:iagree:

Lots of talk and no walk . That car is awsome piece of craftsmanship ,and full of beautuifull details . I feel it would deserve good full boost dynorun and at least of 1/4 trip! Just to shut us up.

 

IMHO, i would pull that motor, and sell it seperately for what it is worth (??).

then install something 'bland' like a GM 502, get a normal hood and keep the car as a summer driver and road racer.

Lets be honest, that motor is completely 100% impractical for that application: IRS, weak transmission, no roll cage, and very limited cooling potential.

 

Steve did the project the way he wanted- his time, his money, his research; now, for whatever reason, he wants out......it's not for us to JUDGE why or what. And, like the rest of us, I'd have loved to see some performance results from this incredible machine, but life seems to have gotten in the way of that. Personally- I think that, for Steve, the process was the end game. He wanted to create a fantastic C-3. And he succeeded.
ANYONE willing to put in 4 years of their life and a quarter of a million dollars of their hard-earned $$$ has 'Walked the Walk', IMHO.
If the rest of us are not able or willing to equal or better the effort, then- IMHO- regardless of what we'd like to see, let's not judge people who are.
my 2c.
:yesnod: :chevy :chevy :yesnod:

 

I agree he did the project his way and I think it is great and very admirable for doing it that way. He did invest a lot of time and money and research, I agree again with you. It is not for us to Judge? This is America, I can have an opinion. I don't think I was judging him bad or good, just making a comment he didn't "walk the walk". Usually walking the walk is actually backing up what you have said. He made very specific goals, and he got into many debates on this forum about what the car could do. Walking the walk would actually be doing those things that were stated as his goals for the project. He is a computer programmer, would he turn over a million lines of code that wouldn't compile as a completed project? Ok, so he gets it to compile but it has bugs and wont run for more than 30 min? He makes a proposal to a company that his software will exceed certain benchmarks, how much you wanna bet that company will see those benchmarks exceeded before they consider the project complete.

Don't get me wrong, I think that this project was incredible! I loved watching the updates come in and loved watching it through the stages of completion and all the issues he had to go through, you feel compassion and sympathy when things go wrong for him. You have feelings for this person that you don't even know, that is why you are sticking up for him even though you have never met him.

I don't think you have to equal or better and effort to have an opinion. I mean, what would we have to compare against anyway? He never tested what it will do, so, I have ran a 12.3 in the 1/4, until he beats that, I have equaled the effort. That is the new bar to have an opinion.

Where did the 4 years come from? I have been on the forum for 2 years and we joined around the same time I believe within a few months.

 

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You're absolutely right.........
Now you can have the last word in this thread.
:rolleyes:

 

It would overheat even driving under water on the way home.

 

I agree. Steve walked the walk. You are correct about backing up what he said, but most people doubted his ability to creat the car. and who knows he may have done a dyno run or 2 by now, he may have driven it over 250Mph, he may have gone and pulled 1.01g on the skidpad, we dont know because he hasnt posted in a while. he was getting ready to do a dyno run though. he had a day picked out and all, but he hasnt posted so i dont know if that happened or not.

I think steve is selling because he needs the $$$$$. he told everyone how he was in love with the car again, and was going to keep it. Something must have come up for him to sell it. and im positive he would have told us 1st if he had the time. Steve is going to make another supercar, its just a matter of time.

about the overheating, thats not a huge deal. its a bug that needs to get worked out if it hasnt already. you guys act like its kryptnoite (sp?) to superman or somethng. you also saw how easily it could be daily driven. at least how tame it could be. he could just take a blower off and it would still be the worlds fastest, best handling, daily driven C3 unless monty uses his as a daily driver.

Steve if your reading this thread, i hope you get what you want for the car, and i hope you had fun making it. it was one of the best rides ive been on. :smash:

 

It seems that Steve's dream utimatly became a nightmare.

Way too much power and not very practicle.
Who ever buys that car, please put some smaller wheels on the back so the tires don't look like they were streached out to fit the wheel. Looks stupid that way. I would rather see tires too wide on narrow rims than tires too skinny for the rim they were mounted on. Looks like a 1990's low-rider.

 

oh -- and he really needs a faster server to host those picture -- it runs slower than a ford !!

 

Such an awsome car... anybody got a few hundred grand to give to me? Or to let me have... or to loan kinda like bubble gum... where ya dont want it back?

