Interesting Full IRS Spyder Chassis

That's not Spanish they're speaking. I had my wife come and listen to the video and she said some of the words were similar but then the rest of it was different. She said it is Portuguese.

That looks very much like an iMohr Technic & Design suspension, which would make sense, in that they're located in Brazil, and that dude is speaking Portuguese.

Ok, so I suck at languages. Sorry. I remember now that Portuguese is the language of Brazil. Carey can speak it I think.

@DannyP posted:

Ok, so I suck at languages. Sorry. I remember now that Portuguese is the language of Brazil. Carey can speak it I think.

I do as well, but I worked in Brazil for 3 months when I was 20. I learned how to get by with "please" and "thank you", and what hand gestures got you the things you needed. I can understand the cadence and what various languages do differently with pronunciations (for instance, American English has a lot of hard consonants, especially people from the Midwest), but my vocabulary in anything besides my native tongue is nearly nonexistent.

Whenever we travel anywhere, my standby is, "I'm so sorry I never learned to speak the language of your beautiful country. Can you please help me?"

I generally get exactly what I need.

Ok, well somebody needs to translate what that guy is saying.

I think Greg should purchase a front end and a back end for both Speedsters and Spyders, make tube frames for both cars(copying the suspension design) and unceremoniously DUMP the VW underpinnings and pan.

I'd love a type1 injected Spyder with A-arms all around, and a 901 5 speed.

Wow, that is impressive!

Sure looks cool. I wonder if it works in an other-than-drag-race context.

@DannyP, I’ve been led to believe that is exactly what Greg’s chassis builder is going to attempt.    I would assume that the builder would mock up one chassis, then build jigs for production repeatability.  If so , Greg could build the components in house as needed.  Maybe this will become the future of Spyders.

Just for your reference,  I do offer a 550 Spyder Chassis for sale.

PM me off line.  Check out  www.kitmanmotors.com

Cheers,

Dr. Chris Kleber

@Chris Kleber, KitMan Motors

We know you make a chassis, and a body.

A very few people want a chassis that has NO VW beam, is NOT a swing axle rear, and has some sort of space frame for rigidity and driver protection.

We WANT unequal length A-arms and coilovers, rack and pinion steering, and adjustable anti-sway bars. We also want any brakes we choose along with any wheel bolt pattern.

Some guys want aircooled power, some want Subaru. Options for either motor and trans would be nice. Suby, VW, Porsche 901 trans.

Are you willing to build that?

Danny: you don't want much, do you?   All it takes is a big bankroll to get started, tooling and such.  and prototype testing.  anything that comes out from a sketch and few measurements and a lot of one-off welding, is probably not going to work right first try.  But I am with you all the way: that's the right set of specs.

Actually what the "market" wants is a slavish copy of an original 550, replete with phony fuel pumps, rocker covers, drum brake skins, and cooling fan "covers"and lots of decals...to name a few...but this takes big "ming" who other than a few are willing to do this ?

ReV

@R Vosari posted:

Actually what the "market" wants is a slavish copy of an original 550, replete with phony fuel pumps, rocker covers, drum brake skins, and cooling fan "covers"and lots of decals...to name a few...but this takes big "ming" who other than a few are willing to do this ?

ReV

I'm not so sure about that, @R Vosari.  @edsnova has come pretty darned close and has not yet found a buyer.

Chris at Kitman.......,,   I looked at your site and found no 550 Spyder Chassis for sale. Only Speedster.

Trying to be helpful to you,  I found your web site to be generally  limited on information it contains/provides.  Do not take this wrongly.  I have looked over one of your cars and found it to be well built.  Keep it up !.......Bruce

@R Vosari posted:

Actually what the "market" wants is a slavish copy of an original 550, replete with phony fuel pumps, rocker covers, drum brake skins, and cooling fan "covers"and lots of decals...to name a few...but this takes big "ming" who other than a few are willing to do this ?

