[deetron]

Hi all,

Work has been good to me, albeit not quite new-lambo good! I'm looking to spend about $100k in a year or so on a new sports car, and have been looking at a couple potential options, the C8 Z06, and the to-be-named Lotus Type 131. The third option, which sounds at the moment like it could be a lot of fun, would be to buy a crashed Huracan and return it to service. I've got a lot of mechanical and some electrical experience, but on things other than cars. I have my own machine shop, and access to a lot of specialty automotive fabrication people through work. First and foremost, though, I'd love to get in touch with someone who has been down this path already, and can help tell me where the landmines are buried when it comes to a project like this. Anyone come to mind?

 

[Turbo Racer]

It’s definitely doable if you buy right and know what to look for and are experienced with these cars, but I wouldn’t do it. For $100k, there are a ton of amazingly fast cars out there that won’t give you endless headaches. The problem I’ve found with restoring cars is there’s always more than you think there is and budgets go way out. At least for me. Galla rods are great cars, 997 gt3 or turbo s, or Ferrari F430 are also very nice and you could get a clean one of those and since they are all at or near the bottom of their depreciation curve, you will do ok on resale unlike a branded Huracan which I would think be pretty hard to move. Just my 2 cents. Interested to see other’s perspectives.

 

[AngelOfMurci]

Hi all,

Work has been good to me, albeit not quite new-lambo good! I'm looking to spend about $100k in a year or so on a new sports car, and have been looking at a couple potential options, the C8 Z06, and the to-be-named Lotus Type 131. The third option, which sounds at the moment like it could be a lot of fun, would be to buy a crashed Huracan and return it to service. I've got a lot of mechanical and some electrical experience, but on things other than cars. I have my own machine shop, and access to a lot of specialty automotive fabrication people through work. First and foremost, though, I'd love to get in touch with someone who has been down this path already, and can help tell me where the landmines are buried when it comes to a project like this. Anyone come to mind?

I’ve restored American muscle cars, but never an exotic.
If I was going to attempt to restore an exotic, assuming you would like a return on investment(ROI), I would choose a model and year that has an extremely low production number. That way, when it comes to resale, there would be buyers. NOTE: restored muscle cars do have ROI, however exotics rarely do. The reason is, 99% of car enthusiasts are priced out of the exotic market. The remaining 1% can afford to purchase an unrestored car and are not looking to save money.

your expectations should be, that you’re going to have a fun car to drive when you’re done, but will not get your money back

good luck

 

[deetron]

Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily be doing it as an investment (I say that now, ha), but more as a fun car which I don't have to be too precious about with regards to putting miles on, having fun with, etc. I feel like with something new, I'd be kicking myself every time I turned the key as the value drips away more and more. As far as the other cars mentioned go, I always had an aversion to F430s/F360s, and I'm kind of picky as to which Porsche's I like, it's on a case by case basis.

 

[johnny2012]

It is going to cost you more on initial investment and loss in subsequent resale.

This is before accounting for labor $.

It'll probably gonna cost you $150k to restored it. Might as well get a non-total car for a bit more...

 

[DXM31]

I have toyed with this idea for a while but it would be to make a track only car. I would be taking stuff out and selling it to pay for the repair parts...maybe. For a street car maybe buy one with a lot of mileage and/or a ding on it's carfax and save yourself a lot of headaches chasing parts. Parts are expensive, new or used, example a new front bumper cover is $5000usd(unpainted) a used one is $3000usd. I just want to put an EVO rear bumper cover and exhaust on my 580 $$$.
For a hobby I understand, I have done a few cars but none of them the parts were so expensive. Currently helping my son with a restomod 280z. He was complaining his all new front and rear suspension was costing $5000. Mmm same price as the Huracan front bumper cover.

 

[deetron]

Thinking about this a little bit more, maybe a smaller project to test my appetite for this sort of thing might work out better - specifically, doing a subframe repair. I see broken rear and front subframes for cars here and there, and the fabrication company I work with is a pretty famous trophy truck constructor, and so have lots of experience with that sort of thing. Reckon anyone would be interested in buying repaired subframes?

 

[Lee T]

You are way better off buying an older car in need of restoration. A barn find Uracco went for 35K. I tried to buy it but someone else got it. Salvage cars always have a stigma. If anything buy a crash G for 20K. Lots of parts out there pretty reasonable.

 

[johnny2012]

Thinking about this a little bit more, maybe a smaller project to test my appetite for this sort of thing might work out better - specifically, doing a subframe repair. I see broken rear and front subframes for cars here and there, and the fabrication company I work with is a pretty famous trophy truck constructor, and so have lots of experience with that sort of thing. Reckon anyone would be interested in buying repaired subframes?

Good idea.
Modding/fixing car is not as fun as it looks especially if you sink a significant amount of $$$.

 

[rotaryrocket7]

I've done this -2017 Huracan Avio, front end damage. Happy to help if you decide to dig in. Honestly there weren't a ton of hidden issues...parts were overall available, but with COVID shipping things from Italy was slow (some parts are only factory produced and sourced). Hardest parts were aluminum welding, which you want to be very good at or find someone who is if you have any non-repairable sections or areas where you cannot (a-pillars and roof as an example), and painting, again experience here is so important if you do it yourself. Outside of the body work, pretty straightforward.

I did this as a fun project to spend time with my dad while COVID had everything locked down - I do agree that resale wont be ideal & if I ever part with the car I will likely lose money. All in (minus labor which I did myself) I paid ~$150k, buying the car would have cost ~$225k last year. So if money were the concern I did get a good deal per se to have it as a fun car...again it was more for the project vs. owning. I could have just bought one if the depreciation or $ were a longer term concern.

Good luck! Reach out if you have any questions, i probably have quite a few pictures that can help, always happy to support a fellow "wrencher".
matt

 

[Lee T]

Do it for fun not profit. I love restoration of exotics but i have a full blown shop with mill, lathe, english wheel,etc. I am also a pretty advanced fabricator and can do metal plastic and fiberglass. Replacement parts are expensive unless you are very patient, search hard on the web and are willing to wait. However, I have a blast making parts. Lee