Is there a market for super-aero, futuristic looking fiberglass full body kits?

[ennored]

This thread reminds me of a car from about 20/25 years ago. The Piontek Sportech. I mention it as it may be too old for some here to remember. Not highly aerodynamic, but used a motorcycle engine which should have made it pretty efficient.



There were some electric cars built using the same body. One trick thing was the complete car was made using only two fiberglass molds, one for the exterior and one for the interior.

More info about 2/3 down this page

(There's also cool info about building racecar bodies using CNC cut foam masters there. These guys are local to me. Should I ever get so far as doing a boattail or something like that, you know who I'll be calling...)

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by ennored

More info about 2/3 down this page

Dave Piontek seems like quite the engineer, and knows when to collaborate with other talents.

I was able to get some help from a couple of young body designers and the final result is the Sportech below.

Of all the "kit cars" I have seen, I would be proudest to have this one. It's something I would have like to have drawn, I think a bow or nod to it's makers would be appropriate about now.

[freebeard]

Thunder Ranch Riot


I understand how you feel. I'd want the Thunder Ranch Riot because it drops onto a VW floorpan—With $7K worth of Mendeola suspension subframes. and a 'breadbox' Kammback. Both are out of production.

And it's not a one off custom Piontek built for $15K and lost his job over.

According to the page I hyperlinked:

The Riot components and tooling have been purchased by Nathan Wratislaw.
You may contact Nathan at: Nathan Wratislaw :Home

N. Wratislaw is interesting too; decended from Czechoslovakian royalty, his other products include Cereal Marshmallows. The electric you allude to is probably this one.

Piontech is good, all right but he does a 180 in this distance:

Piontek Engineering Inc. is a one man shop that does just about anything except composite body work. There are many people who can do composites better and I’ll leave that part of car building to them. Most of my work is in conjunction with Jay Novak of NovaRaceLLC. He does most of the design and I do all of the machining and fabrication. We have been working together for almost 30 years. Jay has been involved in SCCA...

...but still, some love for Bruce Meyers' Manx. Someone should do a 'boxfish' version of it.