Kavinsky Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Okay just a little update here I'm starting to think that Car 4 originally had the earlier style seats of a 1974 corvette with daytona striping on them after looking at this 74 corvette convertible based mcburnie (probably one of the last factory made 74 corvette convertibiles, last year was 74 for the C3 convertibiles till 1985 with the next revision of the corvette the C4) plus the custom headrest that were mounted lower in the seat, which would fit in with the style of car 4 with its semi custom interior it had in its markadian days basically remove the stock 74 headrest and mount a custom one lower to get this effect with daytona striping and replace the black pinstriping with a faint white stitchline that doesnt protrude from the seat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COOPER&BURNETT Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 On the mcburnies, does the key that locks and unlocks the door handles also start the car? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavinsky Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 I don't know but I do know that my decommissioned 96 Olds Ciera Wagon had one key for opening the door and a separate one for starting the thing, and it was probably like that on the daytona too since its also a GM Car, hell I think it even had the same key mine had for starting itactually it looks like it did have the same set up mine had looking at this, plus possibily a different keychain from the brass one in "The Great Mccarthy" unless that's just something sticking out from the Steering Column.http://www.miamiviceonline.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=4026&stc=1&d=1309491994http://www.miamiviceonline.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=4027&stc=1&d=1309492208On a separate matter I was just looking through my photos here and did they occasionally take the mirrors off for the camera rig? they seem to be missing in this breif shot in "Trust Fund Pirates" http://www.miamiviceonline.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=4023&stc=1&d=1309491181http://www.miamiviceonline.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=4024&stc=1&d=1309491183and I swear it looks like theres a mark underneath the passenger side mirror in "Out Where The Buses Don't run" where it looks like either someone left their hand mark where the mirrors mount or someone forgot to clean around the mirror before putting them back on.http://www.miamiviceonline.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=4025&stc=1&d=1309491461 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian W Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 In the back pages of the original McBurnie build book there is an illustration of the Vette seat, the Ferrari seat, and the seats that I think are the Mardikian seats. I need to look again and scan it in if it's relevant, anyone know if that particular page is posted in the Cooper&Burnett scrapbook?Also no, the McBurnies have different keys for the door handles (Alfa Romeo) than the ignition key (General Motors). I don't know if it would be possible to have one that would work for both, but I doubt it.-Brian W Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavinsky Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 No I can't find anything like that in that thread and the shots of the seats that are in there seem to be only of the 1979 style clam shell seats and a really thin set that looks like someone took all of the meat out of the rowley corvette seats.basically nothing that looks remotely like the markadian seats.http://www.miamiviceonline.com/showthread.php?1834-RARE!!-FERRARI-DAYTONA-INFO!-%28McBURNIE-COACHCRAFT-REPLICA%29Although this kinda looks like Sonny Burnett's car Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jurassic narc Posted July 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Okay just a little update here I'm starting to think that Car 4 originally had the earlier style seats of a 1974 corvette with daytona striping on them after looking at this 74 corvette convertible based mcburnie (probably one of the last factory made 74 corvette convertibiles' date=' last year was 74 for the C3 convertibiles till 1985 with the next revision of the corvette the C4)daytona striping and replace the black pinstriping with a faint white stitchline that doesnt protrude from the seat.[/quote'] No the Mardikians all had 78-82 Corvette seat buckets with custom stitching. I have a picture of one of the cars with the seat bottom, but nothing of the head rest . Will try to post it later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jurassic narc Posted July 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Although this kinda looks like Sonny Burnett's car The Rowley seats are copies of the actual Ferrari seats made to fit the Corvette seat tracks. They are supposed to be very uncomfortable. I have only seen one seat done like that, and it seemed to be really hard.The seats in Car 4 were made by a guy in San Diego whom I was able to track down. He made interiors for two of the cars--a red and a black car(Car 4). The seats were a custom design that he did after considerable work. Then McBurnie didn't pay him the agreed price, so he refused to do anymore work for him. That would have been about a year before the pilot aired. It is most likely that the seats in Car 4 were changed to be the same as the ones in Car 1 after the pilot and the loss of the real Daytona. It would also be consistent with the fact that the dashes of Car 1 and Car 4 were never the same, as the guy with the plans and the molds for the Car 4 dash wouldn't cooperate.The seats in the McBurnie manual are the same as were in Car 1 and Car 4 for the run of the show, but they don't really give any details about how to make them. Just in line drawing of the 78-82 seat cushions.JN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavinsky Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 No the Mardikians all had 78-82 Corvette seat buckets with custom stitching. I have a picture of one of the cars with the seat bottom' date=' but nothing of the head rest . Will try to post it later.