Mr. Wizzard

I haven't seen any threads lately.
A good freind and Grand Sport replica owner Mike Lanzara passed away on December 2 from a massive stroke. He added the GS to his collection of Corvettes, a Ford GT, and a Pantera about a year ago. We will all miss him greatly.
I haven't done much to my car, as I've had too much work here at Endyn and a few health problems that have slowed me a bit.
Fortunately the weather here in Cowtown has been nice on the weekends, so I've been able to get in a little cruising time that's kept me smiling. Saturday a freind who worked on both of the real Grand Sports that were here in N. Texas came by and I took him to our our weekend hamburger get-together in the GS. He was thrilled with the car...but of course, when you're a helpless passenger, thrills come easy!
Next up is installation of some gauges in the center pillar of the dash. I have two analog air/fuel gauges (one for each side of the engine) that will go in and then I'll be able to do some accurate tuning.
I'll likely be starting on the rear suspension mods the end of the month, followed up by the front suspension work.

Not much else to report on this end.

Larry

DandyDon

Happy New Year Larry. Very sad news about your friend--he owned my favorites,a GS replica,a Ford GT, and a Pantera. It doesn't get much better than that. Sounds like a great guy.

I look forward to yourGS postings and followed your "Build Log" when you acquired your car.

I've really got the "itch" for a GS and live only 20 miles from Mongoose Motorsports.

Unfortunately, I lost my job about a year ago and no one hires 60 year olds. I recently started an engineering and custom manufacturing company with an old colleague and we're putting a lot into it right now.

I'm beginning to think I would prefer to find a "done" car or one mostly done. I just don't have the extra hours in the day.

It's funny, but I must have gotten on to SuperPerformance's "sucker list" (I used to be into Cobras) and they are starting to push their new GS. I would like to see one up close just to compare them to Mongoose.

I'll watch for your future posts, as it seems you've got a talent for refining a lot of the small things on these replica cars and making a "good car" into a "great car".
Keep up the good work.

DandyDon (Akron)

Mr. Wizzard

From what I understand, there is only one car that was produced for display in the Superformance booths. I've followed the progress on the Superformance GS pretty closely, and I don't know if they've ever finished any of the tooling to produce a car or not. The fact that there have been very few updates leads me to believe that the project may be dead in the water at present.
At present, Gary at Mongoose is the only one building kits as well as complete cars....
I make a habit of looking for replica's that people are selling, and I haven't seen any for the last 6-months or so, so it seems that most folks are hanging on tho their cars at present.
I will update my article once we get to work on my car again soon.
Larry

groovyjay

I'm about done with the body work on my gs roadster project and I just got of the phone with the guy is going to paint it, looks like it should have color on it in early April, so I'm looking at getting it back on the road early september... I'll post updates as the work goes on. Anything new about the door hinges Larry? I'm still interested in a set. BTW your all-white coupe is so perfect that I want to build a clone car of it as soon as I finish the roadster.

Mr. Wizzard

Thanks for the complement on my GS. I have two more sets of the hinges made, so email me when you need a set. (staff@theoldone.com)

Larry

tyoneal

-----------------------
Wizard:

I plan to also buy a set gr you in the future as soon as I gety car to the point of needing them.

Any other things coming up that you are building?

How is your engine coming along?

Ty

tyoneal

Wizard:
iPhone's don't make good forum tools. Sorry about my poor spelling. I am planning on using your hinges as well.

Just in case you wondered.

Take care ,

Ty

Mr. Wizzard

Other than receiving the Kinsler induction set-up (minus the air-horns), I haven't done anything to the engine.
I plan on ordering the billet crankshaft the end of this month, along with the rods. I still haven't decided on the head castings yet, but we'll likely write a CNC program and do them here at Endyn. Once they are complete, I'll design some pistons to work with them and have Wiseco make them for me. We do all piston finish-machining here and I have a long relationship with Wiseco.
I may have a window to install the new rear suspension (with Honda bump-stops) in the next couple weeks, and then I'll take-on the front suspension with the narrower tread-width.

I also plan to become a dealer for Mongoose. My car is a good example of the work they do, and I can advise customers as to what works and what doesn't. There will be some big announcements coming soon concerning all this.
Hinges aren't a problem to do, so when you guys need them, just let me know. We also have made several sets of non-lightened hinges for guys running C2's in vintage competition. We make them look just like castings using our "cheating bastard" machine!
Had another really nice day here. Drove the car to work and once again to Kinkaid's for burgers and friends this afternoon. Took Mike Garvie (our master welder) for a ride this morning, but I had to get back to the shop quickly when he told me that the 2nd and 3rd gear pull was making him pee!
Larry

TheSaint

That white grand Sport is really tuff

TheSaint

This white Grand Sport is really tuff

63Corvette

This is our President, Mike Lanzara's Grand Sport.

Mr. Wizzard

I've still never seen Mike's GS in person, but it's a good-looking car in the pictures. Hopefully Mike's sons will continue his legacy of collecting cool cars.
Randy (Tazman) has his office just two doors down the street from my business. We've watched his transition from running killer Vettes to Cup Porsches with great interest over the last few years.

firstgear

What is happening with the Kinsler intake

Mr. Wizzard

Still waiting on the carbon ram tubes, but I have everything else.

TheSaint

I would love to have a Grand Sport coupe but the Norwegian "DMV" is almost impossible so getting the car road legal is not easy.

Anybody ever seen a Grand Sport built on a original C2 frame that also uses the part of the bird cage where the VIN and tag is placed?
Using a original frame and the bird cage part makes the car more C2 original

I think that doing it that way is the only chance to get license plates on a Grand Sport in this country

Mr. Wizzard

I believe that the cars built by MAI start out with a real C2 Corvette, so they carry the original VIN's.

jim lockwood

This is true. The MAI Grand Sports retain the original birdcage and VIN plate. It makes registering an MAI Grand Sport significantly easier than registering a D&D..... at least it does out here in the Peoples' Republik of Kalifornia.

Jim

keystonefarm

I believe Mongoose has built a GS replica with a factory birdcage and vin. It was for Japan . It did have the Mongoose GS tube type frame . I saw the donor 65 coupe and it was not much to start with !!!. My new GS coupe is moving along. Once I figure out how to transfer the Picassa pictures Gary has sent me to the forum I will do so.
------------------ Ken

groovyjay

Could this be it?

jim lockwood

This is the chassis and ZL1 engine for Ken's new Grand Sport. Pretty cool!!!



Ken, do this:

1. Go to the picassa web page of pictures for your car.

2. Bring up a one picture

3. Right click (assuming windoze) and select "copy image location"

4. In a CF reply window, click on the landscape icon and paste the image link in the small pop up window.

Jim

Jim