East Coast Buyer

Welcome Bob! You will certainly get a lot of sage advice from the collective think tank on this site! Best of luck with your endeavor and hope to see you at one of our SOC events down the road! Keep us posted with your progress. 

 I look for to the "Madness"....Thanks

Second what the others said. Great site -great people -you're in a good place. The open knowledge and advice is amazing.  

Bob:

Where are you on the East Coast?  You might be able to hook up with local people with different make cars to look at them before you pull the trigger.  Of course, the BEST place to look before you buy, by FAR, is simply go to the Carlisle Kit Car show in May and see examples of every maker AND talk with owners about their builder/car experiences.

I would also suggest that you try looking for a decent, well-sorted used car as your first Speedster, to avoid the inevitable sorting you would have to do yourself with a newly built car.  There is a reason that so many recently-built cars are for sale with less than 2,000 miles on them and initial sorting of issues is a big part with some builders.

There seems to be a vast, post-ship quality difference between the different builders, especially if the car is going to the East Coast, since it's likely that they won't see it again after it ships.  Some have been OK when they arrived, and others have been way worse than that.  ALL of them have at least some small issues needing attention.  You should contact some members in private messaging to ask about their buying/acceptance experience before you decide, too.  You should also look to the Beck Boys in the mid-west if you want a water-cooled car...they've been building both water and air cooled cars for years and know their stuff, too.

Lastly, I wrote an acceptance checklist a while back for people to use both during build and when they receive their car, no matter where it was built or shipped to.  You can view it here:

https://www.speedsterowners.com...acceptance-checklist

Good Luck!

Gordon

The Speedstah Guy from Massachusetts

Too many Bobs on this site now...but welcome.

Bob

If I was on the east coast and wanted to be able to stay "close" to the build I would get a Beck.  Water or air cooled, great cars.  Some vendors are better than others in limiting the number of things you have to sort out.  I bought one of the best cars built, an Intermeccanica used and there were still a number of thing to sort out.  Budget is always an issue.  IM's are very expensive new.  I am in Norfolk VA if you want to see a nice IM up close.  But I agree with Gordon.  Don't pull the string until after Carlisle.  I know IM and Beck will both be there.  See the cars.  Talk to the builders.  Then decide.

x3 regarding Carlisle.  You can check out all different brands and compare them.  You will probably have a chance to drive a few as well.

John Steele (JPS) is usually there as well

X4 - go to Carlisle.  I had a Beck built with a Subaru engine last year.   I visited the builder in Bremen once and then had it delivered to Carlisle 2013.  Although I had some minor issues with the clutch ... I can't say enough about the customer service i received ..... and that can make all difference.   I'll have the car at Carlisle this year and you are more than welcome to inspect every nook and cranny.

Lovin' it without the side trim, btw....Al

Nice car.  Want me an Outlaw Speedster one day.

If you want a Coupe... we can make that happen. It's not on our website yet. Working with Vintage for the body/chassis.

Always an option. We can add A/C inside them as well. (Reason why we want to build the 356 Coupes, here in Arizona our clientele always has A/C on their NEEDS list).

-Daniel (not another Bob)