Supercars, Kit Cars and the Superlite Cars SL-C - Stacey David's Gearz S6 E3

[Music] [Music] [Music] now you're watching gears brought to you by Ram truck you know the automotive world is very diverse you got hot rods and muscle cars and sports cars race cars four by fours I mean the list goes on and on but there is one area that grabs everybody's attention the exotic world of the supercar now you hear a lot of people using the term supercar these days so what exactly does that mean well in spite of what your cousin may tell you about is 78 Camaro not just any car can be a supercar oh there's some very specific criteria here number one it's got to be fast I'm talking something that will run a hundred and eighty miles an hour all day long and have the suspension and the handling and the drivetrain to go with that number two it's got to look good I mean it's got to be exotic it's got to be something that when it rolls in nobody's gonna look at anything else they're gonna swarm this thing to find out what it is and number three it's got to be loaded with state-of-the-art technology but to really understand the modern-day supercar you got to know where it came from check it out the concept of the supercar began in the early 1960s when race cars like Ferrari Maserati and Aston Martin Ward around the track the incredible styling of speed of these cars capture the imagination of the motoring public and soon they began asking for street versions of these incredible race cars and the manufacturers obliged pretty soon exotic machines begin to appear on the street boasting incredible power performance and sex appeal with their racing pedigree these cars were the ones everybody dreamed of owning because they represented the best of the best the problem is not everybody could afford one of those cars so people begin to build their own and early on companies like Devon Kellison and Lister began building original bodies and components for the do-it-yourselfer these cars were then raced on tracks and road courses all around the world right alongside the Ferraris and the Porsches that's where we got legendary cars like the Lola the McLaren and the chaparral but then sometime in the late 60s the world discovered the Volkswagen Beetle a Volkswagen is never changed to make it look different only to make it work better kid car manufacturer was found that the Volkswagen chassis was a cheap plentiful platform to base a car on and pretty soon the world was overrun by a flood of fake Ferraris Porsches and other cheap goopy stuff that tried to look fast as it cut it around on Volkswagen power the fit and finish was so bad on most of these cars that it was not uncommon to see hardware store door latches and junkyard parts from whatever people could find just hacked into place yeah the dark ages of the kid car were here fortunately in the 80s and 90s things started to turn back around with the main focus of the KITT car world being replicas quality cars began to hit the market with fit and finish and performance to match pretty soon it became hard to tell a replica from the original car and that brings us up to the present today there are numerous kit manufacturers out there that really build some great products but as good as they are there's a couple of issues here number one there's still replicas so after you spend all your time and money building your dream vehicle you're still gonna have a replica the second part is most kit cars are built the same way that they were back in the day they have a custom tubular frame fiberglass body goes down on top of it all the rest of the components either come from a donor vehicle or the aftermarket there's nothing wrong with that it's a great way to build a car but when you compare that to a modern Ferrari or Lamborghini with its air-conditioning leather and mid-engine design and the ability to run 200 miles an hour that's quite a difference here this was a supercar in the early 60s this is a current supercar this is nostalgic this is cutting-edge you want something that's going to compete with this I'm gonna have to look at a different place than that this is called the SLC and it comes from superlight cars and the first thing that grabs your attention is this is not a replica this is an original car that's every bit as exotic as anything on the road today but it's not just on the road it's also tearing up racetracks around the country we race the Cobb has the same chassis as I Street car the same body as I street all the same suspension pickup points is a street car the SLC dominated the super unlimited class in the NASA Series last year with blindingly fast lap times that resulted in numerous track records giving the SLC a legitimate racing heritage just like the McLaren's and Shelby's back in the day we ran against big turbo Mustangs we ran against Viper challenge cars that are well modified computes lots of very high-end cars these are well developed cars now keep in mind that to run over 200 miles an hour safely it's not cheap I mean take special wheels and tires and brakes and aerodynamics and all kinds of stuff but it doesn't have to be crazy expensive either this Lamborghini with this twin-turbo setup cost you about three hundred thousand bucks and slc cost you around forty four thousand and for that price what you get is a roller like this here with all the major components the suspension the body all fitted so you know where they go then you take this foundation put in the drivetrain the interior do the paint work finish it up into the vehicle that you want it to be now some of you guys are looking at this going forty-four thousand dollars I mean there's a lot of kit cars out there that are half that price and you're right there are but you'll notice I didn't call this a kit car because it doesn't come in a bunch of boxes for you to figure out how it goes together remember you get what you pay for by the time we're done showing you what goes into building one of these things you're not gonna be able to believe that you can buy it for only forty four thousand bucks [Music] in the early 1990s Fran Hall came to the United States with years of experience in European auto racing under his belt following the American dream it wasn't long before he was working for General Motors in the racing and IndyCar program during that time started getting involved with building my own car for myself which was a GT for a replica was a little disappointed with what I'd purchased although I'd bought what was supposed to be the