Kit Car Discussion

MG Man · Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 11:12 am Post subject: Kit Car Discussion

ok, so there are two schools of kit car building
one is rebodies, such as VW based Porsches and Fiero Based Ferraris, and then there are the build-from-scratch Caterham type cars, Minaris etc
I think both have merit...........what u guys think?
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MG Man · Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 6:11 pm Post subject:

just to spice things up, look at these:
http://www.blastautomotive.com/
Scooby powered monster

http://www.americanhotrod.com/
ok, so the donor car not available locally but still...............

http://www.sportscars.net.nz/
classic looks, modern mechanicals (Mazda Miata)

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zodiaque · Dude where's my Car? Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Posts: 602

I want one Sad

I go to this site every now and then and pretend I could order one Laughing

I know it is not the original, but i would still love to build one.
You can use parts off of a donor Stang, using a 302.

check out the site http://www.factoryfive.com/
Other replicas there as well Cool

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MG Man · Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2006 10:51 am Post subject:

yeah, factory five is king Exclamation

check out this month's KitCar Builder magazine. Someone is offering a MOngoose replica. The Mongoose was Chevrolet's answer to the Cobra Mr. Green

It was a Stingray coupe that utterly destroyed the Cobras when it was unleashed.....infortunately only a handful were made and Chevy pulled the plug on what should have been an infamous GT racer, and the car to dethrone the Cobra!

http://www.corvettemuseum.com/specs/2006/RacingHistory.shtml

Grand Sport Corvettes
The significance of the original five Grand Sport Corvettes cannot be measured in racing victories and championships won. Built by Duntov to compete with Carroll Shelby�s lightweight Cobras at a time when racing was officially discouraged at GM, the handful of featherweight �63 Grand Sports keep the flame of performance alive for the Corvette faithful.

Ambitious plans for a limited production run of Grand Sports were dashed when the program was canceled to comply with the AMA�s racing ban. Consigned to the modified classes because the 100 cars required for production status were never built, the Grand Sports were outclassed by the rear-engined specials that were taking over road racing. Two coupes were eventually converted to roadsters.

http://www.automedia.com/One/Grand/Sport/res20030901gs/1

One Grand Sport

Recreating a rare Corvette racer

Steve Temple / autoMedia.com
Print

Corvette enthusiasts already know the story of the Grand Sport, but it's worth retelling. Back in the Sixties, the Ford-powered Shelby Cobra was just beginning to dominate road-course racing. In retaliation, GM engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov took the then-new Corvette Sting Ray and whacked 1,000 pounds off the car, throwing everything that didn't contribute to speed into the dumpster. He employed a tubular chassis with aluminum reinforcements, and was rewarded with the Grand Sport, a Corvette that quickly proved to be a Mongoose capable of eating a Cobra�alive. Even though there were plans for 100 more Grand Sports, GM management scrapped the program, and the five originals disappeared from the track, melting into private hands.

Considering the Grand Sport's short but illustrious motorsport history, getting your hands on one is essentially an exercise in futility. Even if one of these ultra-rare racers ever did come on the market, Bill Gates would quickly outbid you. But he may still need to sell a few million shares of Microsoft to pay for it.

Grand Sports weren't always so pricey. Dick Guldstrand, sharing one of those painful, "If I only knew" anecdotes, had a clapped-out roller back in 1967, which he'd left in the alley behind his shop. He ended up selling it for�get this�$5,000.

Of course, back then you could buy a small house for about that, so it might as well have been a multi-million-dollar car. At least that's how Larry Weiner felt about it, a minimum-wage, 17-year-old at the time. But he had a lust for everything automotive that would eventually lead him to found Performance West Group and become a prominent builder of show cars for the major auto manufacturers. But he never forgot the Grand Sport he could never afford, so he decided to create one himself. After all, if he couldn't buy one, then why not build one from scratch? Well, maybe not totally from the ground up, since Mid America Corvette entered the picture with a Grand Sport conversion called the GS-2.

