MDA MkII series II chassis

Hi Steve

sorry for the thread diversion earlier, I must say that the MK11 MDA chassis is a big improvement over the first version. The John Wisher uprights are also a big improvement, should keep the car level and true.
I am pleased that you prefer the MK11 design it looks very aggressive especially in Black like P1046. What colour scheme are you going for?

If you want MK11 information I have loads of original shots used for replicating the Goodwood cars.
Regards

Chris Melia.

 

[SteveB]

Thanks for the replies.
I am open minded regards colour, probably very dark blue with yellow stripe, but then again the copy of a livery from a race car.....hummmm tempting.
Interior I fancy a light colour not very original but I like it, would also look good with black!

Sorry about it not a 427 but I thought that the 347 would be enough to frighten me s***less, I picked the Edelbrock injection as it will look like the MkII rather than Webbers or Stack injection that I believe were not often fitted to MkIIs. Any tips from anyone who has used this injection would be welcome

I wll post some pictures when a little progress is made

SteveB

 

[Keith]

Sorry about it not a 427 but I thought that the 347 would be enough to frighten me s***less,
SteveB

Oh it will all right - you can bet on that

A curse on all purists. For me, a MkII has to have a 427 and that's that. Steve, yours will be awsome with the stroker rockonsmile

Good luck and keep the photos coming....

 

MDA MKII and other things.

Hello Guys, I havent been on for a while and had to ask Ron for a new Login as my old one didnt work. Congrats to Steve and Chris on what I know will be a great cars when finished. We have four more customer cars in the UK nearing completion and two here at the factory. Welcome to our new Spanish and Italian agents.

Regards the coments made by "others" I have instructed our legal team to deal with them. There needs to be no more snipes taken here on anywhere else if the competition has a good product then let that speak for itself. To deride others work and products only makes oneself look daft. When all said and done, show me one supplier that isnt using a copy of an original Ford designed GT40 body shell, everyone has remoulded and "borrowed the shape" of others work. Ammendments have been made, straightening, closing of rather large body line gaps, but on the whole, they are still recognizable of the original designs. After all isnt that what everyone really wants, a GT40!!

I do have my own tooling for both the MKI and my version of a MKII. This is proper left and right hand drive tooling, not a dual purpose effort. We have spent many thousands of pounds on tooling for all kinds of specific items such as knock on pin drive hubs, driveshafts, original GT40 fuel caps to name but a few. We also supply not only replica clients, but originals and now other companies.

Of course I do own the Black MKII used for the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Blue car I owned until end of last year, though that now has a new owner. I still have the Bond car used in "Die Another Day" and our new demo car (Which I will post the specs for later) will be ready for the shows later this year. We have a new product for next year and this will be released when ready.

If anyone needs to know more details, they can ask me directly rather than listen to second hand accounts of tale tails. I am only too happy to tell people about MDA, the people and the cars.

I have said this before, and will repeat these comments. GT40 parts are not always stock. Most are, but they are increasingly harder to make, find or buy. Some of the older parts are now obsolete, which is why MDA buys tooling or makes new. I have supported untold GTD clients as best possible over the years, even Dax and KVA, some Tornado and RF cleints. My History with GTD and Brightwheel replicas is well documented back to 1985 and I have been building and supplying cars for twenty years now and probably will for another: I have nothing better to do!

All the best
Mark
MDA

 

Hi Mark

as I said unless you agree to a licence for copying my MK11 rear body work I shall take legal action on the 1st of July 2006, its up to you to be honourable and not steel my work.

I am again sorry that this is on a guys build thread but you have to stand up to people, for what is right.

Chris Melia.

 

Dear Mr. Sibley,
Albeit your offerings are nicely engineered, My experience with your North American salesman left much to be desired.

I inquired about obtaining (1) body & (1) chassis.
At the time, "Chris" was 'busy' working on his MKII in preparation for the Carlisle show.

My conversations w/ Chris went over an hour in total, he was supposed to contact you then get back to me with a Quote.

A return call never happened, I called a month after Carlisle to sort out what happened, allowing for the rush of what you guys must have thought was going to be the most important day of your lives....

His wife answered the phone, her reply was, and I quote: "You must have
been lost in the shuffle".

Well, Shuffle my arse. When a ten to twenty thousand dollar deal is in
the werks, folks should hear things like "What part of your driveway would you like this delivered on", or, "If you do not hear from Mark by X day then I will follow up personally".

In an individual's career as a 'Professional', they might get a bad review.

This one is for Chris. He does NOT have enough knowledge or experience as an automotive afficianado to answer basic questions. Also he has ZERO seat
time as a racer. He also was stupid enough to divulge that this was his 3rd
job, lowest in priority in his life. He blew a $20K+ order for you, likely
based on the assumption that a plethora of millionaires would be jousting each other to order turnkey GT's at Carlisle, thus satisfying your fantasy of
hitting the American Jackpot w/ your cars.

