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Ugly Spaceship Heidelberg Car Project13 Comment
eBay, For Sale, One-offs | Tue, 04 Jul 2006 Posted by : Shannon Larratt
I suppose continuing in the contest of who can try and sell the ugliest homemade supercar on eBay, let me present to you “The Heidelberg“, said to be a side project of a now liquidated aerospace company running a Porsche 911/915 driveline on a custom chassis which was auctioning (item #4647720544) for an asking price of $50,000 including “$1.5 million of tooling”. It received zero bids. Can you imagine having spent $1.5 million+ on this? Talk about a white whale.
Problem is, no matter how solid the engineering may or may not be on this vehicle and what it’s capable of (no performance stats were given and it was said to be “95% complete”), to my eye, it’s simply too fugly to be a success (unlike the similarly styled vehicles of Bill Carter). I’m sorry, I always hate saying this about projects that people have obviously put a lot of effort into, but this is really terrible in my opinion and I think the final photo pretty much sums up the design sense of the folks involved.
If I had to play Creskin, I’m going to suggest that their website was heavy on the animated GIFs and MIDI files.
All that said, if you think I’m a jackass and disagree with me, the eBay seller is tournavista, who I’m sure you can contact directly and make an offer if you’d like to. Oh, and thanks to kitcarguy for the tip.
The rear suspension config. is very interesting, is anyone knowledgalbe about this setup. I have tried to contact seller after auction but no reply. If someone knows about this setup, would it be reproducable and where could I start to find out about and reproduce it. Thanks
Looking closely at the Heidelberg reminded me of another well known design. The original 1956 Oscar Meyer Weinermobile.
The styling is not the only unusual aspect of that vehicle, note the rear engine / single seat configuration. I wonder if the design was based on a Formula 1 (or similar) car; that would explain some of its’ features…..
The styling is not the only unusual aspect of that vehicle, note the rear engine / single seat configuration. I wonder if the design was based on a Formula 1 (or similar) car; that would explain some of its’ features…..
agh my eyes!
Saw off that ugly back end whale-tail and it may be salvageable.
Eeew
[...] Based on a Porsche 911/915 powertrain and an original chassis, The Heidelberg required a claimed $1.5 million in tooling. Roll that figure around in your mind a moment. The single seat horror show went up for sale on eBay at one point and failed to get a single bid, with a reserve price of $50,000. Um, yeah, legendary fail. [PriceOfHisToys] [...]
Everyone seems to be on an “ugly” bandwagon… It sure doesn’t look like a Camaro or a pickup but 20 years from now it may be the jewel of past excellence amoung the stodgy standards of yesteryear. The builder sure dedicated some passion into the design and I am sure is quite pleased with the results. Many of us wish to have the time or money to go personality ‘crazy’ ourselves – I like the car. Can’t help it – I like it.
looks like a submarine. i would rather get 2 murcielagos or a ferrari enzo or even a veyron with my $1.5 million!!!!!!!
Hello i think its NOT BAD at all the Heidelberg supercar.
At least it looks very original at resembles a 1990 YAMAHA OX99-11 Supercar of which only 4 were ever made that year together with a 1996 MCLAREN XP GTR Supercar another rare supercar made in England. Both cars were surely inspired and this original yellow brings good memories of those 2 lovely motor jewels of the 1990s.
I hope the original Heidelberg shown was the prototype of one road/racing car and are or still made now not just the exotic excellent and superlovely but very rare VECTOR cars.
Ouch, it is sad because from the pictures a lot of work went into it, it doesnt appear hack job,
I’m thinking at the very least something like that should be fast and I bet it’s slow,
all round bummer,
Cheers,
P.
Yeah…. I think I’d spend my imaginary $1.5 million on something else.
Well I emailed the seller during that auction and the Motor is a 80s porshce. I asked about R&D and wind tunnel testing and there was no WT testing done.
I looked at that car every day and tried to figure out if it could be redesigned and well I came up empty handed…lol
Are you kidding me? 1.5 million is totally outragous, I cant imagine how they spent that kind of money on a porsche based custom built kit car, did they commision out all of the work to other companies and just take credit for it? (if they did they need to get there money back, there are several obvious desin flaws I see in the pictures)