Looking for new build speedster

Mike, it was a pleasure speaking to you today. Here his my advice, Run, don't walk to Greg's facility at Vintage Motorcars of CA and get your order in!!!!  While your dream car is being built if you happen to find a used one that you think you would enjoy, buy that one too!!! When your brand new one is finished you can always sell the used one for as much or possibly more then what you paid for it.

I am sure members here will be happy to share their opinions on the other builders/dealers you mentioned.

Regardless of which way you go, I hope you have a great experience and join the Speedster Madness!!!

I will second @RoyP's advice.  Being near the builder is great, and of the two I'd certainly recommend VMC.  I'm partial to Becks myself, but your proximity to Greg would be hard to beat.

Since you have already narrowed your choices to two, and while 5 miles may appear, to be convenient. The shortest route is certainly not the best (do a search here)  . The additional 85 miles will be the best traveled road. Greg at VMC will treat you right . Welcome to the Madness ~

A good read-

https://www.speedsterowners.co...8#668422029750903678

If you need to read more use the search- there's been a lot more written here the last few years, but the above says it all.

Beverly Hills Motor Car has never 'built' cars- they seem to have an extensive inventory, as shown by their website, but further investigation will show that most (if not all) of those Speedsters don't exist on their showroom floor.  What they will do (I think) is have one built to your liking, with the appropriate mark up.  Now the issue is where will they have it built?  Better to go to the source and have it done yourself without the middle man.

You were asking about the different builders- here's my take-                                            While Vintage Speedsters in Arizona claims to have built the most Speedsters, most of those were built by the company when it was in CA and owned by Kirk and Mary.  The present owner took over when Kirk retired (3? 4? years ago), moved the operation to Scottsdale, hired all new staff and from what we've seen here has had some 'growing pains'.  Some of the cars we've heard about are not quite finished when delivered and needed some 'tweaking'.

Vintage Motor Cars (Hawaiian Gardens, CA) is in Vintage Speedster's location before the sale/move and features most of the old staff.  All reports give Greg (the new owner) 2 thumbs up- he's easy to deal with and his cars are given a good shake down before they leave.

Intermeccanica (up here in Vancouver, British Columbia) builds an amazing car as well.

Thanks guys. I appreciate the info.

@ALB Beverly Hills leaves the website up to attract callers. No cars. I believe they started assembling cars because they told me that’s all they do now and invited me to their factory to review their build process. Something strange about the whole thing though.

RUN away from BHMC.

BMHC...if their lips are moving they're lying

@MikeM

Hi Mike.  Keep an eye on my website, I buy and restore replica Speedsters and make them nicer than when they were originally built.  Replica Speedsters are the only cars I do. I've been doing it for over 10 years and had over 80 of them.  All of them were factory built by either Vintage Speedsters, Vintage Motorcars of California, JPS or Beck.

I currently have a very nice, like new one with less than 1,000 miles on it and you never know what might also pop-up on my website from day to day.

Here's the link to my website and you can give me a call anytime.  www.replicaspeedsters.com

I’ll call you today, Troy. Thanks.

@MikeM posted:

Thanks guys. I appreciate the info.

@ALB Beverly Hills leaves the website up to attract callers. No cars. I believe they started assembling cars because they told me that’s all they do now and invited me to their factory to review their build process. Something strange about the whole thing though.

Do you know who they're buying the shells from?

No. I do not know much except they seem to truly be building. They have photos of their factory in Oceanside and invited me to see their production facilities.

but the real question, not withstanding a checkered reputation, is why would you buy a basically non branded replica. Resale value wouldn’t be there. Probably quality would be iffy given they are new to this. And the price was similar to Vintage and JPS. They quoted me $38k plus for a base model.

There are two factors that should be considered.  The time to get your car and your distance from the builder.  I got my car from Greg at Vintage Motorcars in 4 months and for various reasons been back 4 times. JPS quoted me 18 months he is  over 100 miles away. I couldn't be happier with my car from Greg and there are stories about John at JPS. Greg makes a great car and will do anything you want to make it yours, he is 30 miles from me and that is far enough. Good luck, do your homework, there are many options. Cheers.

Richard

@MikeM posted:

..but the real question, not withstanding a checkered reputation, is why would you buy a basically non branded replica. Resale value wouldn’t be there. Probably quality would be iffy given they are new to this. And the price was similar to Vintage and JPS. They quoted me $38k plus for a base model.

