Depending on your outlook, replicas are either the bane of the automotive industry's existence or an expression of curious creativity.
Some replicas get the nod from me. A Ford Mustang dressed up in a Gulf racing livery, for example, is excellent. Some replicas however don't get said nod — including the poisonous slew of Ferraris based on old Toyota MR2s and Peugeot 406s.
All of which makes this Porsche 959 replica, for sale at Auctions America, a weird one.
Now, it makes sense that someone would want to recreate a Porsche 959. They're a deeply hallowed car from their period, thanks to the amount of ground-breaking technology packed between their wheel arches. Not to mention that original ones are also mindbogglingly expensive these days.
The chief problem I find with any replica of something like a Porsche or a Ferrari though is that one must skirt the element of history. One of the key characteristics of any Porsche or Ferrari that makes it feel so special to drive is the amount of story line and character you end up buying into.
So what then happens when a Porsche replica is actually based on a Porsche? I guess that's for you to decide.
This 959, as you'll have guessed, is based on a Porsche. Specifically, a 1983 911 SC. Perhaps not one of the most loved Porsches of all time, but a Stuttgart beast nonetheless. Unsurprisingly then the replica has most of the SC's running gear underneath. The six-cylinder engine remains, as does the interior.
Neither of these things though take away from the replica's halfway respectable looks. What spoils those are the RUF wheels, which simply do not fill the wheel arches well enough to look convincing.
It's unknown when the conversion of this 911 took place, but the car's current owner has had it for 12 years. So it's fair to say that whoever did convert this car over did so quite some time ago, and most likely at great expense. Which in a way makes the expected price of $25–30,000USD ($36–43,000NZD) actually sound quite reasonable.
That is, if you can bear living a complete motoring lie of course.
