Buying a turnkey speedster

I have been investigating every Speedster available (new & used). The rating system used on this website has been extremely helpful in getting a feel for the various brands and owner's experiences. Now, I am about to go for the Vinatage Speedster due to the good ratings, good resale values, low problems, etc. (There have been indications that the brand had paint & chrome issues in the 2000-2003 period). Does anyone have input which will enlighten me on the situation? I'm planning on visiting VS in a week or so, and would appreciate any other things that would be helpful in selecting options, etc.

I have a vintage speedster that I purchased new last August. I love the car and it has been trouble free. I think you made a good decision.

Good to hear. What engine did you go with? I live in Central Oregon at 4100 ft. and wonder if the power of a 1600 engine would be low at this elevation. Also, did you go with the 3:88 tranny? It supposedly is more sturdy than the standard and better for freeway cruising, but we have no freeways here. Any other experiences?

Hi Bob. I purchased a 2000 Vintage used with 3,400 miles on it in the spring of 2001 from someone who lived near me; this is when I lived in the greater Chicago area. I did have issues with the car getting to run consistently well, but with the help of this forum, John Muir

Guess only complaint I have on the rating system is you have to take into play whether the car was delivered as a kit or completed turn-key. Some manufacturers like FiberFab and CMC only sold kits. Despite their displays in many airports years ago they didn't produce completed vehicles in their factory. The quality of the finished product for a kit car is in the builder's expertise, time and $ invested. A new kit is 1/2 to 1/3 the cost of a turnkey vehicle --- a used unfinished kit can be had for $2k or so on ebay --- or 1/12 of a turnkey. So if you have the time and $ you can upgrade a ho-hum kit to a show car. Much of the add on pieces now come from TIAWAN and are of poor quality. OEM SWF lights and chrome trim are still available but at 4x the cost of repro parts. A paint job can cost $259 at Maaco or $10k at a custom shop.

Hi John,

Nice looking cars. Is the 356 a VS? I live where it gets too cold to drive without the top (from October until April); we still have some snow on the ground. The car will be in the garage during those months, so weather tightness, warmth, etc. won't be an issue. I haven't been able to locate anyone in the SOC living in Central Oregon; I've seen some chatter from a guy in Medford, OR and one in Seattle. Do you know of anyone who has owned a speedster in my area?

Wolfgang, thanks for the input. I probably won't go the kit route though it can save much money. I am retired and have restored too many "collectables" over the last 40 years. Although I still have the skills and tools, I just want to spend some time enjoying the fantastic, traffic-free, back roads here in the lake district of Central Oregon (15-30 minutes from 12 lakes). You can imagine the pine tree sceenery and non-potholed roads I have for my playground.

Bob, I'm not certain about Speedster owners in Central Oregon. Do you mean like around Bend? Perhaps some of the owners in Oregon will chime in but if they don't you could post a query on the "anything goes" page "looking for owners in Central Oregon."

To answer your question, the Ivory colored Speedster (Vintage) is a 356 A as is the Red Cabriolet (Specialty Autoworks), which is my current ride.
John H

Bob,

I am a Speedy owner in Eagle Point, OR, about 12 miles N or Medford. Others I know of are Ralph in Eugene, IM and Scott in Portland, also an IM. I have a JPS, which is on a VW pan and I sure like it. We are kind of in the banana belt down here, probably could drive it year round with a few exceptions. In fact going into the 70's next week so you know I'll be out killing bugs. I assume you are around Bend, correct? There are quite a few Speedsters appearing for sale, in fact you may want to contact David Salvato on this site, his car is listed in the for sale thread. It is silver and has the hard tonneau with the headrest, cool! He is in the LA area. Might think about going to the Knotts show in April, most of the manufacturers will be represented as well as lots of theri cars, you can do the research at one spot!

Last year a bunch of us from the NW had the first SOC, Southern Oregon Tour, cars came from California, Oregon and British Columbia. We took a tour on the first Saturday in October and then Sunday drove up to Crater Lake. Had a great time and broke bread with some super people. Plan on probably doing it again this fall, Last year we HQ in Grants Pass on the Rouge River, this year some mention of making Ashland the HQ, probably will happen. Love to have you get a car and join us. Also forgot to mention we were joined by a neat 550 Spyder replicar from Medford!

