Ferrari 355 Replicas – The REAL TRUTH and History from the Beginning 

I decided to choose "Exact" for the Company name as for me personally it conveyed what I wanted it too, after all the car our kit creates I think is the best looking MR2 SW20 around, and as far as is visually possible from the outside, looks exactly like the real factory car it tries to copy!!! 

Some people disagreed with this choice of name I chose, as these people sited differences between our car and the real one ”How can it be exact when etc” ,were the cries” Well of course there are points to which I have to concede are different, i.e. when you open the doors this is different, that’s different etc, well yes! after all the car is in fact a Toyota not a Ferrari, so there will always be differences, however my view and one I still uphold is this car looks "exactly" like a Ferrari 355 from the outside, here is my reasoning and I'm sticking to it. Some complained, and others just entered a world of pure Deniability, usually it’s because they merely tried to uphold that kits they had an affiliation with, had to be protected!!!! Not because they had any real case for talking down the visual reference to how good the car is to look at!!!! 

My wish in choosing “Exact” was never to cause any offence, just to make a good name for what I believed and even more so today that our Exact Replica is the finest and only accurate replication of the Italian Super Car available. After all it is undeniably the only car kit available that was ever truly taken from the body of a real factory car, more on this as you read!! 

The story started back in California with a company called IFG. This is a story that all who follow replica cars will know full well. However the newer not so well versed petrol heads will I hope gain from these facts. 

IFG of California purchased a crash damaged 355 for the sole purpose of taking moulds from the car. The bodies created were destined to be attached to Fiero cars and used in crash scene in the feature film called “The Rock“ the film although now old is still available, have a look for it and see the yellow cars get destroyed. 

The film work done, IFG then marketed and sold the body kits for Fiero’s in the USA under a company heading “Warlock Designs” It’s all there on the Web, just search IFG California or Warlock Design etc. 

Ferrari SPA were rightly very unhappy with the goings on at Warlock and made their feelings known very early on. So you guessed it IFG or the “ ROCK KIT ” disappeared very quickly indeed!!! After threats of litigation loomed. 

The problem however is many kits were sold and it wasn’t long before many generic kits appeared, both in the USA and Europe, all were of course generic copies of the original kit by IFG. Now this kit was far from perfect, in-fact most were terrible unusable versions that only really belonged in a skip!! 

So as with anything that gets copied time and time again, the quality just breaks down, the bad areas magnify as do the build problems. 

Car body panels by their very nature need to be accurate, the smallest blemish can ruin any car be it a Ford, Fiat or a Ferrari. As these generic copies multiplied then so sadly did all the bad-points, dents, blemishes, lost details ETC 

So by the time the kits got to the UK many years ago the quality was lost, and the claimed 50hrs builds by people supplying them were both fantasy and Non achievable lies. 

Many other kits sprang up along the way, most were merely modified copys of a kit called the Fiero Factory kit. This was a great kit as far as quality was concerned and genuinely did fit the fiero car that it was intended for, it fitted very well, and the quality is still probably the best available anywhere ,even today. Unfortunately as far as I was concerned the shape of this kit was nowhere near accurate in either looks or dimensional areas. 

Other kits made as I’ve said were nothing more than modified copys of the Fiero Factory kit, then modified to fit MR2 SW20’s this was good news as the Toyota was, and is a great car with their fantastic reliability, performance, right hand drive, everything going for them except for one thing!!! Then shape of all these kits was wrong then and Guess What??? It still is today! 

Other Independent companies came up to the plate and took the challenge of offering more authentic looking cars. Some went to great length's to make a kit that was suited to the MR2 SW20 that made much better inroads into dimensionally accuracy ETC. But still if you know what you’re looking for is far from being even close. In fact not one single panel from a factory car will fit these much altered kits, so I guess that must surely tell anyone with half an idea that if a real panel won’t fit, then they can’t be the same shape /size as a factory car. 

I must admit that I did go out and buy a ready built show car. However I found that the many pitfalls and the many inaccuracies made it impossible to live with. The fact that the suspension has to be ridden with coil over units at max travel doesn’t really endear driving it very far!! One main problem with a GRP bodied car that have hard suspension is this:-

As you hit one of our fantastic pot-hole collection we have in the UK, a shockwave is produced that enters the car through the wheels runs through the composite body and shakes anything that’s filled or badly joined – apart!! , believe me I know from experiance, as do so many selling replicas that usually say. ”Could do with a re-spray" Why is that??

Not all cars need repainting every year "do they???"

So there is the reason for this tale, after minimal use of my beautifully finished 355 replica, the car’s paint was shot to bits!!! 

So after a total re-spray that followed, I was told by a very competent body shop technician “SELL IT PAL “It will never look this good again“ He was right as soon as it had ridden the bumps the deadly fishers reappeared and that was that. 

BACK TO THE ROCK KIT:

After suffering all the miss leading info bounded around by some  unscrupulous UK suppliers at the time I got a lucky break.

A kit was purchased by a guy from the midlands; he knew a thing or two about Ferrari’s having owned a 328 then a 348 and lastly a 360 so he was the best guy to have taken the plunge into building a 355 Replica 

I have spoken and stayed in touch with the very same guy who explained the 355 was in his eyes the most beautiful Ferrari ever to leave Marranello. However the mere facts that the service costs were and still are today extortionate!! , which in turn makes the 355 one of the most expensive Ferraris’s to own and drive regularly.

It was this thought that led him to look at this option. After many months of penning and reading, there was only one way to go. If the IFG kit came off a real car then it should be dimensionally and aesthetically right, He told me that was his thoughts.

Firstly after looking at every single kit out there he gave up. Realising there was not one single panel on one single kit that was the same as the original car. He had a selection of original panels for comparison, with this in mind and not wishing to shame himself by driving down the road in a Tesco shopping trolley with red paint and Ferrari badges on, the idea was all but over. 

