What’s A Murtaya? Members’ Rides

Welcome back to Members’ Rides! Last week was a lot of fun, we had some daily-driven dream cars up in a redwood forest, which was absolutely amazing! Lester has an amazing fleet that I would love to have any of them. But what if your ideal car doesn’t really exist? That’s a question that Autopian Member Mike has a great answer for. You just design your own perfect car and have it built for you!

Members’ Rides is where we share the cars and stories of Autopian Members. The potential to be featured here is a perk for Autopian Members of every level, from the ultra-affordable “Cloth” tier all the way up to “Rich Corinthian Leather.” Click that link and join today!

We’ve had some awesome garages featured over the years, but this might be the one I’m most excited for. After all, it’s not every day I get to show you an incredibly rare, essentially custom-built pair of amazing sports cars. Have you ever heard of a Murtaya? I hadn’t. But today, that changes for all of us! It’s my honor to introduce you all to Mike. He’s a software engineer living up in the Pacific Northwest with a love of unique and fun cars.

How did you get into cars?

I actually wasn’t a big fan of cars or even excited to get my license. Then one day my friend and I took my parents’ 4Runner into the mountains, and I fell in love with off-roading. Shortly after that, his parents got an FD RX-7, and I learned how much fun a sporty car could be. I’ve got my dream garage, and everything else is just icing on the cake, but I still love keeping an eye on the state of the car industry.

What’s currently in the garage?

• 1999 Tacoma
• 2002 WRX
• 2022 Model S Plaid
• 1999 Crown Vic
• Murtaya Roadster
• Murtaya Coupe

What’s the story with the Tacoma?

Our family got her new in 1998, then a TRD supercharger was added at around 20k miles as a dealer-installed option. Then she got passed down to me as my first car. She now has a little over 173,000 miles.

Has it ever given you major issues?

No. She’s been the total cliche Toyota. I think she might have had to have her parking brake adjusted once, but other than that, she’s been bulletproof. Oh, actually, the CD player skips.

What is your favorite thing about it?

She’s a black Toyota 4×4 pickup. I realized after a few years of driving her that Marty McFly’s truck really rubbed off on me as a kid.

Anything you wish you could change about it, or add to it, or anything?

I haven’t really had a desire to change anything on her for years now. At a quarter-century old, she’s not as refined as newer rigs, but at the same time, she’s a lot lighter and smaller than most of today’s trucks. When she was my only rig, I thought that she would have been better with a manual, but I realized I prefer hauling, towing, off-roading, driving in bad weather, commuting, and shuffling people around with her doing the shifting. The fact that we upgraded the valve bodies helps, too. She feels like a little muscle car.

How often does this get driven?

Probably not as much as she deserves. She’s been enjoying some quiet retirement years since I got the other cars. But I want her around for a loooong time, so I drive her sparingly and mainly use her for garage eye candy.

Is it used for truck things or just kept as a gorgeous example of what a good truck should be?

Her biggest haul was probably the full-size hot tub along with a BBQ that was also thrown in with the sale. She’s actually gone through two applications of bed lining. I also take her into the mountains to get away from things. She’s gotten her share of “Montana pinstriping” in her paint job.

Now what’s the story with the WRX?

My dad always liked getting new cars. He would average a new one every year, but that trend came to an end in early 2001 when he bought one of the first WRXs to hit the United States. He enjoyed that car so much that he stopped buying new cars for many years afterwards.

It was also the first manual car that I really got to learn and spend time in. The WRX was my first real dance partner and really turned me on to how much fun and engaging driving could be. So, when my dad was finally thinking about moving onto a new car, I eagerly agreed to buy it from him and keep her in the family.

What kind of condition is it in?

At about 230k miles, she’s got a LOT of paint dings and chips, but she’s always been a strong little car. We did some initial power upgrades at 60k, and she was still running strong when we proactively scheduled an engine rebuild at 200k miles and got her a stroked and forged engine rebuild. Overall, she’s a good driver.

Sounds like you’ve taken good care of it. Anything she needs?

Yes! New synchros. While her original clutch was still fine by her 200k rebuild, several of her synchros have long since given out. I’ve learned to drive around them, but whenever anybody else drives her, she’ll sing some interesting tunes.

Does this drive similarly to the Murtayas at all?

Actually, not really. The WRX is relatively relaxed, forgiving, and gentle. It’s like a faithful dog that works with you and prevents you from getting yourself into too much trouble. The Murtaya, on the other hand, will try its best to tear things up as soon as it can if you let it. It’s a lot more high-strung because it’s using the STi powertrain.