[/quote'] ah so I WAS right on the money with my first guess and I was worried you'd say that about the Rowley seats so I have been looking into alternatives for those and the 74' seats with my project since its been noted in road tests of the time period and theres a general conscious that the 79 seats are much more comfortabile although you gotta admit the top of that 74 if it was modified like that would look pretty close to what we saw in the show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jurassic narc Posted July 2, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2011 ah so I WAS right on the money with my first guess and I was worried you'd say that about the Rowley seats so I have been looking into alternatives for those and the 74' seats with my project since its been noted in road tests of the time period and theres a general conscious that the 79 seats are much more comfortabile although you gotta admit the top of that 74 if it was modified like that would look pretty close to what we saw in the show. If I had not been trying to copy the show car I looked at several seats that were better looking and more comfortable. You can even get occasional deals on some of the newer Ferrari seats in tan leather when the owners trade out for the racing seats.This is the car that is missing' date=' the MV dash in a red car.[ATTACH=CONFIG']4034[/ATTACH] He told me the side bolsters run up and over and then the center section goes up and is folded back to replicate the Ferrari look. That is interesting in that McBurnie and Mardikian said they didn't set out to copy the Ferrari! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jurassic narc Posted July 2, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2011 McBurnie ManualThese are illustrations in McBurnies Construction manual for the Daytona. On the left is the Ferrari replica (by the time the manual was produced replica seats were available from several sources) and the one on the right was identified as the '81 Corvette seat Miami Vice style. Conversion of the 78-82 Corvette seats could be done by about any upholstery shop if you are willing to pay. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavinsky Posted July 2, 2011 Report Share Posted July 2, 2011 4034[/ATTACH] He told me the side bolsters run up and over and then the center section goes up and is folded back to replicate the Ferrari look. That is interesting in that McBurnie and Mardikian said they didn't set out to copy the Ferrari!Hmm That's an idea, actually one of the ideas I was playing around with was actually going for a wrecked testarossa's seats since they just look (and apparently are) comfy and after reading thishttp://corvettec3.ca/fiero.htm about how easy it was to switch the seats for a set off of a Pontiac fiero (because they are apparently more comfortable than the 1978 - 1982 seats) simply by changing the mounting rails for the seats to the fiero ones, that could be a viable thing to do as I just really loved the look of the testarossa's seats although I think I'd rather go for a combo of the smooth Fiero Seats mixed in with removing the top of the seat and replacing it with the pilots headrest and the daytona striping from that photo since I think that would suit it better than the testa seats.after all to each his own as each of these cars is a mirror of what its owner likes, part of the reason why I like these cars so much as with an MX5 you just dont get that with one of those, great car but you just dont bond with it like the daytona here, basically just like Clarkson said at the end of the Christmas special this year where he was driving an MX5, you never wake up hoping the MX5 is still therebut with the daytona you bet your ass I would!anyways thanks for the Info and the photo Jurrasic and Brian for mentioning that seat diagram in the back of the Mcburnie paperwork as now I've got something to work with with my plans for my MV daytona once I aquire one, as I seem to be gravitating towards the pilot look for the car Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian W Posted July 2, 2011 Report Share Posted July 2, 2011 So I have an "Assembly Instruction Manual for the California Daytona Spyder" from Rowley with a copyright of 1985. The more recent Rowleys have the Ferrari style door handles, but the pic on this one (and the pics inside) have the Alfa door handles like the one on the show. I scanned the two pages I thought most relevant to this thread, the page with quite a bit of Mardikian/MV car info (although it says one was converted to a manual which I don't think is true). The other has similar seat drawings as to what JN posted although you can tell the headrest is thicker in the middle pic which to me looks an awful lot like the seats in the pilot episode (rather than just reskinned Vette seats with Vette padding). Take a look and see what you think.