Jalopnik: backyard ferrari of the day

Backyard Ferrari Of The Day: 1980 Corvettari Daytona

Murilee Martin — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:00:00 EST

While most Fauxrraris tend to be based on the mid-engined Pontiac Fiero, you can also find Daytona replicas based on the good ol' C3 Corvette. Since the small-block Chevy can be made to churn out power well beyond anything ever put in a factory Daytona, a Corvettari can be very quick (though the Corvette suspension might make for some white-knuckle driving adventures at Ferrari-esque speeds). Here we've got a well-built Corvettari Daytona, built on a 1980 chassis with EFI 400 small-block and Tremec 5-speed.

Sure, it probably handles like Grandma's Cutlass Supreme, but who cares? It looks good, it has a manual transmission, it's 25-and-a-half grand, and it will probably eat up a real Daytona in a drag race. Watch this, y'all!

[eBay Motors]

Backyard Ferrari Of The Day: Fierrari 512 Testarossa

Murilee Martin — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:00:00 EST

An interesting difference between Backyard Lambos and Backyard Ferraris is that eBay apparently won't let you use the word "Ferrari" when you're trying to sell your Fauxrrari. That's why the vehicle we're looking at today is actually a "512 tr FERR@RI" replica.

You may have noticed that the words "Fiero," "Pontiac," or even "GM" don't get mentioned anywhere in the description, but the statement "v6 tuned port fuel injected with an auto transmission that shifts like a dream" tells the whole story: this is a Fierrari. However, its Fiero origins aren't so obvious at first glance (other than the engine and gauge cluster) and the build quality seems pretty decent. Would you be better off taking your $34,500 and purchasing a clean 308 or Mondial, with enough left over to pay shop bills for a couple years… or do you get the nicest Fierrari in town instead?
[eBay Motors]

Backyard Ferrari Of The Day: 1980 Crypto-Porschrarri Dino

Murilee Martin — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:00:00 EST

You Ferrari fanciers have no doubt been pointing and hooting at the Fauxborghinis of last week's Backyard Lambo Of The Day series. Not so fast, signore! We're going to follow up that series with some Fauxrraris, cars that offend the purists just as much as they impress the rest of us with their low-buck (and sometimes not-so-low-buck) ingenuity. Today's car is a sort of Mystery Fauxrrari out of Washington state…

The seller, who uses an innovative photographic technique to heighten the appeal of this Dino replica, claims there's a Porsche engine somewhere in the car. Actually, what he or she states is "powertrain says porsche," which could mean we're looking at a VW-based kit car with a dime-store Porsche emblem taped on the 1300's air cleaner, or maybe it's a Madman Grade hand-fabbed tube chassis with a quad-turbo Porsche 928 engine belting out 900 horsepower. Either way, you'd think the innards of a vehicle that earns the appellation "my baby" would be more familiar to its seller, but such is not the case here.
[Craigslist Seattle, go here if the ad disappears]