marker lights don't look proper as well, and the lower air scoop looks slightly small and incorrect.
IP: Logged
07:50 PM
IMSA GT Member
Posts: 10484 From: California Registered: Aug 2007
That is a kit all day long, not a bad one though. some of the things that give it away, the front of the hood at the bumper, the side scoops, the headlights, the rear quarter B piller, no side marker lights. just to name a few. I work on this model of kit every day and see the real deal every week. D.
I will tell you what it is... It looks like the F282 kit made by the Fiero Factory in the UK around 1998 there was an article in Kitcars international, may 1998...it looks simmilar and the wheels are the same
IP: Logged
08:29 PM
Fie Ro Member
Posts: 3735 From: Soest, The Netherlands Registered: Sep 2001
Looks like a fiero hood to me. fiero side windows. fiero roof and windshield. I'ld still drive it.
The hood is Fiero-ish, but is not a standard Fiero hood. Notice how the forward edge of the headlight doors do not follow parallel to the hood edge. God, I must be sick to notice these things.
IP: Logged
09:12 PM
Four_hundred_86 Member
Posts: 656 From: West/Central Texas Registered: Oct 2008
And aslo the 355 has a sidemarker right in front of the wheel well on the front bumper.. this one dosent.
Only 355 sent to the US have side marker lights. The European versions don't. But Fie Ro nailed it. It was made by a company in the UK called the Fiero Factory, no relation to the one in Alabama. The header bar is the big giveaway.
IP: Logged
11:10 PM
doublec4 Member
Posts: 8289 From: Oakville, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jun 2003
btw it must be from the UK, if you look close at the first posted picture the steeringwheel is at the right (wrong! ) side..
its on the correct side LOL yes its a u.k registration probably from the fiero factory that does various kits from a fiero there based in birmingham in the midlands
although these kits are often done with, dare i say it an mr2
the best kits using a fiero I have seen was near amsterdam at fiero innovations and they were where as accurate as you could possibly get
jon
IP: Logged
03:26 AM
Australian Member
Posts: 4701 From: Sydney Australia Registered: Sep 2004
Unless you get the AD 355 with the extended windshield. This is the most accurate kit I have ever seen and most builders use a lot of real Ferrari parts on them since they are so exact.
John Watson sold his Air Dynamics 355 molds to bartman (kit car forum, now mad mechanics forum). John bought real ferrari body parts to make his molds from. He is now doing the same thing with lamborghini murciealago parts.
IP: Logged
11:15 AM
85SEnochie Member
Posts: 2081 From: Tri-cities, WA Registered: Oct 2007
That is a nice kit and would drive it any day! The one in the second picture, post car wash as for the silver one that is maybe UK it may have been flipped I have done it before because I liked the angle better just saying that as a maybe?
The one from the UK is not meant to be a 355 kit. It only takes its general appearance from the 355. Maybe that is why they called it the 282... so people would know they were not trying to produce an exact 355.
IP: Logged
02:25 PM
ConvictedRedneck Member
Posts: 1034 From: Easton, PA - USA Registered: Nov 2005
got to say - although it is probably everbody's dream to own a ferrari or have the spare cash for a ferrari, and it is replicated in kit form with the best possible match - the fiero. but just remember the fiero itself - although people have rebodied it it is still a fiero underneath, running gear etc
you should be proud just to have a fiero and be able to keep it running after 22 years of stopped production
so my input is, keep un rebodied - keep it original it is after all a rare classic
jon m
[This message has been edited by jon m (edited 09-24-2010).]
IP: Logged
04:32 PM
Songman Member
Posts: 12496 From: Nashville, TN Registered: Aug 2000
I don't want a Ferrari. There was a time when I could have afforded one but I would always have rather had a kit car. Ferraris, Lambos, etc. are beautiful cars but even beyond the high cost of maintenance and insurance, they are just not able to withstand the rigors as a daily driver. Give me a well done 355 kit over the real thing any day.
I don't want a Ferrari. There was a time when I could have afforded one but I would always have rather had a kit car. Ferraris, Lambos, etc. are beautiful cars but even beyond the high cost of maintenance and insurance, they are just not able to withstand the rigors as a daily driver. Give me a well done 355 kit over the real thing any day.
I don't know. If I were going to get a kit car, I wouldn't want it to look like anything else that would be on the road. If you think you can afford a Ferrari, and are thinking about getting one as a daily driver, then you can't afford a Ferrari. Sure, you could probably pay for the car itself, but they are basically race cars with comforts. They're not designed to be daily drivers.
Personally speaking, any car that I would find signficant to me, I would not want as a daily driver. Even my Fiero, I do not want to drive daily. Could I? Yes. Do I want to? No. But that's why I bought the Mini Cooper in the first place, back in 2004. I wanted something I could have, that was reliable, had a warranty, and while could be construed as 'fun,' was something I wasn't opposed to driving every day. While my Fieros could be driven daily, as they were built and sold as commuter cars, they are not something I want to drive every day. Often, yes. But when it rains, or snows, or is too cold, or too hot, I would prefer to drive something else. The Fieros are something I want to keep as nice as possible, as long as possible. A car that everyone else has, isn't going to attract unwanted attention, whether from police, or from theives.
