Happy Halloween, Autopians! Today we’re going to look at a couple of homebuilt cars. One of them isn’t what it claims to be, and the other has been made into something rather different from how it started out. Which one’s costume is more convincing? That will be up to you to decide.
Yesterday we looked at two cars that were kinda-sorta like cars featured in scary movies, and I confess that I was surprised by the outcome of this one. The red Plymouth Valiant seems to have won this, um, duel. Judging by the comments, I thought the big Oldsmobile had this one sewn up. I have no way of knowing who votes for what, of course, but it’s always interesting to me when the overall tone of the comments don’t match the final vote tally.
I think I’d take the Valiant, too. It’s just such a nice, honest old car. And it would be a hell of a lot easier to park than that gigantic Olds. Sorry, Ash; you’re on your own against the Deadites, it looks like.
You don’t see a whole lot of kit cars being built these days. The phenomenon seems to have reached its peak in the 1970s, and since then, the supply of dirt-cheap VW Beetles has dried up, and nobody wants to mess around with fiberglass anymore. There are still a few kits around, but more upscale and expensive, like the Factory Five kits. You don’t find many cheap kit cars like the ones that used to be advertised in the back of Road & Track.
One of these looks like it’s the last gasp of a kit car manufacturer that made cars more potent than your typical VW-based kits, and the other doesn’t look like it was a kit at all – it’s all home-built. Unfortunately, the seller isn’t being completely honest about its provenance. So we have a slightly underhanded trick, and a sweet and speedy treat. Let’s check them out.
“1965 Lotus 7” – $15,000
Engine/drivetrain: 2.8 liter OHV V6, five-speed manual, RWD
Location: Newton, KS
Odometer reading: 200 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
The Lotus 7, introduced in 1957, is probably the purest form of driving fun that there is. It’s a featherweight tube frame with an aluminum skin, a simple suspension system, a small engine, and that’s about it. It was originally built using Ford components, and sold by Lotus in the UK as a kit for tax reasons. Because it’s so simple, and was originally sold unassembled, it has become one of the most copied cars of all time. Dozens of companies have offered Lotus 7-like vehicles, and lots of enterprising folks have taken it upon themselves to build their own from scratch. This appears to be one of those scratch-built cars, commonly known as a “Locost,” because it can be built cheaply.
A great many engines have found their way into the front ends of 7s over the years; the original used Ford four-cylinder engines. But almost anything will work, as long as it fits, so you can get as wild with the power as you want. This one uses a GM 2.8 liter V6, modified a bit, and driving the rear axle through a T5 five-speed manual. The seller describes it as “scary fast,” and has put only 200 miles on it since it was completed. They’re selling it now because they’re getting too old to drive it safely.
Here’s where I’d normally talk about the interior, but cars like this don’t really have much of an interior. There are seats, and a steering wheel, and a dashboard, but the floor is bare metal and there are no creature comforts whatsoever. This one doesn’t even have a proper windshield, just two little Brooklands-style windscreens sticking out of the top of the cowl.
The traditional body for a 7 is aluminum skin attached to the steel tube frame, along with a removable aluminum hood and a fiberglass nose, and this car appears to follow that. I don’t think much of the giant hood scoop, but I guess it’s necessary to clear the high-rise intake on the V6. I’m not fond of the wheels, either; usually I like this style, but they don’t belong here. But all that can be changed if you want.
1985 Manta Mirage – $34,000
Engine/drivetrain: 400 cubic inch OHV V8, four-speed manual RWD
Location: St. George, UT
Odometer reading: 3,900 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Manta Cars was a kit-car manufacturer in Costa Mesa, California, from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. Its most famous and popular model was this car, the Mirage, a tube-frame mid-engined sports car styled to look like a McLaren. The seller has this car listed as a 1967 model, but obviously that’s not right; Manta didn’t even come into existence until 1974. I found an older post about this car from the last time it was for sale, however, and it’s listed by the previous seller as a 1985 model, which sounds right.
