After reading everything I see 2 things.
A: You are not really a muscle car enthusiast, it was just something cool to have rather than something you treasured.
B: You seem to want somebody to agree with you so that you feel better about wanting to burn 40k.
Well nobody has agreed, common sense prevails to drop the idea. When you pay your debts off and have a spare 40k laying around, then do it. I gurantee you it wont be any time soon. Irrelivant of how you know how to "mannage" your funds, you still are not a free man and the banks own your ass until every last cent is paid. You wanna work for them all your life? Go for it.
I got a 68 Charger, paint is chipped, runs are mere 383ci, grill is cracked, no show stopper by any means or performer by any means but it works and its fun as hell and I treasure the car like it was 200k and guess what?
I am not in debt of any kind. I am a free man. Real financial advice is to have 0 debt before spending on a hobby (and the money spent should be your savings not the banks). Any other advice than that is total bull......
You need to be patient not have everything right now. Why you think the world economy etc is all screwed?
Toomany people who want everything right now and wont wait till they can afford, so people like you take loans, then inflation, then more interest rates... all the point of a screwed up world, why? Cause people couldnt wait for what they wanted.
Get out of this consumer driven BS the banks have taken advantage off and take control of your life!
You will reap what you sow in the end
First, you're right - I'm not a muscle car "purist." I'm an enthusiast of all types of cars - from the imports, to domestics, to sports cars, race cars, etc.
Second, you're STILL TRYING TO TALK TO ME ABOUT FINANCES!!! You're not paying attention! I don't care about money. I live my life for what I enjoy and what makes me happy, not how much money I have left at the end of my life.
According to the Factory Five forums, the GTM takes a slew of body work - tons of it. The panels are oversized and it takes a monstrous amount of work to make stuff fit and look right. So I think I'm going to hold off on the kit car idea and maybe keep looking into an SS Camaro or something like that.