Auto ID #196 FINISHED

[Ace-Garageguy]

Okay...i suggested this one to otherunicorn yesterday, he suggested I put it up today...and I promptly dropped the ball. So here it is, better late than never.

Usual rules, no hints or answer posted on the thread, message me with your answers and PLEASE don't be tempted to use image-lookup 'cause that spoils the fun.

Happy hunting. 

                                                       

Edited March 6, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[GTJUNIOR]

This one was really difficult, but managed to find it eventually. Quite an interesting car, but not much info on the internet.

[Badluck 13]

.....There was a orange one that was different at first than the one you are showing now,found the first one but this one is a tad more tricky to find......search continues......

[Ace-Garageguy]

.....There was a orange one that was different at first than the one you are showing now,found the first one but this one is a tad more tricky to find......search continues......

Same answer for either will be fine. 

[Badluck 13]

....Ahhhhhh okay fair enough ....... I still want to find this silver critter ....

[68shortfleet]

....Ahhhhhh okay fair enough ....... I still want to find this silver critter ....

I can't seem to find this silver one either, but I did find enough that I am submitting an answer.

Congratulations Bill, I think you might have found an image that doesn't exist on Google.

[GTJUNIOR]

Bill. Me thinks you have them stumped. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Just for fun I did a search, NOT a reverse image search, as if I were trying to find it based on what it looks like. It IS there, but remember, details are important. So are the terms you use to search. 

[dw1603]

Well I didn't find the actual image either, but where ugly is concerned, near enough is good enough.

[bobthehobbyguy]

I had no luck finging this. Am curiuos what it is.

[Ace-Garageguy]

OK, guess it's time to end it. The car is a PGO Cevennes / Speedster II, obviously inspired by the Porsche 356 Speedster, and available in several versions over the last few years. Though there are some Porsche Speedster replicas around, mostly built on VW Bug pans, this isn't one of them. It's a real production car, made in France, with mid-engine power.

http://www.pgo.fr/en/cevennes/

Correct answers from:

Matt Bacon

DRIPTROIT 71

carsntrucks4you

68shortfleet

dw1603

Badluck 13

sjordan2

matthijsgrit

GTJUNIOR

chris02719     

      

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[dw1603]

Hi Bill, 

This is purely a personal opinion, so don't take offence, but I wonder why they still rely so heavily on the 356 look? I believe they used to do something that followed the Porsche styling more closely but featured a modern, mid engined chassis. That would be pretty cool, classic look, modern performance and a warranty too? Great. There was reference to an unsuccessful Porsche lawsuit against PGO, could this be the reason they no longer produce a close visual copy of the 356? PGO clearly have some stylistic talent available to them, the updates on the Cevennes are well executed and the Hemera coupe, while not to my taste, is an impressive piece of work. It would be feasible for them to produce something retro, evocative and probably a bit more Gallic that captured their intentions without looking quite so obviously Porsche 356 based. As I said, just my opinion. Sorry I am not savvy enough to upload a picture of the Hemera Coupe (still trying to find my way around an iPad) but it well worth searching it out on the web, an interesting concept!  (edit : follow the link in the post above to go to the PGO site, there are tabs for their other products on it)

As an aside, PGO also do some pretty neat street legal buggies, I rented one once on vacation. Cool as h*ll to look at, but with its 150cc engine, barely fast enough to get out of its own way. If you don't release the park brake before you do up the four point harness, you ain't going anywhere and dew would condense into the seat pans overnight too. Great to look at, even better to be seen in but not very practical. 

Dave

 

 

Edited March 6, 2016 by dw1603

[Matt Bacon]

Interesting thing, the Hemera... it looks to me much more like a Pixar "Cars" caricature than the Cevennes above, IMHO.

I was wondering about what went on between PGO and Porsche, as well. It can't be _just_ the visual "homage" they object to: I was reading recently in Hemmings Sports & Exotics about a guy in the US who is building new Porsche 550 Spyders with not just the blessing of the company, but active support. And they're obviously OK with what Singer and Sharkwerks do, which may start life as 964 911s, but by the time they're finished probably have as much in common with a 911 as the Cevennes does with a 356...

bestest,

M.