[edit - how on earth do I make these legible, i.e., bigger?][ATTACH=CONFIG]4073[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]4074[/ATTACH]-Brian W Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavinsky Posted July 2, 2011 Report Share Posted July 2, 2011 Did you hotlink the image from the gallery using the image button? I think the way to make it bigger is to click on edit post and manage attachments/add files and upload directly from your computer rather than putting it in the gallery and hotlinking it to here with the image buttonthe other thing you could do is copy it a few times and crop it in windows photo gallery via the fix button twice for one page, one top, one bottom that way its automatically zoomed in on the pertinent information when you post it here, its what I do with the VLC player snap shots when trying to zoom in on things like the shifter and the car keys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavinsky Posted July 6, 2011 Report Share Posted July 6, 2011 When it comes to the corvette C3 was the stock corvettes body made out of fiberglass just like the Mcburnies? and is there any truth to the 9 to 1 power to weight ratio in the mcburnie literature with a stock 350 motor and tranny? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jurassic narc Posted July 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2011 I took my Daytona out this weekend. Found it interesting that the temp held solid on 180 degrees till I got on the Interstate, and then it held rock solid at 210. Went south of Atlanta with the top down all the way. The car performed well, and all the systems worked properly. I even had to put the top up and drive in the rain at one point. The wipers worked (one of the parts I have not touched at all) and the car was actually water-tight (unlike a couple of years ago when I took it out and got caught in the rain-I needed a towel that day for my pants and the seats). Came home after dark and drove over an hour and a half and had no problems with the headlights (I was afraid the lights would not be bright enough for night driving in unfamiliar turf).With the top up I turned on the A/C and actually cooled the car down pretty well. I ran the A/C the whole time I had the top up and was not disappointed. I didn't really stretch the car out, but I passed on several occasions and the car had plenty of punch. I was really gratified to see that all the work I had done to make the car daily-driver-capable had been worth the work.And the seats were comfortable. Overall I had a great outing in the Daytona. I carried my luggage and my wife's, and we even packed in some snacks and other groceries for a short leg of the trip. I was worried that this would be a trip I would hear about for a long time (and not in a good way), but it was a lot of fun!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jurassic narc Posted July 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2011 When it comes to the corvette C3 was the stock corvettes body made out of fiberglass just like the Mcburnies? and is there any truth to the 9 to 1 power to weight ratio in the mcburnie literature with a stock 350 motor and tranny? The Corvette has always been a fiberglass body, I think. The C3 was for sure. McBurnie says his finished car is 400 pounds lighter than the Corvette. I have to assume that his body was lighter, and probably not as thick and rigid as the Corvette. As far as the power, McBurnie claimed the car was capable of 240 miles an hour and had that on the speedometer. It might hit 240 if it were loaded on a C5A Transport, but I doubt that the car was capable of much more than 180 as he sold them. I think that with a lot of money and work you might break 200, but fuel injection and other things like forced air that could be done now for a reasonable amount were not on the McBurnie.We should never loose sight of the fact that McBurnie and Mardikian were used car salesmen--with all the potentially negative images that name produces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavinsky Posted July 6, 2011 Report Share Posted July 6, 2011 Indeed and I thought that 240 mph speedo was a joke made up by the guy who did up the interior, I didnt think Markadian and Mcburnie did that on purpose and I think even 180 is an exageration, 130 - 140 tops I would think unless the engine was rigged up to run at higher rpms and even then MAYBE 160.With the Corvette I thought maybe the fiberglass could have been a 1975 - onwards kinda deal, I didnt think that the whole line from 1968 - 1982 was fiberglass and the only thing I found that suggested that when I was reading about the whole corvette line from 1952 till now was the mention that in the middle 1970's they went to steel floors instead of fiberglass for durability reasons, unlike Sonny I didnt actually look up any replacement body pannels for it otherwise I'm sure I would of taken note of that.So I guess that means that the C2 corvette was the only corvette made with a steel body back then since I remember reading that on the famous C2 grand sport that EVERYTHING was made out of aluminium to bring down the cars weight to 1900 pounds with a bored out 327 to 377 producing 425 horsepower at 6,600 rpm, which gave the ferrari's quite a scare back then and I