When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Are you having fun with this project...if so you are on the right track. To me it looks very much like a BMW sports car.. and they seem to get things right. Have fun and keep us posted (beats reading about tires and wheel sensors, lol)
I applaud the design effort. Not sure of the actual functionality. Without any 1/4 scale testing , this is a one shot in the dark deal... with wind tunnel time @ 1200 an hour min 10K. It also looks heavy. I'm not being critical, but I have been doing this for many years.
I would be interested to know the actual mission design? In any event . good luck with the project.
Bill aka ET
UDU, just for future reference: do a little research on Evil-Twin. He is a retired engineer from GM who was part of the C5 design team from it is infancy until its birth into production. So while I can appreciate the work you are performing and your efforts to improve the already great car it is, don’t discount ET’s comments and knowledge. As Amper Racing may know what they are doing so does ET. Give the man his due son. Good luck with your project.
This!
Personally (and being that udu asked), I find the aesthetic aspect of this project just bad. While all the "build out/up" may be functional, the overall visual impression I get is "MadMax meets Pontiac Aztec".
I absolutely love the Corvette C5. And this build has taken the once sleek and flowing lines of the C5 and morphed them into something that looks just the opposite to me. Perhaps a good coat or two of paint will help and amount to more than just "lipstick on a pig".
Sorry, it's just my opinion mind you, and you know how the saying goes...opinions are like a*******...everyone's got one and they all stink!
I do applaud your creative spirit and commitment. Tons of time and effort reflected there...serious Kudos to that!
UDU, just for future reference: do a little research on Evil-Twin. He is a retired engineer from GM who was part of the C5 design team from it is infancy until its birth into production. So while I can appreciate the work you are performing and your efforts to improve the already great car it is, don’t discount ET’s comments and knowledge. As Amper Racing may know what they are doing so does ET. Give the man his due son. Good luck with your project.
I applaud the design effort. Not sure of the actual functionality. Without any 1/4 scale testing , this is a one shot in the dark deal... with wind tunnel time @ 1200 an hour min 10K. It also looks heavy. I'm not being critical, but I have been doing this for many years.
I would be interested to know the actual mission design? In any event . good luck with the project.
Bill aka ET
We are great fans of the engineering side of C5, it is technically excellent. That is the reason we chose it as a base for our car, because it is the best car in the world for that money. The aim is to make a different body, so that the car is unique. And we take it to circuit track for a quick lap or a bit of drag racing. Like Lauri said, if there are going to be splitters and holes on the body, they will be working, not just because they look cool. We grew up in Soviet Union, where everybody had to be just like everybody else. Much like North Korea these days. Just one grey mass of grey people. I think it is OK to be different. There is a lot of racecar building heritage in Estonia, most of the Soviet block formula cars were built here (1300) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia_%28race_car%29 Amper Racing was the last team to run these cars at international level, against Dallaras and british F3 cars. These Estonia formula cars are very popular in historic races nowadays in Germany for example. Of course we don´t have the means to work with our car in windtunnel for days, but there are many things you can test on track as well. A shot in the dark it may be, but if the shooter has some experience, the chances of hitting the mark get better. Building the car is much more fun than driving it later I think. You can see our first designs on Amperette Facebook page, we have come a long way since then and it is not done yet. I want to thank everybody for kind words and comments, we were afraid that we would recieve only "C5 design is holy and all other cars in the world are ugly" type of comments. By reactions here and in facebook, we start redesigning the front and rear .
Have fun and keep us posted (beats reading about tires and wheel sensors, lol)
I agree - all the posts going over the same stuff time and time again. Nobody seems to do a search for their issue before they post any more. And if I read one more post about what fluid to use in a T56.......
As to the project - go for it. The C5 guys got a lot right styling wise - better than the C6 and much better than the C7, IMO. But it's not perfect. When I saw your side view, I thought you had gone for the same spoiler/rear body design as the 4th generation Camaro, which I aways liked. But your front and rear views - not so much. I do like that you guys have actually widened the quarter panels, and not just gone with the aftermarket approach - they seem to mostly look like someone just glassed in generic flares.
