5 Replica Cars That Even a Purist Will Like

My relationship with replicas, aka replicars, has always been a complicated one. While I’ve admired some of them, I’ve never owned one. There’s also the matter that I cut my teeth in automotive journalism at Sports Car Market magazine, a place that took a notoriously hard line on replicas. I believe that “replidoodad” was one of the kinder epithets in the SCM style guide.

Over the years, my personal views have evolved, and there may actually be a replicar in my future. But first, there are a couple of caveats. My informal, and totally arbitrary guidelines when it comes to replicars go something like this:

1. Accuracy without intentional fakery: What I mean is yes, make it look the part, but an actual intent to deceive should never figure into things.

2. The quality of the build is everything: This is the biggest driver of value in any replica. Quality coachwork, whether it’s alloy or fiberglass, is huge. So are the details like gauges, wheels, and interiors. Suspension, chassis and brakes are the hardest part to get right. Nobody likes a car that looks good but handles terribly if it doesn’t have to.

3. Zig where others zag: I personally prefer replicas that aren’t over-replicated. Lesser known, less frequently reproduced cars are what I gravitate to. In other words, would I rather have a Devin SS or a Scarab replica over a 427 Cobra? You bet.

Here are five replicars that have sold relatively recently that fit my criteria.

AC Ace by Hawk

I completely lost my mind (in a good way) when I saw this car on Hagerty Marketplace. Although there are endless Cobra replicas out there, I’ve never seen a replica of the Cobra’s granddaddy, the AC Ace. But there are a few out there. The Hawk, built by Gerry Hawkridge in the U.K., is particularly well-regarded. If I saw this thing in the flesh, unless I lifted the hood (more on that in a second), I’d never suspect it wasn’t the real thing. Every box was checked here. The car looked spectacular, it sounded great, and at $42,265 it sold for a fraction of the price of a real Ace-Bristol.

Somebody got something truly special here. Could you quibble with the choice of a supercharged four-cylinder MGB engine? Maybe. There are other options that might better replicate the spirit of the Ace’s straight-six, but the 1.8-liter B engine is tough, sounds good, and makes decent power with the blower. For $42,000, would I rather have this than a Healey, or a ratty Series II E-type roadster? Absofriggenlutely. The new owner has my eternal envy.

Porsche 550 Spyder by Vintage Motorcars

This one was on the bubble in terms of making the list. Arguably, it doesn’t meet my “zig where others zag” criteria. The 550 Spyders is a frequently replicated car and has been for a long time. The Beck 550, for example, came out 40 years ago. But this one, built by the Porsche specialists at Vintage Motorcars in California in the mid-2000s, won me over in the sheer beauty of its execution.

I love that it isn’t another faux James Dean “Little Bastard” replica Spyder. The Telefunken ’54 Carrera Panamericana livery is just so choice. The seats, wheels, gauges, knobs and even the Wendler Karosserie badge are spot on details, as is the engine dress-up kit designed to make it look more like a genuine 4-cam Porsche engine. Would it fool an expert? Nope. But I like it, and for $51,628 (compared to several million for a real 550), it’s hard to imagine having a better time.

Lancia Stratos by Lister Bell

The Ferrari-powered rally-bred doorstop that is the Lancia Stratos is one of my favorite cars of all time. Like most cars that fall into this category, the chance that I’ll ever own one is somewhere around zero. But when there are much cheaper high-quality replicas from the likes of Hawk and Lister Bell (now called LB Specialist Cars), why bother with a fragile original?

You could even argue that the engine in this car, also known as the Lister Bell STR, is an improvement over the original. Its 3.0-liter Alfa Romeo Busso V-6 is both stouter and better-sounding than the original Ferrari Dino 2.4-liter V-6. And if you blow it up, just grab a rusty Alfa 164 and you’re back in business. At $147,500, was this cheap for a replica? Well, no. But you could spend four times as much on a modern supercar and have less fun and far fewer admirers at whatever car meet you take it to.

Lotus Eleven by Westfield

Sadly, I’m old enough to remember when Westfield first started popping out replicas of the swoopy Lotus Eleven as kits back in the early ’80s. The enthusiast publications all went insane, buying and building 11s and writing about the experience. I wanted one in the worst way and have come perilously close to buying one on several occasions.

To me, this the perfect lightweight sports car. It’s pretty in a way that a Lotus Super Seven or Caterham isn’t, and it takes very little actual horsepower to make one of these things scoot. The 1.6-liter Ford Kent with dual Webers must do the trick nicely here. You could pay more money for a regular old MGA than the $25,200 someone snagged this one for, and a real-deal Lotus version would cost well over 100 grand.

Scarab Mk 1 by Scarab Motorsports

Just before Carroll Shelby and the Cobra, there was Lance Reventlow and the Scarab. In the time-honored tradition of using racing to turn a large fortune into a small fortune, 21-year-old Woolworth heir Reventlow gathered some of the best engineers and constructors in motorsports to develop a world-class, all-American sports racer. It is quite possibly the best-looking of all 1950s race cars (British, German and Italian included).

Just a handful of Scarab sports cars were built before Reventlow realized that lunch counters and five-and-dime merch weren’t going to support his racing ambitions. Then, in 2004, a Kansas-based company called Scarab Motorsports started building faithful recreations of the 1950s American racing icon. This one checks every box. The hand-hammered alloy body and the drivetrain components, including Hilborn fuel-injection and canted velocity stacks, are all exquisite. At $242,500 it certainly isn’t cheap, but a real Scarab is practically impossible to acquire, and given the fact that the cost of doing work like this keeps going up every year, it’s difficult to imagine that the new owner here will ever lose a dime. 

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