 

[sjordan2]

Interesting thing, the Hemera... it looks to me much more like a Pixar "Cars" caricature than the Cevennes above, IMHO.

I was wondering about what went on between PGO and Porsche, as well. It can't be _just_ the visual "homage" they object to: I was reading recently in Hemmings Sports & Exotics about a guy in the US who is building new Porsche 550 Spyders with not just the blessing of the company, but active support. And they're obviously OK with what Singer and Sharkwerks do, which may start life as 964 911s, but by the time they're finished probably have as much in common with a 911 as the Cevennes does with a 356...

bestest,

M.

 

There have been a multitude of quality 550 Spyder replicas in the US for many years (Ace the Garage Guy has one). Most of them use either 356 or VW Super Beetle engines. Water-cooled Subaru engines have also been used.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Hi Bill, 

This is purely a personal opinion, so don't take offence, but I wonder why they still rely so heavily on the 356 look? I believe they used to do something that followed the Porsche styling more closely but featured a modern, mid engined chassis. That would be pretty cool, classic look, modern performance and a warranty too? Great. There was reference to an unsuccessful Porsche lawsuit against PGO, could this be the reason they no longer produce a close visual copy of the 356? PGO clearly have some stylistic talent available to them, the updates on the Cevennes are well executed and the Hemera coupe, while not to my taste, is an impressive piece of work. It would be feasible for them to produce something retro, evocative and probably a bit more Gallic that captured their intentions without looking quite so obviously Porsche 356 based. As I said, just my opinion. Sorry I am not savvy enough to upload a picture of the Hemera Coupe (still trying to find my way around an iPad) but it well worth searching it out on the web, an interesting concept!  (edit : follow the link in the post above to go to the PGO site, there are tabs for their other products on it)

As an aside, PGO also do some pretty neat street legal buggies, I rented one once on vacation. Cool as h*ll to look at, but with its 150cc engine, barely fast enough to get out of its own way. If you don't release the park brake before you do up the four point harness, you ain't going anywhere and dew would condense into the seat pans overnight too. Great to look at, even better to be seen in but not very practical. 

Dave

Very interesting. I'm not personally wild about the Cevennes / Speedster II. I prefer the proportions of the original...probably because I've been looking at them for a long time. The Hemera doesn't do it for me at all. I think it's kinda cute, in a "girls car" kinda way (I know, minus 10 points for non-PC wording)...though if it had 500HP, massive fender flares and racing rubber, I could probably like it a lot.

        

I know absolutely nothing about any alleged legal issues between Porsche and PGO, but it's worth looking in to. Porsche doesn't typically get all whiny when somebody copies one of their very old designs, so i'd like to know what the real deal is. Porsche didn't give ol' Beck any grief when he did the original Spyder clones back in the 1980s, and far as I know, hasn't tried to mess with his 904 replicas either.

EDIT: I did a little internet digging and I get a couple of different versions of the Porsche vs PGO thing. Some say Porsche won, and now gets royalties from PGO. Some say PGO won. Obviously, Porsche didn't get a "cease and desist" making the things like Ferrari got against some F-car clone-makers, and all the Speedster / Spyder replicas of any merit (and some that are trash) are still in production, so whatever the PGO/Porsche outcome, it would seem to have been reasonable.

Anybody wants to dig deeper, I'd be interested in knowing, but I'm probably done digging myself.

Edited March 7, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[dw1603]

There have been a multitude of quality 550 Spyder replicas in the US for many years (Ace the Garage Guy has one). Most of them use either 356 or VW Super Beetle engines. Water-cooled Subaru engines have also been used.

Haha! You've been outed Mr Engwer, you probably know more about Porsches and Porsche replicas than all of us put together. There doesn't seem to be much on line about the court case, but I found a 2004 claim that Porsche won. It was around this time that PGO opened their new factory and announced their intention to go from about 12 units a year to more than 50. No big deal, you may say, but they were going from being a small "kit car" producer to manufacturer of a modern, bespoke, two seat turn-key roadsters. Right at the time Porsche were pushing the modern, bespoke two seat turn-key Boxster. They'd gone from flatterer to competitor, albeit a small one, but a competitor never the less.