Top gear new series

[christopher storey]

What a shame Challengers are not still made . Anyone wanting a car looking like this could save themselves ?485,000 or so, and who would know the difference?

[Heuer]

Well spotted Christopher! I see a whole new business opportunity for Speedster clones based on the Challenger. I wonder who owns the moulds?

[christopher storey]

David : interestingly , the thing which I thought looked most like the Challenger ( and which I think is what spoils the Challenger as a replica) is the rather broad centre console . But, like someone else who has recently posted ( I am sorry but I can't remember who ) I just do not like fattened up E types!

[Heuer]

Yes, the Challenger does have a very wide centre console and is close to the Speedster in dimensions. Need to get some Challenger pictures to illustrate the point.

[GSR 54D]

Saw the speedster today at the festival of speed and also initially thought the centre console looked wide in the photos etc. However, in the flesh, it was one of the first things I focused on when looking inside and this time didn't appear to look too fat. I think the shiny aluminum in photos and on film glare at you which must over emphasize its size to actually what it looks like by the naked eye. Bottom line "a very well put together and lets be fair "good looking" kit car which should have a price tag of ?200,000.

John H.

[MarkE]

I was at the Festival Of Speed all weekend where the Speedster was present alongside some stunning original E types (and many other exotica). It looks even better in the flesh, and the attention to detail combined with the simplicity of design is sublime. A kit car it most certainly is not!

There was a group of guys having a fairly heated debate about the Speedster. One didn?t like the concept, and he also called it a kit car. Another, who loved the car, suggested that ?most so-called original E Types were just cut and shut replicas of an E type, as they have had so many new parts and panels fitted?.

This rather annoyed two of the group, as they had original (restored) E Types and the argument became more heated.

No matter what your view is, the car is causing quite a stir and like it or not, it?s raising the profile of The E Type even further. I spent a bit of time looking over the so-called exotica such as the Zonda, Koenigsegg, McLaren, Bugatti Veyron etc., and for me, they don?t even come close in the appeal stakes compared with the Speedster, irrespective of price.

I don?t know what the Speedster is ?worth?, and I doubt very much whether any of the customers will care. They don?t usually complain about paying ?40k plus for a watch or ?10k for a posh Italian suit.

I really do think that the Eagle Team have done a phenomenal job in creating this car. Many people have tried to incorporate the appeal and flowing lines of the E Type into a new car, and all who have tried have failed. But the Speedster, from all angles, looks just right, with enough E Type content for there to be no mistaking what the car is, but sufficiently different to be a new model in its own right.

[PeterCrespin]

I'd pretty much agree with your summary Mark. Nice car, albeit impractical with no top. But price or practicality don't matter at that level, it's all about looks and even more about being seen to be one of the chosen few. Anyway, as a three-time D-replica owner I can rationalise not having a roof, although my interior would only cost about fifty quid to put right if it ever got soaked.

But getting back to the thread title and Top Gear, who else spotted the nonsensical discussion they had last night when, for once, they attempted to touch on a technical topic, instead of waffling on about looks and specifications? Jeremy started it by getting something arse about face and the other two just carried on repeating the error. I'd have thought James May might have corrected his co-presenters, but no... sigh.

The Growler joke went on far too long as well....

Pete

[Jaguar_Man]

I too think Challenger should use the Speedster and manufacture kits so that people who like them can have the chance to afford one.

My dad owns a JPR Wildcat E Type replica, his dream was to have a series 1 E Type and having a replica is the closest he will get to an E Type. The prices for E TYpes, even the less desirable series 2 and 3 are (for the average working class people) is just too expensive. Even if many people could afford to own one, the cost of running one in this country would be too much even only when used at weekends; not many can afford to run 4.2 and 5.3 v12 engines because of the cost of petrol,

I agree that the Speedster's tyres are too big and that the windscreen is too low. Not a patch on the E Type, the shape will never be matched.

[Mario]

The Eagle Speedtster, on display at Silverstone 50, don't touch my heart, it seems to me a fat replica car. Shiny doors top covers, fat central tunnel, lowered windscreen , slim chrome rings on head lamps, and other characteristic of it, are for me no more than a distortion of the real thing, inclusive been, or trying to be a totally new car, and far away of the glamour and clean lines of an original series 1 roadster, with wider wheels.

It is dificult to work on a culture object as an E Type, and get good or better results than the original product. The icone is the icone and people dreams with icones, the other side is a toy for people with lot of money. Another feeling, another way of life than real E Type owners.

Good for TV shows, but not a gentleman sport car in my point of view, with all the respects to the well know firm who create them.