Bob Turner

I saw the "Project Insane Asylum" (as Steve, the original creator called it) otherwise known as Merlin up close today.

The car is very well done and very detailed. I do doubt the quotes of 1200hp but it is certainly a powerhouse. I had followed the buildup quite closely, so there weren't any surprises with it (website that Steve had set up) but it was cool to see it in person...


What IS sad is that so much money was spent and there is only 80 miles on it.

I hope it goes to a good owner. someone on this forum had mentioned that it was going to be auctioned on Friday afternoon.... I hope Speedvision covers it...

Bob

Jughead

Was it running?

MotorHead

I do like the looks of the car but 80 miles on the odometer speaks volumes of the driveability, if I bought it I would sell that motor and put a 572ci GM crate engine in it

toyvet1

Any idea when it goes on the block..

Bangkok Dean

I wonder if thay will take Thai Baht?????

turtlevette

maybe i'll put a new motor, new paint and some nice seats in mine and roll the odometer back to 0 and call it a new car.

naw, I'm not a crook.

Cali,68,L-79

Yes you are.

Cali,68,L-79

Dupe edit

2TONE82

According to BJ's website the '74 Roadster (aka Merlin) is lot number 746, on the block sometime Friday...Lot # 448 is on the stage now, a 57 Vette. A 67 Olds 442 just brought 100K...I'm gonna go watch The Apprentice, about as close to reality as this auction...

toyvet1

67 tri power $154000

MotorHead

Prices are out of whack, not really good for car guys like us, just rich people looking for an investment, don't even care about the car. Problem is it puts pressure on all the old classics out there, would like to get another '70 Cuda at some point but chances fo finding one are getting slim

Pedro'74

No kidding! 80 miles; 3 owners... And until someone prove that the car can go fast, it's nothing but a poser...


-Pedro

GDaina

Or maybe whoever sat in the driver's seat didn't the the kahunas to get on it....it was insane to build it and insane to dump all that money into it, and insane to sell it for chump change...Seems the title was befitting of the project

BSeery

Or maybe it just overheats after about 20 miles.

I know that car is got some torque, but it was built well. I would take a turn behind the wheel at the track and take a 1/4 and a road course run in it any time.
If I had the money, I would buy it, for up to $60K. I would get some better wheels and tires for the rear, loose the extra wing, and probably de-tune it by lowing the boost on the 'chargers and maybe a cam swap. It would still be a hell of a ride at 500 - 750 HP and would be a lot more usable of a car. I like the looks of the car, with the twin super chargers peeking from under the hood and the low wide stance. Just turn down the power and make it more of a driver and I think it would be a damn good car.

Guru_4_hire

You can get 500+ with the ZZ4 whipple kit.

Merlin522

The car that would NOT DIE!! Hehehe... What's up folks? It's funny, I hadn't thought much about Merlin for a while & then I was flipping through the channels tonight and saw the Barrett auctions on Speed – which of course reminded me that Andrew was selling it up there this month. My understanding is that Merlin will indeed be on TV tonight (Friday). I’m going to try & record it. If anyone has Tivo & happens to grab it, please let me know. I’ve got a bunch of meetings today & might miss it. Would love to get a copy if anyone is indeed able to catch it & record.