This hobby/industry is small enough that I'm pretty sure if their finished product is as nice as what Greg, Carey and Henry put out, word would get around pretty quickly and resale value would be there.  With their rep what it is, somehow I don't think that will be the case, though.  They obviously think that this is a market where there's good money to be made and I'm guessing that (again, given their reputation) they're in for a bit of a surprise.  Others will attest that building specialty cars for resale has a bit of a learning curve...

@MikeM, It would be interesting if you would go on the BHMC tour and report what you saw, even if you don't want to buy a car from them.

Another Mike M.

My experience with this hobby and knowing many people in the hobby is regardless of which manufacture you go with the car will require some degree of sorting. Also unless you lay out very large $ (more than 40k) you will get a pretty basic car. If that is what you want that is great. Like any hobby if you get hooked you will want more HP, more this and that. I would seriously consider working with Troy. He typically gets cars with low mileage from folks that did not get the madness and need to sell. He sorts the problems and will deliver a trouble free car. Plus depending on what the market is doing little or no waiting. The other option is to find one privately and find someone competent to sort it out. Welcome to the madness.

Thanks @majorkahuna. I spoke with Troy today and I agree with you completely. In fact I am bidding on one of his cars as we speak.

+1 for Troy, Greg and this forum from actual personal experience. Happy to chat if you have any questions - I live in North County SD and minutes away from JPS. I have an older Vintage Speedster with a 2276. I'm going to put it on the market during the Summer, but then maybe not - they are so much fun.

@ZFNHSN do you have a few photos of your car?

Mike, check this thread. There are a few pics of my Speedster. I was running the Fuch Deep 6 wheels off my 1969 912 on the Speedster, but then decided to put on a set of steel Porsche OEM Lemmerz I had laying around. I prefer the weathered driver look. I had a Jet Black 040 911 for years and hated seeing it get dirty (from the pollen and dust) just hours after a wash. I gave up cleaning my cars. It's my OCD - and that's how I keep my OCD at bay.

https://www.speedsterowners.co...wtb-jps-cms-beck-etc

Awesome car. And congratulations on your recovery. What a miracle.
I’m looking for something like this

Grey with burgundy and black top.

Had a great time visiting with John at JPS this morning. He truly has a passion. He gave me 1-1/2 hours of his time and experience. Some photos attached. I’m visiting Vintage Motorcars next week.

Thanks to everyone on this forum who reached out to me with to offer their brilliant advice. Met several very nice guys, some who offered me a test drive in their car. It’s great to be a perspective owner in such a great community.

Mike

*CAUTION* The experience described in the message above this one is exactly what many others have reported PRIOR to putting down a deposit.  Do your due diligence and search the SOC before you make a decision to purchase a new Speedster.

@MikeM posted:

Had a great time visiting with John at JPS this morning. He truly has a passion. He gave me 1-1/2 hours of his time and experience. Some photos attached. I’m visiting Vintage Motorcars next week.

As Troy notes, get several opinions on how the vendor has treated customers in the past. The folks on this board know the players well. Thanks for the pictures from JPS. I'd been curious.

Mike

MikeM has good intentions and I'm sure his experience was exactly as he described, but he's only been a member on the SOC for 1 week.

It is extremely difficult to make a builder own up to verbal promises let alone contracts without much pain and suffffffering!   Buyer beware is the rule

Yes I do have good intentions. Just reporting my visit. I’ve read the posts regarding vendors and take them seriously, and I am not endorsing anyone. I expected some input like this based on what I’ve read here. Again, I just stated what I saw, and it was simply a visit. Not an experience of buying or owning, which is different.

Mike,

Your doing fine, John at JPS is not well considered here, but simplify your choice. I visited JPS and Vintage. It came down to this JPS wanted 18 months, Vintage wanted 4, easy choice. This was last June and Greg delivered to me almost on time and I’m very pleased with the outcome. Good luck.

Richard

Waiting impatiently for mine from Vintage; toured the shop, met the man, can't wait! But will have to as demand is so great right now though I know it will be worth it when it finally gets home.

