Opinion on body design requested

I like the larger, but with a different grille material. That thick silver "box" stuff is kind of odd. Would be better in something more fine, and in black!

Yes.

Well done in either case.

Large one, now where do we sign up to follow the build?

Definitely looks like a Sammio. My guess is they are expanding the Sammio body to fit a Miata chassis.

It is a Sammio Spyder he is working to import. As a matter of fact his picture is a photoshop of the Sammio ad (look at the boats).

Thank you for the input. Gary Janes owns the Sammio Kit Car Company in England. He made the Sammio body as a re body for an old Truimph Herald and is doing the blue body as a re body for the shorter Triumph Spitfire.

I fell in love with the body shape. I live in the US so, for me the natural car to build this on was the 1990-2004 Miata. I have a couple of them. The Miata is wider by 5.9 inches. I contacted Gary and have been working with him to adapt the body for the Miata. The original Sammio body will not clear the Miata's engine and taller front shock towers. The blue body was photo shopped from the Sammio to clear the Miata parts. I think that it looks great. The finished car would be around 1400lbs.

I ordered a body and it is on a ship, on it's way to me. I am going to have to make the modifications to make it look like the blue car. I honestly want opinions on which grill shape to go with. I can't build the frame until the body arrives.

I am working with a friend of mine that is a retired GM chassis engineer for the frame design. He works as a consultant to major car companies.

I am a car enthusiast. A number of years ago I did my own car and sold some kits for it. I gave that business to my brother in law a few years ago. It was always a hobby for me.

I have invented a few simple things for Children. I make my living selling them.

That being said, I would be lying if I didn't say that I am thinking of selling the body, frame, and windscreen as a kit. This would be with Gary's blessing. I do not have that business in place and would not accept any orders. I don't want to violate any rules here either. If and when I offer it, I would advertise it here. The target price would be $4900.

$4900 and uses Miata running gear.......now that is awesome!!!

Do you know if any of the Spitfire based ones are coming over?

No, but it would be pretty easy to lay up the body then cut it and glass it back together for the proper size for the Spitfire.

Oh, I like this whole idea. The larger looks better in my opinion.

jmc14 wrote: Some of you know that I am working on building a space frame for Miata suspension and drivetrain. I am working with Gary Janes from England on a 50's inspired body for it. I have attached a couple photoshop pics. One has a larger grill opening. The other a smaller Oval. Just wondering which one people would prefer. You are my focus group. Thanks, John

Yeah I like the larger grill as well

Just a side note, have you done the market research on kit cars with and without a fit-able soft top? I know open air sells better but I am concerned with that design if the lack of a fit-able top might hurt volume

One Red and One British Racing Green please

At this time I would think that this would be just a fun car and not used for primary transportation. I have a Cobra replica that I built from scratch and am pretty involved in that community. Only a very small of Cobra owners choose to have a soft top. I think this car is like that.

That being said, I have thought about it. One option would be to fit a Porsche 550/356 windshield. They are readily available and is the correct width. There are convertible tops available for those cars. I would start there to adapt one to this car. The other would be to use a Kharmin Ghia windshield cut down and then have the top made.

Until I get the body here I am going crazy thinking of the options.

A couple of people mentioned the squarer grille but possibly a bit smaller.

Of the two, I prefer the larger, squarer one, but it does look to me faintly as though it comes down a bit too low, making it look a bit like its mouth is hanging open, though that overstates my misgivings.

jmc14 wrote: At this time I would think that this would be just a fun car and not used for primary transportation. I have a Cobra replica that I built from scratch and am pretty involved in that community. Only a very small of Cobra owners choose to have a soft top. I think this car is like that. That being said, I have thought about it. One option would be to fit a Porsche 550/356 windshield. They are readily available and is the correct width. There are convertible tops available for those cars. I would start there to adapt one to this car. The other would be to use a Kharmin Ghia windshield cut down and then have the top made. Until I get the body here I am going crazy thinking of the options.

If it is the correct width, essentially all you would need to do is print some templates and an instruction list.

That is not very difficult at all. Cool

Square larger grill maybe pulled back a bit at the bottom to make the car a little more rounded.

Are you ordering the body with the doors or the solid body without. Every kit car I have ever worked on is let down by the doors.

I know what you mean by the doors on kit cars. The best ones that I have seen are on the Prosche 550/356 replicas. I had the hinges on a Lister replica that I built and they were very solid. No sag and closed with a solid thunk.

I have ordered the body with out doors. I thought that I would build a version with out and 1 with. With out doors the frame would wrap around you at legal bumper height. It sure makes the build simpler.

For the door version I am thinking of having the frame at the bottom of the door be 8 inches tall. You would step over the sill. I did this for my Cobra and it allows a truss in the side rails that helps with stiffness and when tied into the cowl, rear clip, and front clip great torsional rigidity as well.

I will look at using the Miata hinges, Porsche hinges, and even external hinges as shown in the picture. The external hinges I think can look cool. They do make lining up everything and have them work well a snap.

So are you ordering bodies from England and modifying them when they get here or creating bodies in the USA?

So now we have a possible body, will 5.0 or LSx still fit in there?

I ordered a body. I will make the changes that I need to fit my frame with the Miata suspension cradles and drivetrain bolted in. I am retaining the stock Miata wheelbase so that any stock or aftermarket parts will fit. I will also be molding in the flanges that will attache the body to my frame.

I have Gary's permission to make a professional mold of the final version. Then if any one want's one I will be able to reproduce it.

You certainly could order the body and frame work directly from Gary for the Spitfire. The shipping ends up being very expensive though.

jrw1621 wrote: Large The small looks cartoon-ish ala Pixar Really, my answer is that I like the square-ness rather than the oval-ness. Possible that a smaller rectangle could be good.

+1

As far as engine conversions. I believe that anything from a mechanical or suspension stand point that would fit the stock Miata will fit in this car. This is my goal.

I have built several cars using C4 and C5 suspension and drivetrain parts. I have C5 parts in my Cobra. They could be used with this body as well. I already have built a 90 inch wheelbase with narrowed C5 suspension that would work with this car. If I were going to build this car with a V8 I would just use the Vette parts. Then there is no need to up grade. Here is a few pics of the Cobra frame that I built. I would just mold in some 3 inch flares and you would be able to run 315 rear tires in the rear and 295's up front. I convert the C5 diff so that it takes a driveshaft. The C5 transaxle will not work in this narrow of a trans tunnel. I do have a complete C5 set up on hand. Maybe a Vette version of this would give the Cobra guys a run for there money. So many possibilities.

The idea of using the Miata parts, beyond that it is a true sports car with excellent engineering and handling, was to keep the price down. I think a version of this car with the Miata parts can be on the road for under 10K. And that is with purchasing the Miata and having it professionally painted.

Obviously a Vette version would be significantly more.

JoeyM wrote: the bottom is too jaguar-ish

That's not necessarily a bad thing...

I'm pretty sure that most of the Westfield kits sold in the US are sans top. Not all, but most.

In reply to Keith:

Gawd those things are pretty...

$4900? Very interested. Very.

irish44j wrote: I like the larger, but with a different grille material. That thick silver "box" stuff is kind of odd. Would be better in something more fine, and in black!

With your love of older cars.. I thought you would have gotten behind the ferrariesque eggscarton grill