Mid- Engine Modified Sports

[Ron Gibson]

If possible, I move the part outside and use a squirrel cage fan blowing the same direction as the breeze to help the dust along. The fan seems to move enough air to keep the dust off me . Works for carbon fiber too.

Ron

[tauruck]

Ron, nothing itches like carbon. It makes glass look like baby powder.
You're right, blow the dust down wind.
I hate my job these days but I try work where I don't get full of the bad dust.
The big problem is the missus. She puts the "working" clothes in the washing machine
with everything else!!!!!!. You'd think she'd learned after all the years.
It takes me all of 5 seconds to figure out my socks and underwear are contaminated.

[tauruck]

Neil, how close are you to finishing?.
I think you'll be bored once you're done!.

[manta22]

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[tauruck]

Small problem. Deal with it.

[manta22]

Aggravating, though, Mike!

Next project: get my car out of storage and put it back on the road.

Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ

[tauruck]

Is that the road going version?.

[manta22]

Yes, Mike. The red Mirage is the street-legal version.

In fact, this one is their factory-built show car that Manta Cars used in all their advertising photos and it was on their showroom floor in Santa Ana, CA. I bought it in pieces when they went out of business and spent two years restoring it. It runs a Chevy 350 small block mid-engine.

It is hard to remember that this car is 35 years old. Manta Cars introduced their kit to the public at Riverside in 1973, originally calling it the "Can-Am" but the SCCA objected to using that name.

Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ

[manta22]

I found some MS2001-12 hinges for my spoiler on eBay and they arrived yesterday. These should be plenty strong- extruded from 2024-T311 with 0.090"stainless pins. They measure 3 3/8" fully open. Now to get to work on the spoiler itself.

Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ

[manta22]

I drilled 92 holes today (184 if I count the #30 pilot holes) in the hinges and the fin mounting braces. That's it for today!
 
Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ

[tauruck]

I remember the Manta cars being in the magazines back in the early 70s.
It was pretty cool, wish I still had the mags.

There can't be too many Mantas left?. What trans did they use?.

[manta22]

Mike;

I've heard that Manta Cars sold around 900 kits during their time in business but how many still exist is not known. Fortunately, there were enough made so that the Mirage body qualifies for Modified Sports. Manta essentially copied the McLaren M8 Can-Am body shape but made it into a closed-cockpit coupe rather than the original open-cockpit design. Its aerodynamics should be better than the original M8.

The Mirage was introduced in 1973 so there were not many choices of low-cost transaxles back then. The standard set-up was to use a late-model ('65+) Corvair transaxle with a Kelmark adapter to a SBC. Some builders have modified their cars to use Porsche, Hewland, Audi, and ZF transaxles.

Thanks, Rod. I think they should do the job. I drilled 92 holes today (184 if I count the #30 pilot holes) in the hinges and the fin mounting braces.
 
Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ

[Buickguy3]

    I'll bet that Goeffry Hacker at Forgotten Fiberglass could give some insight about how many are left. Lives in Florida.
  Doug 

[manta22]

Doug;

Unfortunately when Manta Cars went out of business all their records were lost or destroyed. No one knows for sure.

Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ

[manta22]

I made some progress today on my rear spoiler. Since I didn’t have a piece of aluminum long enough to make it out of one piece, I had two pieces cut and I spliced them by riveting on a splice plate using the same type of 7075-T6 aluminum and the same rivets that I’ll use for attaching the hinges. I countersink those holes since the tops are in the airstream.
 
A long sheet of 0.090” by itself is not rigid enough to withstand downforce loads so I cut  lengths of 0.035’ 6Al-4V titanium “hat section” and riveted one to the underside of each half of the spoiler with 1/8" monel rivets. It increased the stiffness enormously! By looking at the attached photo, you can see why it is called a hat section.
 
Regards, Neil