I went on the web to search for information about the auction times & lo and behold, I came across this forum post on Google. It’s really amazing to me that people still talk about that car. The loudest voices are still some of the detractors. I’ve been called every name in the book in my tenure up here – genius, wunderkind, moron, poser, homo – and everything in between. Looking back I find it kind of funny that I even let some of that stuff bug me. There were as many supporters as there were detractors but now that I go back & look at the pictures – I do feel a great sense of pride from the car. Granted it was the first time I had ever really made a good living & I had all these bundled up dreams of how I would change the world back then. What kid doesn’t have those kinds of dreams? I spent so many years in school being dirt poor & drooling in the Eckler’s catalog while choking down my 3 for $1 Kraft macaroni & cheese. When I finally hit it big, I went completely wild with the project. No holds barred. Haven’t you all ever really cut loose in your life? When did dreaming become such a bad thing? Better yet, when did LIVING your dreams become such a bad thing? I’m amazed at how complacent our world has become. I’m even more astounded at how we Americans have become so resistant to living those dreams that this country was founded on. Survivor is NOT REALITY. The Apprentice is hosted by a guy who has gone bankrupt twice already – yet people see him as a business guru. Get your head out of the TV & go DO something! That’s all I was trying to prove. One human with a strong desire can make a good living & build the car of their dreams. This still is the greatest country on the planet & we used to be infamous for not taking crap & for having the guts to push the envelope. When did that become a bad thing? I say we need more ripping the **** off & going for broke. Sure, there will be failures. Some of the early attempts will really be failures. The higher your goals, the bigger the failures could be – but on the flip side, only by setting your goals high can you ever REALLY do something great. If at first you don’t succeed, try try again. That’s what the definition of intelligence is – learning from your mistakes. If you sit around & just accept the status quo all day, how are you ever going to be able to look back on your life & feel like you really DID something cool? It seems that making waves does carry with it the required backlash but you won’t be able to find me a single person who really created something great in life that didn’t get the crap beat out of them by the critics at some point. I’m certainly not saying that Merlin is a great car, but to me – it is pretty damn cool. Just seeing the looks on people’s faces the few times I drove it made the whole project a success to me. I might as well have been in a space ship.

Certainly I was a bit out of control at times. I made claims that were pretty outrageous – but given enough time & budget, I still feel many of the claims would have been realized. Some of the claims would never have happened. I’ve learned a lot about cars since Merlin. Life really changed for me the first time I sat in a 360 Spider & got to feel what it’s like at 175 MPH with the engine racing towards 8,000 RPM – and still accelerating. At that moment in time I realized all my failures. In my megalomaniacal thirst for sheer power, I forgot the most important word of all in building a fast car. Synergies. Having driven some of the fastest cars on the planet, I was amazed to find that the car I would most prefer to be in at high speed & feel safest in was not the car with the most power at all. Even as powerful as Merlin was & even if I could have harnessed all that power, the 360 would be the better car at high speeds – without question. What other car can you drive at those kinds of speeds with one hand on the steering wheel & the top down? Trying to think that I could top the engineering of companies like Ferarri & Porsche etc. was probably a bit ludicrous but there is one thing to be said for heavy metal GM like Merlin – nothing shakes the street like that car. There are many milestones in my automotive travels just as there are many in yours. One of my most memorable has to be driving out here on I-90 in the 360 & having 3 large bore superbikes start egging me on. I’ll never forget the look on one of the guy’s faces when he turned around at 150 to see me right on his *** with the top down – and getting ready to pass him! That was a classic. Another memory I will never forget until the day I’m put in my grave was the day we first started Merlin up. All the planning, all the expenses, all the frustration, all the disbelief – it all went away with the turn of that key. When that engine roared to life, all my dreams became reality. Despite all the cool & exotic cars out there, there still is nothing better than the sound of a monster GM big block roaring to life. It’s pure testosterone.

