Observations on new Backdraft from Vintage Motorsports

[CobraJM]

Originally Posted by allcarfan

CobraJM....I saw your car in person. My 1456 was on the same plycar trailer as yours...along with one of Mario Andretti's cars. They dropped off 1456 and told me 1474 was also inside

As for this:
Misc - I am very happy with the car overall but have a few small gripes: turn signal lever is cheap. Knob at the end is painted plastic, the stalk feels like plastic (bends when used) and the self canceling feature only works part of the time.***I have the same problem. Mine doesn't bend, but the self cancelling feature doesn't always work***

The start button is painted plastic and looks poorly painted at that. ***Mine appears to be metal, but I never paid attention. If its painted, it fooled me!***

The various indicator lights on the dash are very cheap looking. **Classic looking is more what you mean.**

The carpet, while I'm told is better than in past BDRs, feels/looks cheap. I might be spoiled in my BMW daily driver but I've always liked the quality of BMW carpet and it can't be that much more expensive to put nice carpet in a $40k rolling chassis. **when do you feel your carpet? Or do you mean the carpeting over your center console?**

Finally, the floor mats are a complete joke. Paper thin with no backing material to help keep them in place. Also, these are "factory" mats and don't even fit well in the car! The cutouts are too small to fit around the obstacle at the front of the door.**they are, indeed, paper thin, but mine fit perfectly. You did swap sides when you got the car, right? they are installed on opposite sides, upside down when you get your car. Not talking down to you, just know a guy that made that mistake**

So you are telling me if not for your car getting dropped off first I may have had mine on Saturday and not late Sunday afternoon?!?!?

Yeah, my start button is chrome painted plastic and has some "bubbles" in the chrome paint so easy to tell that it's plastic.

In regards to the carpet I'm talking about the carpet on the tunnel, back wall, etc. (you have leather on your tunnel so likely not an issue for you) Not a huge deal, but just feels a bit cheap to me. Maybe I'm wrong but carpet is one of those things I feel that goes up in quality much faster than price. i.e. manufacturer could spend the extra $50 or $75 per car to get the carpet that is twice as nice. Whatever... I'm not sending the car back over it ha ha.

As for the floormats yes I saw that VMS put them in upside down on the opposite sides... obviously was to keep them fresh during transport. After putting them in correctly the lack of a backing had them sliding all over the place. I gave in and ordered the aftermarket mats from the Backdraft site and they are MUCH better. Carpet is better quality and they have the rubber backing with the little "spikes" in them to hold the mats in place. no problems sliding around any more. I was a little disappointed as they still don't fit exactly right.... I have a few areas where they curl up the sides of the doorsill and/or tunnel since they are too wide in those places. I would think Backdraft would make the custom aftermarket mats that actually fit a Backdraft. But alas they work well enough I'm too lazy to change them out or search for replacements. If they wear out years down the road I'll probably get custom mats made by an upholstery shop. For now I'd rather spend that time in the seat!

I hope you are enjoying your car - I saw the pics and it looks great. I believe we both have the same LED headlights. I love them as they don't stand out as being modern during the day and I get great visibility out of them at night. I did have to aim them a bit higher but it was a very easy job.. took about 10 minutes and I only needed a screwdriver (tool not drink).