industry standard the best you could buy from the best manufacturer and it really just wasn't what I wanted to build as a car then in 2005 he opened race car replicas and quickly became one of the top replica car manufacturers in the world located in Michigan RCR is able to pull on the best automotive talent in the country to create kits of the legendary Ferrari p4 the Porsche 917 and the Lola 270 however it's their gt40 replica that really got people's attention using a true monocoque aluminum tub just like the original cars the RCR gt40 just oozes quality and craftsmanship so I just said about to do my own and I wanted it to look like a real gt40 chassis but made simpler something I could build myself because I was only building one I was any building it for me and I wanted to drive it I didn't want to spend the rest of my life building it some friends of mine saw it and they're like that's a great idea will you make me one now that's kind of reluctant to start with them and just went from there and one May - May 10 May 20 May 15 it's so good in fact that three of them played a huge role in the movie Fast Five but as cool as these cars are there still replicas so Fran decided that he wanted to do something similar to what Carroll Shelby and Bruce McLaren did back in the day and offer an original supercar that a guy can put together for about the price of a new zo6 Corvette and that would also smoke anything on the road or track no matter what the cost so he started superlight cars and developed the SLC every boy's dream is to do their own thing and that's where the SLC came from the SLC is based on a semi-monocoque aluminum frame with the full monocoque tub in front and aluminum frame rails in the back now the whole thing is jigged up and TIG welded by hand by the guys at response welding in Detroit and these things are a work of art when they're finished using aluminum not only keeps the weight down but it also makes for an incredibly strong structure when it's all done you have to have lots of tubes going in different directions as opposed to doing a correctly designed flat panel it takes that load and it spreads over a bigger area and it's actually safer and stronger than doing a tube design [Music] hey welcome back to Gears where we are just starting to put together a supercar called the SLC from superlight cars now the difference between this car and all the other kit cars and component cars that are out there is that this one is sitting on an all aluminum semi-monocoque chassis now I know some of you guys are probably going what the heck is a monocoque man well it's basically a fancy name for a unibody meaning that this aluminum tub is your frame but the difference in this monocoque and the unibody and your Mustang or Camaro is that those are spot welded together so they're gonna flex on you that's why you got to use subframe connectors to stiffen it all back up this monocoque as you can see it's all seam welded it's gusseted its stressed up these things are mathematically designed to be the stiffest thing out there there's a ton of engineering that goes into this race cars have been using these things since the 60s but because of the engineering and the cost that goes into them nobody offers it in a component car except superlight we put this chasse the SLC chassis on the Australian test rig this is a government certified test rig the chassis was so strong that we pulled the anchors out of the floor of the building and I think that's the first time that's happening now as you can see there are no frame rails up here check it out the suspension components bolt right to the tub utilizing steel brackets so nothing's gonna wear or wallow out on you and the tub itself is a quarter inch thick so all the loads from the suspension travels into the tub and it's dispersed now some of you guys might be thinking wow aluminum it's kind of soft isn't it it's gonna crack it's gonna Bend not if it's done like this so what they make airplane wings out of if it's good enough for a jet it's good enough for a supercar but there's more to this than just an aluminum monocoque notice the suspension components not a single piece is off a donor vehicle these are whittled out of aluminum right there at superlight and they feature all kinds of adjustments so you can dial in your caster and camber for road or track use rack and pinion steering coil over shocks and big Brembo disc brakes round out the steering and breaking in the front the all-aluminum construction continues in the rear of the car with a square tube frame coming off of the monocoque and forming a cradle for the engine in the rear suspension as you can see everything is triangulated and supported so you have incredible strength and just like the front the rear suspension features billet control arms mounted in a traditional fashion and then a very unique push rod coilover system that was designed to get the coils up out of the way to make room for whatever engine and transaxle you want to stick in this thing I really don't see anybody in our hand-built component cart world doing anything even comparable to what we do we don't use donor components from a wrecked car everything is brand-new everything is designed bespoke for our cars which means we don't have the compromises of bump steer and suspension geometry that's not what we want it to be we can package wheels and brakes that we need to package for the cars performance to make them fit in the wheel wells nicely to do everything we want them to do to be a real car not a facsimile of somebody else's car turned into something out now even though the SLC comes to you as a roller you still have to build it which means you need to be prepared to blow this thing apart because you've got a lot of assembly and painting and plumbing and wiring and fabrication and all that stuff that you have to do when you are hand building a vehicle but they definitely make it easy on you now once you've got the suspension all torqued down to spec you're ready to move on to some plumbing let's see we have preformed two brake lines and coolant tubes so all you have to do put them in and make them look good [Music] [Music] [Music] this aluminum box is next and it bolts right to the front of the tub and it allows you to mount some pretty important stuff check it out got your radiator you've got an air conditioning unit that'll fit in here you got your reservoirs for your master cylinders and all kinds of other stuff all of which come with a kit so it's up to you to