I have since purchased a T70 MK1 body, DOT windscreen and begun my own Chassis. I am curious, and perhaps other readers would be interested to know, for sheer sake of demographics, how many purchase orders did you secure At Carlisle or directly as a result of being there?

I used to own a kit Car co., I sold it for various reasons, namely, the fact that most kit car seekers really don't have any money and are totally full of B.S., also, I do not wish to be associated with a genre that still bids on
and builds unspeakablylow-tech, misengineered and ugly fiberfab cars.

You are at a point in time to take advantage of the baby boomers' cash, as
we grew up w/ the GT40 as a favorite car, also consider that we as auto consumers have driven, owned, maintained and found the limits of most
affordable consumer cars, thus leading us full circle to a proven V8 Mid Engined offering.

I am still in the market for a MKII body/windscreen, but after reading messages here perhaps even your company may still have trouble delivering.

Sincerely disappointed,

D. Zering

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Come on guys!!

Guys I think it is inappropriate to hijack Steve's build thread to push your own agenda's.
Steve, I would take Chris's advice and start another thread and leave this one to the dummy spitters. Your car looks good by the way.

 

[Chris Martino]

Hey guys,

First off, I said I wouldn't post on Steve's thread again but there is always someone who needs to put the gloves on and go a few rounds. Since this thread has now become a moot point for Steve's sake, I will briefly take the time to address Mr. Zering's more than presumptuous, if not more pretentious take on my position with MDA.

First off, Mr. Zering is correct about one thing - I did speak with him for over an hour which I did my best to answer all of his questions, some of which I felt went into rather lengthy discussions. Stupid people like myself don't usually hold the interest of someone's attention for very long, especially experts on everything like Mr. Zering, which could have easily hung-up or told me to blow after 10 minutes if he felt I was that daft.

Second - I told Mr. Zering that I was indeed swamped with getting my car ready for Carlisle and I would do my best to assist him. He was well aware of the time-line I had to follow and wished MDA well at the show (and yes, MDA did just fine for your information).

Third - I have NEVER, EVER pretended to claim I know every little detail about MDA, Mark Sibley, running a kit car company etc and told Mr. Zering that for very specific information, on several occasions, to contact Mark directly. What happens on Mark's end is his matter but I do try to get to the bottom of things when needed.

Forth - I do what I can as a rep here for MDA, read the word again rep, not MDA wizard, not GT40 know it all, God to the race track. I assist as many guys as best I can but you all have to remember - MDA is not my company, I do not have the final say in some matters, nor should I.

I do own a very successful business, have a look Mr. Zering (www.racelinedigital.com), I am an aerospace technical illustrator for a world leading aircraft landing gear company and my biggest passion is MDA - the only thing that takes a back seat is my family because of my commitment to these ventures - they have my support. As for people like Mr. Zering, who know nothing about me and find it easy to post degrading comments, well you can stuff it where the sun don't shine.

Speaking off the record - I wish I could close every sale that comes my way but as a business owner (and despite what Mr. Zering thinks he knows) there is always one customer in 100 that you wish you never dealt with...


Chris

 

[Kristian Wraae]

Steve's thread now has more views than most of the other build threads here. Usually that's a good sign.

In this case however it's a result of total disregard for Steve. I understand that one feels the need to fight back when one is accused of something but this thread is not the place for it. When you all post like you do it's like walking on Steve's new carpet with muddy boots and helping yourselves to a six pack in his refrigerator.

Manners, please...

@Steve, if I were you I would contact a moderator and have all the off topic replies (including my own) removed.

 

[Chris Martino]

I agree and was what I unfortunately had to recommend to Steve.

I haven't forgotten who started this thread.

Chris

 

Mark Sibley MDA

is responsible for stealing my work and then selling it to Steve, I offered Mark by private mail the opportunity to purchase a licence to produce my MK11 rear clips but he decided to have a war. Steve also has the right to be informed that the rear clip on his car is now going to be subject to litigation. Mark has used my name to advertise his MDA MK11 and stated and still states that it is done in conjunction with me which it clearly was not.

I am sorry that Steve has had the misfortune to get in the middle of this but this was in Marks hands to simply rectify this matter, I was being reasonable considering what Mark has done.
Mark has until the 1 July 06 to buy the licence from me to settle this matter.

Chris Melia.

 

MKII body

D. Zering, If you are still interested in a MKII body and windshield, I can supply you with them. email me at [email protected] don't PM me please.

 

I had responded in friendly terms to Chris Melia’s extraordinary posting but in response to his continuous slander it is obviously necessary to be blunt:-

MDA utterly refute Chris Melia’s serious allegation of theft.

The MDA MkII rear clip is a product wholly from MDA design work and tooling.

MDA arranged and supplied the three Goodwood Festival GT40s and I worked personally with Melia on these cars prior to and at his premises over many days including fabrication of the rear clip which Melia mentions.

