Is anyone on the forum familiar with subject Fiero replica currently for sale on eBay? Has anyone seen it or know it's background history. Any available feedback would be sincerely appreciated. Thank you for reviewing my message!
What i like about this car is the straight lines on the doors it is a quality looking kit. I see some of the black needs to be made satin instead of gloss but i really like this car. Still doesn't look at all real the 355s and 308 328 are the most convincing kits. I wouldn't ever be fooled at thinking it was a real ferrari but perhaps i know cars too well.
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04:17 AM
Finally_Mine_86_GT Member
Posts: 4809 From: Hyde Park, New York Registered: Sep 2006
The Testarossa is one of the hardest Ferraris to replicate on a Fiero platform. It has really never been done right. I've always believed the ultimate problem to be that all the kits have never been splashed off of a real Testarossa. Likely when the Testarossa was new, it was near impossible for someone to get a splash mold of the car done. Recall that when the Testarossa was in production, there was a ridiculous waiting list for it - some waited half a decade for their cars or never got them at all. The 308 as we know was easy to splash mold because of the MERA, and other exotics like Lambos have been easy to replicate because how easy it was to get a car. The Testarossa at the time it was new was simply impossible for anyone to get their hands on.
One member here, jdorr2002, had what is arguably the most accurate bodied Testarossa replica ever made. It was splashed from a real Testarossa body, and according to him and my own research there were just a handful of bodies made before the tooling for the molds were destroyed. While there were issues with the inner guts of the car, they were resolved and the owner sold the car around a year or so ago on eBay.
Yes, that is a kit car. Or what I like to call it, a "replica." There's a difference between "kit car" and "replica."
That one on eBay is rather good - one of the better ones. Yet again however, it shows the limitations of what Testarossa kits have. Since so many were created to fit on stock bodies, you are ultimately limited by the stock length of the car and it's height.
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08:08 AM
Pete Matos Member
Posts: 2291 From: Port St. Lucie, Florida Registered: Jan 2010
Is that if ANYONE has stood next to an ACTUAL REAL Testarossa, it is an amazingly beautiful and WIDE long car.... It is nowhere near the size of a fiero and many of these kits this one included try to take the general shape of the car and graft it onto the much shorter and narrower Fiero. It just comes off looking kinda cartoonish and more often than not leaves much to be desired. That one honestly looks quite short and stubby and is not anywhere near resembling the real Testarossa. That car is one of my all time favorite Ferrari's and having seen two or three of them up close and in person before, hell I got to sit in one several times as a customer of my wife's doctor's office where she worked had a black one. He let me sit in it and start it up and kinda carefully rev it a bit a couple times. He took me for a ride around the area once too.....What a beautiful car, what an amazing sound, it is one of those cars you need to see in person to truly appreciate it. The back end looks a mile wide when you are standing next to it or riding behind it in another car. It is also quite low to the ground..... Some people disliked the slots in the doors but really again you have to see it in person to really appreciate how slick and smooth the design is.... Just an amazing and eye catching design. Beautiful.....peace
Pete
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08:53 AM
McTamney Member
Posts: 273 From: Tallahassee, Fl Registered: May 2010
The car in the EBay post is a version of the Fiero that was in the Action jackson movie in the late '80's. It was designed by Kenny Youngblood (he was the Chip Foose of the '80's). After the Movie, a kit car builder Harrisburg, PA, Arian Corbett, started building them as a kit. About the same time, a place called Pacific Motorsports (owned by a guy named Hoffman) was selling a version of it in CA. In fact when I first started doing V-8 conversions, I flew out to CA & installed an L88 into one of them for Hoffman. His body shop, Pacific Motorsports, built a lot of them as turnkey cars..... when I was out there he had 6 of them underconstruction at the time. Pacific Motorsports was known at the time as one of the best body shops in the country. At the time he had 3 of Carroll Shelby's personal cars in there for custom paint jobs. I actually met Shelby when I was there. Hoffman's version of the car was known as the Piranha. The cars still had a Fiero looking nose on it.