:jester

 

I have to agree with Maurice here, being a programmer and software projects manager I agree with his analogy.
I have nothing against Steve or him building his dream, it was the bold statements made about it being the fastest, best handling C3 before it was even done. I'm a 'Show Me' type and when I hear those kinds of things I want to see proof.
Boyd Coddington gave me two pieces of advice years ago that I believe to be the best car advice I've ever received.
1: To each his own.
2: There's always going to be someone faster, badder and better. The trick is making sure you have anything you belly up to the bar with flat-covered no excuses.
I have no doubt the car could be worked out, but the total setup seems to be a 10-gauge shell (engine) in a BB gun (for a daily street driver). On it's looks it could obviously be a nice show car.
Like I said I have nothing against Steve, and kudos for having his dream built for him. But I have to agree that I don't see the walk being walked yet, and for me it all goes back to the bold statements made without the proof.

And yes, I have run sub 10 sec quarters in car and on motorcycle.

And no I'm not trying to "Diss" Steve or his project, all I'm saying is "Show Me"

Greg

 

Injected

You have hit the nail on the head. Great comments. As I have told many people the key to building a car is knowing what you want to do with it when it is done. Merlins car as it stands is a show car. Thats all nothing else. I would not put it on a road course without a complete re do. The 1/4 mile would need some major work (i.e solid axle and a 2 speed auto to start) I just can't figure out what to do with the car. Put it on a trailer and take home the trouphys (sp) I guess.

 

You guys are right, however there is no reason to go doubting the potential of the car, If drivin under it's potential, I still believe it would be capiable of tearing up almost all other street legal C3's on the road course. Why, it has the best of everything proven and available to C3's, then some things are even greater on top of that. Every part that recieves any load has been replaced with the best you can possibly get for your vett. Now certian things bother me, Like why you would you waste so much money on a stock chassis vett that much power, hell i bet 3k could have had him a custom chassis built by Art Morrison, and his shop is only 5 or so miles from where is car is at. It seems alot of money could have been saved in the process of building this car. But then again I really under estimate the cost of labor. "I do all my own labor".

When I saw the car last, It did honestly seem this " " close to seeing complete reality.
Remaining issues were:
1: Overheating under driving conditions, could hold stable all day if left at idle.
2: ECU tuning.

3: Just some interior cosmetic cleanups.

Now on the other hand I don't think it was ever completly opened up, though I wouldn't untill some adiquate run time is pushed on the engine. But there could be a host of tuning issues in the upper end. I still think the richmond is going to snap with that much hp. "I want to buy it from him before he breaks it, unless he actually does sell it." The centerforce clutch!!!!!! I don't know about these clutches holding that much power. Anyone know much behind them. I know I burned mine out fairly quick.
I don't want to knock it down, After all it did show me plenty of potential on the street, so perhaps everything will hold up. If so then great, and best of luck to the buyer. Perhaps they will SHOW US THE POWER

 

Theres no single disk clutch on earth wich would hold that on WOT

 

All of you had better stop dissing my friend Steve. He built the greatest car there ever was and that makes him cool now. When we go out driving around and he pulls my shifter, all the chicks dig us. You're all just jealous of us and the happiness we have found. I think Steve knows more about engines and tires and well, stuff than anyone here. That includes Ganey!
This forum has become awesome because Steve joined a few years back.
You should all get on your knees and bob your praise to Steve!

 

Somebody should call Jay Leno and see if he will buy it. Mr. Leno drives the cars in his collection. I think it would be cool to see it every night as he drives into the studio.
Mike

 

BSeery - I agree the tires look a little funny but Steve has also made comment of that himself. He put on the biggest tires they currently make but wants larger. The rims were custom made and you don't exactly do something like that twice when the new tires come out. He is assuming something larger will come out since the new Viper runs the same size and hopefully the aftermarket world will demand a larger tire.

I too hope that sometime soon Steve or the next owner of Merlin will do some testing with that car and hopefully confirm his earlier statements. Whether or not that is truly a street car, racecar, or showcar, I love it! It screams testosterone. Uugghhhh, uugghhhh, arrrggghhhh, arrrrgghhhhh!!!!

 

I have been emailed by a ton of people wanting to know the dyno numbers(and anything else I can tell them) on Steve's(merlin522) car.

I would like to tell everyone that I will not talk about this subject out of respect for Steve. If Steve wants this info shared, I think he should be the one to do it and not me.

Please don't read anything negative into this. The one thing I will share after spending a good deal of time with Steve is that he is a heck of a great guy with an incredibly upbeat personality.

I hope everyone understands my position.