ReV

I think what the market wants is a hotrod that looks like an old Porsche, whether Speedster or Spyder.  What a hotrod is to each individual, leaves a lot of room open on the playground.

@LI-Rick posted:

I think what the market wants is a hotrod that looks like an old Porsche, whether Speedster or Spyder.  What a hotrod is to each individual, leaves a lot of room open on the playground.

VOILA..just add $$$

No…not to beat-up on Ed, but I would never had published a publicly available build log. It was replete with every mistake, faux pas, or poor quality weld he made.

The buyers want perfection, built by the acknowledged masters (whomever that may be), otherwise they view everything as amateurish, even though they (themselves) don’t know one end of a wrench from another !

When you build something yourself, unless you are the master, you are making minimum wage, sad to say, and you have to price accordingly...

ReV

Being upfront is identifies as Integrity, this makes for a good night's sleep.  Ed's build catalog is a rare delight narrated with honesty ~

Welds are all holding, so far.

@DannyP posted:

@Chris Kleber, KitMan Motors

We know you make a chassis, and a body.

A very few people want a chassis that has NO VW beam, is NOT a swing axle rear, and has some sort of space frame for rigidity and driver protection.

We WANT unequal length A-arms and coilovers, rack and pinion steering, and adjustable anti-sway bars. We also want any brakes we choose along with any wheel bolt pattern.

Some guys want aircooled power, some want Subaru. Options for either motor and trans would be nice. Suby, VW, Porsche 901 trans.

Are you willing to build that?

@Chris Kleber, KitMan Motors,

Chris, you pop in here once in a while, drop what appears to be a little promotion of your company, but no follow up when people ask questions.   That doesn't seem like a good way to attract new customers.

HI Danny,

Thanks for your input and from others.  I did check my website and you are correct that the Spyder chassis is not up on the Spyder section.  I will correct that.  I appreciate your observation and calling me out..  We just had the website redesigned and new photos of the kits.  I am not sure how we missed that one other than we just finished the jigs for the chassis less than a year ago and timing missed the proofing on web.

The Spyder chassis pics are in my Dropbox and I will post some here ASAP.  ( and then on the website) 

I Just retired from Dentistry last month and have a new baby first grand daughter. I will pay more attention to the forums but I have been a bit preoccupied.

The Spyder chassis that we offer has a bolt on front VW beam or upgraded  A arms  , rack and pinion steering  from:

www.airkewld.com            www.coolrydescustom.com.

4 bolts and you are in business.  Chassis is set up for rear swing axles but can be modified by the builder if you desire coil over adjustable shocks.  Every builder wants to build THEIR car just the way that they want it.  Lots of variables but you guys and gals are talented enough to figure it out.  I am just tying to give you a good base to build from.

Cheers and Thanks,

Chris

Kitman Motors

FYI we did build a TIG welded Spyder frame.  No one seemed willing to pay the $15,000 that it cost me to build it.  Had to sell it it as  One off.   Bolt on front VW beam

Chris

@Chris Kleber, KitMan Motors,

Are we to understand that a bare,  tube chassis cost you ......$15,000 to build?

With the design and labor used, yes,  That is why I only made one.  I was going to build it for myself.  Big learning curve for me.

Chris

I DID NOT call you out, just suggested what some guys want. I do realize that us performance guys are a small minority.  That 15K chassis certainly looks strong and safe.

That's a very interesting chassis.

The cabin could be trimmed out to be about a foot wider than any other Spyder I've ever seen. The seats ight fit a full-sized human man.

if it were longer front to back, I might have been interested. Like.... really interested.

I understand, Stan.  I am 6'3".  I really considered making the cockpit another 6 inches longer.  Mocking it up with a body and longer doors Looked OK...... but still not "right". The chassis are built by a guy who really knows structural engineering and aerodynamics.  I have complete confidence in him and value his friendship and guidance.   

Thanks again to all who participate.

