Wish you could afford a bona fide supercar? Jalopnik readers are here to tell you whatever you do, don't build a replica like these.
Welcome back to Answers of the Day - our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day's Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It's by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!
In the fields of robotics and 3D animation, there's something called the uncanny valley. Basically, there are things that look a little bit like humans, and they're pretty adorable. For example, Honda's Asimo or the old guy in Up! don't really look like people do in real life, but you get the resemblance.
On the other hand, if you make a robot that looks almost like a human, but not quite, it's actually quite disturbing. take a look at Repliee Q2 and try not to be horrified a little bit.
Replica cars can have the same problem. They're often deep in the uncanny valley. They look a little bit like the supercars they're aiming for, but not quite, and it makes you squint and stare.
Not like that's what's going on with these ten replicas. They are so, so bad, that you'd never confuse them for the real thing, even if they were zipping by on the highway 100 yards away. They are utterly heinous.
We only had room for ten replicas on this list, which left a lot of honorable mentions. Which of your favorite disgraces to automotive construction did we forget? Let us know in Kinja below.
Photo Credit: CarNewsChina
10.) Lamborghini Gallardo Dodge Stratus
We first saw this thing on The Smoking Tire and we couldn't believe someone had attempted to make a midengined Lambo out of a front-engined 1996 Dodge. Then we saw that it's on eBay in Florida with 37 bids at $8,181. People actually bid on this thing.
Suggested By: Somethingwittyer, Photo Credit: eBay
9.) Porsche 356 Speedster 959 Beetle
Is it a 356? Is it a 959? Patrick Frawley explains.
Take one VW Beetle. Add one batch of plastic that can't decide if it wants to be a 356 Speedster or a 959 (two cars that have little more than a badge and engine location in common). Include one profoundly poorly-written ad. Offer at the price of a good 911SC. Revel in the angst and indigestion created across the entire Porsche-Volkswagen community.
This is why people fear for the future of civilization.
Suggested By: Patrick Frawley, Photo Credit: ClassicCars.com
8.) BMW E46 Civic
This thing was on sale a while back with a buy-it-now of $16,500. You could have bought a real M3 with that money.
Suggested By: Bonhomme7h, Photo Credit: eBay via CarScoops
7.) Pagani Zonda Corvette C5
This thing apparently tooled around Ankara, Turkey for a few years. It gives us chills.
Suggested By: HuserOz, Photo Credit: Hdaraba.com
6.) '49 Ford Thunderbird
Just as bad as amateur replicas are the ones made by professional companies. This bolt-on kit to a '90s Thunderbird was supposed to look like a classic Shoebox Ford, but ends up looking like a parrot fish with a gland problem.
Suggested By: CobraJoe, Photo Credit: Haler Concepts
5.) Chinese Reventon
We kind of praise the ambition of thinking you can make a $1.6 million Reventon out of some scrap metal in rural China. The 28-year-old who made this reportedly uses it to haul fertilizer around his parents' farm.
Suggested By: subbzz, Photo Credit:
4.) The Belaro
If you pay the company EasyRods $6,000, they beat your F-body Camaro with an ugly stick until it looks like a beached whale. Er, until it sort-of resembles a 1957 Chevy.
Suggested By: Deal Killer the Overworked, Photo Credit: EasyRods
3.) Lamborghini Reventon Camaro
There's just...there's just no way anyone could be fooled by this '94 Camaro, right? Right?
Suggested By: 6cyl, Photo Credit: eBay via GM Authority
2.) Chevrolet Camaro Beetle
Amazingly, the Camaro is not the lowest car on the replica-making totem pole. There was a company that tried to make Beetles look like Chevy's pony car, as The Scrambler explains.
It's the 1970's and I want a Camaro, but all I can afford is this Beetle. If only someone could make a Beetle look like a Camaro...
Aww yeah...
Manufactured by Kar Manufacturing Co. out of Massachusetts, this gives a new meaning to the word "Masshole".
Suggested By: The Scrambler, Photo Credit: The Samba
1.) Enzo Fiero
We first reported on the legendary Enzno back in 2008 and it remains as psychologically troubling as ever. You know you've done something terrible when you manage to make a Pontiac Fiero worse in your replica conversion.