Merlin is finished!!
A few points...
* In order to actually work your rollbar needs to be higher then your head. I don't think you are going to remember to tuck your head if you roll.
* Your rear tires are too narrow for the rim.
* Why doesn't anybody say "How could you do that to a perfectly good 19xx Corvette?" :)
A few points...
* In order to actually work your rollbar needs to be higher then your head. I don't think you are going to remember to tuck your head if you roll.
* Your rear tires are too narrow for the rim.
* Why doesn't anybody say "How could you do that to a perfectly good 19xx Corvette?" :)
if this thing does roll... its gonna be at such a high speed that a nascar cage like GKulls isnt gonna help you... :lol: and it would still help... rather then put your head in your stomach on a roll, it would just put it in your throat :lol:
if the tires were too narrow for the rim, they wouldn't inflate and hold air pressure. i personally think 345s are pretty damn wide but steve does want to get 375s as soon as they come out. i think that would fix what your talking about
and if you go to steve's site, and read about the 74 vette he bought out of autotrader, youll notice that it was not a perfectly good vette. it had front end damage. i bet steve gets more commets like "Damn i wish i could to that to my vette!" hell i wish i could...
on the convertable thing, im kinda "iffy" because i like the lines of the coupes more, but there wernt any convertable 80-82s which a quick glance and thats what you would think his vette is. so i like how diffrent it looks.
No hard feelings, i just had something to say. i saw your Mako on the Which is best? post. nice job. it looks great.
[Modified by '79ProwlerOrange, 11:23 PM 10/2/2002]
The 3rd items was tongue in cheek about the typical response here on this site to customized 'vettes and in no way reflects my opinion. I am happy to see people saying what nice car it is. Personally I love customized 'vettes, prefer them over stock. Fortunately there are still people turning them out. It's real cool that people are going crazy with the C5's too.
The Best of Corvette for Corvette Enthusiasts
i figgured thats what you meant about the "perfectly good" thing. i mean no one with a mako dislikes custom vettes :lol: unless you are the guy with an original mako. then i envy you. :yesnod: and from the other times steve has posted his progress on merlin he has gotten alot of that :bs of how he ruind a vette and just negative bs. (notice my "Wheres Gainey comment on my first reply to this thread) i think no one has posted it on this one because they see steve was right. it came out great. for some its hard to see past the fiberglass dust and rusted frames, for some its easy. :confused: and others are jealous he has the means to build his dream car.:nonod: i know im jealous! :yesnod:
oh well :cheers:
[Modified by '79ProwlerOrange, 2:32 AM 10/3/2002]
PS This has got to be the fastest growing topic in a while (other than the ugly women one LOL). :cheers:
As I said, the car looks great! Now let's get the truth on how she runs. :yesnod:
Not really my style, but I gotta say that I can truly appreciate all of the hard work that went into this.
You did an outstanding job - Hat's off to you.
It's kind of like all of us on the Forum have had a kid graduate from College - We've all been following the progress for so long, and now we all feel like we've invested!
Way to go Steve -
......so what's next?





I gotta say you are able to get things done much faster than I seem to be able to. I think your end result really captures what you were planning....just many of us couldn't envision it up front.
You nailed the look you were after, the twin blowers will definitely turn heads as people drive up behind you and drive by....talk about double takes!!
Don't be too fast to take it out and nail it. I already had mine pretty dialed in with the old 427, so the addition of the 540 was no big deal...I knew how the car would react. You have a completely new combination that is going to need to be dialed in as far as handling, driveability and performance. Get one thing at a time.
Spend a little time driving it around with it set in low boost mode and make sure everthing functions as intended. Steering, shifting, electrical, vibrations etc etc. Once you're comfortable with that then it's time to dial in HP.
You don't want to be tring to work out clutch etc with a HP curve that is wrong or peaky. You are definitely going to be in the "overHP" league for your drivetrain, so it's going to be tough to know if it's getting it's full potential without some dyno time.
I know you didn't get a chance to do any engine dynoing, but I think your plan of chassis dyno work is a better plan anyway since you have to dial in injection etc.
Didn't the other Steve...542C2.....offer to let you play on his Dynojet at his house? That would be cool...it would give you a "less public" place to play and I'm sure it's a very secure place to have your valuable car. You don't want to have it somewhere that anything bad could happen to it. Plus I think it's really neat that we have a guy here that has the ability to own his own dynojet and is offering it to folks to use for free. I'm sure you could have your engine guy come over there and work on it and I would guess he has everything there you would need.
Please don't sell it until we get to see the real potential of what it can do. Wouldn't it be neat to put it through the same comparison that they used in that Car&Driver article on all the tuner cars? Like 70mph to 150 mph or so and stuff like that. Braking etc. Maybe you could even offer it as a owner built option to the tuner cars? That would be fun to prove you could beat them at their own game!
Those cars were offered as the "best of the best"..... here's a chance to spank 'em on the dyno and the track!
How 'bout one of the Vette vs Viper shootouts? They always have an unlimited class for the baddest of the bad.
Again congratulations......
JIM
I've heard people talking about this project for a little while but until I saw your site I really didn't understand the level of insanity. Unreal!!
VERY VERY C :cool: :cool: L!!
:cheers: :cheers: :cheers:
















