John Washington

Thanks once again guys for the kind words. I AM back in business, albeit on a more limited scale due to the past year's brain damage, including now being "shopless." I have sold and shipped several kits in the past few weeks and I am accepting orders. I've postponed making a general announcement. I need to be a little better prepared for the influx of business I eagerly anticipate. Plus, there are a couple of minor details of the settlement that have yet to be fulfilled. John Welch was kind enough to notify me of the post for information...I'm still too busy trying to plug holes in the dike to surf around a lot. Also, since I am without shop at the moment and I am very busy with some big projects (including one out of town), anyone who wants to "drop by" probably better let me know well in advance if you really hope to catch me! Thanks again!

I got some of the molds back today and hope to have full control of the rest tomorrow. I actually laid eyes on those two top molds, so I know they are still there. As TrickZ says, they are rough and require finishing, seals, and latches. Definitely a do-it-yourself proposition. Not trying to sell them short, but that's why I'm only selling them for my cost...that and the desire to support the customer best I can, until I can put together a nice top for which I can charge a lot:) TrickZ, I'd love to see photos of what you've done. I'm sorry but I don't remember you...too much brain damage over the last year and maybe I'm just getting old. Anyway, when I get the business back to the point that I'm can eat something more than peanut butter and Ramen noodles, I hope to put some time into documenting customer cars and making the information available on the website.

I thought I replied to this thread, but I may have been replying to an individual who emailed me directly. If it is a Subtle Z hood you saw, the reinforcement is fiberglass. It was molded off the original Z reinforcement, thus it looks like it. Hope this helps clear up the confusion!

Rick is a good guy...very talented. Good luck with the project. Who knows, if you come up with something better than what I have, maybe we can work something out!

I used to have those molds...and hopefully will have them again tomorrow:) However, I think the question was about a Shelby Cobra Daytona. That kit was done by Nalle and I have only seen photos. Dan Campbell of Cybercars references it in his kitcar book, but I don't have a copy or know much beyond that. http://www.cybercars.com/bigbooks/pp/bbpp1.htm I had a prospective customer at one time who had one and I think I got a copy of his installation manual. However, without the molds reproducing the kit would be improbably expensive. You'd be better off financially buying a manufactured Cobra Daytona kit. They are expensive, but making a kit from scratch is too!

Negative. The YZ kit was done by an SCCA guy named Roger Edsinger in the Bay Area. I don't think he intended to get into the business; just wanted parts for his race car. He did the 940Z also.

Thanks for the kind wishes! I'm done with lawyers for awhile, but posted some info for you under "Fiberglass top for a Vello Rossa." I do have the other stuff you need and hope to have the molds back in the shop on Monday.

I wish that I'd known you guys were working on this...I have been so busy with the lawyers that I haven't had time to keep up with the posts. I think we may be able to resolve our problems and get me up and running again on Monday. I have a mold for a hardtop that was made to fit the VR and I have basically been selling them for cost, which is around $300. The top is just a shell to which you have to fit your own seals and latches. If you want to save yourself some trouble and are not too far along to stop before you hurt yourselves, let me know. Direct email is best, as I don't have much time for surfing these days. Also, for those of you wanting some history, Rick Hammond (aka 'Pablo Bondo') used to work for me and did a lot of the prototyping on the original Velo Rossa. Then he went over to the Dark Side and did some work for Dave Epstein at AZ Z. After all the fun he had there, he decided he needed some real brain damage, went into business for himself, and put together the Origin kit. I believe that he had the Origin kit out long before the Z Therapy kit came on the market.

I happened to finally have some spare time and surfed over to see what's going on. WRT 940Z, there is still an active page on my old website at http://www.reactionresearch.com/940z.html I only have one picture of this kit. I purchased the tooling from a guy in California many years ago and this is the only photo he had. Since most guys go either mild (Subtle Z) or really big (280 YZ) I have not sold too many 940 kits and no one has ever sent me photos of finished cars. Now, if I could persuade Ted Fisher to build one... On a related note, it looks like my former employers/friends and I may finally put our differences to bed on Monday. Hopefully I will be ready to take orders from all the hundreds (or one or two) of you who want parts. Let me know!

Ted Fisher told me about some AWESOME photos of his car that just got posted. You can see them at http://www.cecilwalker.com/PhotoSite/asra/2002-11-30/8DatsunSamples/index.htm?1 I hate to keep teasing you guys with this stuff even though I can't sell you any (though we are working on that...negotiating the return of my tooling, etc.), but these photos are so good that I couldn't resist sharing! Remember to email me directly if you have questions...I have been so busy that I haven't had time to surf around lately.