Keep in touch, Bruce, "The Eagle Point Guy"

Bob; I also ordered a new VS last year. It's a great car for the money with a good acceptable finish (it's good enough for me; I'm not that finicky). Things I would improve: the quality of the somewhat flimsy carpeting (I just chose the basic one not the optional German carpet due to the fact that the German one is of organic nature; the car is bound to get wet sometime so that eliminates some stink...). Also, the quality of the chrome parts (mostly repros from Taiwan) leaves a little to be desired and you'l find yourself rechroming them to get rid of the pitting. In my case (and I guess it varies with each car) I had to use some expandable foam insulation (such as Great Stuff) in some spots underneath the car to prevent water intrusion while driving in the rain (you won't want to do that anyway since even the originals were not weathertight by any means; just the nature of the beast). I ordered the 3.88 tranny but after lurking around here for a while, learned that I could've saved around $350.00 by just going with the basic 4.12 which is almost the same thing in terms of revs; difference is very slight; and the air cooled engines need the revs anyway to keep cool. Go with the front disc brakes; go with the wide five wheels instead of the 4 lugs (no extra charge and the wide fives give you the original look). One last thing; you might consider getting the engine built to your specs. I ordered the 1776 with the dual Kadrons and it's nice but if I had the chance to do it all again, I'd probably get the engine built by a reputable builder of my choice to my specs (such as counterweighted 82 or 84 mm crank, the basic engines use a stock non-counterweighted 69mm) higher lift cam (the basic engines use stock cams), at least polished heads (ported if so desired)with bigger valves, and 90.5 mm or 94 mm pistons. I would've probably used the dual Kadrons anyway. So that's my .02; you won't go wrong with Kirk, though, he's the largest volume Speedster replica builder (averaging 4 cars per week); as the saying goes: practice makes perfect. I've put over 2,000 miles on mine and I've loved every minute of it. Enjoy and welcome!!

Bob, do yourself a favor and go to Knotts to see all the Manufacturers, figure out what you have to spend and make a decision
based on your pocketbook. All the makers seem to put out a decent vehicle, some of these guys just have more money then cents, I mean sense.......You might decide to go the used route the first time to see if this is really for you, cause its not for everyone....I'm sure there will be more than one of the guys who will be willing to give you a ride....Just don't ask me....I don't know you that well.

The trend from this site is that after owning one, you always find things you want to change....

Ricardo,
Thanks for the tips. I see you are in P.R. Do you have salt air corrosion issues there. I lived in the Bay Area (S.F.) and you did not leave a car with good chrome out overnight unless you wanted to start corrosion and live with spots in the paint and chrome. Where I live now, it is fairly low humidity and no salt air gets this far inland. I may be spared some of the weaknesses of Taiwanese chrome parts. I'll bet you have yeararound good weather for driving, right?

Bruce,
I live south of Bend in LaPine. We have a couple of car clubs in the Redmond/Bend/LaPine area, but most of them are hot rod, classic or restorod car types. I haven't seen any Speedsters/Spyders yet. Of course, the weather encourages one to get a closed vehicle if he intends to drive it regularly in this area. Bend, just 32 miles to the north of me only gets about 1/10 the snow of LaPine. It also has more sunny (if chilly)driving days.
I would be interested in getting with you, Scott and others to form a local Oregon chapter when I get the car. Let's stay in touch.
I haven't firmly decided to go with VS, but am visiting them in about a week. Have been in touch with IM, but it is a little more money than I want to spend at this time. I haven't contacted JPS, but I am seeing good reports about their quality, appearance; they are close to my price bogey.

Vince,
I am trying to see if I can make it to Knott's this year. Timing may be good for that.
VS said they will let me drive their car before deciding. Hopefully,
I will be able to get enough information this coming week to make a good decision on the right car.
Look forward to meeting you at Knott's if things work out.

Bob; we do have corrosion issues here of course, being on an island. Still, though, I paid for enclosed carrier service; not sure if I got it, though, because the day the car arrived at the port here it already had the pitting on the tailight rings and the license plate light assembly. Maybe it saw some water during the 3 weeks it took to get here from California; it wasn't supposed to, though.