get it in place and put it together all right now we come to the only steel tubing on the car and that's this roll cage I notice we've got a hoop here in the front one in the back it's tied together with stringers here and then those continue back in the back tying everything together making an incredibly strong structure now as you can see we have a very sophisticated chassis going together here this alone is almost worth the purchase price but the thing that you're going to notice is we continue to put this car together as number one how easy it is to build number two how incredible it's going to be when it's done now quick tip brought to you by e3 spark plugs born to burn when you need to thread a steel bolt into something soft like aluminum or something thin like sheet metal most people know that you need to use some anti-seize on the threads to keep them from Gaul and stripping out on you but if you're gonna be taking the bolt out a lot a lot of times anna sees is not enough fortunately there's a simple solution you go down and get one of these thread setter kits now this basically is a fancy rivet with threads in it it allows you to put it right into the metal so you have got steel threads wherever you need them and you can take that in and out a thousand times I never have a problem with it if you'd like to learn more tips and make your life easier in the shop check out the tips page on the website [Music] and now parts been brought to you by heartthrob exhaust where technology and craftsmanship come together if you've got a vehicle that you spend a lot of time and money on it just makes sense to try to protect it that's why people wash them and wax them try to be careful where they park them but believe it or not you can get damaged with it just sitting in your garage because there's dust there's humidity it's the neighborhood cat there's your nephews bicycles there's all the kinds of stuff that can damage your vehicle fortunately there's California car cover they specialize in custom covers for virtually any vehicle out there and you can get it in different materials to fit your budget to just a regular weather shield like this does something that's got a little more padding that will protect your vehicle more to something that's completely waterproof looks like something that Noah would have put on the ark there was a time when people thought of a car cover as a luxury now most people look at him as a necessity if you want to cover your vehicle California car covers the first place to look if protecting your vehicle's exterior is important while protecting the engine and what goes on inside of it is even more important because today most people want a vehicle that runs as well as it looks well fortunately royal purple understands that and came out with this HP s high-performance Street oil now this is a synthetic oil but it's got extra additives of zinc and phosphorus to give you the lubrication and protection that you need in the rigors of street and high performance driving so whether you're sitting there in traffic idling for two hours or you're getting ready to run a road course same oil protects in both situations and that makes it money well spent for you guys that are building a hardcore off-road rig with a big flexi suspension one thing that you're going to need is some sort of sway bar to keep that body level when you're driving on the street and the bigger the truck the bigger the bar needs to be that's why the monster truck guys go to SCS gearbox and get one of these universal torsion bar systems now check this out it comes with two huge bars here inch and 3/4 here two inches here you got splines on both ends and they'll build them to whatever length you need for your application then to put them in you have these aluminum blocks and slide on sit here this gives you a place to bolt it to your frame then you have these steel collars that go onto the splines and this gives you a mounting point to mount your arms that go out to your axle or however your gonna mount it then of course you've got a cap that holds it all on if your truck has gotten big and you have some body lean problems SCS gearbox can help you take care of it [Music] what are you working on brought to you by Erin american-made quality and performance since 1992 today is what are you working on comes from matt tremble from Sachse Texas and it's really cool it's a 1974 sleek craft rebel jet boat now matt says when he found this boat he wasn't looking for a boat project but he answered an ad that said free boat so he showed up and the folks just wanted to get rid of the boat so they gave it to him he said the best part was is it came with this 400 Pontiac engine on a stand and what a deal that was now of course Matt was gonna do what anybody would do he was gonna chop the boat up and put the engine in a Trans Am but he said that he took the boat home when the first thing that his wife said was a nothing is cool he said that's all I needed to hear now he had a boat project but the first thing he found is that engine was not all it seemed to be check this out he found that parts of the block came off in his hand so first thing you had to do is get another block and rebuild the engine and he put the boat together check this out now Matt says that he and his wife have had a great time with the boat they continue to work on it making it faster and he's hoping to hit over 65 miles an hour this summer on the water that's cooking so Matt to help you keep tweaking that Pontiac making it faster we're gonna give you a year subscription to Hot Rod Magazine and to help you with one of your other vehicles we hooked up with their buddies at air raid we're gonna give you an air intake system for whatever you want so all you got to do is go to their website pick out the product and they'll ship it to you now the rest to you guys if you want to get your vehicle featured on the show boat car airplane we don't care it is send it in - what are you working on we'll do our best to get it on the air also don't forget we got the model contest going get yourself a model and some glue and show us what you can do alright that takes care of it today I got a super car to build we'll see you next week [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Official Stacey David

Views: 75,213

Keywords: staceydavid, GearZ, Hot Rods, Trucks, mavtv, revntv, motortrend, slc, sl-c, kit car

Id: U4poYyTqVsA

Length: 22min 44sec (1364 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 23 2018