Based on original blueprints for the chassis, Mid America's Jeff Leach produced a jig, along with molds to create the fiberglass body parts unique to the vehicle. It uses the center tub from the '63-'67 model years, so the finished vehicle is actually a modified Corvette with the original title. Pricing of the GS-2 starts at $5,500 for the components (ironically enough, more than what Guldstrand sold his original for!). A rolling chassis goes for $35,000, and turn-keys cost a minimum of $80,000, although Leach says $100,000 is a more typical figure. Still, that's only a fraction of the price of what an original Grand Sport would sell for.

In 1989, Weiner sold his 308 Ferrari to help pay for a a Mid America GS-2 and his ship set sail. He knew the project wouldn't be a precise reproduction, however. "My goal was not to end up with an exact clone," explains Weiner, "but a vehicle that took advantage of technology by integrating newer Corvette components. And it also had to be street legal." After obtaining a tube chassis from Mid America, it took Weiner two years to find a clean Corvette body tub, discovered at the Bloomington Gold Corvette Show. He shipped the central structure to the factory in Milan, Illinois, and Leach began constructing the body.

While Leach built the body, Weiner labored over the drivetrain and chassis. The engine is a 427 built to the L88 specs by Racing Head Service, cranked up to pump out 550 horsepower. To that he added a Richmond 5-speed with a Centerforce clutch. Most of the suspension parts were '84-'85 vintage, taking advantage of newer technology. By a stroke of luck, Weiner found a complete Corvette suspension in an advertising throw-away. "Some guy was re-building an Opel GT and figured out the Corvette's suspension was too big for the car. I gave him $400 and spent a lot of evenings cleaning up the aluminum so it looked like brand new."

In 1992, Weiner trailered the now-complete rolling chassis to Milan for the body drop. He found the springs for the coilovers to be a bit too soft, which the manufacturer Aldan corrected with a new set. There were some other hurdles to overcome in the wiring as well, but he eventually sorted that out as well.

Weiner's Grand Sport re-creation made its debut at the 1994 Joliet, Illinois Corvettes Unlimited Show. In addition to car shows, together they did some vintage racing at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. "I didn't do it to win," Weiner says. "It was for me. I just wanted to see what it was like to drive on one of the great road courses in a Grand Sport."

That glorious experience almost ended abruptly in a moment of inattention. "I lost concentration at that sharp, first right hander and came in way too hot," he says with a wince. "But the car drove itself right around the corner-it's way more capable than me. It's the most rewarding car I've ever driven. Lean on the throttle in Second gear, and you can feel front lift just like a dragster instead of road-course racer. The originals always ran light on front end."

On the street, Weiner is not above baiting other cars. "At 80 or 90 mph, the car is just starting to wake up. I drop a gear and drive right away from them," he smiles. "It's a wolf in wolf's clothing." And unlike the original Grand Sport, this wolf isn't a rare and endangered species.

Copyright autoMedia.com 2000-2006
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zodiaque · Dude where's my Car? Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Posts: 602

^Has a strange evil look to it. I like it Twisted Evil

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MG Man · Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:04 pm Post subject:

the nose actually LOOKS like a shark eh
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zodiaque · Dude where's my Car? Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Posts: 602

^Fer real, I would pull aside right away if I saw it in my rear view... Then proceed to follow it and mako Laughing

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zodiaque · Dude where's my Car? Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Posts: 602

The "Bug-atti"

http://www.bug-gatti.com/
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MG Man · Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 7:33 am Post subject:

holy-moly

my all time fave bugatti
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zodiaque · Dude where's my Car? Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Posts: 602

Check this one out:
http://www.naerc.com/index.cfm
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MG Man · Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 9:44 pm Post subject:

cool
tho I not a real raging-bull fan
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zodiaque · Dude where's my Car? Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Posts: 602

Me neither, amongst the Italians I like Ferrari Cool

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zodiaque · Dude where's my Car? Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Posts: 602

Replica Jaguars Cool

http://www.nostalgiacars.co.uk/index.htm
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