Melia project-managed the supply of the Goodwood Festival cars and did some of the physical work but to say he was solely responsible for the Goodwood Festival cars as he maintains would be very misleading. This is not the issue but as Melia raised this point we must formally put the record straight.

MDA have their own tooling, supply their own bodies and neither had, nor have, any need whatsoever to buy any MkII rear clips from Mr Melia.

We understand why Melia may be aggrieved toward MDA over this and the Company in general as we have sought payment for our considerable work and expense for the Goodwood Festival project from the substantial payment he received.

We shall be responding through the appropriate channels regarding Melia’s highly damaging, defametory and libellous allegations, which he has made from sight of a photograph, and in the meantime are returning his opportunistic invoice.

 

[roaldin]

Steve,

Unless Kristian's suggestion is implemeted soon PLEASE start again with another thread. I, and I'm sure many others, am very interested in your experiences.

I will no longer be reading this particular thread as it is sinking into the ridiculous.

Ron, where are you?

None of this should be necessary but people will always disappoint.

Tim.

 

[Ron Earp]

Hi Tim,

I am clearly here - but, I think you and others know that my job isn't one to edit, derange, or delete posts from a thread or forum as one has suggested. My personal opinion is the parties should take this to another thread and away from the build thread. In fact, I can help by pulling the build posts out of this thread and moving to a new thread if Steve would like. Then he could continue his build thread while I move this one out of the Builder's Forum and to a more appropriate location. I'd like his permission to do so first however.

While I will move threads intact from forum to forum to get them in the proper location, I don't selectively delete posts from threads or threads as a whole. I have deleted two active threads in the history of the forum, and both turned out to be mistakes, so in general I don't subscribe to editing/deleting what folks write. Naturally exceptions will arise though now that I've said that.

Ron

 

[roaldin]

That's fair enough. Good answer.
Splitting the thread/s would be a good solution.

Tim.

 

Hi Guys
Ron please split the thread and my apologies to Steve

Now my reply

Well, Mark is finally showing his true colours and his lies are now in free fall.
Point s
1: Mark Sibley did not work on the production of the MK11 rear clip it was already made and in production before he ever came to my work shop.
I worked on the plug mould and had it inspected by Doug Nye author and auto historian of many famous historic motoring book. Doug was the founding Father of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, my MK11 rear clip was pivotal to the project even going ahead.
By the time Mark came to my work shop I had already got Simon Kelly's car in colour (Gold) with MK11 rear clip fitted.

2: The car that became the black MK11 that MDA supplied, had a KVA spider fitted to it with a GTD front clip, and anyone that knows their bodywork simply knows that it would take an enormous amount of work to make these parts fit together and there simply was not the time. I told Mark about this and he did come up for three days (two weeks before deadline) out of the six week build to help replace his ill fitting spider section. I still have the old piece in my workshop to prove it.

3: The Blue car was actually the so called ex James Bond car already had a new front clip when it arrived from MDA and new Mk11 rear clip was supplied and fitted by me and Paul Fleming.
I was assisted during the six weeks of build by two other people in my work shop and they can testify that Sibley's claims are false and a fabrication of lies.

4: On the MDA Web site it clearly states that I provided the bodywork in Marks own words. It also states that MDA would supply the MDA MK11 cars in conjunction with me. This has not happened, instead he decided to take a mould off my MK11 rear bodywork without my knowledge and renege on his part of the deal to purchase this bodywork from me.
Quote from MDA's web site.

After our recent success at the Goodwood Festival and Revival meetings, MDA in conjunction with Chris Melia offer the MKll GT40 Replica. Chris Melia's expertise provides the authentic MKll bodyworks. MDA have adapted the MKll body to our new chassis and all the authentic parts have been used to recreate the ultimate sports racer.

5: I am not the only person to be in litigation with MDA over their questionable business practises and failed promises. Mark could have simply purchased a licence to manufacture my MK11 rear clip but after being caught with his hand in the cookie jar decided to deny it, well The offer of a licence is open until the end of June 06, If he decides to refuse to take this licence then we go to court and let the judge decide.

6: JP's car? All the old time forum guys remember JP but why Mark please tell us did he make you buy the car back after just one days testing?

I am sure a lot of guys that purchased your MK1 chassis would like to hear your comments.

7. Anyone that wishes to contact me on this matter can e-mail me [email protected].
.

Regards

Chris Melia.

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

I suggest that if you are both entertaining litigation, that you Shut the F**ck
up and leave it to the lawyers who will be rubbing their hands together with glee thinking of the $$$$ they will make.

 

hi Pete

My wife is a lawyer

Chris.

 

[40 Bud]

Shut the F**** Up

Well said Pete. It does seem a bit ludicrous to discuss the theft of an intelectual property, or whatever you want to call it, when dealing with something that has been copied by numerous replica manufacturers. Especially strange when you consider the business these guys are all in. At least GTD added a little lip to the center section. That way it wasn't an exact copy of the MKl.