Let's say you're a car guy, and you'd like something different, beautiful, and fun. You see a speedster on the street corner or a picture of one sitting resplendent on the lawn at Amelia Island or Pebble Beach. You remember seeing shots of James Dean or Steve McQueen, aviators and unlit Luck Strikes, and some babe on their arms. The whole thing strikes you as perfect.
You're aware that 60 years have passed since these cars were new, but the idea that you are a smart guy (a car-guy!) and enough time has passed that technology should have caught up with a replica, which has the advantage of being able to incorporate new and better technology. The available used cars are all air-cooled-- but the thinking goes, "it really is a simple car, I'm sure with quality parts it could be at least as reliable as my riding lawn-mower". You figure you'll do a Subaru conversion as soon as it's feasible.
You hear that some guys (ahem) have driven their car from the heartland to one coast or another, and lived to tell the tale. You read about a guy from SoCal who uses his car for a daily driver and has had two with 130K mi between them. You see cars with less than 1000 mi. all over the internet advertised for $.75 on the dollar, and you think, "That guy was a pansy. A man like me would keep that thing and make it usable."
Guys tell you you'll never use a replica as a daily driver and it's easy to think they just aren't as smart, or persistent, or manly as you are. You read the questions some guys are asking, and you grow to suspect that everybody who's ever owned one of these is a lawyer or accountant that didn't know how to work on anything. You're not that guy, and as such you discard any advice they have for you.
Summer comes, and you find a Vintage Speedster on Craig's List or Auto-Trader selling for <$20K, and jump on it. You think about flying out to wherever and driving the car back, but you're busy accounting or lawyering or administrating so you get it shipped back home. $2000?!? Whatever-- it arrives on the back of a transport and it's gorgeous. It's titled as a VW. That seems funny. You call your insurance agent-- he wants nothing to do with it. You buy a pair of aviators, and take your wife for a drive around the block.
The car stinks of unburnt fuel. You attempt to stop in traffic, and just about put the trailer ball on the back of some 90 lb soccer-mom's Expedition through your windshield. The seat is awful. There is 1/4 turn (either direction) of slop in the steering and if the shifter has a gate, you can't find it. You decide that there's something wrong, and you'll fix it. It's a VW after all-- how much could this stuff really cost?
You stop for an ice-cream cone and the car won't restart. It rides home on a flat-bed, and the tow-truck driver has a very keen interest in your wife's thighs on the ride back. She's (thankfully) not at all happy with this. You have no insurance, so the ride home costs $300. AAA seems like a good idea.
You come on here, and read. You find that all of this stuff is not unusual. For some reason, the car starts just fine now. You locate a shifter (for $200?!!?), and attempt to tighten up the steering with the adjustment on the box. It's no better. The brakes are a source of perpetual discussion online. Some guys are happy with a $200 kit, other guys swear you need to spend $2000 on brakes apparently sourced from NASA. You cut down the middle, and order a set from one place or another for about $1000. They aren't in stock.
Meanwhile, you locate a company that will insure it. You have to promise not to drive it anywhere besides off the back of a trailer into a car-show. "Pleasure drives" are OK-ish, but the car has to be parked in a locked garage, with a security system and two Rottweilers always on patrol. You're wife doesn't care, because she has decided that she doesn't want to die in a Shriner clown car attempting to navigate the Dan Ryan, or be eye-raped by a Latvian tow-truck driver with 12 teeth.
This is your first week. You've spent $2000 to get the car shipped to you, $300 for the tow-truck, $1000 for the brakes that may (or may not) arrive within the next couple months, and $200 on a shifter that's coming from Thailand. You've lied to the DMV, and bought insurance that won't let you drive the car. It's parked anyhow, because you don't trust it to restart. You don't have time for this.
You find a place in CO or AZ or WA that will do a Subaru conversion for $10K, plus the engine. You realize that this wouldn't fix the steering, the brakes, the seat, or the shifting. Transport there and back will be $4000.
You go out to the garage to stare at it. It's more beautiful than you remembered it, but there's a puddle under the engine.
This is the first week. It doesn't get easier after this.
. There is NO visibility in a speedster with the top up.....I have one and have driven it ONCE for 2 miles with the top up and it was frightening(and I live in Hawaii). I only drive with top down as I am not big on emergency room health care