Factory Visit: June 9-10, 2008

[Karlo]

Well the date to Visit Detroit Michigan is set for June 9-10. We will visit RCR and Autosport. Aloysius the winner of the drawing and I will be going and others are welcome to come. Watch this post for more details on the time and other arrangements.

[soon_2b_evil]

Well the date to Visit Detroit Michigan is set for June 9-10. We will visit RCR and Autosport. Aloysius the winner of the drawing and I will be going and others are welcome to come. Watch this post for more details on the time and other arrangements.

a sunday and monday?

[Karlo]

a sunday and monday?

Monday Tuesday

[soon_2b_evil]

opps my bad. man wish i could make that. cause i sure would like to see the shop and wants being built.

[aloysius]

Yes, we will be in full production by the time you arrive this summer. We look forward to having you and your possy at our shop!

Jim has invited us to a visit his shop. There will be lots to see and hopefully many of all youall (all youall is Texas plural for youall) will be able to join us for the tour. We haven't heard yet from Fran at RCR but he was very congenial when my brother and I visited earlier and spent lots of time talking with us.
As Karlo stated, "Watch this post for more details on the time and other arrangements."

[Karlo]

Got word from Jim at Detroit Deronda factory that the LS7 car will be available for the viewing and maybe a test ride :thumb2:

I wonder if Fran will have his running car by then? That would be great if he did.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z302/landfalcon/www%20ExoCars%20net/DSCN0207-1.jpg

[Karlo]

Jim and I are here in Detroit taking lots of picture, will post when I get back.

[soon_2b_evil]

Jim and I are here in Detroit taking lots of picture, will post when I get back.

nice. cant wait on them

[Chadillac]

Just got off the phone with Karlo. He was heading to the airport and told me that they had plenty of pictures and maybe even video. He'll be back late tonight, so I'm not sure if he'll post them tonight or tomorrow.

[B-T]

Kewl! lol, r u finna pos dem up?
wassup?
Oops, I've been on the Scion boards for a few days - dayz - daze???
:D
BT

[Pagester]

now that was funny :D

[B-T]

now that was funny :D

:old: Don make me bus out dem mad skillz homey...
BT

[Pagester]

wurd

:breakn:

[Chadillac]

What is everybody saying? I can't understand it!

I wonder if Karlo is sleeping in this morning? Actually, it was snowing here in Idaho this morning! Can you believe that it's actually snowing in the middle of June! So he might be outside shoveling his driveway or building snowmen...

[B-T]

What is everybody saying? I can't understand it!
...

Datz cuz U R-nt down wit da nu slang cuz... pwned!
:D
BT

[Karlo]

I have over 100 pictures I need to organize them today.

I also have video that I need to produce, so that might take longer.

[Pagester]

very cool news Karlo

when do you think we'll see some video of an SL-R driving?


Bill - you're killing me :coolnana:

[Karlo]

very cool news Karlo

when do you think we'll see some video of an SL-R driving?


No video of the Superlite Roadster Driving, Bill will have the first one Driving.

[B-T]

...Bill will have the first one Driving.

Thanks for the vote of confidence in my mechanical skills! Looking forward to the pictures and the car...
:coolnana:
BT

[Karlo]

See Gallery for RCR Visit pictures.

http://www.exocars.net/showthread.php?t=97

[Craig – Absolute PACE]

Bill will have the first one Driving.

Will he. Looks like the race is on. :coolnana:

Karlo, thanks for the pics.

[Chadillac]

Looks like the race will be between the Aussie's and Bill. Apparently my frame is hanging on the wall and my engine is on the ground collecting dust. I realize that Fran is extremely busy, I just hope that he can find some time to finish some of the other cars that have had their deposits in for quite some time.

[B-T]

Karlo, what are your impressions with the SL-R as far as timeframe to complete the car from its current state? Fran told me he thought the truck would be picking my car up today for shipping to Florida. Fran had estimated previously 40-50 hours if I remember correctly to complete the car, and I had indicated 150-200 would be a good goal for me. How long do you think it would take you to complete the car? Looks like you had a good trip, thanks for posting the pictures.:clap:
BT

[aloysius]

The trip to Detroit was fun and I want to say that Karlo makes a good traveling companion. He also rarely complained about my navigating. Besides getting to see more cars, we got a tour of a forging foundry where they make steering ball joints, rod ends and many other small items as big as 18 inches long and as small as a spoon. They heat the specialty iron yellow hot in induction conveyors and then operators place a piece in a mold and this HUGE 3 foot by 3 foot hammer slams down on it shaking the floor for a hundred feet. The operators wear water cooled suits and rotate through every hour. Then the part may go into a cooling oven where it is cooled at a specific rate to get the desired hardness. Really cool for a place with so much heat and noise. Really cool! Detroit is where you want to build machines. They have more infrastructure in a block there than in all of Texas here. (not to indict the locals)

