Assembly Required! Or turnkey?

[crossle43]

Oliver,

After reviewing all the comments about build vs. turnkey (the first of which was started in your usual soft-spoken manner ), it's easy to see that each of the perspectives is absolutely right. Jim ccc, ENTDOC, ROUSHAC and xlr8or collectively summed it up: For many, myself included, building with ones own hands over time is not only good therapy but I can flat guarantee you that it will result in a more detailed product on a significantly smaller budget when its complete - plus have some fun along the way. Not to say that your turnkey RF or the gear from CAV, Superformance, GT40 Australia, NZ and most recently Turn Ten aren't top flight, because I'm sure they are (I've had some time in both seats of an RF and I loved it - great car).

With no disrespect meant to the owners of other makes, the quality of RCRs chassis and bodywork must been seen, touched to truly appreciate how remarkable both components are. The bodywork is simply amazing, even the widely respected Chris Melia has testified to that, and the monocoque is every bit the same quality. The welds on the monocoque (I'm one who appreciates attention to detail in such things) would nearly bring tears to your eyes, they're that good. The next opportunity you have to take in an RCR in person, don't pass it up.

As for John, who's selling his RCR-40 after only recently gathering most of the components, give him credit for recognizing the investment of time required to finish the car. From what I read in his ad, John hasn't cut corners when it came to the various bits (a roll cage even!) so it was easy to see his GT was going to be closer to the top of the heap when finished. I'm sure he wasn't happy to arrive at the decision to sell, but the new owner will have something remarkable to start with and every opportunity for a truly great piece when done.

To assert that building a kit in ones garage isn't any less expensive than a turnkey doesn't make sense though. If I had spent 35K on an ALMS-quality race engine plus the $$ for a new ZF (and so forth), would you be talking about how all kits can't be touched for less that 100K? Probably not - you're a pretty bright guy and would rightly conclude that some of these components may have been just a little on the pricey side.

It seems to me that the great thing about a kit is how individualized or chock-full of details one can make it - whether it's an 800# gorilla like Bill D and his son Anthony are creating in California, or something a little more, um, normal.

By the way, IS there anything 'normal' about a GT40?

Kind regards to all,

T.