On snow, for example, you can easily steer the WRX with just throttle input. Even if you overdo the throttle application, her powerband is gentle enough to give you time to correct and keep her neutral and inline. Whenever I’ve taken Murtaya out on the ice/snow, though, her torque, lighter weight, short gearing, stiff suspension, and active diffs require a lot of careful input so as not to just start spinning all fours.

Does the WRX get used often?

With the Murtayas being away at the moment, she actually gets a lot of driving. She’s kinda my beater. While she doesn’t feel as fast as she used to, she still puts a smile on my face whenever I drive her. In fact, she still holds the record for the most fun experience I’ve had driving: taking her on snowy/icy roads and learning to drift/steer/rotate with just the throttle.

All the rest of your cars are turbo/supercharged Japanese models. How did the Tesla come into the picture?

All my cars were around 20+ years old and arguably a little boy-racerish. I thought that I should maybe try something newer and a little more mature? Something with a nice and quiet ride, more space, and more modern amenities for when I drove people around. I thought I’d try an EV and figured I might as well go with what was the standard at the time: Tesla. I liked the Model S in terms of styling and features, and also thought it was pretty cool that regular people could own a car with 1000hp.

How is it?

Meh

What is the best thing about this?

It does a great job achieving all the objective goals I had for the car. It’s been a great vehicle to haul people around, it’s quiet and smooth, it can actually carry a lot. It also has many of the amenities you’d expect in a higher-end modern car.

Do you use the Plaid mode very often?

Not really, no. I usually keep it in Sport for regular traffic, and often use Chill when ferrying people around for its smoothness or going on long trips. I actually find Chill mode the most interesting to drive in since it makes you actually have to engage with and plan your driving. It’s like the car has a giant, super-laggy turbo. I’ll use the Plaid mode to show people what the acceleration is like, but that’s usually it.

So what do you not like about it?

I’ve become very opinionated on EVs over the years. It’s been a very interesting, conflicting, introspective, eye-opening, and even funny experience driving this.

On paper, EVs have all the characteristics of what I thought my perfect car would have: instant acceleration; quiet operation; smooth rides; perfect traction; no need to deal with clutch actuation or torque converters or trying to keep the engine at optimum RPMs; etc. But even after the first week of driving the Plaid, I realized that I’d never be taking it on fun drives, or even taking the long way home with it.

That first week, I took it on one of my usual drive routes, but when I got back home, I thought, “Why did I just waste my time driving around in a big circle?” In all my years and all my other cars, I’ve never had such a thought.

Why do you think that is?

Eventually, I rationalized that all the things that make EVs great as basic commuting vehicles make them actually very boring to drive when you’re used to enjoying the feedback, engagement, and raw fun that “crude” internal combustion cars can offer. I feel that if you hate driving and just need a commuter, you’ll love the EV driving experience, and I’m happy for them to be around for the majority of people and use cases.

If you truly love driving, though, I feel that the EV driving experience isn’t there and might never be. Because of this, I’ve found that I still enjoy driving my relatively slow, old, and anemic WRX a lot more than the EV.

Fair enough, anything else?

The horrible design decisions made on this specific model: before I replaced it, the yoke turned out to be a literal pain to drive with on long drives with the vertical handles. The capacitive turn signal and headlight buttons on the wheel were just poor decisions that had many more drawbacks than any benefits.

The capacitive horn button to the side of the center hub was even worse and dangerous. I’ve gotten used to the on-screen shifting mechanism, but it’s still probably not worth it. I have to explain to all new passengers how to open their doors. And all the settings stuck behind the touch screen are not great. I often feel like this car is actually dumber than my cars that were built in the last millennium …

The build quality isn’t great. I find it funny that I could point out a lot of the same issues that both the Tesla and the Murtaya have in terms of fit and finish – the difference is that the Murtaya was hand-built in a British barn by a few engineers, and the Tesla is a mass-produced vehicle.

Will the Plaid be in your garage for a long time?

Fun fact: I’ve never sold any of my cars. But if I ever get rid of one, between the lack of attachment to it, the lack of character, the poor design decisions, and the political issues now associated with its company, the Tesla would be the first to go. That said, it’s also depreciated so much that I can’t afford to replace it, so I’m planning on keeping it for a while.

And now you have a dedicated demolition derby car?!