They make the Deronda in a building there at the factory where they do forging. The Deronda you can see of coarse, on exocars.net. It is probably the highest quality car you'll ever encounter. Some of the molds for the frp parts are made from used large steel forge molds reworked on cnc machines. The parts that come out of these must be the most precise anywhere. Totally aircraft quality. Attention to small details shows. IE the seats are made of two pieces; a front and a back that are assembled. The jigs are very impressive and all car steel is 4130 and they measure the frame members as accurate as .012 inches before assembly. The TIG welds are only an eighth of an inch wide since all the joints are so perfect. Every hole through a tube has a bung welded in from both sides so the tube won't crush. The finished car we saw had an LS7 GM V8 and produced over 500 HP at the wheels. All the workmanship was exemplary. The frame weighs about 650 pounds and the whole car weighs 1900 pounds. Our hosts, Jim and Chris are very personable and are highly competent. I would like to thank them for their hospitality.

At the RCR factory they had a roadster ready to ship and allowed us to crawl in and over all of it. I was impressed overall. The two of us had no problem lifting my finished frame. I would guess each end weighed between 125 and 150 pounds. We saw a finished Grand Prix body that had just arrived from the fabricator. The finish was excellent and the classic look will be popular, but last night I sent a fax requesting the F1 body style in yellow with yellow side pods and black fenders and black seats (Sorry Fran for joining the ranks of the others). They have a local car transporter they will use who is reasonable for an enclosed carrier. Again I would like to thank Fran and his team for their hospitality. Everyone was friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. We took pictures mostly of the roadster and you'll have to study some of them to understand what the pictures are taken of.
For a buyer/builder they will help answer some of the questions that come up. I took many of them just to satisfy my lack of knowledge.

Traveling standby is not something I'd recommend if you have any kind of schedule to keep. I ended up in Baltimore going and Nashville returning home. The weather had some affect in the delays. There was a tornado in Detroit when I was supposed to land. It delayed the departure from Maryland, thankfully. Then on the return trip the plane couldn't get away from the eastern airport due to weather.

[Chadillac]

Thanks for the report Aloysius. Did you guys happen to get any pictures of the Deronda? I can't even imagine what the acceleration on that feels like with a LS7. Maybe they could put a supercharger or some turbos on there for when you need that little extra something for getting up those REALLY steep hills.

BT - Heard anything today about your car being picked up?

[Karlo]

I have some Deronda Pics, ready for posting tonight.

[Craig – Absolute PACE]

Interesting stuff guys, thanks.

Chadillac, looks like it might be a 3-way race to see who gets there SL-R on the road first. :D

[Craig – Absolute PACE]

Hey, did you guys see any right-hand drive SL-R chassis there? There should be 5 of them hanging around somewhere. Hopefully shipping in a few days.

[aloysius]

Hey, did you guys see any right-hand drive SL-R chassis there? There should be 5 of them hanging around somewhere. Hopefully shipping in a few days.

I remember seeing two right hand frames ( I can't spell the plural of chassis). One was on the tack-weld jig being assembled and the other one was finished but not powder coated leaning (Chadillac: note... 'leaning' not 'hanging') against the wall behind the Electrolite car. Cars are welded and powder coated off site so there may be others in the pipe line that we did not see.

[aloysius]

...when you need that little extra something for getting up those REALLY steep hills.

Chris, the factory guy, was talking about driving the Deronda and said the tires started spinning when they punched the throttle at 130mph. The car weighs under 2000 lbs and has 500 HP at the wheels.

[Craig – Absolute PACE]

Thinking about it, the finished chassis wouldn't have been there. Fran has got some additional storage for my finished/ready to ship cars.

[B-T]

...BT - Heard anything today about your car being picked up?

No word yet. Last I heard Fran said it was supposed to be picked up yesterday.
Sold the boat last night so there is plenty of room (without using the lift for storage) for the car as of Sunday when the buyer will pick it up.
:coolnana::coolnana::coolnana:
BT

[Chadillac]

Sounds like you're getting my black seats BT! I think that will give it a nice contrast compared with everything being yellow.

[B-T]

Sounds like you're getting my black seats BT! I think that will give it a nice contrast compared with everything being yellow.

It's going to be perfect (to me).

Thanks for requesting the red seats!!!
:D
BT

[Craig – Absolute PACE]

What!!! I thought everyone was getting pink seats??? :run: :D

[Pagester]

I guess you missed that memo :spin:

[B-T]

I guess you missed that memo :spin:

The seat color selections were on page 4 of the latest TPS reports. Peter, did you get the memo about the new format on the TPS reports???
:D
BT