SLC
By the beginning of 2013, I was in a quandary. Our RV odyssey (see link) was long since finished and despite thorough research, I hadn’t found another airplane project that I wanted to spend 3 years building.
However, ever since we finished the Countach kit car, I had been thinking that another car project might be a good idea – especially one with performance to back up the statement that the body makes. The Countach was a great looking car, but I had never gotten around to installing a bigger engine and even if I had, the inherited Fiero suspension, brakes, etc. were simply not designed for extreme performance.
Enter the Race Car Replicas SLC (Super Lite Coupe) kit car. Here was a car with an exotic, aggressive looking body, coupled with the horsepower, suspension, frame and brakes needed to do justice to having over 500 horsepower in a 2,500 pound car.
So, in January of 2013, we flew to the RCR factory in Detroit, Michigan to get a closer look. Impressed with what we saw, we placed an order and in August, drove back with an empty car trailer to pick up our new project.
The kit comes as a rolling chassis – which means the frame is built, the wheels attached and the body set on top to cover it all up. What results is something that looks like a car, but in reality, three more years of work would be required to make it all go.
I was very impressed with the quality of the kit. All of the factory-produced parts appeared well engineered and were well constructed. The fiberglass required very little rework to achieve a good level of fit and finish.
This was a far more evolved kit than the Countach we built almost two decades prior. However, while the instruction manual was much more complete, there were significant blank spots when it came to engine and transmission selection and installation, not to mention accessories, like oil cooler, oil tanks, etc. To be fair, much of the reason for this is that builders are able to install the engine and transmission of their choice. However, a standard recommended engine/transmission along with detailed instructions for that selection would have removed a lot of head-scratching along the way.
People often ask me if it is much easier to build a car than an airplane. While neither activity is what I would call “hard”, I have found building a car to be more complex. The kit airplanes I have built have had simple structures and systems. The cars have had more involved wiring and systems, such as lighting, security systems, air conditioning, engine computers, sensors, electric side mirrors, etc. None of the assembly steps for either project are very difficult – it just requires patience and tenacity to research the steps and develop the required skills prior to wielding the tools.
The SLC arrived with a black gelcoat and fiberglass interior components. Everything fit quite well together, with the exception of the doors, which required time and a heat gun to get to the point where they made a water tight fit.
The interior was one area where I deviated significantly from what was supplied. I didn’t think the factory gauge cluster did justice to the quality of the rest of the car, so a Dakota Digital cluster was installed instead. However, it didn’t fit within the supplied instrument panel structure, so the original panel was cut in half and then patched, extended and reshaped into something that would better accommodate the gauges and planned controls. It’s amazing what you can do with fiberglass, especially when it is going to be covered in upholstery!
Once the car was fully assembled, it was time for paint. While I had all of the equipment left over from painting the Maranda, Rotorway and SeaRey, painting is not one of my favorite activities and good local automotive paint shops are much easier to find than aircraft paint shops, so we decided to hand this part over to the professionals, with some assistance from me in disassembling and reassembling the body components.
By winter of 2017, the car came home in its new blue livery and the project was declared complete. With 0-60 mph times estimated somewhere under 3 seconds, solid suspension, powerful brakes and cornering like it is on rails, the performance definitely backs up the statement that the body makes. The only downside is that it’s not possible to go anywhere incognito: The car attracts attention wherever it goes, from drivers pulling up to give it a thumbs-up, to patrons at any parking lot, there are always many who want to get a closer look and find out what it is.