In the mean time Arian Corbett was selling a few of them as kits but wasn't making a lot of money at it. He wanted to go on to design & build the Patriot http://youtu.be/e_DdoZHnfBA So he sold the molds to Bill Keller in Harveysburg, OH. Bill is the one who redesigned the nose to the design you see in the Ebay post. He actually used on of the noses out of my T.R. kit to do that redesign project. Bill Keller was an expert in making Fiberglass parts. I used to have him making all of my fiberglass parts. When I bought the Fino/Finale molds out of the U.K. in late 1999, I had Bill under contract to make 20 Bodies for me. He made 13 or 14 of them before he retired to FL & left the business with his son. Bill died in 2001 or 2002 right after moving to FL. His son sold the business to a guy who didn't have a clue how to make Fiberglass. At that time one of the key employees was staying on so I continued the contract with the new owner. I went down there sometime later to pickup 3 bodies that were done. The glass job was poor & I found out that the key employee had quit & it was all rookies making the fiberglass. I dropped him as a supplier & retrieved my molds. The reason I'm telling you all this is that on that trip to retrieve my molds, I saw Bills molds for this car being stored outside, all dirty & full of leaves & water puddles. He tried to sell them to me but the molds were no good anymore & were wasted by the storage method.
quote
Originally posted by Fiero84Freak:
The Testarossa is one of the hardest Ferraris to replicate on a Fiero platform. It has really never been done right. I've always believed the ultimate problem to be that all the kits have never been splashed off of a real Testarossa. Likely when the Testarossa was new, it was near impossible for someone to get a splash mold of the car done. Recall that when the Testarossa was in production, there was a ridiculous waiting list for it - some waited half a decade for their cars or never got them at all. The 308 as we know was easy to splash mold because of the MERA, and other exotics like Lambos have been easy to replicate because how easy it was to get a car. The Testarossa at the time it was new was simply impossible for anyone to get their hands on.
One member here, jdorr2002, had what is arguably the most accurate bodied Testarossa replica ever made. It was splashed from a real Testarossa body, and according to him and my own research there were just a handful of bodies made before the tooling for the molds were destroyed. While there were issues with the inner guts of the car, they were resolved and the owner sold the car around a year or so ago on eBay. .................
Yes, that is a kit car. Or what I like to call it, a "replica." There's a difference between "kit car" and "replica."
That one on eBay is rather good - one of the better ones. Yet again however, it shows the limitations of what Testarossa kits have. Since so many were created to fit on stock bodies, you are ultimately limited by the stock length of the car and it's height.
The Jerry Dorr car was built with Fiberglass that came out of my T.R. molds. Those molds were originally made by IFG, off of a real car. When Ferrari came into IFG to destroy Ray's T.R. molds. Ray had his earlier, not as accurate, molds there to be cut up. His good molds were in a remote storage unit. I was there the day after the earlier molds were destroyed & I bought the good molds. Those are the molds that I have for sale in the Mall right now.
Yes, that is a kit car. Or what I like to call it, a "replica." There's a difference between "kit car" and "replica."
That one on eBay is rather good - one of the better ones. Yet again however, it shows the limitations of what Testarossa kits have. Since so many were created to fit on stock bodies, you are ultimately limited by the stock length of the car and it's height.
Originally posted by Archie: I was there the day after the earlier molds were destroyed & I bought the good molds. Those are the molds that I have for sale in the Mall right now. Archie
So these are the near correct dimension molds, as in to create the body style above?
Sorry for the inquiry. I guess the story I've heard is what you mentioned prior - the sets IFG were forced to destroy - were the molds for these cars like Jerry's former car. I did not realize a second better set existed.
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11:43 AM
Archie Member
Posts: 9436 From: Las Vegas, NV Registered: Dec 1999
I sold Jerry theparts he used. They were parts we made out of the molds I bought from Ray which were the last set of production molds Ray made.
An earlier (less accurate) set of molds were the ones destroyed.
Archie
quote
Originally posted by Fiero84Freak:
So these are the near correct dimension molds, as in to create the body style above?
Sorry for the inquiry. I guess the story I've heard is what you mentioned prior - the sets IFG were forced to destroy - were the molds for these cars like Jerry's former car. I did not realize a second better set existed.
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12:14 PM
GADJet Member
Posts: 1466 From: Star City, AR, USA Registered: Sep 2010
Is that if ANYONE has stood next to an ACTUAL REAL Testarossa, it is an amazingly beautiful and WIDE long car.... It is nowhere near the size of a fiero and many of these kits this one included try to take the general shape of the car and graft it onto the much shorter and narrower Fiero. It just comes off looking kinda cartoonish and more often than not leaves much to be desired. That one honestly looks quite short and stubby and is not anywhere near resembling the real Testarossa.
I agree 100%.
A real Testarossa is a piece of art, it's beautiful.
IMO this car just looks... I don't know... it just looks silly.