Thanks, folks, for all the great response to Ted's car. Because you have been so nice, I posted some more photos! Ted was shaking the car down at Firebird this weekend in preparation for racing next weekend at PHX Intl on Saturday and Firebird again on Sunday. It is a very impressive on the track and sounds wonderful, too! Ole Ted ain't a bad shoe, either! http://www.reactionresearch.com/Fisher%20Firebird/index.htm

Thanks! Obviously, if I could read I would have realized that there is a whole section dedicated to "Alternate 6 cylinder non L6 Board," and I would not have posted in the wrong place! Guess I got up too early. My apologies! John

Oops! The link to Jim's car is www.reactionresearch.com/williams.htm . Looks like the posting software tried to stick the closing parenthesis into the URL. John

Jim Williams (Phoenix Velo Rossa builder, www.reactionresearch.com/williams.htm) is undertaking a new project. Ultimately, he wants to put a Buick GNX mill in a Z, but he has a NA Buick V6 he is going to do right now to see how it works out. Anyone out there have experience with this engine, performance mods, installation into a Z, etc.? It's not a huge bump in displacement over the stock engine, but it looks quite a bit lighter and with the turbo version...look out! Thanks in advance, John

Hi, John Welch! What have you been up to? Looks like you need a set of 280YZ quarter panels. I think I may have an old set. Drop me a line... John john@reactionresearch.com

I have a couple of old customers who have asked me to broker their unmounted kits. How serious is your interest? John

I just saw one of my old customers, Ted Fisher of Primarily Japanese in Tucson, at the Pavilions car show. He just finished his 280YZ race car and I have posted some photos at http://www.reactionresearch.com/Fisher/index.htm It was after dark and my little camera doesn't have much of a flash. I tried it without the flash and there wasn't enough light to get good color balance. I don't have the patience to color correct every shot, so I just threw them out there for everyone to see. This car is VERY impressive. Tubular subframe from the firewall forward, full cage, 3.0 engine. Check out that dash!

Hi, Guys! Just happened to be surfing a little because I couldn't sleep. Cable Car is long gone. The guy's name was Jim Carpenter. He sold out to Butch (I think) Hooper and you can see his website/contact info at http://www.italianauto.com/ I don't think they have anything to do with 250 GTO stuff anymore, but do some 308-to-288 GTO rebody work. Jim Carpenter was a friend of Jim Simpson's and may have sold Jim the Rhino tooling. I'm not sure where Jim got it, but if you guys figure out the story, I would like to have the info for the archives! John

I think I have a Subtle hood laying around my shop, if you are still interested. Contact me offline and I will see what I can do. I promise to pack it better than "the other guys." John Washington former and future owner of VR Engineeering john@reactionresearch.com

Teo was good enough to point out that you guys were trying to get info from me. I've heard of and corresponded with the Classic Revival guy trying to work out a referral arrangement due to large volume of inquiries I have gotten from Australia and New Zealand. However, he was pretty adamant that there was not much I could do for him, so I dropped it. I barely have time to help the folks who WANT my help:) Anyway, I don't know how the tooling wound up down there. Someone could have bought a kit and splashed it. It is also possible that when Ferrari "suggested" that Joe Alphabet get out of the business (he supposedly had a dealership or something and didn't want to jeopardize his relationship) one of his sets of tooling wound up being purchased and sent down there. I, too, would be interested to know! John

Thanks for the advice, guys. I do want to keep VR going until someone can take the torch from me. I am eager to resolve my issues with the current owners and move ahead. As far as retooling the kit, I can't tell you how many times I've said, "I should have done this," or "I should have done that," all the while thinking about making a newer, better (but more expensive) VR. I even carried the line of thinking out to the point of having conversations with the Cal Spyder guys ( http://www.calspyder.com/ ) about using their FANTASTIC tubular chassis as the basis for a new VR. That route would have the car wind up with a Ford small block (the usual engine for the calspyder) which is why we are all chatting on the HybridZ forum! The only shortcoming would/might be non-independent rear suspension. But, the newer mustangs have IRS... However, it's lots of bucks invested for a car that would be VERY nice, but sell for a LOT more money, and selling in much smaller numbers. AND it would still be a front-engine car (see www.reactionresearch.com/moreautomotive.html ) for my latest thinking on that subject. So, someone who is enthusiastic about the front engine roadsters needs to buy all this stuff off me. I will share all my improvement ideas, including the ones that make more sense financially! Why don't a handful of you guys get together and form an investment pool to buy it together. I will give generous terms to someone who is enthusiastic and has the business acumen to keep it going. I know all of you have the talent when it comes to producing the product...that is overwhelmingly evident! John

