1987 mera 71 rebuild.. i got her crashed and banged up pretty bad.
she had some goofy looking fcar fake wheels on her with the wrong offset that have since been taken off and sold. now she sports real fcar 430 19" wheels with michelin pilots and the correct offset so the wheels fill the well.
this pic isnt a great shot but does show the wheels and tires and how well they fit the body
some pics of some of the parts i have collected for her... f23 transmissions, the infamous fy1 2010 cobalt f23 with the excellent gear ratios and a 2002 cav f23 for the bellhousing...
and a new obx lsd
also have all the new gm oem f23 tools and gauges for proper setup.
originally i had much bigger plans for her... a ls2, or ls3 with hotcam. now its just a L33 aluminum block 5.3 with flat top forged pistons, ls2 cam and springs, cnc ported 243 heads with 62cc combustion chambers, ls1 intake, 78mm throttle body, 78mm maf, nice tune, and stainless steel headers. should be a moddest 400hpish motor. pic of motor when i got it before mods.
originally i was pretty stoked on the build. have since lost interest. dont ask if its for sale, shes not. but i havent worked on her in a while. now she sets in the back corner of the shop on jack stands minus the entire suspension, no cradle in her, tires and wheels are in the rafters.
i have more pics of the dissassembly but will have to find them. some of the mods i have done or am doing to her... i took the sunroof skin off and put a solid no sunroof skin on for the gtb type look. i made headlight covers that resemble the fcar. i took off the vitalonis flag mirrors and now have f308gt4 vitalonis that are more proper for the look. i am still planning on making frames and windows for the qtr glass area so it resembles a gtb more. my original vision of her is very similar to this....
i have since replaced the tore up front suspension with nice used components. i replaced all the front ball joints and tie rods with moog parts. i have a complete poly set for the suspension and mounts. i have a set of moton adjustable coilovers for all four corners.
post script; i also have a set of afco billet adjustable coilovers, so have options.
[This message has been edited by LEEEZARD (edited 02-19-2013).]
thank you dan the man. yes you have most of these pics if not all of them. or at least pretty close to all of them.
yulp and now i want your tail lights and Ford back ups i almost got the check, but i had to convert that to a house payment. but sooo my friend very soon
i have one of those champion aluminum radiators and fans. here are the mera nos taillights and reverse lights. one of the reverse lights had a broken lense originally but the housing was still good. so i replaced the lense part.
It was not an idle threat. In 1987, Ferrari filed a suit against Corporate Concepts. They decided to settle out of court. This was their public release at the time:
MERA PRODUCTION TERMINATED UNDER CONSENT DEGREE WITH FERRARI
Detroit, Michigan (June 1, 1988) -- Corporate Concepts Limited announced today that it will promptly cease production of its "Mera" automobile body conversion under a consent decree it has entered into with Ferrari S.p.A to settle the trademark infrigement suit that Ferrari filed after the Mera was introduced. Ferrari's suit in the Federal District Court in Port Huron sought a permanent injunction against the Mera, alleging that its body and exterior appearance was a simulation of the Ferrari 308 and 328 automobiles. The consent decree provides for the production of a small number of additional Meras during a short phase-out period. (RELEASE ANY TIME)
I vaguely remember reading someplace where as part of the consent decree, all of CC's original modes had to be witnessed/destroyed by running over them with a bulldozer, or something like that. I'd wager, however, that at least some of the remaining unused panels went "underground" to give birth to the 308 Kit Car.
besides tucked interior pleated leather, plush carpets and vitaloni mirror controller switch were mera only traits. again, tommys car. i keep using tommys car as a reference because it is the cleanest and most correct mera i have seen.
also as a group we discovered that meras have 2 piece sail/rear clips, while not completely mera specific it is mera only. meaning that if it has a 1 piece it is not a mera. but some kits have 2 piece as they were direct copies of a mera.
meras have vitaloni flag mirrors. there is some confusion tho as to which side is pwr, which side is manual, and both pwr, etc. reason for this discussion is danno has physically seen the proto, and his car 7002 and they have one side pwr one side manual but oposite of each other. nelson reports possible dual pwrs on some. mine 7071 had dual pwrs, which are now nelsons. ps... anyone wanting the proper vitaloni they came on maserati's and lamborghini's and they both have the proper mirror controller switches as well. but be prepared to pay around 1k for mirrors and switch or more.