would imagine if it had been made out of fiberglass there would have been no need to make everything including the chassis (save for the engine block itself for durability reasons) out of aluminiumand that was one of the key reasons why Crockett was driving a Daytona and a Testarossa back then, they were the fastest cars you could get your hands on (till 1987 with RUF, the 959 and the F40) that could actually do their quoted top speed, Jaguar and Aston Martin were known for exagerating there cars top speeds back then and I know for a fact that the Iso Grifo (with the ford 351 and corvette engines in 1968) was only capabile of 140 mph flat out along with everything else save for the ferrari's Ferrari's back then were basically the 1960's and 1970's equavalent of Buggati now and in the 1930's and from 1968 - 1985 the Daytona was pretty much the fastest road car Ferrari had ever made you could get your hands on and they didnt make a front engined car again till 1995 with the supposedly very boring 550 which I've seen in person and it aint that good looking, hell if it wasnt for the badge and the red paint I think most people would have thought it was a Toyota Supra. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonny-Burnett Posted July 6, 2011 Report Share Posted July 6, 2011 Indeed and I thought that 240 mph speedo was a joke made up by the guy who did up the interior' date=' I didnt think Markadian and Mcburnie did that on purpose and I think even 180 is an exageration, 130 - 140 tops I would think unless the engine was rigged up to run at higher rpms and even then MAYBE 160.With the Corvette I thought maybe the fiberglass could have been a 1975 - onwards kinda deal, I didnt think that the whole line from 1968 - 1982 was fiberglass and the only thing I found that suggested that when I was reading about the whole corvette line from 1952 till now was the mention that in the middle 1970's they went to steel floors instead of fiberglass for durability reasons, unlike Sonny I didnt actually look up any replacement body pannels for it otherwise I'm sure I would of taken note of that.So I guess that means that the C2 corvette was the only corvette made with a steel body back then since I remember reading that on the famous C2 grand sport that EVERYTHING was made out of aluminium to bring down the cars weight to 1900 pounds with a bored out 327 to 377 producing 425 horsepower at 6,600 rpm, which gave the ferrari's quite a scare back then and I would imagine if it had been made out of fiberglass there would have been no need to make everything including the chassis (save for the engine block itself for durability reasons) out of aluminiumand that was one of the key reasons why Crockett was driving a Daytona and a Testarossa back then, they were the fastest cars you could get your hands on (till 1987 with RUF, the 959 and the F40) that could actually do their quoted top speed, Jaguar and Aston Martin were known for exagerating there cars top speeds back then and I know for a fact that the Iso Grifo (with the ford 351 and corvette engines in 1968) was only capabile of 140 mph flat out along with everything else save for the ferrari's Ferrari's back then were basically the 1960's and 1970's equavalent of Buggati now and in the 1930's and from 1968 - 1985 the Daytona was pretty much the fastest road car Ferrari had ever made you could get your hands on and they didnt make a front engined car again till 1995 with the supposedly very boring 550 which I've seen in person and it aint that good looking, hell if it wasnt for the badge and the red paint I think most people would have thought it was a Toyota Supra.[/quote'] Even the production Daytona could only do 174 mph so agree that 240mph is just wishful thinking for the replicar and think you're right that 140mph would even be a stretch. Though haven't tried to redline mine as of yet... not yet at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavinsky Posted July 7, 2011 Report Share Posted July 7, 2011 Yeah and I wouldnt do that till the cooling system and the engine was running as well as a fine watch, otherwise theres a chance you could damage the engine from doing that.actually you might benifit from doing the ferrari/any old italian car method, start the car and let it sit for a minute or so till all of the fluids and gauges are off the peg and then go easy on it for the first couple of miles while driving it till its fully warmed up, engine temp being the most important.and you could fill that time by screwing around with the radio like I do, it usually takes atleast a minute to find anything worth listening to anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CameraDaytona Posted July 7, 2011 Report Share Posted July 7, 2011 So I guess that means that the C2 corvette was the only corvette made with a steel body back then since I remember reading that on the famous C2 grand sport that EVERYTHING was made out of aluminium to bring down the cars weight to 1900 pounds with a bored out 327 to 377 producing 425 horsepower at 6' date='600 rpm, which gave the ferrari's quite a scare back then and I would imagine if it had been made out of fiberglass there would have been no need to make everything including the chassis (save for the engine block itself for durability reasons) out of aluminium[/quote'] Hey Guys - Every Corvette ever built by GM has had a fiberglass body. GM was experimenting with fiberglass for automobiles in the early 50s as were several