I had an interesting email inquiry this morning from a viewer. There were a few good questions that I had answers to, but apparently they’re not on the website anywhere. To be brief, here’s the exchange:
Here are some answers to your questions, as best that they can be answered:
1. Will this car retain the donor cars ABS system? If the car was equipped with ABS, it may be retained.
2. Will the car have any type of roof at all? A roof and windshield have been designed, but will not see production in the first year.
3. What size wheels and tires will the car use? As an example can it run 245/40/18 tires on a 18X9 wheel etc… The current wheel sizing is 17″ x 8.25″, +25 inset. The current tires are Toyo Proxes R1R, 245/35-17, and are fantastic. The general range is 15-17″, 8″ up to10″ with careful spacing, and a recommended diameter of not more than 24.5″.
4. Do you have any completed 4cyl or 8cyl cars at this time? Yes, we have one completed car that keeps getting “uncompleted” in order to take measurements, test, mold, etceteras, and the prototype race car you can see on the website is leading in the 2013 NASA Western Endurance Racing Series in ESR class.
5. Street legality, is this street legal in any state currently? Is it considered a Mazda Miata or does it come with a title and VIN#? Legality will vary by state, and licensing will be up to the owner. In California there is an SB100 voucher system for “special construction” cars. This is the system that’s used to license an Ariel Atom for the street, for example.
6. Do you have any performance stats for a base car on street tires? As an example a base car with a NA or NB motor/trans combo. 0-60, 1/4 mile & trap speed, Lateral G’s, Braking from 80 or 60mph to zero and so on. Sorry. The only stats we have on the car is that the SEMA car weighs 1,550lbs and can house an engine with a horsepower range from 90hp to 400hp. Team CRE’s endurance Catfish does not get passed in the corners or while braking, and I guesstimate their horsepower to weight ratio to be 8.2:1.
A data acquisition device system is being developed now and will be available to Bauer Limited Production customers at rock-bottom pricing. It will give g-forces, lean angle, slip angle, will tether control one GoPro camera (record on/off), and will have sensor inputs for throttle position, linear potentiometers, temperature, gear selection, etceteras.
The body looks great I’d to see a fully completed car with working headlights, taillights etc… In order to see what this looks like, its promising but you seem to be missing tons of details at this point in time. That’s intended! We are not yet producing cars, and many small details shown now on the website have already changed. The main points are found in the “Essentials” section, and have not changed.
It’s difficult to NOT show everything we’re working on, but in doing so we’d show parts and changes that will never make it on the car. Believe me, it’s frustrating to not show everything that we are developing, but it would be even more maddening to create false expectations or release bad information.
Best regards,
Cord Bauer
Cord,
Any idea when the first productions cars will be completed?
The first production frame was shown on the website yesterday. We’re making sure everything is done right, and not in a rush to get them done.
very good info. thanks for the update.
Can you share photos/images of the windshield and roof please? I’m already Photoshopping madly what they could look like, and I’d love to see what you actually have in mind.
Sorry, there are a lot of renders and test-pictures that we can’t show yet. Our general rule–which we’ve broken numerous times–is to not show a part or design until it’s been finished, tested and proven. We will, however, be testing the windshield using Computational Fluid Dynamics to confirm its efficacy. Once those are finished, it’s likely we’ll show the results here. However, remember that the windshield is not yet on our production radar.
Thanks Cord.
Will the windshield/roof be something that could be added later on?
Probably? 🙂 Until we do the work, I can’t guarantee it. However, our goal is a retrofit.
Excellent!
Thanks.
Looking forward to the windshield and top.
I intend to have A/C, defrost and heat. Cruise control too.
Maybe blind spot warning and lane departure assist (kidding).
Hope you can achieve a “wrap around” rear window in the top as opposed to a “flat” pane. Like a Miata hard top as opposed to the soft top.
Not a big deal though.
Great design. Great work guys.
The “top” we have on the books now is nothing like a Miata. The first top offered with the windshield will be a clean bikini top that attaches to the shield and goes over the roll hoops. That will keep the sun and water off–well, most of it–and keeps to our minimalist theme.