I just saw the Hong Kong movie Initial D this past week. The film is a current release, filmed last year, about Japanese street racing and is based on the anime of the same name. The movie’s main character drives a mid-80’s Toyota Trueno. Toyota actually made three brand new Truenos specifically for the film - a car that has been out of production since 1987.
This brings me to my question. Ignoring legalities (I know a new Model T wouldn’t meet modern safety or emission requirements), how “old” of a car would a major manufacturer be able to produce? I’m talking completely new and virtually indistinguishable from an original, except for maybe dates stamped on parts. I think the answer would depend on how long they hang onto the tooling, and how many spares they warehouse (how long could one typically get OEM spare parts for a car no longer in production?) There is also the question of support from outside vendors. Perhaps whomever they subcontract some critical part from no longer supports it (sorry, Bosch stopped making those fuel injectors 10 years ago…).
I bet that popular cars would be able to go back farther. The Trueno, for example, was a very popular car and has strong aftermarket support. OTOH, I wouldn’t be surprised if the tooling for the Cadillac Cimarron were lost. Maybe smaller specialty manufacturers would be able to dig back farther? Could Ferrari put together a brand new ’62 GTO?
Ferraris aren’t assembly line cars in the detriot model. A recent thread stated that Ferrari will repair any car they ever made which implies hand making some parts but they won’t build you a “new” '62 GTO even if you pay them.
As for legalities a car that isn’t licensed to drive on public highways doesn’t need to meet any safety or emissions standards as it is a movie prop, not a salable car.
I think there is a federal law that says that manufacturers must make publicly available parts for cars at least 10 years after the run (sorry, couldn’t find a cite). So if you got the parts, you can make a car.
Well, first of all, the Cadillac Cimmaron was a rebadged Chevy Cavilier of mid-Eighties vintage; we can only hope they’ve lost the tooling and plans to such an abomination.
Seriously, though, you have three classes of components to consider; the chassis and bodywork, the powertrain (engine and transmission) and suspension components, and trim. (For the sake of discussion we’ll ignore auxillaries and accessories.)
Monocoque chassis and bodywork are die-formed and (in modern times) robot welded. This requires special dies, fixturing, and speicalized PLC programs. I think it would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming to either recreate the tooling or custom-build the chassis and bodywork. Body-on-frame chassis would be easier to build up from scratch but even they each have unique configurations and attachement points. Nobody is going to build extra chassis or wearhouse them for replacement, so unless you can find an existing chassis or body to work from, you’re pretty much hosed. Fiberglass bodywork is an exception to this, as forms for fiberglass can be pretty easily built for low volume manufacture, and indeed many aftermarket body mods are built from fiberglass partially for this reason (as well as reduced weight).
Powertrain and suspension; this would probably be somewhat easier to reproduce. Most of these components (on high volume production cars) are based upon a standard configuration and are still built or wearhoused long after production ends. Engine blocks are often build from a few standard blank forms and can be custom machined to match a given configuration; witness the venerable Chevy small block V8 which can be had in aftermarket displacements from 350cu in to 460cu in with a variety of stroke/bore combinations.
Trim; there seems to be a never-ending supply of trimwork sitting around somewhere. I remember walking into one supplier who had a corner of one warehouse full of dashboards and interior moulding for the Delorean; hundreds if not thousands of them. I guess he thought they were going to come back someday, or that Delorean owners would seek to refurbish their cars en masse. If you’re willing to pay for a single-off mold or printing for a speedometer, you could have this made up custom.
As for Ferrari building a brand new '62 GTO, I don’t think this would be much of an issue as long as a reference article were available. Ferrari never built cars in volume (the closest they came were the 'Eighties 3X8/GTO models popularized by Tom Selleck) and so virtually all parts, including body work (mostly fiberglass and aluminum sheet) was custom made, and even cars built in a single “model year” could vary considerably in their interior fittings and trim. Jaguar and Rolls used to actually have all bodywork handbuilt by craftsmen with mallets and a lot of patience. Porsche (prior to the mid-'Eightes) was always noted for not really adhering to the whole “model year” concept, instead using up what supply of trim parts they had in stock (provided they were interchangeable), and Delorean deliberately eschewed the model year concept, implementing change effectivities in mid-production.