To me, GM's best "look" at the moment is the prototype Buick Avista. An absolute slam dunk. If the C7 looked that good, there would be one sitting on my driveway right now.
Last edited by jackthelad; Mar 19, 2016 at 10:45 AM.
I agree - all the posts going over the same stuff time and time again. Nobody seems to do a search for their issue before they post any more. And if I read one more post about what fluid to use in a T56.......
As to the project - go for it. The C5 guys got a lot right styling wise - better than the C6 and much better than the C7, IMO. But it's not perfect. When I saw your side view, I thought you had gone for the same spoiler/rear body design as the 4th generation Camaro, which I aways liked. But your front and rear views - not so much. I do like that you guys have actually widened the quarter panels, and not just gone with the aftermarket approach - they seem to mostly look like someone just glassed in generic flares.
To me, GM's best "look" at the moment is the prototype Buick Avista. An absolute slam dunk. If the C7 looked that good, there would be one sitting on my driveway right now.
One of my first cars was `87 IROC-Z :-) Yes, Avista is gorgeous. C7 looked good on photos, but not so nice in real life. The sharp lines are pop right now, but we searched for muscle and more for evergreen design, rather than current trend.
First your design, while different, is interesting and if it suits you then it's good. As the man observed while watching a 6' 5" skinny kid walking arm-in-arm with his very chubby 5' 2" girlfriend, "See...just goes to show you...there's a bun for every weenie."
I've always viewed the C5 as a blank canvas. OK, now what do I want to do to it to make it MY Corvette.
Last, for those who say "You'll never get your money out of it.", I say "duh." We'll never get our money back upon selling any car, or any furniture, or engagement ring or Rolex watch or any other big ticket, personal item. Period. While spending north of 50 large on engine/drive train/suspension/interior/wheels and related stuff for my C5, I made all of those changes with the going-in understanding I'd never sell this car. Its no longer a blank canvas. Instead, its in my will...it goes to my eldest son, a career Army Blackhawk pilot and car/motorcycle enthusiast.
So there....
Keep it up and keep us posted. I, for one, enjoy your creativity.
The Lizzard
Last edited by LoneStarLizzard; Mar 19, 2016 at 11:16 AM.
Over the years i have had c3 and couple of c4-s and i love corvettes, they are such great cars! After swapping LT1 into my `80 C3 and running 11.9 ET on street tires, it felt that i needed another build, as this one was done. So I went to Amper Racing, who had tuned my cars, we sat down with the bossman Lauri, had couple of beers and came up with C5 project. Wide custom carbonfibre body with big 19" wheels, 500+ hp and racecar aerodynamics and suspension package. Lauri decided to build the new body model around the C5 body in a traditional hot rod way, from sheetmetal, then we paint it and take molds and make carbon parts. Today we released first pictures of it, half of the body is almost done, what you guys think? I guess fellow corvette lovers are the best jury.
At least you have a great base for the project. Not sure about the aero aspect though. Has a Shelby design look to my eye, good luck w/ this. Like to see this kind of creative thing being done. No car has to remain as designed, how could we go racing without design upgrades? Shelby
At least you have a great base for the project. Not sure about the aero aspect though. Has a Shelby design look to my eye, good luck w/ this. Like to see this kind of creative thing being done. No car has to remain as designed, how could we go racing without design upgrades? Shelby
Playing around with spoilers on a factory car body is restricting, you can do so much more, when you start in mid air.
I was looking at the stats of our facebook page and there are so many likes from girls, that I start to believe we must have done something right! :-) If a sportscar does not attract girls, then it loses like half of its purpose and value :-)
Lauri posted pics in Mad mechanics forum, where people talk kit cars and stuff and a guy from Greece offered help for free, to render his version. Dudes name is Ikaros there and he has the hand and eye and skill, so we wait with great interest what will come from him. Meanwhile we got the headlamp and in order to fit it, we have to redo the front anyway, so its cut to pieces again and we start from scratch with the nose. If you want to follow the progress, like our facebook page, Lauri posts updates there. https://www.facebook.com/Amperette-1...635476/?ref=hl
Now you can have your input into our build, here are two slightly different versions of the front end, go to Amperette facebook page and click like on the one you think is most pretty.
send pics of the finished product
