New Guy, V10 Ghia

[kjwalters]

Hello everyone.
I thought I would jump in and share some pics and inforamtion about my car.
It is rather unique and some will love, while other...not so much. But I guess that's typical of any custom build.
I started this car over 2 years agao and it's finally made it to the paint and body shop recently. The car is a 1967 Karmann Ghia with a Gen 3 viper V10 and speed in it. My intention was to build a car that looked like a "Hot Wheels", something over the top and crazy. I am a driver, and this car was designed to be fun. Here are some general over all pics over the last couple years, hope you enjoy them.

This is how it all started. I picked this car up for $300, it was an incredable deal considering how solid the body was. It had never been hit or had any work done to it.




After we got the body back to the shop we took many hours cutting and removing metal. These cars were built extremely well. Not being a VW expert, I was impressed with the German engineering. After we removed enough material, we dropped the Viper engine in it's place and put the 20 and 22 inch wheels under it so we could get an idea of what the car would look like. Needless to say, It got our blood boiling.



One of the most time consuming parts of this build was R&D. On a build like this nearly every part needed to be fabricated. Including the suspension both fornt and rear. Hera are a few pics- Note: everything you see except for the Air bag and brakes was made in house.




The Rear end of this car is jst as impressive. The centersection waas made from a peice of forged Aluminum weighing 350LBS.
This IRS is designed to handle 850+ HP and over 900 flbs, making it the strongest IRS on the market. Here are a couple pics of the carriers and the center section being machined.




After the main chassis was complete we started on the interior tin. I was very happy how it turned out. The dash was hand fabricated as well.
Looking at the reat trunk now, it's hard to believe that there was ever a motor in it.

[kjwalters]

The heart beat of this car is the Gen 3 Viper. As stated ealier the motor was factory new so we had a soild starting. Allot of people ask we whay a V10. Well, besides the visual impact, the V10 came with over 500Hp/550flbs from the factory. Those are solid numbers. So making our desired 650 HP would be easy without making it to radical for long street tours.
We ended doing these mods: The heads Ported, new larger stainless valves put in, Shaft mount roller rockers, a custom grind roller cam, ECU re-tune, SFI Damper, custom made Stainless headers and flow through exhaust, Billet Big Mouth Throttle body, march billet pulleys.
As for the Trans, It was sent to Rockland Standard gear and had a Tranzilla Jr build done to it. We also are putting a quick time SFI bell housing and Ram dual disc clutch in it. All in All, the engine will most likely exceed our HP and TQ goals and be very dependable.





We also had redsigned the Thermostate housing. Mostly for clearance sake, but we eneded up also getting 30% better flow through this new unit.



The engine Takes up room...she's all business up front.



Hers a pic of the headers off the car



These are some of the parts we got back from one of our sponsors, Kyron Plating in OH. Every part you see here was made in house. I wanted a cool contrast to show off all the peices, so I went with Purple ANO over the chrome. I love look.
[IMG]http://i716.photobucket.com/albums/ww166/kjwalters4510/Ghiachromeparts1.jpg[/IMG

[kjwalters]

One of the coolist things to come out of this build is my oppertunity to work with a company to develop a new product for the car. I think this is something that people in this hobby are going to love. I dont want this to be a sales pitch, but am very pleased on how well this product has tuned out and I believe in it.

The unit we developed is a touch screen interface that takes the place of all your typlical toggles and switches. But, it's far more than that.
Besides switching things like, fuel pumps, fans, lights, door locks, windows, truck release etc...The unit offers some really unit features, that people who build custom cars will love. Some of these features were only available to OEM manufactures....until now. I wanted the Ghia to have today Technology and comforts found in OEM cars.

Below you will see the opening screen for the ghia. This pic can also be used as a background as well. We placed a rough rendering just for mockup. The user will be able to have a pic of there vehical installed before shipping.



Another feature of the unit is that it offers a standard security system, that is far better than anything out there. The unit has a security screen that appears after the opening screen. It will cue the driver to enter his/her pin or code (customer chosen). Until the code is entered nothing the screen controls will be able to be activated. Fuel pumps, lights, ignition etc.... once activated this screen will also appear when suffing the internet or accsessing GPS functions etc.. This feature can also be disabled if you wish at the time of order. We are currenlty working on a Bio-Metric security option as well.



