I guess you have been watching too much TV and not getting enough facts. As long as you build a car that can be approved by the road transport authority, it will be legal. That includes home built road legal replicas.

The same applies to Malaysia but since Malaysia has a strict law about changing the looks of the original car, you can't build replicas. You can also buy a road legal old junk and restore it (like the Vintage/Classic car guys). However, you cannot take 2 halves of a car and join it together. Kereta-Sambung is illegal.

A road legal car must be registered and inspected by JPJ.

You can build it in your house and never take it on the road. No saman. It is not illegal to build. It is only illegal when you drive it on the road. You can build it at home, get a tow truck to tow it for your exhibition/assignment and tow back. No problem with that. My friends do that for their unregistered road illegal track cars. If you drive it on public roads, then it becomes illegal and they'd compound your car and you'd never see it again. I do not know the quantum of the saman.