Steve

 

Wow! Look at all the good fun I missed. I wanted to come on over & say hi. Take a breathe of air & forget about fighting SQL worms for a while. Nice to know that the same clueless people are here & the same friends as well. I guess nothing really changes. Jerks are jerks. Friends are friends. Honestly, I don't expect the car to sell on Ebay so there was no risk in posting it again. I wanted to see just how horrible an investment customizing cars can be. I think we all have our answer.

Now, back to the car. I still haven't totally given up on it, but the overheating issue was as frustrating as any we have dealt with. I am pleased to announce we have a solution. I did a ton of work with the guys over at Derale & Vintage Air. The fans that Chris put on the car were only flowing 1360 cfm!! Everyone agreed that isn’t even enough to begin cooling the car. Everyone agreed that with as much power as it is producing, we need as close to 4000 as possible. Low & behold, I found this: http://vintageair.com/accessories/page66.htm The Monster cooler fan! Of course. A monster car needs a monster cooler fan. We're also going to be adding an oil cooler system as well, but everyone agrees this mamajama of a fan will do the trick. The pan & shroud seals really helped. This should finish off that problem.

As for all the folks who say the car is not drivable or whatever - get a clue. The car is perfectly drivable & can certainly be a daily driver. Whipple made me some 5" upper pulleys & they really helped. The car is completely docile unless you hit the throttle. I'm not going to ever claim that it is like a Honda, but it's very drivable & LOTS of fun. After we get the new fan in, I'm likely going to go back to the 4" pulleys. They just look better & the car is that much scarier to drive. Now that I have driven it a bunch, I like the scary stuff!!

As for the dyno - Steve, I appreciate you respecting my privacy but I am also happy to share. Aaron is right about Craig Blood, but I've also been told that he's a jerk - by everyone I've asked. Still, he does seem to be the one to tune it, so I'm going to give him a shot. Given that we did the dyno with a car that was overheating, arcing on a number of the spark plugs, running like crap etc - I am pretty amazed at the numbers. We never did get it running right. I still stand by the EFI systems. Once you lock it in, it's set. Getting it locked in, however takes far more work than I realized.

On the first dyno run, we were running so rich that we flamed through 600 degree aircraft quality tubing that was on the exhaust. I still remember Steve B’s reaction when he pulled it off the tailpipe & smoke was coming out! That was good fun. After spending some time with the computers & fixing things – we did get one decent run. One of the big problems with the car is that I was just too afraid of breaking things on the dyno. I wasn’t willing to really get into the gas. Finally Steve convinced me to press the pedal down & the results were simply astounding – given all the problems. At 3/4 throttle (I never floored it) with 2 arcing plugs, 13 psi & a sub par tune, the car cranked out 900 pounds of torque. Normally that wouldn’t be too big a deal, except if you look at where that power was. We started recording at 3,200 rpm. The very first mark on the dyno sheet at 3,200 rpm shows 820 pounds of torque. By 3400 rpm it had climbed to 877 pounds of torque & when I let off the throttle at 3800 rpm, we were sitting right around 900 pounds of torque. Horsepower never really came into the equation because we simply weren’t cranking enough rpm to get into the horsepower. It was sitting around 645. Now, let’s use Monty’s car as a baseline – and I think his is a very good baseline because it’s the craziest other street C3 out there right now. http://www.montygwilliams.com/TT_SBC_427_Dyno.jpg His dyno sheet starts recording at 4,100 rpm. I had already shut down well before that because I knew the car wasn’t running right & I didn’t want to break anything. The highest rpm reading I had was around 3,800 rpm so we’ll have to use that as a comparison. Boost was just starting to come on at that rpm & everything started climbing rapidly, but it’s close enough to compare. My car was producing 130 more pounds of torque & 45 more horsepower at that level - even with all the problems. Monty’s car doesn’t hit those torque numbers until 5200 rpm.

I’m not trying to one up Monty or anything like that. What he has done with his car is astounding. What I am trying to show is that if we get this thing tuned, we take care of the spark plug boot issue & we were able to do a proper engine dyno, this thing is producing unheard of numbers. That test was also on pump gas & wasn’t even WOT. Imagine if we crank the boost up another 10 psi & use race gas & really stomp on it! I am convinced that the torque numbers would approach 1500. The biggest issue we have is the hydraulic lifters. They simply are not up to the task of high boost. If we were to swap the block out with the 700 CI version I wanted to do & use solid lifters – I am more than ever convinced that 2000 streetable HP is doable.