Chris

Chris.......I'm glad to see that you will be adding more to your website.  Most people will  look at a website less than 3 minutes. If you have enough content to outlast that amount of time they will return lots of times.......Bruce

Thanks to Bruce for your input and others for their help.  We should have the photos of the Sypder chassis back up on the website by Saturday. We like to have folks " reach out" through the Contact Us boxes on the website. 

We did remove some James Dean tribute photos from the website.  ( eye candy).   The reason was that I was HIT BY A FIRM CALLED COPY CAT LEGAL out of South Florida for copyright infringement of a photo ( Speedster with a surfboard and a Calif Sunset) that was pulled off of Pinterest and put up briefly on our Instagram page.  It can be likened to a computer malware attack that locks your computer and you have to pay a "ransom" fee to unlock it.    Long story made short........ it  was settled for just under 5 figures $$$$$.  BEWARE!

I am just hoping that Hurricaine Ian brings some "justice" to these guys who are doing to the unsuspecting that are falling into their Venus fly trap.  Bad Joss!

Chris.........I feel for you on that one !!!    Many years ago,  my SCUBA diving store got hit with a similar scam over not posting a sign over my "lead" weights stating that lead was dangerous and a haz. mat. Two other stores in the area got hit too. The scam was legal but they made money by promising not to sue you if you paid them $2000.00 for their "costs" to discover that we were selling haz.mat.

Some of the other stores blew them off and went to court and lost. This ended up costing more than the $2K originally offered.

They had taken photos of my shelf with my diving weights stacked up. My particular diving weights were made by Scubapro. They were encapsulated in thick plastic bags with a clear warning about the lead inside printed in bold print on the outside of the hermetically sealed bags. They said that those were not the issue. It was the other weight belt with 4 regular looking, shiny lead weights attached to a beautiful silver nylon webbed belt with a gold plated buckle that they were making an issue of.  I had a small card on that belt that said, "For the diver who has everything".  The price tag was $1200.00.  What they didn't know was those 4 weights were solid 99.99% silver. I had made a mold from a std. 4 pound lead weight and had 4 of them cast in silver.

My lawyer told them to pay  me $3000.00 and I would drop my case for extortion, frivolous lawsuit, false representation, fraud,  etc.  We settled on $2000.00 plus my lawyers fees.  I got lucky......It could have been a lot worse !

I did put up a sign as required later just in case someone else came in to do the same thing.  The belt sold around Christmas time for $1500.00....Silver went up .......Bruce

I don’t know if you guys watch Yellowstone, but people like this need to be taken to the train station!

Agreed, Rick.

Fraud and extortion-as-a-business-model was pioneered in the '50s and '60s with swampland sales and other boiler room practices, and normalized (and updated with push-button tech) by the mid 1990s, mainly by lack of enforcement. There's no easy way back.

I was a dentist in San Diego ( now retired) ........   , There was an attorney who was handicapped in a wheelchair a few years ago that went on an AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES war path.  I understand the intent of the law to protect those with disabilities but this guy went too far.  Same legal "extortion" tactics.  He would measure the slope of the driveways and parking places widths,  stair and chair access,  Hdcp bathrooms, etc.  Most dental offices are older and he would troll the building permits records for "violators".   He developed a notorious reputation and finally a judge stripped him of his law license and disbarred him.   Sadly, it takes a lot of victims before it evolves to that level.

Chris........Here in Arcadia Ca  (SoCal for you non residents Ha ha ! ) in 1980 the city passed an ordinance that all handicap access issues had to be reviewed by the City Counsel  prior to any construction or legal action to be taken.  The reason was because of  unscrupulous "legal action" taken against business owners regarding handicap access, Most of the problem went away but continued  to some extent because of owners that were unaware of the protection provided by the City. The City did, however, require updates to meet the new codes if any permits were pulled for new construction OR remodeling was to be done. The owners still had to bring their facility up to code but at least there was no extortion being done........Bruce