The Mirage is mid-engined, and typically powered by a Chevy small-block V8 mated to a Corvair transaxle. This one has a 400 cubic inch motor that the seller says is pushing 400 horsepower – a hell of a lot for a two-thousand-pound car. It’s a good way to make lots of power, but I’m sure the eagle-eyed among you have already noticed some foolishness about it. It has eight Hillborn-style velocity stacks sticking out of the top of a rectangular air filter, which sits on top of a perfectly normal four-barrel carb. I bet if you look down those stacks, the openings don’t even go through to the air cleaner. I think they’re just stuck on top. The photos from the old ad show it with a normal round chrome air cleaner, which I think looks better, and more honest.
It’s tight quarters inside; there are two seats, but you’d better know each other pretty well. Those door sills aren’t going to be easy to get over, so you have to be limber too. The Mirage has weird two-piece doors: the removable center top section has small gullwing doors that open upward, and the lower Countach-style scissor doors flip forward. This one includes the top and gullwing doors, but they’re not shown in any of the photos.
I gotta admit – the kid in me absolutely loves the way this car looks. It’s like a Hot Wheels car come to life. It’s absolutely ridiculous, and that makes it wonderful. The orange paint is a Lamborghini color, and the wheels come from a Plymouth Prowler. The rear wing and engine scoop look custom, and I think the front end is too. You certainly won’t see another one like it. Whether or not that’s a good thing is a personal choice, but I kind of love it.
Building your own car is not for everyone. It’s a metric shit-ton of work, and the results are not guaranteed. And taking on someone else’s project, even complete and running ones like these, is also a risky proposition. But the great thing is, since there’s really nothing saying how they “should” be, you can turn them into anything you want. Which one would you take on?
As someone else mentioned that 2.8 doesn’t have a cooling system connected and that Holley carb (I’m guessing it’s a 600cfm) is waaaay too big for a 2.8l engine. It would run like crap (until it overheated).
Holley made a 4bbl 390cfm that was all the rage on Olds/Rover V8s but even that would be too big for this engine.
If the Manta has a Corvair gearbox, since the Corvair engine rotates the opposite direction of a SBC ( there is a long and pedantic argument that it’s not spinning backwards that I will ignore here) if you spin it around with the clutch and engine ahead of the axle the SBC ant the transmission will combine for 4 forward gears and one reverse.
The problem it the Corvair gears are only heat treated for spinning the other way, and the thrust bearings also only provide any sort of durability in one direction, which isn’t the one his is spinning. A VW bug transmission would be more robust, but just barely.
Jim Kellison and Crown Engineering sold some modified Corvair transmissions using tempest internals but they are expensive, rare, and you can be certain that the seller would go on and on about it if it was present.
Really? Are you sure it’s not a matter of the hypoid final drive being stronger in one direction than the other (which is a reason why high pinion front axles are expensive- the hypoid gear has to be ‘reverse cut’)
I am not privy to Saginaw Gear’s engineering drawings, but I have been told that for 60+ years. I assume a hypoid design is at the heart of it, it would make sense.
If you do a little research, the number of solutions to the problem are many. None are mentioned here.
Looking at that Lotus, it’s actually got an interesting feature.
Look at the front of the intake manifold. It’s missing a thermostat, the housing and the hose up there. and there is no indication of any fluid ever being in there.
I know GM made a 2.7L air cooled 6 cylinder engine, didn’t know they made a 2.8L one.
That might explain why the car only has 200 miles.
Lotus, because $19,000.
The 7 is more interesting to me. The guy is probably trying to get about what he has into it out of it. That doesn’t really seem to work with most kit cars. The 2.8 is underated and outshined by the 3.8. Throw modern TBI on it and probably have something quite reliable and uncomfortable to use on nice days.
I briefly owned a Manta Mirage about 20 years ago. I should have tried it out in-person before buying it on Ebay. The seat shapes are part of the fiberglass tub and there was no way to comfortably drive it (6’1″, 240 lbs).
I’m betting that 400 HP rating is a real as the velocity stacks.
The “Lotus” looks closer to being 15 grand worth of fun than the Manta does to being 34 grand worth of fun.
Me thinks there’s one too many zeros on the Manta’s price tag. And the Lotus is priced a bit more than double what I’d pay.