The problem is that even if we could do 5000 HP – who cares?? There was a time when I did. I was out to prove a point & do something cool. I’ve met a lot of great friends while doing this project, but I’ve also met a zillion idiots. The people I don’t care for unfortunately override all of the great friends & that is sad. More than anything, I am a very private person. When a car has so much notoriety that I can’t even sustain a web site with fiber running in my house, it’s time to back things down & that is what I am doing. The car is affecting my ability to do my job & further my career. That is unacceptable. Furthermore, some a-hole tried to get me fired by calling my place of employment & telling them that I make too much money. Believe me, if that happened to any of you – especially when Washington has the highest unemployment rates in the country right now, that’s personal. I don’t take that crap sitting down. To whoever did that, you have to be the most jealous, insecure idiot on the face of the planet. I will never understand the human race. For every great person I meet, there are 100 peons that do stuff like that. I truly weep for our future. All I tried to do was push the envelope & instead I end up having to fight for my very existence. That’s not right & I’m done with that game.

I still get a thrill every time I do drive the car. It’s the most fun I have ever had in a vehicle. I have to laugh at a lot of these negative posts because only a very limited few of you have ever met me & even fewer have ridden in the car. It is everything I had ever hoped for & more. The rush of pressing the pedal down is pure adrenalin. It is pure drugs. Like taking drugs, there is a price to pay for that high, however. I have paid that price & have determined that at this point in my life, the high is no longer worth the price I have to pay.

Yes, there are some issues that still need to be dealt with, but they are minor. I feel like all of my goals were achieved. I still get at least 20 letters every day from people telling me how cool it looks etc. It’s nice to know people like it, but honestly – I’m over it. It’s just a car. At the end of the day, it doesn’t put food on the table. In fact, it takes it away. I pride myself in being a good investor & one of the tenants of being a good investor is to not get emotionally attached to your investments. There is no way not to be emotionally attached to something like this, but after having built it & being able to stand back & look at it, I realize that it was a horrible investment. It was something I had to do, it is done & now I just want to go on with the rest of my life. I started actually building this car in Nov of 98 when I first got up here to Washington. I had been planning it for at least 4 or 5 years before that as well. I am a VERY different person than I was back then. I find myself more drawn to things that are comfortable & luxurious. I have a great respect for the SL55 because it does just about everything well. It is fast, it is comfortable, I can get in & out of it easily, it is quiet with the top up & sexy with the top down. The electronics work amazing. Everything about it is a masterpiece. Most of all, when you get tired of it – you can actually sell it & get some money back. Why? Because millions of dollars went into designing it & tons of very large brains. And tons of history. I have always felt that one person who was dedicated, could build something that is faster than what a factory can build. I think that many of us have already proven that is the case. Now, at this point in my life, I don’t want to have to think about my car. I just want to get into it & drive it. That’s the part I didn’t consider. I’ve never EVER had any desire to be a mechanic. I enjoy tinkering with vehicles, but I enjoy driving them more. Many detractors of the Vette always had no respect for me or what I have done because I didn’t physically build the car myself. Who cares? I didn’t build the Viper, but I still enjoy driving it! I enjoy driving the SL55 even more.

So, I just wanted everyone to realize that although I don’t come back here much any more, I still think about you all. I’m moving into a new phase of my life & unfortunately I don’t have a lot of time to think about cars & so forth, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t care about all the great friends I’ve met here. I will always try to stop by from time to time & visit. The Corvette Forum was a huge part of my life for the past few years, as was Merlin. At the end of the day, it’s just a car. It has no magical powers, though it certainly has taken on a life of its own. Even with all that mystic & notoriety, there still doesn’t seem to be a single individual in all the planet that will step up & pay even $70K for it. The engine & blowers alone cost about that much. Think about that next time you are power mad & just have to have the fastest & the best. I’m not saying don’t go for your dreams. You MUST go for your dreams. What I’m saying is that maybe that money would be better suited sitting in the bank earning interest so you can use it for something useful like feeding your family. I did something that few people would ever in their right mind consider doing. In some senses, I guess you could say I wasn’t in my right mind! Building this car was fun & it was very therapeutic for me. It helped me to find what I really want out of life & to get over some very bad things that happened to me in the past. Now that these goals have been attained, it’s time for me to let it go & it’s time for everyone else to let it go too. What I do with the car is my business & my business alone. I’m tired of feeling like a rock star & just want to go back to being a mild mannered mortal. I had hoped that the car would have slipped into obsolescence by now, but I guess having it on eBay won’t let that happen. I’m going to go ahead & sell it privately after the eBay auction is over. I may enjoy it for a little while, I may not. That decision is mine & mine alone. Everyone should just let it go… Please....