LocostUSA.com

Today @ Cars & Coffee Dallas a friend and I saw what looked to be some sort of Panoz LMP car WITH TAGS driving towards the meeting place.

Shortly after we got there we saw him driving around looking for a display space so of course we followed him and helped him find a place to park.

I texted a picture to my son in law and he promptly asked was it a Panoz Imp (I still don't know what that is)

A soft spoken gentleman got out and we asked what it was. He said a Z06 with a custom body. It was a whole lot more than just a custom body. He said it had taken him 3 years to build and he'd cut up a perfectly good Z06 and added to and subtracted and then built a body that was supposed to make people think of an LMP.

I had sent further pics to my son-in-law and in one picture there was a website. So he asked was I talking to George. I asked him and he said "Yes, someone must have found his webpage." Nothing more was said, we kept talking about the build details when I received another text that said "Do you know who you are talking too?" And I promptly said "George".

My son-in-law said that by looking at the webpage I was definitely talking to "the most interesting man in the world". So I turned to George and showed him the text at which point he laughed and I asked what did that mean. He said "Most people know me as the inventor of Laser Tag". I thought cool, but I soon got another text that told me to ask George about his twin motorcycle car.

I got an ear full of projects and build details for about 45 minutes. WOW! Just look at this beauty and the molds could be for sale.

I'm probably going to post too many pictures but there are lots of details to see. I call it the Laser Tag car.

WHOOPS! I can't upload pics. I get a 500 Internal Server Error.

I'll keep trying but in the meantime go to this site and wander around. http://www.carterinventions.com/

The car isn't on there. Today was it's debut and now that the cat is out of the bag he thinks he will be putting info about it on the site soon.

Hmmm what's the maximum file size for pics here? I finally got a low res version to load.

_________________
mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

There are 2 Vettes in this picture. One is a 1957 with a Dodge Hemi in it and one is the Z06 (BTW he was able to title the car as a Vette)

The red one was in many mags in the late 50's during the era of all the swoopy show cars.

_________________
mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

Now I can't post just pictures so here's some "characters"

BTW that's a Celica tail light.

_________________
mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

I really liked his roll bar fairings. The flat top gave them a more modern look than the tall, rounded fairing on the 57 car next to it.

For my tastes it could use a little more roll over protection. If you look back to the pic of him driving into the event you can see he is pretty exposed compared to an LMP race car.

_________________
mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

Notice his Toll Tag solution.

_________________
mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

The naca ducts are for ducting air to the twin, rear mounted turbos that are to be added.

_________________
mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

He used G35 xenon headlights.

Notice how upright the windscreen is. He tried the leaned back, swoopy version and it didn't work well.

_________________
mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

Instead of hiding them, he left the fasteners exposed to give it more of a "real race car" look.

_________________
mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

I like the front lip.

The car is very wide! The rear tire is Viper sized and the fronts are the size of the normal rear on a Z06. He used offsets to widen the track.

_________________
mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

Sweet. looks like a LeMans protoype. I wonder if any of that areo works.

_________________
If it has tits or tires it will cost you money.

He doesn't even know. He says he hasn't driven it in anger yet and wouldn't even open the hood. He said it wasn't detailed yet.

He used the tub of the Vette and moved the engine back several inches so I'm betting you'd see some raw edges if he'd have opened the hood.

He was also able to leave all the traction control and other electronics intact which should make the car easier to drive. Of course once he gets going very hard through a corner he may find some electronic interference, but only time will tell.

I'll keep in touch.

BTW the doors don't open and the finish quality was EXCELLENT. I felt around on the glass work and it was very nice.

_________________
mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

Shhh...I don't think we're allowed to talk about this here, because it's certainly not low-cost.


From what I can tell in the pics, that's probably one of the more impressive custom car builds I've seen in a while. I wonder how much of the work he does himself vs finding the right people to do the work for him?...Either way, my hat goes off to him!

_________________
-Justin

"Orville Wright did not have a pilots license." - Gordon MacKenzie

He did most of the work himself. Although he did make the buck and let someone else make the mold.

_________________
mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

I think that's George Carter. He's built all kind of things over the years. Very talented guy.

Yes, it's George.

An interesting tidbit on the body. The slab sides aren't really flat. He said that if you made the sides truly flat when the body seasoned you'd end up with slightly concave sides so they are ever so slightly bowed outwards.

_________________
mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.