I am doing research now with the hope that it leads to my dream car - a Lambo Diablo Millenium Roadster turnkey that absolutely looks and sounds like the real thing, inside and out, and am willing to pay more for that luxury. The more real in every detail, the better. I would also like a new, reasonably powerful and bullet-proof reliable powertrain. BUT I must be convinced that the end product will be reliable, relatively reasonable to maintain and built to last.

My cursory research to date brings me to two companies - North American Exotic Replicas Company (I like the fact that the end-products look very, very real on my computer screen and that they even make a replica chassis - I don't want a donor rebuild - I want brand new) and Exotic Glass (Their D&R replicas and new roadster looks perfect on-screen, and they also manufacture a custom chassis).

Do you have any thoughts about these companies, their owners, reputations, or any ideas how to best do more research and pursue a higher comfort level with a company, given my criteria? I plan on attending the 2004 Carlisle to start kicking tires, but am eagerly pursuing other good information sources in the meantime about these companies, and others.

www.diablo.newmedialabs.net

http://www.citilink.com/~jch/diablo

Both links lead to the same place I just put them both in case you couldn't get one to work

Let's chat...I'm in the process of doing the same thing as you.

Jim

jeglin2249@aol.com

www.citilink.com/~jch/diablo

Another company making nice turnkeys is www.Paul***otics.com

Andh a good website to know but is under construction right now is

www.shelbycustoms.com

I have seen JC's breathtaking Shelby Customs Diablo on the web, and have not considered it given its price. I do agree with Leo in that there is a point in price at which there is sharply diminishing appeal in any Diablo replica no matter how well done. While I have no doubt this replica exceeds the build quality and performance of an authentic Lamborghini - there's just something about having the real deal when the price is that close. I'll take, for example, an authentic $20,000 Rolex President over an $18,000 replica that looks and feels the same, and even keeps better time. Let's face it, there's some stigma associated with "replica" when compared to "authentic" that cannot be separated (for me) from the price/value equation.

When I say I am willing to pay more for a replica if it looks and sounds very real, with exceptional build quality, reliability and durability, I was thinking more like under $80K. But I have no clue as to whether or not this is reasonable given what it is I am looking for, and lack of knowledge when it comes to Diablo replicas. I hope to get a better understanding of what is realistic through additional research. The Shelby Customs Diablo enters the price zone that, if I could afford it, would drive me to seriously consider a pristine example of the real thing.

But...the Shelby Customs Diablo is so convincing and stunning, it does beg to get the following question answered - if they can do THAT for $179,000 - what CAN they do for $80,000? What is I'm willing to sacrifice that incredible 700 horsepower engine for, say, a 300 horsepower V8 GM crate motor? And what if I can forgo the chrome chassis for a strong tube chassis? As "Ceririps" pointed out, their website is under construction currently and singularly offers no help to answer that question.

So Shelby Customs is added to the list of companies to consider, and to find more about. I also have since identified on the web Wild Rides and Luis Yanez as being an award winning company I'd like to know more about. Yanez's roadster that just sold for $58,100 on eBay looks very, very nice.

Jeglin (Jim) - I'll be in touch. Two heads are better than one.

I spent some time with JC and his car a few weeks ago at the Carlisle show...While there, I also spoke with two other owners of Diablo replicas.

Also, I have had several conversations with the current owner of the Wild Rides car sold on Ebay...the car is actually located 10 minutes from my house.

I have met the owner of NAERC and we were on the phone yesterday..he is sending me some pricing. I have also been in discussions with the owner of the NAERC Roadster Roadster that has been featured at numerous shows and NAERC corporate literature. He lives about 1/2 an hour from me and we are continuing our conversations.

I have also made plans to look at D&R's shop, visit one of their builders, and look at a recently completed car. I have also been in discussions with the editor of www.kitcar.com.

Lastly, I have a real Diablo and would we willing to share some credible information on the differences between this and a replica...

Jim

http://www.powerhousesports.net/orangeroadster.htm

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sherklein wrote{/b]
Lambo bulider,
If you are interested in buying Lamborghini´s plans and drawings of complete bodys we can sell them to you. Then, if you want, we can give you the instruction about ¨How to Build The Body¨ as a present.
We got all the plans and drawings of Diablo and Murcielago too.
Those plans are available to work in Auto CAD. We can send you the plans in jpeg format.
For more information visit our web page at www.sherklein.com.ar (we are under construction)or send us an e-mail at webmaster@sherklein.com.ar
Thank you

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...1...D&R is nice but haven't seen a completed Roadster yet. I haven't been to their website in a while so maybe i need to check it out again before i end up stuffing my foot in my mouth.

...2...Exotic Glass has a VERY NICE ORANGE Roadster in the works. AS of now, they look like they're going to get some busienss from me in the next year if that ORANGE Roadster build turns out well.