It’s been a great source of fascination to read the posts about the car & about me personally since I sold it. Many of the posts are made by people that really know nothing about me or what the ultimate dreams were for the car. It was never finished. I'm still amazed by the reactions. People either absolutely love it or they absolutely hate it. I guess that's Ok - I'd rather be outrageous than mediocre. Anytime anyone posts the videos of it, they have to yank the link because so many people hit it. I still get emails to this day from across the planet. To those of you I haven’t had the chance to answer, I apologize. I’m working 120+ hour weeks right now to grow my business so it’s tough to find time to socialize or visit the forum much. I think the one comment I see a lot that really hurts the most is the fact that I didn’t build the car with my own hands. You really have to put yourself in my shoes. Imagine working the kind of hours I do – when are you supposed to find the time to build such a thing? It would have taken me 20 years to build it! Towards the end I did go down to the shops quite & bit and work on it some when I could but I have to pose a question to the people who make these comments. Look yourself in the mirror – could you REALLY build something like this? Yes – there are some truly gifted mechanical people on the board here & there are those that are independently wealthy with a lot of free time. I make a good living but I still have to work hard for my dough. I can’t just take off weeks at a time if I like to work on cars & frankly – I wanted the pros involved on a project like this. I’ve built a few motorcycles over the years & used to dabble with my Judge a bit but we’re talking some serious power here. If you’ve ever seen the car in person, you’ll really appreciate some of the detail & paint work. It takes YEARS of practice to get to that level. I’m good at making money – they are good at building cars. Is that not the tenant of a market economy?? When did THAT become a bad thing? I must have missed a meeting or something. This isn’t just a car that you take off a part & throw something on there. This isn't a car you just hop outside & floor it just to see what it will do either. That's about like dropping a JDAM off your roof just to see how loud it will be. You have to take the time to really dial the car in, test it & test it some more. With my new business starting back then & the world imploding around me, I simply no longer had the desire to deal with it any more. My business became my prime focus & looking back on it, that was the right decision. Just because I tried to hire the best people I could to build the car (which in retrospect there were many lessons learned there), doesn’t mean I’m some worthless sack of doo that just doled out dollar bills for fun. I designed & directed every single part & phase of this car. I did all the CAD design work on it. This was my plan from day one & I documented every single solitary part that went into it. People make it seem like I just sat back on my fat azz & took the lazy way out. Believe me, if I had more time I would have LOVED to be more involved. Does anyone here really think that I WANTED to spend that much on this car? My original budget was $70K! I was simply taken advantage of by shops that saw a kid with that dream look in his eyes. Again, many lessons learned. This was my first project. I think people really missed the point in some cases. When I first thought up the project, I was going to do a supercharged Viper. I have always been infatuated with the Shark so I opted to show the world what the shark could do! I was sick & tired of all the new Vette owners talking bad about our “older” cars. It was a bitter pill to have the very same people I was trying to defend talk me down, but certainly I do deserve some of the ridicule. Like many of my software friends up here in Seattle, our heads got a bit big for our britches but that’s life. Sept. 11 definitely brought me back to earth & I’m happy to have lived through it all. Certainly I will have some interesting tales to tell my kids one day.

I did have the chance to buy Merlin back from Andrew. He was TOTALLY COOL about the whole thing. Offered to sell it back to me at cost. So did Damon, the second owner. I think the other 2 owners really realized how much love went into that car & they felt guilty about me not having it (plus they were just really nice people). I am sad that they got assaulted so badly when they came here to the forum. They were really just sticking up for me & the car – I thank them for that. I think that’s what really prompted me to stop posting here. New people who were just stopping in to say hi were getting assaulted. That’s like screaming at new customer who walk into your store – not a good recipe for success. As I see it, the saga of Merlin is just getting started. It will be around for many moons. Hopefully whoever buys it at Barrett will continue to improve on it. So many cool upgrades have come out since the car was built. I agree with a lot of the posts I've seen - at auction it could do just about anything. All it takes is 2 people who want the craziest car on their street & it could definitely go over $100K. My guess is somewhere around $75 but we'll see. Regardless, I hope Andrew does make a profit on it. He deserves it - he has been totally cool with me & allowed me to feel good about my dream vicariously. I wish him nothing but the best & soon it will be on to owner #4. Who knows, maybe one day it will land back in my garage & I can finish it off with the things I had originally planned to do (Tom's rear end, bigger motor etc).