After seeing an AD in a kit car magazine advertising a kit from “The Rock Film” that could be built in only 50Hrs!!!!!, he set off cash in hand. The kit was being sold from a remote house in Shropshire, I recall being told. I do remember the kit was the most awful shocking quality anyone could imagine. However though an original Ferrari rear light panel was spot on for dimensional accuracy, as were a door and the engine cover. The bonnet skin was also a match for the real car…..” DEAL DONE “Or as he said himself “I WAS “!!!!! 

This person took away his 50 hour dream build and spent with some willing friends, over 650 man hours on it!!!!! 

Yes 650 Man hours of sweat, toil and swearing. 

The result after much altering of the roof section “The buttresses had to altered and lengthened to allow a good ride height” plus other parts that had to be attacked, it led to a now new set of rock kit moulds existing within the UK. The man responsible said “ I built a car I could drive everyday and feel confident it looked exactly like a factory car, also he said “I had my own moulds if it ever met a wall !!! “ 

The car was enjoyed and sold on after a full 2yrs driving pleasure. There were a few niggles and the usual fishers appeared, the bonding to the car process was a pain, more brackets than a meccano set he told me. However at least I got the kit onto the car in a fashion that anyone trying to do before-hand could never have achieved using the original rock kit 

So that’s the story chapter and verse. That’s the kit’s origins full and factual. 

Now over to me, and how I have taken this one massive step further. 

I believe this is the only truly dimensionally and aesthetically accurate replica out there. 

Not one of the UK alternatives will allow a single factory part, except for the door mirrors will fit them.

I have now taken over a year to have a rock kit both fitted to and pre-paired/pained to  a very high standard and then to have the whole car re-tooled to once and for all genuinely fit the MR2 SW20 to near perfection. 

The kit now no longer needs 300 brackets and 3 ton of bonding agent to get it onto the car. 

Every panel has been blocked and straightened out to give pressed steel quality; the straight lines running through the car are accurate and beautifully crafted and run as true as a gun barrel. 

The car has now been fitted with original 355 sills; the original rock kit’s were damaged and never properly repaired all those years ago, so subsequently just got worse and over the

Year’s got worse. We have now sorted this by having real 355 sills fitted. 

What I would like to make absolutely clear now is this, our car will and always will mean the sills are built into the bottom of the door, the reason is this is the following:-

An original Ferrari door is over 2.6 inches narrower than an MR2 sw20 door, so the MR2 is deeper!! "FACT"

If you then have a door panel that totally encapsulates the MR2 door, then add the proper size sill section under that, you then end up with a very oversize/over deep side profile on the car. 

So take our door section, its exactly as the factory car is, look at our now factory 355 door sills directly attached to the door, what you get is a side profile on your car that’s exactly as it should be!!!!

Of course the purists will say "Hey when you open the door you know it’s not a real car, the sills are not right!!!" I would say it’s pretty obvious as soon as you open the door it’s clearly not a real Ferrari and the sills won’t be the bit that gives it away!! It will be the fact that it’s a Toyota dash/gear knob assembly

Remember “If it looks right from the outside then it is right” the insides not the issue, after all its a Toyota, any idiot will know that as soon as the doors are opened, If your game is trying to kid anyone keep the doors locked, then the sills will be your last of your problems!! 

Next was the bonnet, again the real 355 steel bonnet, reproduced back and front for accuracy and fit. The original single skin that was part of the original IFG kits that needed to be bonded to the original MR2 bonnet is Long Long Gone! 

Real 355 Bumpers were fitted. The original rock kit was after all American, sold and crashed in the USA so it follows the bumpers had to be stateside spec, so the wrong shape, wrong details, wrong light apertures etc. So in a word Wrong! Again as with all the other issues with the re-copying the bumpers suffered so much over the years. Well that is now gone forever, real UK spec bumpers fitted "sorted"!!!! 

The engine cover was again re-tooled and refitted as was the rear light panel. 

 Every single thing has been re-worked, re-assembled, and then repainted. After that new tools were taken from our car.  

The result of this is a kit that can be fitted without fuss, without brackets and peace of mind that it won’t fall apart. So many parts that were separates are now no longer going to suffer from the effects of shockwaves hitting the car as explained before 

Much has been made and is still commented on by other UK Kit makers that kits such as mine are “ Jelly Mould Types “

What this means is this:-  

Our kit is made up of the complete rear of the car in one piece, the door skins are a further one piece design.

The front bumper, front wings are again moulded in one piece. What this means to the builder is a fantastic fit. No re-aligning or lining up. In words it takes away all the guess work, not to mention 100’s  of hours in build time and pot loads of filler. 

Other kits Multi Panels to make up their kits.

A Physical fact in the universe we all occupy is the following:- 

GRP Techniques and laminating skills may have changed since Scimitar cars and Reliant Robbins were introduced many years ago, what has not changed and never will is that GRP and Resin are at best unstable, unpredictable combination. Every separate mix of resin creates a different catalytic reaction and cure sequence. 

Its irrefutable, it’s a point no one can ever argue, fibre glass is and always will be unstable 

So take a multi piece kit, line it up, fill it, paint it, stand back and admire it, then !!! 

Go and have a look after a few Hot/Cold days, even better after a few months, everything will look and fit very different . 

With my kit it just simply does not happen, no separate panels to shift or misalign, simple, fast, and efficient and the right shape surely can’t be bad. 

So there is our new Revision2 - 355 kit, the How-why-wherefores, the whole shooting match in one swoop.

I would just like to add that it only needs to be said that this kit really did start life as a real car, its all there, it’s a fact, and how can anyone ever compete with that!!!!