Thanks Richard.

wait time is an issue for me  I mean, I’m no spring chicken lol  

I’m 6’2+ and I must say that getting in was a bit embarrassing. Nothing like seeing an old guy getting into a cool car  I think with practice and technique I may get past the laughingstock stage  

BTW I was surprised the water cooled option was only $4k more. 2.5 Subura with upgraded tranny, iRS, and AC.

Mike,

I’m 71 getting in and out is best done in your garage

Lol. Richard. That’s funny.

@msjulie how long have you been waiting and when do you expect delivery.

@MikeM I'm afraid to jinx it - earlier in the year Greg suggested he might start getting out from under his backlog sometime in May;  I hope it will be a Christmas present as there are many folks in front of me in line.   Being in Ca getting a car already here or to-be-registered here solves a lot of challenges else Cloud 9 sure seems to have some nice ones.

It took me longer than it should have to pull the trigger, lurking on this site for over a year watching and reading up on the options.  Biggest delay for me is I'm going with the subie engine which is a bunch more work but for what I'm looking for should be just the ticket.

One nice thing about going to the shop in person was being able to get a whole bunch of color samples for body, interior, carpet to take home. That selection process was agonizing fun but expect to be really happy with the end result . Pics when I got the car of course.

.

@MikeM posted:

...wait time is an issue for me  I mean, I’m no spring chicken lol...

...BTW I was surprised the water cooled option was only $4k more. 2.5 Subura with upgraded tranny, iRS, and AC...

Mike, another vote for following Julie's lead and going with Vintage.

Curiously, whenever anyone mentions JPS, I think of this:

.

Man, @msjulie. I am not a good waiter. Looks like you may have ordered late last year? Could you give me a date? I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you so you don’t get jinxed.

I am not a good waiter either - I only finalized my order beginning of this year so yes it could miss my Christmas wish but I remain optimistic.

@MikeM posted:

Yes I do have good intentions. Just reporting my visit. I’ve read the posts regarding vendors and take them seriously, and I am not endorsing anyone. I expected some input like this based on what I’ve read here. Again, I just stated what I saw, and it was simply a visit. Not an experience of buying or owning, which is different.

My concern was that another newbie might happen to read your glowing post and be influenced by it without knowing there has been a lot of VERY negative experiences discussed on the SOC.

I don't really understand why anyone would visit a builder with so much bad press, unless they just didn't believe it or were unaware of it.

@R Thorpe posted:

Mike,

Your doing fine, John at JPS is not well considered here, but simplify your choice. I visited JPS and Vintage. It came down to this JPS wanted 18 months, Vintage wanted 4, easy choice. This was last June and Greg delivered to me almost on time and I’m very pleased with the outcome. Good luck.

Richard

@MikeM- If you're still undecided- read the above again (and again and again if you have to)

@Troy Sloan posted:

*CAUTION* The experience described in the message above this one is exactly what many others have reported PRIOR to putting down a deposit.  Do your due diligence and search the SOC before you make a decision to purchase a new Speedster.

To anyone- Yes, John at JPS is enthusiastic and passionate when talking about a new build, but he is also known for being very hard to deal with once he has your money. @DannyP's comment (in another recent thread) of not knowing who you're getting- Dr. Jeckyl or Mr. Hyde- on any particular day is (from reports of more than a few dissatisfied customers here) seems pretty accurate.  As well, people have complained about the man doing things the way he thinks they should be instead of what the customer wants.

I'm the first to admit that I've never even met the man and am only reporting what I've read here, but a couple of experiences are from people I've met (and I trust their word and judgement) so please keep that in mind.  Al

@ALB @Troy Sloan i believe my opinion on this issue has been documented a time or two....i was just sitting back to observe the latest reviews....i, for one do not play the FACEBOOK game...but someone with the know-how should forward these threads to good'ole john-boy.....just for kicks...but alas, as we that know also know...he DOES NOT CARE...with his semi long history, he has just become NUMB to our reviews of his....how does one say?.... "questionable" business practices & personality disorders?....troy seems to 2nd my opinion.....let the buyer beware

@R Thorpe posted:

Mike,

Your doing fine, John at JPS is not well considered here, but simplify your choice. I visited JPS and Vintage. It came down to this JPS wanted 18 months, Vintage wanted 4, easy choice. This was last June and Greg delivered to me almost on time and I’m very pleased with the outcome. Good luck.

Richard

I think John thinks of it as a loan to keep his cash flow going,sort of like SAS