...3...Shelby Customs is HOT, JC's says it all. There is a website where he parks his kit next to an authentic Lambo Diablo and to be honest, his kit looks equally as authentic, even better to me. I think you can go the the NOTES LINK on link www.LamboLounge.com and just browse around. I learn a lot everyday just from reading posts. MEAT definitely is a credible resource on this site.

...4...Composite Racing Products(CRP) made some nice replics but their website has been down for a while. They might have folded, who knows? Luis from "Wild Rides" built one of these CRP Roadsters for this guy named Hector. The exterior is almost perfect. The interior could've used a little work but i'm not taking anything away from the build. He did a great job...

...5...Pauls Exotics makes some nice ones as well. I'm more interested in their custom furniture designs. When i move to Miami next year, I'll be talking business with Paul.

I've seen some nice replicas from different companies listed above but check out IFG's website. They don't have any good Roadster pictures on their site, but check out this particular website for a COMPLETED IFG Phantom Roadster. IFG makes the closest 6.0 VT I've seen thus far as well.
www.LamboBuilder.com
Dale is very detail oriented.
The quality if his Roadster is amazing.

About price, I've seen some very nice quality kits built under $30K. For $80k, you can EASILY get an equivalent of JC's SCE Roadster but even he didn't pay that much. He probably spent between $30-45k MAX, and that's depending on how much outsourcing he had to do. Mark-up is biatch...

LASTLY, I've seen the exact same kits from these companies that people have ruined as well. If the builder knows what he's doing, then it should turn out good. But i've seen kits from most of these companies where amateurs attempted and failed miserably. No one wants to fall into that category. Each of these companies has distinct qualities or features which differentiate the look and styling, you'll just have to check them all out and determine which one is most attractive to you...

Good Luck

ps...You're probabaly getting tired of everyone sending you the names of the same companies. Don't mean to sound redundant, Sorry about that...

They might sell you a whole car and be relatively responsive but don't try to buy parts are pieces unless you dont mind waiting an additional 4 months.

You might look at these guys in North Carolina, they have a nice frame that they use for roadsters. www.rksdesign.net

Good luck

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kw2it wrote:
I have nothing but bad experiences with the folks at IFG, I have found that they will even hold your check and not cash it if they get someone who is willing to pay more for something.

They might sell you a whole car and be relatively responsive but don't try to buy parts are pieces unless you dont mind waiting an additional 4 months.

You might look at these guys in North Carolina, they have a nice frame that they use for roadsters. www.rksdesign.net

Good luck

Thank you!

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meat, if you've been around this industry long enough you know about the problems at ifg. its nothing new because i have personal experience with them. they lied about parts they had and even gave me tracking numbers for packages that weren't even mine. it got to the point that ray wouldn't take my calls so i had to get a lawyer, its asshame it had to come to that before they sent me the remaining parts for my kit. this was over a 5 month period after i received the main part of the kit.

if someone is looking for a roadster then ifg should be the most unlikely car to be the choice because of the problems in the body and it has the most things wrong with the body that make it look like a kit and not the real car. everyone should always do as much research about companies they are planning on going with and pay a visit to their shop. without going visit rks design you would never know the setup they have, they have one of the best setups in the industry for building cars, they are located in an old car dealership complex with paint booth, showroom and everything.

if someone wants the most authentic 25th anniv then i would say go with ifg if you want to deal with getting everything on a timely basis but after i went through with them i won't build another one and i also won't work on any ifg car, they were very dishonest to me so thats the end of that story.

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shaddoe wrote:
rks design doesn't use the d&r kits anymore and have a new supplier. rks like myself are builders for d&r so if someone ask about turnkeys they would come to us because d&r doesn't do that. roger builds his own website and even though there are missspells doesn't mean he can't build a car.

meat, if you've been around this industry long enough you know about the problems at ifg. its nothing new because i have personal experience with them. they lied about parts they had and even gave me tracking numbers for packages that weren't even mine. it got to the point that ray wouldn't take my calls so i had to get a lawyer, its asshame it had to come to that before they sent me the remaining parts for my kit. this was over a 5 month period after i received the main part of the kit.

if someone is looking for a roadster then ifg should be the most unlikely car to be the choice because of the problems in the body and it has the most things wrong with the body that make it look like a kit and not the real car. everyone should always do as much research about companies they are planning on going with and pay a visit to their shop. without going visit rks design you would never know the setup they have, they have one of the best setups in the industry for building cars, they are located in an old car dealership complex with paint booth, showroom and everything.

if someone wants the most authentic 25th anniv then i would say go with ifg if you want to deal with getting everything on a timely basis but after i went through with them i won't build another one and i also won't work on any ifg car, they were very dishonest to me so thats the end of that story.