IP: Logged
07:44 PM
Songman Member
Posts: 12496 From: Nashville, TN Registered: Aug 2000
That was my point about why I would rather have a nice kit than the real thing. But why not have a kit that looks like a 355? I just happen to think the 355 is one of the best designs ever? No reason not to have a car that looks like that just because there is a manufactured car like it. Take a look around. Most cars look alike these days anyway. Ford copies Chevy. Chevy copies Chrysler. Chrysler copies Ford. I don't want a car that looks like a 355 just because it is a Ferrari. I just like the look. And I do want to drive my cars every day. Or at least on the days I want to drive them. I guess that is what makes this country so great. People can have the style they like regardless of what others think.
IP: Logged
08:18 PM
PFF
System Bot
vinny Member
Posts: 1690 From: starkville MISSISSIPPI Registered: Mar 2003
I have a fiero based AD355 spyder with a N*. a murciealago with a 350 vortec that's getting an ls4 with paddle shift and power steering also fiero based, and an 86 GT convertible that I'm putting together a turboed N* and f40 in so I think I'm qualified to enter an opinion. What was the question?
It seems to me its better to do a kit rather than the real thing because you can make it your own and outpreform the real thing without having to drop house money on it.
Originally posted by pontiackid86: It seems to me its better to do a kit rather than the real thing because you can make it your own and outpreform the real thing without having to drop house money on it.
I suppose, but if you're thinking of buying a Ferrari in the first place, you're not buying it for the performance alone. You're buying it for the craftmanship and quality. Sure, it's possible for someone to achieve such quality and craftsmanship in their own garage, but then why simply copy an existing car at that point? Why not make something truly your own? Or build some other design that nobody has actually built in real life. A car from a video game maybe. Like the one guy that decided to build an AT-ST. Or the guys in Australia that built the Halo Warthog.
Ferraris, Lambos, Bricklins, are all great, in their own right. And some of them can be had cheap enough. For what some people spend to build a replica, you could buy a real Countach or 355.
I suppose, but if you're thinking of buying a Ferrari in the first place, you're not buying it for the performance alone. You're buying it for the craftmanship and quality. Sure, it's possible for someone to achieve such quality and craftsmanship in their own garage, but then why simply copy an existing car at that point? Why not make something truly your own? Or build some other design that nobody has actually built in real life. A car from a video game maybe. Like the one guy that decided to build an AT-ST. Or the guys in Australia that built the Halo Warthog.
Ferraris, Lambos, Bricklins, are all great, in their own right. And some of them can be had cheap enough. For what some people spend to build a replica, you could buy a real Countach or 355.
Yes but you also have to take into account. Ferrari's and lambo's are high priced in parts and in matinence. You cannot do any kind of preformance mods to them unless you break into the back account and pull out some srious money. Take for instance the 355 Rebody. The real 355 gets into the low 13's in a quarter mile if i'm correct. For much much less you can throw an LS1 or somthing bigger into the fiero do a little preformance modifacations to it and blow the doors off the real thing.. And as long as you keep your mouth shut people will think its the real thing. I would see it as an opertunity to redesign it and make it better/my way of it rather than dropping $100K+ on the real thing aqnd not being able to do a thing with it.
IP: Logged
09:51 PM
dratts Member
Posts: 8373 From: Coeur d' alene Idaho USA Registered: Apr 2001
Just remembered my point. To each his own. I like replicas and I like fieros and I like to mix the two together or I can appreciate a stock bodied fiero too. I don't tell people they are the real thing. I just say they're italian on the outside but all american underneath. To dobey the only reason I would trade one of my replicas for the real thing would be so that I could sell it and finance a better build. I drive my cars. I copy italian style because quite frankly I completely admire italian styling. My feelings exactly pontiac kid!
[This message has been edited by dratts (edited 09-24-2010).]
I suppose, but if you're thinking of buying a Ferrari in the first place, you're not buying it for the performance alone. You're buying it for the craftmanship and quality. Sure, it's possible for someone to achieve such quality and craftsmanship in their own garage, but then why simply copy an existing car at that point? Why not make something truly your own? Or build some other design that nobody has actually built in real life. A car from a video game maybe. Like the one guy that decided to build an AT-ST. Or the guys in Australia that built the Halo Warthog.
Ferraris, Lambos, Bricklins, are all great, in their own right. And some of them can be had cheap enough. For what some people spend to build a replica, you could buy a real Countach or 355.
Or maybe, like I have said a couple of times.... You just like the look of a particular style. Why do people try to insist that Ferari or Lambo is "all about perfromance"? I could give a rat's patooty about Ferrari performance or craftsmanship. In case someone might have missed what I said before - I just think the 355 is a dead sexy looking body design. So why, please tell me why, I should worry because someone says "why build something that looks like something else?" My question is: Why not? If it is what I like? You've talked about people not being able to afford it. You've talked about people only wanting the quality. You've talked about a lot of things but still skim over the fact that someone might just like the look of a particular car. Why would that bother you if someone who is not you happened to like a particular production car enough to want one that looks like it?