The orange pumpkin is right on the edge of cool and hideous. I lean slightly towards hideous. Gimme the Lotus-ish thingy.
Both of these cars are ridiculously outlandish, but I’m going with the “Lotus” as it’s more my kind of outlandish. I’d have to get a WWII style leather aviator’s helmet with goggles, but it would be fun zipping around the area like that. That Manta is cool-looking but seems like much more of a headache to drive.
Oof. This is a neither day for me, but pushed to vote…I guess the Locost. But still, hard no to both.
I choose 7.
But it makes mine look like a bargain. Mine was homebuilt (frame included) by an SCCA racer using Miata running gear, an RX7 diff, and a fire-breathing SR20DET. 1600 pounds and 368 horses when the boost is on high. Same price as the one here.
You had me at SR20. I vote for yours.
That sounds like a good way to die with a big grin on your face. <thumbs up>
I have squeezed my giant self into a real early Lotus 7 and (barely) driven it – even with ~75hp it was mildly terrifying. I can’t even imagine what yours is like even if it probably weighs a good bit more than an original. With my fat ass in it, a real one is barely over a 1/2 ton. Same power as my Spitfire, and well less than half the weight.
It is wild! I feel like I look like Jeremy Clarkson when he drove the Ariel Atom all the time. The builder did floor-mounted pedals, so anyone with an inseam longer than my (towering) 30 inches can likely not drive it.
You would have to define what you call a kit car. Most of us consider restyled VWs as body kits, not kit cars, or differentiate real cars as custom cars.
Mantas and Factory Five cars have space frames and generally out perform anything stock.
I’m a bit lost as to how Factory Five stuff is upscale and expensive?
The Manta Canam first went wide at $5000, but a lot of specialized knowledge is required to sort them properly.
What Factory Five did differently was solve every build issue for you, famously requiring only a mustang parts car to put together their Cobra, making it the ultimate Mustang bolt on!
They held the price at $10,000 on the Cobra for years. And they continue to add critical or handy parts to the included list.
The Manta listed can’t really be considered a Manta any longer, just based on one.
Someone at some point decided they wanted a Can Am based street car, but wanted to make it as uninteresting as possible! Why!?
It appears mechanically sorted though.
The original cars were built in California, but later cars were named the Mirage and made in Missouri.
Brad Lovette told me they were driving old Can Am cars on the street, but quickly realized they weren’t built to tolerate that steady abuse.
The Manta Canam was the result.
Many were raced. Some had Porsche transmissions and engines, for a very competitive weight.
The Corvair trans with an iron 350 weighed 1800 lbs.
This Manta is one of few I’ve seen with the swing up doors intact. Most have been glassed in. The car is 39 inches at the roof.
I voted Manta, in the hopes that it was in reasonable shape before current owner decided to bling it up into some kind of movie prop. I get the appeal of a Lotus 7 but I already have motorcycles.
I voted for the Manta because it’s absolutely nuts in a good way.
I did not know they made 1953 Corvette Replica’s, this one is about as fugly as the Orange Manta, but I would be more like to shell out 35 for a cleaner version of this. https://www.streetsideclassics.com/vehicles/4102-phx/1953-chevrolet-corvette-replica
See wiki for what a Manta Canam or Mirage actually looks like.
Wikipedia has a pic but can’t post a link
Good lord, how impossibly vulgar. And of course it’s an auto. Yeesh.
Gaack! No way to the Manta madness. I mean, glued on velocity stacks. WTH.
The 7 is no prize either. Something is up with the dimensions of that car. And I don’t love the windshield as much as I like my forehead to be covered in half-dead bugs. Voted 7 but would rather thumb a ride in a spooky van.
I voted for the Manta madness.
And I agree that something is up with that 7. I think part of the problem with the 7 is it has 4 equal sized wheels/tires when it’s meant to have narrower tires in front, wider in the back.
I think the Caterham had equal wheels front and rear.
Man I was hoping for an actual Manta, they pretty much ruined my Hardcastle and McCormick cosplay opportunity with that orange thing though. I do prefer that thing anyway here, but I am not interested at that price. Also I wonder how well that thing stays cool. almost every rear V8 kit car I have seen or rode in tended to get hot if used for much more than slow fairground putting around.