Here is a pic of a couple of differnet switch panles we mocked up for the Ghia. As you can see the layout allows for a clean and easily visable
point of interface for all your vehical fuctions.
Each unit's graphics, back ground, switch shapes, colors, function and lay out are dictated by the customer upon order. The unit can also be set up to display in a vertical position to allow install in between the seats in narrow consoles. We will work with you each step of the way and send pics of the screen layouts, so you can change or tweek whatever you want before the unit is every shipped. That means that every unit is unique to the customer, it's your unit. This is why we called it MiMOD HP (My Modifications- High performace)





Things like back dorund graphics and color can be changed from the screen itself. And if you would like button added, removed, changed or a screen added, there is no charge to have it done. Just call up customer service and start the desgin process, o.k the upgarde or change once you have seen it via e-mail; and they send out a new program that will interface with the unit. Done. No ther unit on the planet offers this degree of customizing.

The unit is also capable of displaying just about any sensor. For eg... Air ride suspension pressure, ride height, or outside air temp..ect. We are also working on the innerface for a TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) That will alow you to check tire pressures from the screen, tire temps and give alarms for low air or hi temp. Here is a Pic of a basic Gauge lay out, Note: the back gound is missing in this pic.





The unit will be OBDII capable in the very near furure. Allowing you to monitor every possible engine perameter as well as clear bad codes as needed.

Yet another feature we are currently testing, is a WIfi upgrade that will allow you to down load all information to a home copmuter, cell phone or lap top for anaylisis, before, after or during a race.
Aside from this the unit will also be GPS, and back up camera compatiable. And we also offer a split screen option that allows you to display basic gauges such as speedo, tach, Iol pressure, fuel level, vots..etc... in a second panle located behind the steering wheel, while leveing all the other features and touch interfacing to the first unit loctated in the dash or console.

We have some other very cool features in the works, but I think you get the idea.
The basic MiMod Hp is capable of displaying gauges and switching right out of the package. You can add new apps as your needs change. For eg.
GPS
WIFI
HD Radio
Satellite radio
Entertainment pack (MP3, DVD etc..)
TPMS (tire pressure temp and pressure)
BI-Meteric security
Accelerometer performance upgrade.

We are always working on new applications and new options that you will be able to add whenever you like to your MiMid HP.

Lastly...We are currenlty working with ISIS power and MiMod HP will be able to interface flawlessly with their products.

www.MiModHP.com
So tell me what you guys think about this. Any changes? any added features you would like to see? Thanks for the input.

[Ketzer]

Wow. I love the build and the new product.



Jeff-

[slow4dr]

Very cool build! My first car was a '58 Ghia.

Any plans to make a front valence to keep so much air from getting under the car?


-J

[toddshotrods]

I love this car! I've been loosely following the build on your site. I'm glad you posted here, because I kept forgetting to go back and see what was going on with it.

[kjwalters]

Originally Posted by slow4dr

Very cool build! My first car was a '58 Ghia.

Any plans to make a front valence to keep so much air from getting under the car?


-J

Those Low Light Ghias are rare now...nice cars.
As for the front...well there little we can do since the whole nose tip forward to allow accesess to the engine. However we did modify the front somewhat and plan on doing some other little tweaks. The car is also pretty low slug which should also aid in that issue. Thanks for the comments.

jamie

[kjwalters]

Originally Posted by toddshotrods

I love this car! I've been loosely following the build on your site. I'm glad you posted here, because I kept forgetting to go back and see what was going on with it.

Thats , you will find some solid info here. I have a hard timer getting Dean to update his site, but I will stay on it here. Thanks fro following the build.

[kjwalters]

Originally Posted by Ketzer

Wow. I love the build and the new product.



Jeff-

Thank you Jeff.

[214Chevy]

Maaan, this build is sick. One of a kind, most definately. Please keep us updated. I'm hooked!!