For the most part though, it is a lot easier to replicate the look of an out-of-production car than to build an indentical copy. The most notorious case is the replica Ferrari Daytona driven by Don Johnson in Miami Vice, which was actually a Chevy Corvette with substantial body modification. Ferrari protested (and allegedly even tried to sue to stop use), and eventually they replaced it with a genuine Ferrari Testarossa. These days you see a lot of Mustang Mach IIs and Pontiac GTO “Judge” models that certainly didn’t come that way from the factory and generally conform under the hood.
The Royal Enfield Bullet dates back to 1955, IIRC. I once toyed with the notion of picking one up as a second bike. Also, the Ural is a Russian copy of a BMW motorcycle from WW2. Both basically aren’t retro-styled bikes so much as brand new “vintage” bikes.
On further thought, I now think that any of the major car makers could probably produce any car they’ve ever made, at least in small numbers. They all have special project departments - machine shops that normally turn out prototypes, concept cars, and experimental parts for existing cars. They have access to a wide range of resources. As long as the original drawings haven’t been lost, they probably could reproduce a few hand-made examples. That may be exorbitantly expensive and impractical, but they probably have the ability to physically do it.
There are three way to build your “new /old” car.
first is we run it down the assembly line. So the question is what is the oldest car that could be run down the assembly line without completly destroying the current line and starting over? I’m gonna use my company (Volvo) cause that is what I know. We could probably build a 99 S80 without too much trouble today. The bodies are almost alike, and it shouldn’t take too much retooling / reprograming of the 'puters to do it. Of course if you were to park a 06 S80 next to a 99 S80 probably 9 out of ten people could not tell for sure which was which.
The other way to attack the problem is to build by hand out of the parts bin. given the proper budget, I am fairly sure I could build you a 1975 240 from parts. The body underwent very few changes from 75 till the end of production in 1993. most of these parts are still available. If not from us, then from a aftermarket supplier or a junk yard.
The third way is to get a restorer to build you all the new parts you need. If you ahve ever been to pebble beach you have seen this done.
Actually, it went through virtually no change except for some minor trim articles (bumpers went from partially chrome to all black plastic, door handles changed, et cetera.) I had an '82 240 and despite the difficulty in obtaining new parts and bodywork, salvage parts were readily available and fitup was virtually identical for the entire range of years. The powertrains and suspension changed very little over that time.
The 1800, on the other hand, is a real bitch to find parts for. Odd, 'cause you’d think after the popularity spurred on by The Saint that there’d be plenty of salvage, but it’s actually a pretty difficult car to keep running. It’s not nearly as bad as the Triumphs though (especially the Spitfire). Gawd, I hate British “sport cars”!
Mercedes Benz has retained the tooling for a number of its older models and has a program of making them to order for the client who wants a ‘Classic’ Mercedes Benz. It was there on the German website, although I haven’t checked recently. The cars were very expensive, although a popular choice was the 1950s 300SLF ‘gullwing’.
You don’t need much/any German to navigate the site.
BMW, through its Mobile Tradition program, commits to making new parts available for its lines of cars, a minimum of fifteen years after the end of production for that model. They also maintain a significant stock of older parts. It would surprise me if I couldn’t go the the local dealer and order a new transmission for a 1985 635csi.
OK I checked the website. It has changed, more english language for one. It doesn’t offer the ‘classic MB made to order’ there. It does offer the same deal as BMW, described above.
I can’t find evidence that MB will build a classic to order, but they may and they seem to do a thorough job of servicing/repairing older models.