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04:12 PM
Pete Matos Member
Posts: 2291 From: Port St. Lucie, Florida Registered: Jan 2010
Yeah man and the other BIG problem is the shape and rake of the windows and for that matter the entire cabin. It is just all wrong. That other kit car pictured here is about as close as I have ever seen to a Testarossa Replica. I would imagine it has a complete body as opposed to a bunch of grafted on parts. I dunno but it sure appears that way. If I remember correctly the first time I saw those pics there was some comments made that the car actually used Testarossa glass and everything. I agree with some of the comments made by curly here that the Fiero should not be made to look like any other car rather it should be improved upon to be a cooler more updated version of what it already is, a very cool little sports car. There are quite a few amazing fieros on these pages and it seems to me that the coolest ones are not trying to LOOK like anything else. The only Ferrari or otherwise kits I have seen that really work on a Fiero are either stretched complete rebodies or the more 308/ 355 looking ones. Somehow those cars seem to pull it off quite a bit better than the rest. This is not always the case tho.
Originally posted by Pete Matos: If I remember correctly the first time I saw those pics there was some comments made that the car actually used Testarossa glass and everything.
I believe it is the rear window and the side quarters that are real deal Testarossa. The actual side windows and the windshield itself I believe are Fiero - probably the only two pieces on the car that still Fiero body-wise.
A real Testarossa is a piece of art, it's beautiful.
IMO this car just looks... I don't know... it just looks silly.
If he took off the Ferrari badging, I would like it a lot more. To me, it looks just like a modified Fiero... nothing like a Ferrari. I actually like the look--it's just the whole "passing as a Ferrari" thing that turns me off.
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09:38 PM
PFF
System Bot
Patrick Member
Posts: 37850 From: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Registered: Apr 99
If he took off the Ferrari badging, I would like it a lot more. To me, it looks just like a modified Fiero... nothing like a Ferrari. I actually like the look--it's just the whole "passing as a Ferrari" thing that turns me off.
It doesn't have to be an accurate representation to be a beautiful car, which it is.
I sold Jerry theparts he used. They were parts we made out of the molds I bought from Ray which were the last set of production molds Ray made.
An earlier (less accurate) set of molds were the ones destroyed.
Archie
Thats very interesting. Jerry told me that he bought the car complete from someone in Las Vegas. ( Mind you that I am NOT questioning your integrity Archie, just relaying what Jerry Dorr told me. )
I did quite a bit of work on that replica and the photos above are ones that I shot while I had the car. (You can see "Tangerine Dream" (my Fiero), in my garage in some of the photos )
Mechanically and electrically the *replica* is/was a disaster. Visually it's fantastic. I called it a "Parade Float" but never in front of Jerry Jerry asked me to do some work on the IP and gages in the car after I had done a bunch of mechanical work on it and when I removed the pod to inspect I discovered that EVERY SINGLE WIRE in the dash was red.....yep thats right...EVERYTHING was red wire. There were a few pieces of dried out crumbling paper masking tape labeling some of the wiring, but it would have taken MONTHS to sort out that rats nest.
The rear hard steel brake lines were secured to the chassis with PLASTIC TIE WRAPS! One brake line was tie wrapped to the rear suspension tie rod to ensure that the hard line moved with the suspension. WHY it had not cracked and blown the braking system is a miracle.
All that being said, if I had the money at the time I would have happily bought the car from Jerry and made it what it should be.
I haven't talked to Jerry in a long time, so if he's sold the car, perhaps the new owner is busy doing what I would have loved to do to it were it mine.
One thing that amazed me is that all the black grillwork on the top of the rear deck is STEEL, along with the grills over the taillights and the side scoop slats! The quality of the parts on that replica is 1rst class.
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[This message has been edited by randye (edited 12-07-2011).]
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10:40 PM
kooljess Member
Posts: 1135 From: FIEROS WEST USA Registered: Jul 2004
My question is why? I like my Fiero the way it is. I don't want a Folex!!! Damit I want a real Rolex!!!
Probably the same reason you dont have a real rolex! $$$$$
Or maybe you do, not trying to be all in your business. Point is, this is a cheaper way to get the ritzy taste of life even for the middle class. I like the post above about removing the badging.
The seller is still trying to sell this car on Ebay. Not a bad car it is just not all that like the seller is trying to make the car out to be. It is demensionnally incorrect, and looks like a fiero that half way morphed into a Ferrari. I almost bought J Dorrs car when it was for sale kinda glad I passed since it was only skin deep. I purchased another one that is properly stretched 7" that I did all the mechanicle work. Very drivable car, and everything works. I have almost clocked 40K miles on it. in the last 5 years I have owned it. Not bad for a replica because most are only skin deep.
That car is right around the corner from where I work. He bought the car off E-bay about a year and a half ago for 35K, and then did the LS conversion for about another 15-20K because he does not know how to do any work on his own. Looks really good from about 20 feet away, but the interior is far from done. The ride stance is really good.
[This message has been edited by JohnnyV (edited 01-25-2012).]