The Lotus looks like home made body work on a rusted S10 frame? the Carb with no air cleaner is the first red flag though.
Honestly if I were given 15k in funny money to buy that though, I would probably walk by it to the first last gen V-Max I found and buy that. More HP nearly the same MPG probably, and a couple saddle bags would exceed the lotus 7’s carrying capacity.
The actual Manta body had a big ducted radiator in front, usually a Corvette core.
Originally ducted water through the frame tubes, some have changed to dedicated water hoses.
I’ve been window-shopping Locosts and Caterhams for a little while, and $15k is… a little below the low end for a good Caterham, but not low enough for that jank. I’ll take the crazy Manta.
I’m a huge fan of the Seven and it’s near the top of my bucket list cars, hopefully a Caterham version… someday. But this thing has to be the ugliest, most awkward looking Seven clone I’ve never seen. No. Just no.
On the other hand, what the hell is that Manta? It looks like the car the bad guy drives in a Speed Racer episode.
I’m abstaining today and taking an Uber. I just can’t.
For the record, these are perfect selections for a Halloween SBSD special.
That said, I’m not into horror.
Want a Fanta or Mantra!
Both of these are ridiculous cars, so might as well crank it to 11, that rear wing has got to go though, something less 2002 Nopi catalog for me.
The wing, snorkel and front end past the tires suck.
And no to chrome wheels.
Wheels are easily solvable, I don’t love the front end but could live with it while I learn how to make my own composite front end, or find an original to replace it with. I surprisingly don’t hate the snorkel, what lies beneath it goes straight in the bin for a regular air cleaner though.
It’s tricky to find a snorkel that fits your engine and is the correct height.
I have an original Lovette Canam built in California.
My car has a Can Am snorkel from that era off a factory racer, glassed in, as they were part of the rear clips then.
I believe it’s the only Manta with a proper snorkel.
How crazy is it to drive?
If you enjoyed Can Am racing, it is always fun.
The car is six feet wide with room for lots of tire.
You’re sitting on the frame and looking between the fenders out that sloped glass, so it feels like a race car even at 30 mph.
If you have any decent rubber on it, grip is insane, even with rudimentary suspension tuning.
You can’t ever blend in, in one though.
With a V8 you have the usual superbike frustration that you can never use that power for more than a few seconds on the street. Probably more fun in some western states with open roads, but it’s not boring.
People do like it, though in the 70s it was like landing a space ship, for the reaction it had.
Many people recommend equal size tires front and rear on a mid engine like that.
It’s light enough, it wouldn’t be bad with a 914 drivetrain in it.
That would shave a lot of weight.
I’ve never had one on a track, but many have been set up for racing.
It’s particularly nice to open the body and have the entire drivetrain sitting in the open!
I must vote Locost. I am a Man, not a number!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3LT98uOwck
Fake money: Manta.
Real money: I’d rather put my money in a barrel and set it on fire.
I’d take the Locost and build a streamliner, low-frontal-area body around it, at least twice as slippery as a Lotus 11 would be. The 11 had a 0.4 Cd value, and I’d be aiming for 0.2 or less, and frontal area would be about the same.
Then it would be converted into either an EV with a 100-lb carbon-banded motor from a Tesla Model S PLAID and 40-ish kWh pack of the most energy dense batteries I could find that meet the power requirement, OR a 1.9L TDI engine chipped and tuned with the biggest fuel tank I can fit. In either case, the car would be under 2,000 lbs with no less than 300 horsepower and ready to boogie.
I’d daily the crap out of it and save on fuel costs as well. If Aptera is any indication, as an EV, energy consumption of only 0.12 kWh/mile is possible at highway speeds in an efficient enough design which could be fueled by a garage-mounted solar panel array, and if Casey Putsch’s Omega sports car is any indication, so too is getting 100+ mpg as a diesel which could then be fueled with waste fryer oil.
Either way, low cost, lots of hoonage, and possible energy independence from corporations for most fuel requirements.
A number of slippery body kits, VW and real cars, have been turned into hyper milers.
350 Mantas with 400 HP usually get 25 mpg though.