Yup! It’s a retired Police Interceptor, but it won’t be doing on-road driving anymore. Just dirt tracks from now on. I think it’s been in maybe five or so derby races over the last few years now?

Do cars usually make it through more than one derby? 

The “last-car-standing” part of the demolition derby is usually just the last event, and not all the cars that do the earlier races always participate in this finale. More and more teams end up focusing on the racing and skip the finale so they can get more bang for the buck out of their cars. They can do one last-car-standing event, or they can do many races. Our team has mainly focused on the races.

All that said, even cars that participate in the “last-car-standing” event can be fixed and reused in multiple demo derbies. In fact, I’ve heard that some of the more serious teams can spend big money on crazy engines that are guaranteed to be able to run without coolant/oil for something like 40 minutes. They will often rebuild their cars over and over and over.

How did you get into doing these?

Some of my old hometown friends were always into these, and they got me into the pits to help. I usually end up just trashing the cars, but I’ve had a few good runs. I now consider myself retired and mainly sponsor my friends’ kids, who are now old enough to be building and racing these.

Is this the only derby car you’ve had, or have there been others in the past?

The Crown Vic is the only one I’ve owned personally. The team I’ve helped with has had others, like Lincolns and a Gran Torino. I actually got the Crown Vic because I ran one of the team’s old cars right into the wall and wanted to replace it for them. Now I’m helping the next generation buy and build their own cars.

Let’s talk about the Murtaya

The Murtaya is a lightweight, British-based roadster that uses Subaru WRX/STi running gear, including the AWD system. It’s got a monocoque body with a spaceframe front end for the engine and transmission.

It was designed to use the GC Impreza’s powertrain, but many of them use GD engines and transmissions. Basically, three British guys – Dan Muir, Tom Taylor, and Neil Yates – got together and thought that it would be cool to build a lightweight sports car with Subaru traits. They actually acquired the rights to the Delfino Feroce and turned it into the Murtaya. Mine has now been on the road since 2013.

How did you learn about the Murtaya?

I was just browsing the usual auto sites on April 11th, 2006, and I saw a cool-looking drawing of a sporty little concept. The article on The Car Connection went on to say that the car was from a small Cornwall startup in England, and was being planned with WRX running gear.

I later found out that the car’s announcement was originally planned to only be made to the Cornwall region, but there happened to be an international car reporter in the area who saw the announcement and turned it into the worldwide announcement that I read. I loved the idea of a little AWD sports car, so I emailed them that day to express my interest. A few months later, my dad and I flew over to test drive the prototype. I was officially in love after that.

How many of these things even exist?

The total number I’ve heard is 42 in the world. Mainly in Europe, but also a few in New Zealand and Australia. A gentleman in Canada has two, and as far as I know, there are only two in the United States. I do know that none of my annual U.S. Murtaya owner meetups have had any other attendees.

How long did it take you to get it on the road from when you started?

It took about seven years from order to finally getting it on the road. I was one of the first orders, but they weren’t actually planning on shipping them over to the States. Which meant a lot of it was a learning experience for all of us. Then there were the unexpected things we had to deal with, too. For example, US Customs ended up smashing a window to get into the car because they couldn’t figure out the doors. I also wanted to “Americanize” some things on it. It was always going to be left-hand-drive, but I also wanted to have the standard stalk set up so I wouldn’t be turning on the wipers every time I wanted to signal a turn.

Oh no! How do you open the doors?

It’s an electric popper that’s operated by either the key fob or buttons inside the car.

Did you design the interior and everything with the company before it got here, or did you add all that later?

I designed the V1 interior with the original company, but as it took longer and longer to get the car ready, I decided to redo the interior and go with the wrap-around design that I had always liked in the mk IV Supras and FD RX-7s.  The standard Murtaya interior is basically a simple “waterfall” design like the original one I had.

And what are you having done to it now?

It’s been on the road now nearly 13 years, and I always planned on getting her a fresh paint job at some point. She’s seen some stuff in the 80k+ miles we’ve done. So, now she’s getting her new paint job as well as a few other upgrades based on learnings over the years (more powerful window motors, uprated door poppers, toning down her cooling system, etc.)

What’s the best thing about the Murtaya?

They say material things don’t make you happy, but this car really puts a big, silly grin on my face every time I drive it. I actually commute into work more than I need just so I can drive the car. Honestly, I believe that people in general would be happier, commutes would be faster and more enjoyable, fewer people would drive distracted (because they’d be enjoying the drive), and driving would overall be safer if people drove fun, enjoyable, and engaging cars.