I would like to import this Fiero replica Ferrari into Canada, but the current owner bought it from an estate, as the previous owner had passed away, and neither does he or the estate know its history or the date it was converted, which I need to know in order to import it into Canada. I was hoping someone on the forum may have come across the car in the past and know something about its origin and who did the conversion, or which Company manufactured the kit. Any help in this regard would be greatly appreciated! I believe the car was titled in California for its entire life.
If you are reffering to the red 88 coupe on E-bay with the semi Testarossa body kit. There should be no problem shipping that to Canada. It is still registered as a Fiero. Vin and all. It is not like it was a full rebody, and re registered under special construction. Should be no issue as long as he has the clear title in hand transferred in his name from the estate sale.
JohnnyV, unfortunately it is a problem! I checked with Transport Canada and they specifically said that if the car was altered in any way, other than regular maintenance, it would not be admissible! Furthermore it seems Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) prides themselves on allowing paperwork to be completed for importing a vehicle and then having it impounded and destroyed because the importer was trying to import a kit car which is not admissible unless the original vehicle is more than 15 years old AND evidence can be presented to CBSA to prove the kit conversion was completed more than 15 years ago! Believe me, I have checked the legalities and the only way I can import this car is to find documentation regarding the age of the kit conversion, or have the owner remove all the body panels, let me ship the rolling chassis space frame to Canada, and then arrange to have the body panels shipped separately, which ain't gonna happen. I know it sounds ludicrous, but thems the laws in Canada, LOL! Thanks for your response though, I just hope there is someone out there in PFF land that can shed some light on this car. Thanks!
That is pretty crazy and too bad. I have shipped several modified muscle cars that have been far from original in there physicle stock form with no issues to Canada. I just send the paperwork 72 hours to the border before the vehicle arrives, and have never had a problem, but I have had several of my Australian buyers think I could not send cars out due to certain modifications (even if the wheels are not stock) due to certain laws, but I still have private exporters that get the cars sent. I guess it is like anything. It is who you know. Good luck in your search for a nice replica.
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06:54 PM
cam-a-lot Member
Posts: 2182 From: Barrie- Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
I have imported modified cars into Canada without issues. There are Rules and there are "rules". As long as the mods don't significantly reduce the inherent structural safety of a vehicle, it will breeze through the border registered as a Fiero. It doesn't look like a Ferrari, so I don't really see the border guys give you a hard time
Are you sure you want this car? I thought you were looking for a clean, rust free original 88 GT. There are at least 4 that I know of right here in Ontario for sale. I can take a look at them if you wish- I do travel
Ideally I was looking for a low mileage, yellow, 88 GT with sunroof and AT, like the one I won on eBay, but that owner never fulfilled their commitment per the accepted Buy It Now agreement, so that ended-up a lost cause.
Then I started searching for another one when you alerted me to the red one in Alberta. I contacted the fellow by email and by telephone and he promised to send me some photos of the car which he said was in stacked storage. He tried to send some photos a couple of times without success and then seemed to give-up. When I spoke with him by phone, he seemed to have a nonchalant attitude as if he wasn't that serious about selling the car.
I then came across the Fiero GT Ferrari replica on eBay which interested me very much because it was a unique one of a kind car, was an 88 GT with low mileage, and was fully optioned including AT and sunroof.
I think the Ferrari emblems on the body, wheels, steering wheel, door handles, and floor mats would attract the CBSA border guards attention when the car showed-up at the Emerson/Pembina North Dakota border crossing. I've imported other vehicles at this border crossing and found the guards to be very scrupulous, strict, and challenging even when the vehicles were entirely admissible.
Some years ago, I had purchased a Class C motorhome in Winnipeg to take my son to the Mayo clinic for medical diagnosis because he couldn't travel by air and when we returned to this Canadian border crossing, I was hauled into a room for two hours and accused of trying to smuggle the motorhome into Canada because it originated at one time from the US as a rental unit, even though it was licensed, insured, and registered in Manitoba! Fortunately I had the Bill of Sale with me and the sellers phone number, and had to plead with them to call the seller to verify the motorhome was legally registered in Canada. I can only imagine what would happen if I showed up at this border with the car titled as a Fiero, but with Ferrari emblems visible everywhere. My family would probably never hear or see me again as they would probably lock me up at some undisclosed detention facility, LOL!
I intend to write a letter to Transport Canada to plead my case that this car could be imported as a rolling chassis Fiero space frame and that I could purchase body panels later on from the US and attach them to the space frame, so why not permit the vehicle space frame with the body panels already attached? Hopefully common sense would prevail, but I'm not holding my breath.
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10:39 PM
Jan 27th, 2012
cam-a-lot Member
Posts: 2182 From: Barrie- Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
