Man releases the full six-hour build of his fake Porsche 911 showing the meticulous process he followed

This YouTuber decided to build a Porsche 911 using a Volkswagen Beetle as a starting point.

To be fair, it does look tremendous.

There are a couple of issues, though.

Starting with the biggest problem with replica cars.

Five months compressed into six hours

YouTuber Hudson Auto spent around five years converting a Volkswagen Beetle into a Porsche 911.

Interestingly, he managed to compress five months of work in around six hours of video.

The video covered everything from stripping the original car down to the bare tub to a complete, final paint job and road test.

The process was long and painstaking.

It involved removing decades of old paint, filler, and modifications.

And wait until you hear what was done to the engine.

This ‘Porsche’ is still powered by the original VW engine

It’s interesting to note that key restoration efforts included professional BBS wheel refurbishment and suspension geometry adjustments.

Great, but now we have to wonder what that was for, considering the car is still powered by the original single-port Beetle engine.

Apparently, this is mostly because the Volkswagen Beetle is solid and reliable, which we’re sure it is.

Also, the owner of the replica Porsche, Charlie Crick, told us this is a temporary solution.

“We definitely want to engine swap it,” he told Supercar Blondie.

“Lots of people suggested Subaru. But I’d quite like to fit an air cooled Helicopter engine. They are affordable and very powerful, it would be a case of converting it to fit a car gearbox, that would require lots of custom work.

“[For now] I kept the Beetle engine for V1 of the build due to chassis limitations. Right now, the car is essentially a Porsche body on a Beetle.

“I think throwing too much power at it would be dangerous. I wanted to enjoy it as is and then, once the engine is decided, build a full internal cage/space frame. So the car can take the extra power and remain safe.”

Restoring the engine wasn’t easy, either.

They had to redo the wiring from the battery to the starter motor, clean up corroded connectors, replace fuel lines, clean the carburetor and fixed cold start management, which wasn’t working.

But then they heard the most satisfying sound ever.

“Ah cough. That’s a cough, that’s we like to hear,” he joked in the video.

Still, at least this Porsche 911 lookalike looks pretty good.

And, as the YouTuber pointed out, the goal wasn’t necessarily perfection.

“Amazingly, even with my skill set, the shine is deep, and the [paint] coverage is perfect. It’s never going to be 100 percent perfect,” he said.

The main potential problem with replica cars

Many people assume that the main problems with replica cars are of a legal nature, but that’s probably not the case.

For years, Chinese automakers unashamedly built cars nearly identical to European and American models, and they have generally gotten away with it.

As long as builders avoid trademarked names, badges, and design patents, these cars occupy a legal gray area.

Automakers may despise them, but people build them anyway, usually facing nothing worse than a cease-and-desist letter.

Then there’s the social stigma, which can be particularly bad when the car looks obviously fake, but it is generally always present because you can’t really hide these things.

It’s like fake Apple AirPods that look perfect from the outside, but then the first two seconds of music you’re like: “What the heck is this?”

Still, some people don’t really mind the stigma, which leads us to the most serious problem: safety.

Replica cars are almost always structurally unsound, chiefly because they are a ‘Franken-mix’ of components scavenged from various donor vehicles.

As for this YouTuber, the only thing we can say for now is that he definitely did a great job visually.

We’re actually going to go out on a limb and say this is probably the best-looking replica car we’ve ever seen.

The toughest part(s) you didn’t see on screen

We had the chance to speak to Charlie Crick, the guy behind this build, and he revealed that the toughest part was probably something you didn’t see on screen.

“The toughest part was probably panel alignment. Fiberglass is great, but it does change shape over time. So we had to battle to get the body lines right. They’re not perfect, but we’re happy with them,” he told Supercar Blondie.

And while we were at it, we also asked him what’s next.

“Right now [after this Porsche] I’d like to restomod the 90s Aston Martin Virage. It has always been a disliked model as it wasn’t as pretty as the Astons before or after.

“But it was the pinnacle of their original V8 development. I’m sure it would be incredible,” he concluded.