Shop Visit - Thanks Fran!

Dan · 05-09-08, 12:59 PM

Hey Fran, just wanted to thank you again for making time to stop by and chat with me for a bit about the SLC, it's very rare for some one to go out of there way like that these days.

The SLC looks great, as do all the other toys Fran has in his shop.

As has been said before pictures do not do these cars justice, the P4 is a beauty too.

One of Fran's guys showed me around and let me test fit an SLC that they were working on, I am so glad that we can make it work for me, at 6'4" I have good headroom, and with a bit of tweaking the leg room will work out too. I can't wait until I can get started!

Rick S. · 05-09-08, 02:02 PM

I agree completely, RCR is a great place to visit. Was there last August and I had to keep reaching up and pushing my mouth closed. Incredible!

Brett James-McCall · 05-09-08, 02:25 PM

Completely agree! I was there Wednesday evening seeing Fran for the first time and I can not say enough as to how amazed I was at the the whole outfit. The quality to my eyes is first rate.

Brett

Emery · 05-10-08, 03:55 AM

When at the factory visiting...was there any chance of actually getting a ride in a superlite coupe? Has any of the cars been finished yet? Maybe the prototype?

Fran Hall RCR · 05-10-08, 07:18 AM

Emery,

you are welcome to come have a ride in our black modified LS7, Ricardo powered car once we get back from the Carlilse show..... After May 21st.

Chuck · 05-10-08, 07:38 AM

I stopped by and visited Fran about a month ago while in Detroit on business. This was my third visit in a year and a half. I wanted to see the new shop - and it was impressive. Fran was a gracious host as usual, always providing useful info for our build project.

Chuck

J. Salmon · 05-10-08, 09:53 AM

Cheers Fran, hope Carlilse goes well for you and RCR/SLC. I have a feeling you will make quite an impact!

Mesa · 05-10-08, 12:08 PM

I am really looking forward to seeing the completed "stealth" SLC. Fran has hinted on a few smokey burnouts with that bad boy....lets hope we don't have to post his bail.

SLC 001

Brian Hamilton · 05-10-08, 07:45 PM

My friend Nick & I visited Fran in October 2007. It was absolutely amazing, we were both drooling. We happened in on the day the new SLR F1 style nose got there for them to play with. We got to check that out. Very cool!! We also got to see 2 XJ13's in construction as well as all of Fran's creations in diferent stages of construction. Both of us worked at Motion Dynamics (Ford performance shop in Austin, TX) and so we were walking around looking at all the tools and talking about what all we could do with the enormous Bridgeport, or the CNC machine. Haha It was a great trip, great experience, and great bunch of people up there. Fran was more than gracious, even though he was tending to his kids as well. Talk about a guy who can multitask!!

Thank you Fran!!

Brian

Emery · 05-11-08, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gt40fran

Emery,

you are welcome to come have a ride in our black modified LS7, Ricardo powered car once we get back from the Carlilse show..... After May 21st.

That's awesome Fran. Got any pics you can post of the black one finished?

Al Aikman · 05-11-08, 05:01 AM

Somehow I think the pics will become available after May 21st

JohnW · 05-11-08, 05:49 AM

I have also visited the RCR factory in April and will join the chorus of thanks. So, thanks Fran for sharing some of your valuable time and experience.

Also I should thank Rob for allowing us to visit his garage and see his car.

A single day was very short with so much to see.

Looking forward to starting on my RCR 40 kit in the coming weeks.

Thanks guys.

John White.

Fran Hall RCR · 05-11-08, 08:13 AM

Al,

you are spot on.....

Thanks for the kudos guys....all the guys at the shop have the same passion for cars as you guys and without customers there is no RCR, so you guys are all welcome anytime.

Howard Jones · 05-11-08, 04:08 PM

I was just there myself the week before last. Fran allowed me complete access, talked about what I was thinking about in relation to a SLC for at least an hour, and a full tour. Then he let me just wander around as I pleased. The shop is complete, fully outfitted with machine equipment and several really nice, knowledgeable employees. These guys are real hotrod guys!!

The thing that impressed me is the huge number of spares on hand. Several cars worth of suspension pieces, brakes, gearboxes, chassis pieces, you name it, it's all there.

I didn't count but my guess is at least a half dozen cars in production and several employees hard at work.

All in all a very nice shop in full production.

I'll post some pictures when I have time but you have to see one of these SLC's, in person to really understand what has been done here. Ten years ago this could have been a full on race car, it's that advanced. The bodywork is just stunning. I was really impressed by the fit of every car in the shop and I can't tell you how close to perfect the fit lines are. The SLC I was looking at was so good that a few hours of seam buffing would be all that would be needed to complete a car, and Fran tells me it was right out of the molds!. Gelcoats were near perfect and completely usable as a finished car. In fact if I am able to do a SLC I fully intend to leave it in gelcoat, buff out the seams, put some numbers on it and take it to the track. That's really a huge savings in bodywork and paint. To the tune of 10s of thousands of dollars here in California.

It's that good.

Thanks again Fran.

Dave Lindemann · 05-11-08, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Howard Jones

The bodywork is just stunning. I was really impressed by the fit of every car in the shop and I can't tell you how close to perfect the fit lines are. The SLC I was looking at was so good that a few hours of seam buffing would be all that would be needed to complete a car, and Fran tells me it was right out of the molds!. Gelcoats were near perfect and completely usable as a finished car. In fact if I am able to do a SLC I fully intend to leave it in gelcoat, buff out the seams, put some numbers on it and take it to the track. That's really a huge savings in bodywork and paint. To the tune of 10s of thousands of dollars here in California.

It's that good.

Thanks again Fran.

Howard - Thanks for posting this. I'm guessing that one of those SLC's was mine and my plan is to have RCR sand down and buff out the mold lines and go with just the gelcoat. I may decide to paint it in the future but from everything Fran (and now you) has told me the gelcoat is near-perfect. I know it may not have the depth of color of a base coat clear coat paint job but I don't intend the car to be a show car anyway.

Dave L

GB · 05-12-08, 07:27 PM

I've been to Frans shop a bunch of times and I saw an ugly car there.

Emery · 05-13-08, 04:28 AM

Can you get the gel coat in any color you want or only yel and black??? I was thinking the pearl orange that Lamborghini uses with black wheels!

Craig White · 05-13-08, 05:18 AM

Well you can get the gelcoat body panels in orange.

Full colour list: Light blue, Dark Blue, Red, Yellow, Black, White, Orange, Green

Fran Hall RCR · 05-13-08, 07:10 AM

Gelcoat in solid colours only...no pearl.