MEGALADON

100%

MotorHead

I followed his buildup from the start and I thought it was pretty cool regardless of who built it.

I did not like when he came back. I think the thread was about what your dream motor motor would be and some guys were saying 383 with forged internals, 406 with AFR heads etc. and he comes in with some 900ci aluminum block that was going to make 40,000HP and costing about 10 grand just for the block alone then started in about his house and cars and the money he had just made in the stock market. Just rubbed people the wrong way. If you are into Corvettes that's fine but if you come here to flaunt yourself pretending to be into Corvettes you will get called out and that is what happend.

Paul L

It was a giggle at first for the performance folks with too much money on their hands but quite frankly at the end it was a bore. Bastardized C3 with no real purpose.

DollaGreen

I didnt get involved in all the ruckus when he came back, but also thought it was an obvious "look at me" attempt. I hope he built the car for himself and not the attention it drew.

Funny how even the "wheres merlin" question stirs up emotions!

turtlevette

ever notice how these "super duper" cars never produce any time slips?

Rolm

Bottom line is many like him made a ton of money by simply been in the wright place at the wright time. So the asswipe did not earn a penny of his money the old fashion way because of that he had no clue on how to manage his money. As the saying goes a fool and his money are soon parted. The vette of his was as stupid as he was. End of story.

Stoge

I still think it is tremendously funny how worked up some people get over Steve & his project car.

• Who cares if the guy has money?
• Who cares if the guy made claims that his car didn't live up to?
• Who cares if he sold it because he couldn't fit in it?
• Who cares if he sold it because it overheated?
• Who cares??????????????????

From what I can tell, Steve is a good guy with a few more $$$ than most of us have. So he comes back and everyone got stirred up again and ran him off. Whatever. I for one just liked following along with the project and miss hearing about the car.

Z-man

Yea - this thread alone is into two pages just at the mention of his name in the title.

Pauld

Turbo-Jet

he may be a nice guy, but what a SPAZ! if one is going to build a 'statement', then one must be able to take the heat. how many times did he leave the forum?

car was well crafted, but the engine sticking through the hood ruined everthing. put in a 502 crate w/N20 and a L88 hood, and it would still be one badass package yet driveable.

oh, and BTW... 1200 hp thru a ROD 6speed rated for ~600???

Red_Shift

I may have seen this car on Ebay about 1.5 years back. The one I saw said they had $240,000 invested and it was going for $49,000 at the time. It was black with a Merlin block and HRE wheels. It also had two Whipple super chargers and a custom fabricated fuel tank. Is this the car/guy? Man I wish I had an extra $49,000 at the time. It was one sweet car. They claimed 1400 HP.

Twin_Turbo

yup, that's it.

Kevin Mason

I'm with Norval and TT: Merlin had impressive horsepower numbers, but a properly set-up and dieted (NO a/c) C3 with 700 horsepower would walk all over Merlin on a twisty road or road course, and be a much more consistent (fewer traction issues) quarter-miler.

Horsepower is great if bragging rights are your thing, but there's a lot more to performance than a dyno sheet.

thevetterisbetter

That's true, I thought he did suspension upgrades though? It was also supposed to be his daily driver...

Z-man

As I remember, he had added the complete VBP Performance suspension kit for Vettes.

Dalannex

I tend to agree that Merlin (the car) was a bit overkill, but I thought it was great that Steve had the car built and set up a site so we could all watch. I don't care if that is what I would do with the car or not, seeing a car being built interests me either way. I also find it kind of funny that considering how poorly a couple of you seem to think the car runs it still gets driven. You would think that a car that doesn't run and overheats wouldn't get driven wouldn't you?????? The second owner drove the car when he had it, then sold it to relocate and expand his business to a different part of the country. (he sold all 4 Corvettes actually) And now the 3rd owner drives the car. Let's put 2 and 2 together should we?????



-Justin

Twin_Turbo

It was posted here that the car overheated, there were no follow ups so we couldn't know that it has been gixed by now. That does not change the fact that the car did not meet the intended goals, both in the handling and the braking department. VB&P suspension is nice, but noy McLaren F1 competition, you will never equal or beat a monocoque chassis with a 30y/o car with some suspension mods. If you really think that's what you can pull off then either you're dillusional or you are smoking some bad stuff. Not saying the car wasn't nice, I liked it a lot and followed all the updates.

StingrayDK

Sure I would have done some things different but it was a fun project to follow, it was the reason I heard about corvetteforum.com in the first place!

427Hotrod

Gee...it's like a train wreck....I just have to slow down and take a look!

I *KNEW* that before this thread got too far along the HP claims would surface again. I just loved it when he posted his chassis dyno runs and then extrapolated them into *flywheel HP", that within about 10 posts it would have the "flywheel hp" restated as "Rear Wheel HP" and it would just keep growing. It was unreal! Then the "flock" would jump in and feed it some more. It was really amusing.

While I admire the work that went into several aspects of the car, it was severely NOT an engineeering masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. That engine had heads way too small (not even port work) a small hyd cam that floated the valves constantly...even had some lifters refuse to come back afterwards on the dyno runs, a "show blower" setup that is seldom actually taken seriously by anyone other than a few boat guys maybe and an EFI system that was poorly executed. It thwarted several folks attempts at getting the tune close.

There are N/A pump gas small blocks around the Forum that make more RWHP than Merlin EVER made!

Things like the holes cut in the floors to clear the fuel lines because they forgot to remember they were going to put a body back on it, and then not wanting to reroute them...just cut holes on floor don't seem like a car being built to the caliber it is proclaimed as.

I'm not saying Steve was a bad guy....I think he was severely mislead and taken advantage of by lots of folks helping him spend his money. It was really pretty sad....he could have got much closer to his goals by listening to the advice that some of the posters here offered. There are a lot of experts in different aspects around here that were willing to help build the "ultimate" C-3. I enjoyed looking at his web site also and appreciate that he posted the good and the bad for us all to learn from. That does take character...he didn't have to tell us the failures. I won't comment on all the "show-off stuff". I think everyone else has nailed it well.

I wish good luck to the new owner...I hope he comes around here. The paint work on it seems to be fantastic and I'm sure whatever ills it has can be remedied!


JIM

Schmucker

Finally, someone agrees with me. I commented on it and people defended it as if it was given to Steve from the hands of God.