www.exoticglass1.com

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shaddoe wrote:
meat, if you say you've been in the industry for 25 years and don't know who rks is i have to wonder. also there was a discussion on ari's board about curt scott and as i recall you made a statement that was wrong about the video he once sold and showed how much you've kept up with the industry. as for my problems with ifg, i talked to curt and was told i had to jump through ropes and file suit against them before he could do anything, well after i did that ray took care of the problem. part of the agreement was that nothing would be posted but i still had to take it to the next level to get my parts. if you look on my website you'll see the two ifg 25th annivs that i did. back to rks, roger was a builder for d&r and the cars you see there were built by him and he also has around 9 cars being built in his shop but is now using another supplier. i WON'T EVER work on another ifg kit but i still have pics of the cars that i did to show my work. it seems that there are some people that don't mind the miss spelling because he has more work than he can handle. roger uses microsoft frontpage as his software and isn't the cheapest but i also know it has spell check because i use it on my website and i've told roger of errors so that would be something for his customers to take up with him, on that note you would never buy a car from him so i don't think he would care what you think of his site. not looking to start a argument but you need to do a little more research like you say you are always doing. if you've ever been to a carlisle show you would know who rks design is.

www.exoticglass1.com

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icedemon wrote:
This is off topic, but
http://www.exoticglass1.com/
and
http://www.rksdesign.net/
need to get rid of those java buttons. Everytime I visit exoticglass1.com it crashes my computer because of those java buttons. rksdesign.net just did the same with the java buttons on that site. I would think that I'm not the only one where those java buttons are crashing the browser or computer. I have Win XP and the newest version of Internet Explorer also.

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shaddoe wrote:
25 years and have nothing to show for it! what have you done besides throw your fat ass around like you know something! i know you didn't talk to curt because i've talked to him quite a few times and he remembers the conversations we've had. to the video, i have it in my hands right now and if you have older magazines you'll find that in the same ad for the book is the video. before you try to convince people you know what you're talking about you need to get the facts right, if anyone on this site would call curt and ask him about the problems with ifg he would tell them about all the emails and calls he gets about them. so lets see, i'm a liar about everything? maybe you could call alan at euroworks, maybe jason at kitcarmagazine.com, maybe rick at d&r, hell you could even call curt if you really know who he is. al these people know who i am and what type of work that i do. lets go further, call dale from lambobuilder.com, luis from wildrides, ron from lambolounge or even mr roger shelton at rks and ask them about what i know about the industry. so who should we call? wait isn't this a question about lamborghini kits? what do you know about them? show us what you've built! don't come with your lame ass excuse of why someone should believe you and not me! go try and pass your fake ass off on someone else because you know dog snot about the kitcar industry.

www.exoticglass1.com

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shaddoe wrote:
this is what the video says
DISCOVER THE WORLD OF KIT CARS
THE VIDEO COMPLEMENT TO "THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO SPECIALTY CARS"
side of the video has CROWN PUBLISHING COMPANY INC.
LOTS OF STUFF ON THE BACK SO I'LL PUT THE IMPORTANT STUFF
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: ;D CURT SCOTT
WRITTEN BY: ;D CURT SCOTT
also says "for more information on other books or videos contac: CROWN PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.
P.O. BOX 1337, DEPT.KB, SANTA CLARITA, CALIFORNIA 91386-(805)251-2223
when i get to my shop tomorrow i'll dig up the old kitcar magazines and post the issues which have the ad, well i'll post a few because ALL the older magazines had the ad.

hey, copy right was 1993, thats well within your 25(so called) year experience in the industry!

www.exoticglass1.com

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shaddoe wrote:
http://heldmotorsports.com/FieroClublinks.html
http://www.rksdesign.net/roberts_30th_from_la.htm
http://www.kitcarmagazine.com
http://www.lambobuilder.com/other/shaddoe/
just a few examples. if you knew how to read you would have seen on the rks site states that the blue car was built by myself. the name of the video is "DISCOVER THE WORLD OF KIT CARS" as i have stated already, call curt and ask him about it! now, start your **** about the cars i've built and this discussion won't be a little game of internet chat! where are the cars that you've worked on? you've worked on the countach kit before? which kit? call alan at euroworks, its it was a countach kit worth talking about it must have come from him. i've never heard your name before this site which you've seem to think that a few hundred post makes you an expert but doesn't. i'm still waiting for you to post some of this work you've done, where is it? did you even read the things that are on this video? i guess i'm lieing about it also. i'll send the video to ron fletcher on lambolounge and have him post pics of the cover and whats on the video. so what happens after that? you change the subject from what you were wrong about to you still know more about the kitcar industry than me?

www.exoticglass1.com

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Your pal,
Meat.

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