A car I really really like......

[Hershal Byrd]

When I was at Knotts Berry Car show last month I saw a car there that just caught my fancy. It had it all when it came to style, size and weight. The body was flawless in blue gelcoat. I hope these fella's get this car going cause I sure would like one.
http://www.ddrmotorsport.com/index.html
Click on the project and see how it was built from start to finish...really neat.

Hersh /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Lynn Larsen]

Hersh,

Very snazzy car. Do you know where these guys are located? The website didn't mention this. The obvious guess is southern California, but you never know.

Regards,
Lynn

 

[ChrisL]

As all good ideas, such an obvious thing to do, I wonder why it wasn't done before. Hersh, the Toyota MR2 is quite a small car though. did they somehow manage to give it the appearance of a larger car or is that the ideal size in your view?

Having owned the base MR2 in the early nineties, I can confirm that they are a very competent car. The only criticism being that they may have been over-refined as many Japanese cars tend to be. For this reason, it doesn't give you that really raw buzz that you get out of a pure sports car.

 

[Hershal Byrd]

Lynn,
I never did find out where they were based but you are probably right about California.
Chris, the car has it's own frame and uses the MR2 as a donor for the suspension and drive train. The way they set up the cockpit is really neat, Not at all like aa MR2.
The thing I appreciated most about this car was the workmanship. It was straight out of the mold and looked finished. I think they still have some details to work out like the dash. I just think they are onto the future of kits cars. Kinda looks like a Lister Storm Huh?

Hersh /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Pat Buckley]

I saw that car too and was also impressed...I think it was made in Puerto Rico?

 

[Chris P.]

Looks just like a McLaren to me.

This is somewhat of the approach I may have to take (but with a newer engine/tranny) and may be something to consider if anyone is thinking of buying one. Some states (like Oregon) will title a car as the year it is completed and first registered, unless it is a replica of an older car then it uses the year of car being replicated. Using Oregon as an example, you'll be up the creek when it comes time to emissions testing this car. If they start selling this car in 2005 and you finish it in 2006, it is a 2006 DDR. When you bring it into an Oregon DEQ station for emissions testing, they will be looking for the OBDII connector. Unless the MR2 engines they are using have OBDII (they sound too old) there is potentially an issue.

My original route of using a mid 80's BMW engine and an Audi 016 (now that I have the tranny of course), will not work for me unless I move outside the DEQ boundary. Other states like Texas, I believe, are just as strict. If the later OBDII MR2 drivetrains are a direct swap, then I guess everything is fine.

 

[Lynn Larsen]

Chris,

The issue you refer to varies wildly from state to state and there is little, if any, consistency to the way it works. For instance, here in North Carolina, homebuilt/kit/custom cars are excused from emissions testing since the state figured none of them would have OBD-II computers and there are so few of them. This is a good thing, BUT the car will register as the year it is registered in. A bad thing if you try to sell it in a state with less rational laws. BUT when you go to insure it, none of the "standard" insurance companies will touch it and none of the specialty car insurance companies can insure it since they can only insure cars older than ~1976 because of the stupid insurance commission that NC operates under.

Tennessee registers cars as the year they replicate; which makes very good sense from a law enforcement perspective. California actually isn't bad as they allow the 1st 500 appliants to register kit/component/homebuilt cars with an exemption very similar to NC. Go figure that CA would do that, right?

If you do a search on this subject, you'll find input from guys from all over the US with very different stories from state to state. The guys in Australia have it pretty tough too as they have to meet all current standards to best of my knowledge.

Regards,
Lynn

 

[StuartB]

Hersh, I agree mate, that design works for me, I want one already.

 

[ChrisL]

[ QUOTE ]
the car has it's own frame and uses the MR2 as a donor for the suspension and drive train

[/ QUOTE ]

Now that puts the car in totally different light in my opinion.

Conceding that everyone has their own little idiosyncrasies, I must say though that my initial attraction to the RF was the fact that it had its own suspension bits designed to work on its own chassis (and designed by one of the most highly respected chassis designers in the country) as is the case with the donor MR2. But if this car doesn’t have the original MR2 dimensions then I would ask whether the result will be as competent as the original. Admittedly, I may be digging myself into a hole here since I don’t know exactly how much is being donated and therefore how much of the original geometry is being retained but I would hope that a car like this would be a notch above your average car, not a notch below.

 

[Paolo-LoveGT40 Modelworks]

the car is very nice,
I think is very very similar to Tommy kaira ZZ2..that reminds at all (also if smaller) the magnificent design of Mclaren

The prototype had the Nissan biturbo skyline 4x4 mechanic.

Paul-Italy

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

It is a nice car, but how do you string the pictures together like That? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif I can only load one picture
per post. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[BenL]

[ QUOTE ]
It is a nice car, but how do you string the pictures together like That? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif I can only load one picture
per post. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

The pictures are hosted on another website (use the "Image" button of the "Instant UBB Code" to include them). The advantage of this is that you can include lots of pictures in a single message. The disadvantage is that if in the future the website goes away or changes, the images disappear from the message.

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Thanks. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[ChrisL]

Woe Nice /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif That don't look like no MR2 suspension that Ive ever seen /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
And the engine is in a North-South configuration. The MR2 had it East-West. There must be some significant re-engineering involved.

 

[Hershal Byrd]

Chris,
That's not the same car I refered to in my first post.
Paul was just showing us another car with similar design features.

Hersh /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Paolo-LoveGT40 Modelworks]

Yes, Hersh is right.
I was just posting pics for the great similitude u will found between those cars and the Mclaren

Paul /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif