Which Replica Would You Prefer? ‘1965’ Envemo Super 90 vs ‘1965’ Factory Five Roadster

I had originally planned to do a roundup of Peter’s picks from when I was gone for today, but I just don’t feel like it. So I’m throwing our normal price range out the window today, along with the entire notion of “shitboxes,” and showing you two fake, but still expensive, copies of really cool cars. Which one is a better tribute to the original? That’ll be up to you.

But first, let’s finish up with yesterday’s little wagons. And in a surprise upset, it looks like the PT Cruiser has pulled off a win! Did I stack the deck a little by showing you a pristine Cruiser and a somewhat questionable, high-mileage Scion xB? No, of course not. Would I do that?

Don’t answer that. My pick is, of course, the PT Cruiser, and it’s not even close. The xB would be fine, I guess, but the aftermarket bits and the high mileage on that particular Toyota engine give me pause. Besides, I’m one of those weirdos who actually likes PT Cruisers – though I think I’d hold out for a stickshift if I were really shopping for one.

High-end replica cars occupy a strange spot in the automotive world. They’re miles away from the cheap fiberglass kit cars you remember from the ’70s, but they don’t have anywhere near the panache or gravitas of an original. They’re far less expensive than the real thing, but still not cheap enough for most people to buy. The general public is often impressed by them, collectors scoff at them, and enthusiasts like the idea of them but wish they weren’t so damn expensive. But if you had the money to burn, could you have fun actually driving a replica of an otherwise six-figure car? Let’s take a look at a couple of them and see.

1981 Envemo Super 90 Coupe – $55,000

Engine/drivetrain: 1.6-liter OHV flat 4, four-speed manual, RWD

Location: Escondido, CA

Odometer reading: 53,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well

By a huge margin, the most common donor vehicle for kit cars and replicas is the VW Type 1 Beetle. There are good reasons for this: sheer numbers, for one. VW sold so many Beetles for so long that for decades, good-running used examples could be had for almost nothing. But the Beetle’s construction – a steel body bolted atop a flat pan chassis – gave it an edge. You and a buddy could remove the Beetle body and plop down a fiberglass shell in no time flat, and have a completely new car. And of course, due to its mechanical similarity, the Porsche 356 was a popular subject for Beetle-based kit cars. You can still get a 356 Speedster kit today, I’m pretty sure. But this isn’t that. This is an accurate clone of a real 356 coupe, built in Brazil and sold as a complete car.

The story goes like this: a Brazilian man named Luís Fernando Gonçalves owned a 1964 Porsche 356 Coupe, and liked the car so much he decided to sell copies of it. His copies were based on a shortened VW Brasilia chassis, very closely related to the Beetle, but easier to source in Brazil. Gonçalves called his new company Envemo, short for “Engenharia de Veículos e Motores,” or “Vehicle and Engine Engineering.” The Envemo Super 90 was introduced in 1979, and these days it’s considered a collectible classic in its own right. This one has 53,000 miles on it, quite a lot for a car like this. Someone has enjoyed this car properly.

It’s in beautiful shape inside, and it’s a pretty convincing copy of a 356C, but there are a few details that are different. It has high-back bucket seats, which a 1965 Porsche would not have had. They might just be VW Brasilia seats, come to think of it. The Nardi-style steering wheel isn’t accurate either, but it’s an upgrade someone might have made to a 356 in the late ’70s or early ’80s. And those steering wheels do feel really nice in your hands.

Believe it or not, this actually is a fiberglass body, like other VW-based replicars. It’s just a really good one, made from molds taken from an actual 356C. The good part of that, I guess, is that you don’t have to worry about body rust. And the chassis of this one looks immaculate. A quick search tells me that real 356C coupes typically sell for at least twice this price, and you’ll make all sorts of enemies if you actually did something as foolish as drive it. With this replica, you won’t piss anybody off by putting miles on it.

“1965” Factory Five Roadster – $67,500

Engine/drivetrain: 347 cubic inch OHV V8, five-speed manual, RWD

Location: Cedar City, UT

Odometer reading: 7,400 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well

Some cars are practically mythological beasts, and the AC Cobra is one of them. We all know the basic story: Carroll Shelby modified the AC Ace roadster to accept Ford V8 power, and then spent several years developing it into a fire-breathing monster. Real Cobras were built from 1962-67, but a lot of people have never seen a real one in person. Only about a thousand were built. Even I’ve only seen one real one. If you see a Cobra driving around, or even at most car shows, chances are it’s a replica, like this one from Factory Five Racing.

Like most Cobra replicas, this one is modeled after the Mark III Cobra, better known as the 427, for its use of a Ford big-block 427 (or 428) cubic inch V8. But also, like most Cobra replicas, it’s actually powered by a Ford Windsor small-block. It displaces 347 cubic inches, and the seller says it makes about 435 horsepower, thanks to Edelbrock fuel injection and some other go-fast parts. The transmission is a Tremec five-speed manual, also a classic. The seller doesn’t say when this car was built, but with only seven thousand miles on it, my guess is it’s pretty new. Why build something like this, and then let it sit around gathering dust, right?

Real Cobra interiors are minimalist, purposeful, and elegant. This one… isn’t. The dash is carbon fiber-patterned, or maybe real carbon fiber, but either way, it’s tacky. And that has to be just about the worst steering wheel ever made. It looks like it belongs in a Polaris Slingshot, or a speedboat. A nice wood dashboard and a wood-rimmed wheel would suit it a lot better.

The burnt-orange paint is actually a Nissan color, according to the seller, and it looks really good on there. I’m less enthusiastic about the big American flag on the hood. Did no one tell them the original Cobra is actually a British car? Besides, a Cobra is practically a caricature anyway; it doesn’t need anything extra to draw attention to itself.

I know these are well outside the price range of what most of us can afford, but just pretend you have a rich uncle who wants to buy you an extravagant birthday gift, with the catch that you have to promise to actually put some miles on it. Which one would you pick?