Also, I forgot to tell you, if you want something very close to an original, order the "Spyder" seats instead of the basic ones. There is no extra cost involved and those are reproductions of what came in the originals; the basic ones have more padding and look a little bit different and of course, are more comfortable. I decided to go with the Spyder ones and am very pleased; if you care more for comfort go with the basic ones.

Bob,

OK, LaPine, know where that is. Actually we are not a great distance apart. If you want to drop by sometime and look at my JPS you are more than welcome. You can drive it to see how you like it. It has a 1776 with dual Weber ICT's. The JPS is very similar to the vintage, in fact use the same Glass shells. The JPS has some nice touches that the VS doesn't have and the paint job is very, very nice. They use the Glasurite system. Both are about the same in price depending on options. If you are going to VS, might as well stop in to JPS also, they are both in LA area. JPS in North Hollywood. Take a look at their web site, easily acessed here, lots of pictures in the gallery. Mine is on the home page, the red one and also the one in the gallery with the covered bridge here in Eagle Point. Drive down this weekend and I'll let yopu look at my car and I can point out the differences from a VS.

Bruce PS, let me know if you are coming and I can shoot my phone # to you offline......

Hi Ricardo,
When I spoke to Kirk he asked how tall I was. When I told him, he suggested the standard seats since they wouldn't put my head above the windshield. He said the lower seat was good for taller people, but that the standard seat had more padding and was suggested for longer drives. At 65 years of age, and with rickity bones, that sounded like a good suggestion.

Hi Bruce,
It looks like we will become fellow speedster owners since we are only about 3 hours apart.
I would like to talk to you off line about your experiences with the JPS speedster. If they are closely priced to VS, I would be very interested.
Please send me your off line phone number via my wife's ISP. It should be on the links with this e-mail.

Bob,

You'll have mail shortly, and don't worry about age. I'm 68, got my JPS when I was 66! Keeps you young,

Bruce

Well Bob; I'm not that tall (5-8") and 40 but you're still a spring chicken man! The Spyder seats in my car sit higher than the ones (also Spyder style) in my friend's homebuilt CMC. Go figure. Anyway, follow Kirk's suggestion, he's a wise man. Enjoy!

Bob,
If you come and visit Bruce, make sure you come and visit us in Medford. We don't have a speedster (we have the spyder) but a car nut is a car nut!! We can all go do the lunch thing!
angela

Angela,

Working on Bob to come down for a test drive, if things work out, a lunch would be cool. I'm thinking the Lake Creek Cafe, nice rustic setting and the possibility of a drive on the back roads from there!

Will be in touch, Bruce PS, how is that Cab coming?

I'm a HUGE fan of John Steele, JPS Motorsports. Over the years, I've had 4 different buyers deciding on Vintage vs JPS. After checking out my car, they ALL ended up with JPS, even one who was within days of purchasing from Vintage. They were most impressed with the detail on the paint job of my car (they all told me they were most impressed with the paint job). I own John's first production Speedster. He's made many changes over the years to what his current model is like, but seeing where it all started from, helps get a better perspective on JPS vs Vintage.

I actually have no perspective on Vintage cars, understand that builder's a good guy... but as for JPS, John's an extremely honorable guy, lives to his word. I horribly crashed my car years ago (John restored it to an unnoticeable quality). He's done many upgrades to my car over the years. Currently working on my 4th engine (the others were rebuilt by Norcal mechanics, so I'm back with John).

I've worked with John for about ten years. Not a bad thought or word I'd ever use describing him.

David

David,
Thanks for the insight on JPS. I went down to Eagle Point last week end to see/drive Bruce Williams' JPS Speedster. It was a super car and almost identical to what I am looking for. I am visiting VS next week and will then be able to make a comparison on quality, fit and finish. Kirk at VS has been a pleasure to talk to and he is there there when I call; he is up front and doesn't try to promote things one might not use/need. He seems to build and spec his cars based on customer experience and feedback on components, etc. I'll advise what I learn.
P.S. I have a brother in your area whom I might stay with when I go to L.A. to get a car. I have several friends in Danville, so maybe I can drop in to see your car while in the area.

Angela,
Sorry I didn't get down to Medford. I spent about 3 hours with Bruce and drove his car. As it was, I just got back home before dark. Maybe I'll be able to drop in at a future date as Bruce and I have some opportunities to get together again.