One thing I never understood was the doubts about the power potential of the car. Those weren't just numbers I made up. Whipple has almost the exact same configuration in a power boat - and it was running over 1,200 HP on pump gas – per engine (it was a dual engine setup at 2,400HP+ total). For those who doubt the claims, go have a look for yourself. http://www.whipplesuperchargers.com/....asp?pageID=72 Feel free to call Whipple or Gary Teague. The whipples are FAR more efficient than a regular roots type blower - and Merlin had two of them. The truth is, nobody has yet to really test the car to its limits. I never had it over 12psi - nor has Damon or Andrew. Those blowers will easily produce double that boost on race gas. I keep reading about how everyone would tune it down & make it more drivable. IT WAS TUNED DOWN!!! Those were the next to lowest boost pulley's I could buy for the car!! Drivability was never the problem. Even when it was overheating, I have plenty of videos of me driving it. Andrew has it dialed in really nicely now. If anyone still doubts the car is for real & think it is a “poser”, I have a nice video of Andrew doing a quick burnout in his driveway. I’d be happy to forward it to someone to host if you have lots of extra bandwidth. Granted nobody has yet to take it out to the tracks & really go nuts with it, but I don’t see why it couldn’t be driven at a racetrack just as I had planned all along. I think the real reason is that the people who have been buying it have really bought it as an investment or as a goof. In the right hands, the car could definitely go very fast & stay in one piece. There are some parts I would swap out but that’s easy stuff. And yes, I didn’t fit in it very well but I think we all know that’s not the “real” reason I sold it. After all the problems we had surmounted, I’m sure we could have figured out a way to squeeze my fat butt in there better.

Having had some separation from it, I look back with great pride & admiration. It almost seems like a dream. Sure, I’ve moved on in life & have other goals now but I still look back on those heady days with great joy. I made a lot of good friends here on the Forum & even got to meet a few of you. I hope everyone is doing well & has recovered from the scary times we’ve had the past few years. Fortunately the economy is roaring back & life is starting to return to normal. Not to worry, I’m sure one day I’ll be back with another outrageous creation for my sophomore attempt but for now, I’m happy just being “normal” for a while. I wish you all the best in your endeavors & long live the mighty C3!!

Steve

P.S. Here are a few links I’ve scraped together along the way. I thought you all might enjoy seeing what the car has been up to these days…

http://www.barrett-jackson.com/event....asp?id=178758

http://mnfbody.com/showthread.php?t=...oto=nextnewest

http://www.lateral-g.org/distad/

http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/720214/2

http://www.corvettemagazine.com/2003...rr10-2-6th.asp

PatsLs1vette

Well said steve,its a real shame that so many people can hide behind a computer and put the car and you down.Good luck!!I hope ,merlin sells for 100 +.Its also a shame to see people say all you did was just sit back and let your money do the work,excuse me how many people on here take there cars to mechanics and such to be worked on?Im one that does all my own work but im the first to say merlin was a great car.

Pauld

Steve,

The merlin project was before my time here, but since being on the forum I have read alot about merlin and have seen many of the pics. I have to say that your latest post is very well written and I cannot disagree with anything you have said and all your comments make sense. I personally think the car is great and have always enjoyed looking at the pics with some envy.
It is nice to hear from the creator of Merlin and to hear your comments and thoughts first hand. I would also hope that there will be no further bashing. Good luck with your business and lets hope you will get time to visit the forum more often.

Merlin522

Hey Pat! Long time no speak. I'm really OK with it - it's a free country. If people want to tear me down, they are welcome to. I probably brought a lot of it on myself - that's life in the big city! Many things I would do differently of course, but that is true of ALL projects. I've always had nothing but the greatest admiration & respect for those of you that do your own work - and I always said the publicly. I go over in the performance section & read about how I'm nothing but a poser - even comments from some of the locals who I thought were friends. That does bug me but life moves on. It's easy to mock people that aren't around to defend themselves. I'm OK with it. Thank you for the nice comments - I really appreciate it. One of these days I would love to build one completely from scratch by myself. I doubt I could ever build something like Merlin on my own, but you never know until you try!

stingraymaniac

thats one of the baddest cars ever built