Dual-Engine Rotary One-Off Exotic1 Comment

Dual Engine, Mystery Cars, One-offs | Wed, 04 Jun 2008 Posted by : Shannon Larratt

Robert, who has the Rotary Riot in the entry below, took these photos of a dual-engine one-off special at the 7Stock car show. As far as he knows it’s on a 914 chassis, with two side-by-side 13B rotary engines connected to a single gearbox, with the ability to run in either single or two engine mode. Anyone that knows more about this car, please write me or post in the forum.

Rotary Engine Riot2 Comment

Riot | Wed, 04 Jun 2008 Posted by : Shannon Larratt

Designed and formerly manufactured by Thunder Ranch, available both as a VW kit and a tube-chassis car capable of accepting many engine configurations, this Riot is the latter type, built around a Mazda 13B turbo II engine and a 5-speed Porsche transmission from a 911. Engine specs include:

• Street ported, shot peened gears, 3mm apex seals
• Oil metering reworked to inject clean burning 2 stroke oil
• Turbocharged with big Garrett t04E liquid cooled turbo, stainless exh. manifold, Turbonetics wastegate, huge intercooler, SX BOV
• Custom built tuned intake manifold, Holley 750cfm 4bbl throttle body
• Haltech ECU controlling ignition, 2 stage fuel injection, water injection, NO2

The engine dynos at 240 HP with 250 ft/lb of torque, tunable with boost increase to 300 HP — the fully installed but never used NOS system adds another 50 HP. It’s got Fittipaldi wheels and steering wheel, Recaro seats, Simpson 5 way competition harnesses, a fully carpeted interior, VDO gauges (electronic speedo, tach, EGT, boost, temp, oil, fuel), and more.

My only complaint about the Riot is that for some reason it’s really easy to tell the body doesn’t have an interior shell (ie. no inner fenders and so on), but it looks like that issue has been addressed in this car. Robert is asking $13,000 and is located in Orange, CA. You can reach him by email at rcl41244@yahoo.com.

Belva Raffo for sale0 Comment

For Sale, Raffo Belva | Wed, 04 Jun 2008 Posted by : Shannon Larratt

A year and a half ago Tim bought a rare Raffo Belvo. The product of now-retired designer John Raffo, there are likely only about six on the road in the UK — Tim is now selling his in Cumbria on PistonHeads for £7,750, describing it,

This example was first registered in March 2005 and has now covered 14,000 miles. It is used daily and is offered with 10 months MOT and 4 months tax, a freshly serviced engine and four nearly new tyres.

• Powder coated steel tube chassis clad in aluminium, roll over bars and crumple zones.
• Dramatic 2 seat GT body in Lamborghini Rosso, good sized boot.
• 2.0 litre 16 valve Ford Zetec engine, full emission control, ~140 BHP.
• CD 0.31, 765kg, 0-60 < 6 seconds, 150mph, 38mpg (not all at the same time !)
• Adjustable AVO coils & dampers, bias pedal box, ventilated discs all round.
• Owned and maintained by chartered mechanical engineer.
• Parts and advice available.
• This car benefits from a recently improved engine mounting system and high quality cooling system. It is “fully sorted” and reliable. The price has now been reduced.

He also sends along one of the company’s brochures.

Recently completed Bradley GT II kit car1 Comment

Bradley GT II, eBay, For Sale | Wed, 04 Jun 2008 Posted by : Shannon Larratt

One of the more refined kit cars of the classic era was the Bradley GT II, released after the huge success of its precursor. This one sat in the crate until 2000, as it came in part form from the factory. It was finally completed last year, with the following specs:

• 1971 Karman Ghia Frame and refurbished pan (sandblasted, new rails, etc.)
• High performance 1776 cc engine (dual carbs with electric choke, 1 1/2 qt oil pan extension, etc.)
• Beefed up transaxle with higher gear ratio for comfortable highway cruising
• 4-wheel disc brakes
• Vinyl interior with carpet
• Full gauges (speedometer, tachometer, amp meter, oil pressure, clock, oil temperature, voltmeter and fuel level)
• Engine compartment and hatch glass electric solenoids with mechanical backup
• Professional installation on the dual sunroofs, tinted windows
• Air conditioning
• New paintjob
• Factory manual

And of course this beautifully completed Bradley GT II gets over 30mpg due to it’s low 43″ profile and VW driveline. With only 15 hours left to go on the auction (#180247880491), I don’t think it’ll hit its reserve, so I’ve asked the seller for some follow-up info so perhaps you’ll see more on this car and its build here soon. Very nice kit and a great build either way…

RQ Riley Trimuter for sale4 Comment

eBay, Electric, For Sale, RQ Riley, Trike, Trimuter | Wed, 04 Jun 2008 Posted by : Shannon Larratt

Ah, the things you find in the forest…

Here’s a rare one — listed out of Chardon, Ohio, this “Urba Sport” Trimuter (#180248871044) is a potential solution to the current fuel crisis! It’s one of my favorite RQ Riley vehicles, and they still offer Trimuter plans (which are included in this auction). This one is running a plug-in EV setup, with an ~30hp electric engine mated to a VW transmission that gives a potential 50 mile range. It’s got the original low-tech controller installed, but comes with a more efficient GM EV-1 controller that could be installed — and judging by the rough shape of the driveline, it’s probably a good idea.

With three days left on the auction, I doubt this car (a true homebuilt, not a kit) will move past $1,500. Even if all you did was use the body, salvaged a few components, and built a new chassis, enormous time would be saved for someone who wanted to build this unique vehicle.

Invader GT coming out of retirement0 Comment

eBay, For Sale, Invader GT | Wed, 04 Jun 2008 Posted by : Shannon Larratt

It hasn’t been driven in over twenty five years, but I think this Invader GT still has a ton of potential… It’s a notoriously hard car to sell, and this one (#130227788619) may not hit its reserve by the June 9 end of auction… There were a few generations of Invader (if you click the Invader GT tag, you’ll see a number of body types), and I think this is one of the early ones. The seller has the doors, but it looks like this one comes without the rear louvers.

The thing that’s always bugged me about the Invader GT is that it looks great in the front 2/3, but then gets very, very awkward, as if the designers started at the front and got tired and quit partway through the creation… If I bought this car, I’d glass the lower doors in permanently, and reshape the rear so it at least matches the shape of the windshield — the current transition from round to square doesn’t work at all. Still, one of my favorites.

Raw Aztec 7 Body0 Comment

Aztec 7, eBay, FiberFab, For Sale | Wed, 04 Jun 2008 Posted by : Shannon Larratt

I just saw a Fiberfab Aztec 7 body listed on eBay (#130228006517). It looks super-clean and I doubt it’ll move up much past its initial $500 — if it even gets a bid (ending June 10) and I’m sure it would be an easy assembly, but it does appear to have an Achilles heel — no windshield. The Aztec 7 was built around the windshield of a Lamborghini Muira, and while replicas were available at the time for this kit, these days I believe you’re stuck buying the real thing. When I cracked the windshield in mine they were going for about $3,500, which made me decide to sell the car because of the expense…

We’ll be back soon! Redesign time!0 Comment

Uncategorized | Tue, 03 Jun 2008 Posted by : Shannon Larratt

I’m working on rebuilding the site (finally), so you may see it break and unbreak over the next few days… When you see the new posts starting to go up, you’ll know it’s working again!

Thanks for your patience.

Edit/Update… Alright, it’s starting to come together and I think I have most of the pages working on the new layout — cut me some slack because this is my first ever custom WordPress layout! I’ll have to sit down some time and clean up all the old posts when I get a chance, as well as fix the rather terminal CSS/layout bugs on IE (please, please, use FireFox)… But it’s getting there.