by stage169 » Tue Dec 27, 2011 3:27 pm
Questions...
Jack,
There have been some questions come up so here they are.
1. One of the members on the club said part of the reason for not continuing the Monza Mirage was that Ford had an overseas race car with the same name (Gulf Mirage) and had started a law suit against Chevy. Have you heard of this?
2. Do you remember any additional info on the Berger Monza that was delivered to BORT so the Rapide could be started? Just looking at the pictures it makes me wonder if it was raced or maybe a display car with the Ssc2 on the side.
3. Another member who did own the Black Mirage with the whale tail (a couple pictures I sent you) said that his car is the one next to your Pantera (I‘m not sure how many times his car was changed but at one point it had the whale tail and then the standard Mirage rear spoiler). According to him there was another prototype car that was yellow and had a cosworth turbo engine? Here is what he said.
Ask Jack if he has any shots of the 'Rapide' prototype? It had wider flares along with the whale tail and I believe it also had a turbo Cosworth Vega in it. I remember being in the parking lot just before they arrived from a meeting with it. I think Juratovic was driving and they started doing donuts in celebration of the meeting with GM.
I thought the prototype I had mentioned earlier with the turbo Cosworth was yellow. Would you ask Jack about that one and if they made more than one prototype?
4. Do you know what happened to the Rapide and the Black Mirage with gold graphics that had the MATC1 license plate? Just wonder if they were sold or scrapped.
5. The colors taken in the GM Design photo studio of the Rapide are super! There is a decal on the passenger side rear quarter glass do you know what it is?
6. The picture you sent of the two haul away trucks with Mirage’s you can see the fronts of several cars are blacked out. Almost like the picture negative was altered so it wouldn’t show. Just curious on that one.
7. One member wants to know if you have any suggestions on how to restore and/or protect the Mirage polyurethane parts?
Answers....
Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!
1. Mirage name; Ford (Gulf Mirage racecar) lawsuit: IIRC, FoMoCo didn't cause us trouble; I'll have to check w/ Juratovic on that. Interestingly, a small midwestern shop called "Mirage Tool & Die", or something similar, initiated a name copyright infringement. GM Legal researched and found out that they were essentially a lawnmower repair shop! Anyhoo, GM paid them some good monies to go away. I was shocked but Bob Krupka told me although GM could win the case easily, it would also easily cost the Corporation far more in legal fees, time, etc. so they paid the guy off. BTW, "Mirage" is painted on the driver's side of the original whale-tail car, but I can't find a photo of that (yet). IIRC, Chevy liked the way Monza Mirage sounded better than Rapide, plus Rapide sounded "too foreign" (like Monza doesn't??) and that's the way the name happened.
2. The "Berger" Monza used as the original prototype Rapide was privately owned by Pat Wahl who raced it in that SCCA Class. Jack Juratovic and myself knew Pat Wahl through "car stuff". Pat and his dad, Rex Coleman, owned and operated C&F Stamping in Grand Rapids, MI. One of C&F's contracts was the stamped steel inner door panels for the production Corvettes, hence, there was another professional GM connection for us. Using Pat's Monza as a donor car also meant we had no "upfront" dollars necessary to invest in a vehicle for the prototype. Pat and Rex where also close friends of Dale Berger, the local Chevy dealer. The vehicle used for the Mirage prototype clay and approval parts for production tooling was a General Motors property.
All production Monza Mirages were built in Canada, shipped via rail to Detroit, then they were trucked via convoy to Berger Chevrolet for dealer prep. The most difficult part of the dealer prep was repairing the bullet holes! Seems the out-back Canadians were fond of using the vehicles for moving target practice! After repair and prep, the individual vehicles were driven from Berger Chevrolet to C&F Stamping's large lot (only a few city blocks away) where we would run them through our production line.
Prior to this, Jack, Pat, Rex and myself formed MATC as a separate company. Rex and Pat built a new facility for producing the Mirage parts and installing them on C&F property. All of this, including paintng the finished parts were done onsite at that facility. The new company's original name was Auto Tech, then Auto Techniques, then something else, all being thrown out by the state because the names were too close to exsisting copyrighted trademarks or other company names. That's when we added "Michigan" to the company title. Kind of long and clumsy sounding name but necessary for incorporation. I was president and Jack, Pat and Rex were VP's at the time.
3. I'm going to have to ask Juratovic on these points. I'm having difficulty remembering the black whale-tail version and a yellow version. I can't remember whether Pat's Monza (the original wale-tail) had a Cosworth or a V-8. Somebody familiar with the SCCA classes at the time could probably answer that by veiwing the class and numbers on that car being unloaded at our BORT shop.
4. The black and gold with MATC1 plates was probably owned by MATC and/or Pat/Rex. I don't remember and I don't know what happened to it.
5. The decal on the Rapide side glass is an SCCA decal; it was on the car during racing, clay modeling, prototype parts fab+install and the final Rapide vehicle presentation and never removed.
6. I'm thinking the blackout effect on the cars on the haulaways is probably just shadow.
7. Polyurethane protection/resto: we used the Reaction Injection Molding (RIM) process for the body parts, essentially the same as the flexible front/rear bumper covers (fascias) of production vehicles of the time and not much changed even now except for more sophisticated automation and upgrades in the polyoxyalkaline and polymeric urethane chemicals. Good paint and good wax to help protect from UVs is about it for maintenance. For repairing tears, scrapes, etc. I should think that a polyurethane repair kit available at any good auto body store (or most major auto parts stores for that matter) should do the trick. The key is following the directions. I repaired a tear on my wife's 300C front fascia about two years ago and you still can't tell it's ever been damaged.
Hope this helps. I'll get w/ Juratovic for further specifics after the Holidays settle down to a dull roar.
All Best...jack