Living with a kit car (didn't know where to put this so thought I'd put it here). I say kit car out of respect for those that do perfect replicas. Mine is not the latter.
So I've been driving the car a while now. I don't drive it to work, but every weekend and some weeknights it gets a drive. As anyone that's read the thread knows I don't have the interior done, and the car is an open top. This has created a pretty fun WTF moment pretty much every time someone comes over to look at the car. "WTF, what is this?"
I'm very honest with people that I built the car and it isn't real. I have no badging on it or anything. I'm really surprised that I get better reactions about having built the car than it being a lambo. Just today I was at a parts store and a guy sees me drive up and when I get out he says "nice car" and turns to walk away. I got a bit of the feeling it was more of a "f your car". I said, "thanks, I built it". He turned around and we chatted for about 5-10 minutes. This isn't always the case. Another day about a week ago I came out of a store and some guys were taking pictures of the car. As I walked up before I could say anything they go, "it's sooooo fake. You did this wrong, and this, and this looks like crap, yada yada" so there are definitely both types of people.
I've found the same on forums. Some people want to build a car and whether it's perfect or not they are having fun and are supportive. Some people do this to actually fool people and have a replica. Different views. From my limited experience so far I've found that way more people think it's cool you built a car than that you have a lambo. Makes you more real to them or something? Maybe if mine was perfect I'd get respect for both, but I've been very pleasantly surprised so far about people's reactions to it.