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Old 06-13-2026, 02:36 PM   #4421 (permalink)
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Remember the Lotus Elan?

Quote:
Wikipedia
Lotus Elan - Wikipedia
Lotus Elan 1500, 1600, S2, S1, S3, S4, Sprint ... Overview The Lotus Elan was the first Lotus road car to use a steel backbone chassis with a fibreglass body. This style of construction was to be repeated in subsequent Lotus models for nearly three decades.
It so happens that I have a steel backbone chassis vehicle, and I've wanted a Messerschmitt KR-200 or Isetta since the 1980s. This might be a better fit for my situation. In theory, I could pull off the FUV's 'upper frame' and replace it with a fiberglass basalt fiber body. Center driver with a swivel seat, and 2+1 seating. It has suicide doors (my first car had suicide back doors); and flat glass making it easy to re-pop. (I'd make an egg crate buck for one side (inflated with a blower to a compound curve) and then disassemble and reassemble it for the other half)

'Rana' means frog so it would be green. Shadilay.

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Old 06-14-2026, 01:22 PM   #4422 (permalink)
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The Amis are stock but the unsafety car isn't:

In a car world obsessed with Nürburgring times, launch control, carbon packages and impossible performance claims, watching Citroën Amis battle for 100 laps feels strangely refreshing.
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Old 06-15-2026, 12:37 PM   #4423 (permalink)
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The Moray bubble-top coupe is one of my favorite concept cars.

A comparison of the Moray and a stock C5 at ?t=372 shows the bubble top compared to the C5's boxy cabin. I suspect the interior is less windy with the T-top removed.

The front end and interior are less interesting, but the thumbnail shows the boxed cavity aft end.
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Old 06-20-2026, 01:35 PM   #4424 (permalink)
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Also a bubble top. Don't like this one:

huh... ever seen this bubble top Vette? Made by Plastcon
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Old 07-25-2026, 01:34 AM   #4425 (permalink)
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I caught a glimpse of this in a video about the Roberts Rocket concept car.


https://ibb.co/album/jbvbCb

My youth was mis-spent. I should have found one of the two 1950 Playboy station wagon concepts in a barn somewhere. About the size of a Type III Squareback or the 1959 Rambler wagon I had in college, it had a monocoque shell and an inline flathead four, with four wheel independent suspension. I like the low lights with speed whiskers. The production convertibles had a retractable hardtop that Ford got the patent for, for their 1957 model.

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Old 07-26-2026, 12:55 AM   #4426 (permalink)
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Quote:
One longstanding goal I had was to get a two-passenger three-wheeler, like the Messerschmitt KR-200. Another was to have a woody VW Beetle station wagon. A member of the VW club I was in had one. They tend to be modeled on old Fords, with veneer covered doors. The details tend to be heavy.



I think the Playboy wagon would translate well to a Beetle. They both have one piece windshields. Just a wood trim strip on the door with large square cornered windows and thin pillars. I'm undecided between making the whole sides in single CNC plywood pieces vs 1.25" squate tubing with wood grain paint.

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