It's me again! I AM still alive. Teo told me that there had been quite a bit of traffic on the boards about VR and related matters, so I surfed around a little. Thanks to everyone who has had kind things to say about me and the Velo Rossa. I feel bad sometimes that I may not be providing enough support to my customers due to time/money limitations inherent with the one-man-band business model. I'm glad everyone has been able to get good results and is happy with the stuff they have gotten from me over the years! The "other company" still has all the tooling associated with VR Engineering and I'm not sure when that situation will be resolved or what the outcome will be. I'm pretty certain, however, that they will return the tooling to me. It's just a matter of time, letting them realize that they can't do anything with it without me (OK, humor me a little ego), and that it is the right thing to do. I will keep you all posted. I'm doing other stuff now having sold my building subsequent to the merger, reinvesting in and managing other property, pursuing some non-automotive new product designs (and newly inspired by Teo...see www.cellsock.com), etc. However, I have a few customers in the local area who are selling parts, and one completed car that is for sale. See www.reactionresearch.com/williams.htm for more info on that baby. If you need something, let me know and I will see if I can scrounge it for you! A few specific comments relative to this thread: 1. I appreciate what a few have said about the installation manual. I have been wanting to do a rewrite for a long time, however, it takes time and I'm not sure what form it should take. I would like to post it on the web for free. However it would be easy to plagiarize, and in its revised and expanded form it would occupy a bunch of space and be pretty damned difficult to view. It would also be difficult to recoup my investment of time. My thinking has always been that I should sell the manuals. At a historic ratio of about 50-1 (manuals to actual kit sales) this helps me keep the price of the parts down for the guys who are serious enough to wind up purchasing something. 2. Bonding is a process that works very well if you keep a few basics in mind. There are three main factors in getting a strong bond. A) surface prep, strength of the bonding agent in pounds/sq in, and c) number of square inches of bonded area. With fiberglass you need to scuff the shine of the INSIDE of the parts to "open up the pores" of the glass. The surface to which you are bonding should heavily scuffed as well. Use a grinder with less than 100 grit for both jobs. The total bond strenth is equal to the "unit" (pounds per square inch, for example) bond strength of the bonding agent, multiplied by the bonding area. If you have plenty of bond area, you don't need much unit strength. I once bonded on some door skins with Bondo, got one a little crooked and attempted to "pop it off" to redo it. Well, I wrecked the doorskin and the door! OK that's my 2 centavos for now. As always, I don't have much time to surf the boards, so if you have a significant question, flame, etc. that you REALLY need for me to see, please send it directly to john@reactionresearch.com. If there are significant postings that I need to address that have not been sent to me directly, someone please cc me or send me a link to the appropriate board. Thanks again guys...you have no idea how much enjoyment I get from vicariously following your projects, seeing how different and how awesome they all turn out! John Washington

Hi, Folks! I AM still around, but as usual have been too busy to surf the boards a lot. I'll be sending out a press release in the near future to announce that my little company has been acquired. I'll still be involved, but the day to day stuff will be handled by Harley Lever (info@reactionresearch.com, for the moment), a great guy who is coming up to speed pretty quickly. Part of our plan is to vastly improve the VR Engineering website and the GTORR website to get some of Terry's info and a lot more out there. For now (and until I can get Harley onto the message boards) I offer the following info: We do have replica dashes. There are two: one like the old Alpha kits had, and one made by Jim Simpson. The latter is the one I prefer. It's a little more expensive but looks a lot more like the original. Anyone else who needs help with other stuff, please feel free to contact Harley. If he doesn't know the answer, he knows how to find me!

Thanks for the kind words, Frank! I'd be happy to talk to whomever about reproducing the part. It it's something that is no longer in production I don't at all feel bad about it. I'm not at all familiar with the design, however, so Jim if you have a chance to shoot some better photos of it I'll have more of an idea as to what it would take to make a mold. Obviously, I'd like to have some indication of interest in advance of investing in the mold. Anyone who is interested please contact me offline (I don't have much time to surf the boards, but Dan Juday was kind enough to bring this to my attention). If you know of anyone else who may be interested, send them my way, too. Maybe if we get enough interest I can drive the cost way down! Of course, you'll get yours back plus a free one, Jim, if we get enough interest to make it worthwhile to build the mold. Thanks JW

quote: Originally posted by Racnoth: Wow, didn't realize VR engineering was located in tempe...probably my next door neighboor or something...if so, sorry 'ya have to look at my ugly primered Z every day! Thanks for the insight, maybe I'll have to track ya down one day, and buy some stuff... I'm at University and 101. Call me a day ahead of your planned arrival. I'm a one-man band and am frequently out chasing parts or making deliveries...or maybe just 'out to lunch.' We can fix up that old Z with a new hood or something!