I also like how the car makes it obvious who is a car enthusiast. Many people will dismiss the car as a Miata or S2000 with a body kit or a Lotus from the back, but the car enthusiasts are the ones who know their cars well enough to admit they have no clue what it is.

But maybe the best thing is that it combines a responsive, lightweight body, a powerful engine, and the ability to put all the power down. You can find cars that do one of those, and a few that have two of those traits, but it’s rare that you can find one that combines all three. For me, this car gives me the best of all worlds.

Anything you don’t like?

It’s funny … on paper, there are a lot of things I shouldn’t like about this car: I never liked convertibles, I don’t prefer leather seats, I’m honestly not a fan of loud cars, I usually don’t like the design of long-hooded, cab-rear sports cars, and so much more. But despite all this, I completely love this car, and none of that ends up mattering in the end.

Being a roadster and using WRX components, do you think this compares at all with the factory five 818?

In many ways, yes! In fact, many people see the unfamiliar styling and hear the boxer rumble and often think the car is an 818, which is a lot more well-known in the States than the Murtaya. Both are lightweight sports cars that use WRX-based powertrains and are relatively rare. They are very different too, though – most obvious being that the Murtaya is still front-engine and AWD while the 818 is mid-engine and RWD.

OK, now what’s the story behind the Murtaya coupe?

This car was originally the US demo Murtaya, imported and built right after mine. After a year of driving mine, I was so enamored with it that I really started contemplating buying this demo car for many reasons. Eventually, I ended up buying this one, too.

Does Murtaya offer a coupe? How did this one happen?

There were always plans for a coupe version of the Murtaya. I even have some of the original concept renderings, but the only ones that ever ended up seeing the light of day were custom-designed and built. I was originally interested in a coupe Murtaya, but the timetable for one was so far away that I decided to just go with the roadster version.

Now that I had a second Murtaya, though, and wanted to do a new project, I figured we could finally build my coupe version. In fact, in a perfect world, I wanted to be able to drive a Murtaya every day. So I could drive the roadster on the days it didn’t rain, and then the coupe version would be the one optimized for and driven on the rainy days.

How far along is the build?

The same place it’s been every year for the last decade – roughly a year away? But seriously, the guys who have been working on it are great, and are currently taking a break from it to rebuild the black Murtaya.

The body design is finally done and built, and just needs painting. After that, it’s really just a lot of the fun stuff left like interior and cool little features.

What’s the intent for the coupe?

I’ve got several goals for this one. First off, it will be my go-to Murtaya for bad weather and bad roads. Besides having a full roof, it’s also going to eschew a nice shiny paint job for a more Mad-Max finish that will actually look at home when dirty. Any door dings or scrapes that it gets will also just blend in, so I don’t have to worry about them like I do with the black Murtaya.

How do you find a shop to work on a Murtaya?

The US Murtaya Distributor knew a Subaru shop in Denver, and they knew a great interior guy who could work on my interior, and he knew the guys who work on my car now.  The place is Hair Trigger Customs, and Steve Sr. and Jr. have been great to work with. They’ve had all the skills and experience to help make my plans come true with the Murtayas.

I am also adding some modern-day comforts to an otherwise elemental car. This might make some purists cringe, but with all the technology and cool aftermarket gadgets you can add to your cars, I wanted to add some things I always thought were cool. For example, it’ll have:

• Heated and ventilated seats
• Custom-built, heated steering wheel
• Variable-level exhaust system
• Custom electric windows with all-up/all-down operation.
• Digital rear-view mirror/GPS that can be mounted down low like old Corvettes
• Roof switches for doors and special systems.
• AC that we never fully finished in the black Murtaya

Beyond that, I want to keep confusing other people! A nicely finished Murtaya roadster is already a confusing sight for most, but this custom-built, Mad Max-style vehicle is going to confuse even the twelve or so people who know what a Murtaya is.

Any intention of it being a track car or anything?

We’ll see. I thought that my original Murtaya would be at the track a lot, but I’ve had so much fun just driving her around (no matter what the speed) for tens of thousands of regular miles, I still haven’t bothered doing real track time with her. So who knows? I think a third Murtaya would probably make a good track car.

Thanks for sharing, Mike!

Are you an Autopian Member? Don’t miss out, we have a lot of fun, and you could be world famous and see your cars plastered all over the best car site on Earth! Click Here to learn more and become a Member today!