other vehicle manufacturers. And when the Corvette came along, the prototype was hand built using fiberglass and was shown at the Waldorf Astoria in January, 1953 as a dream car in the annual new car show. Using the fiberglass for manufacturing allowed GM to begin commercial production (although still being basically hand made) by mid-1953, an unheard of feat. Only 300 cars were built in the last half of 1953 and all were sold only to VIPs, whom GM felt would enhance the desireability of the cars to the general public. The early cars were pretty primitive and were a nightmare to keep running, but production techniques improved greatly and the Corvette retained the fiberglass body. (The first 3 1953 Corvettes sold to the public were delivered through a Chevrolet dealership in Delaware. A friend and I interviewed the son of the owner of the dealership who remembered the cars arriving at the dealership along with several GM engineers who were sent to get the cars running for delivery to top executives of the DuPont Company, which owned a large portion of GM stock at the time.)The Grand Sport of 1963 used aluminum to reduce weight as you mention but the body was fiberglass, although a reduced thickness of fiberglass to further reduce weight. (I passed up a chance to buy one of the 5 Grand Sports - the number two convertible - back in the middle 80s, long before they became multi-million dollar cars - but that's another story.)The last convertible Corvette of the 70s was the 1975, not 1974. And I have to agree with those who have said that the Daytona replicas with Chevrolet small blocks would have a hard time getting to a speed much greater than 120 to 140 mph. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavinsky Posted July 7, 2011 Report Share Posted July 7, 2011 Thats really kind of atypical though, I thought that for the most part that they had steel bodies like alot of other GM made cars up until the recent era of corvettes and from what I knew the rule of thumb with alot of muscle cars (I used to be primarily a muscle car guy) like the Nash Bridges Cuda is that if you want to make the thing go faster one of the first things you do is replace the steel body panels with ones made out of a lighter material, normally fiberglass usually resulting in a weight loss of 400 pounds for the entire car.and when I was looking through that differences between the years of corvettes I was looking mostly for the information about what they did to the horsepower, engine sizes, change in seats and styles an so on, so that explains why that never showed up in the listings since they were always fiberglass then, which means I probably missed it in that sea of information that guide was right at the begining.wish I could find that website again, it went year by year going into great detail about the changes done to the vette over the years sort of like this website with the Audi Ur Quattrohttp://www.quattroownersclub.com/quattro_file.htmexcept it went into quite abit more detail about the changes and why they were done, like it specifically mentioned why they went over to the 1979 style seats over the old ones and how the road testers (of Road And Track I think) said it made long journeys in the vette a hell of alot easier to bare.Funny I always learn something new when I post here, go to those who know as they say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavinsky Posted July 7, 2011 Report Share Posted July 7, 2011 Camera I was just reading up on the corvettes engines around the time your car was made and theres a mention that from 1973 - 1980 they had a performance version of the engines that they used called the L82 supposedly producing 220 - 250 hp. but for 1981 they switched over to the L81 engine which produced 190 hp and you mentioned that you think that the motor in there isnt the original motor it came from the factory with, but was the one they used on the show because of the valve breather covers (a tv movie car only kinda thing) would it be feasible to say that Markadian or someone before Carl switched the engine over to the L82 to get some extra horsepower out of it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CameraDaytona Posted July 8, 2011 Report Share Posted July 8, 2011 I talked with Tom McBurnie about his building the car, and he said that it had a turbocharged engine when he got it and that's what it had when Universal leased it. I think that the engine was switched sometime during its use on the show - and the turbocharger was eliminated. JN may have some insight on this. The engine is of later vintage - the engine pad is of different size and shape. I have not checked on the casting date, but I would guess that it was probably an over-the-counter engine from GM. I do not know why the engine was changed since the original engine could not have had very many miles on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavinsky Posted July 8, 2011 Report Share Posted July 8, 2011 yeah that doesnt make any sense either as turbocharging an engine isnt supposed to put any serious strain on the engine, atleast not nowadays since its regarded as basically free extra horsepower at higher rpm since it runs off the exhaust gasses while the car is in motion (on the Ur Quattro the turbo needed 3,500 rpm to kick in)I guess the best guess would be that in its early life it wasnt broken in properly or the car was abused from the getgo before its leasing to universal, after all maybe it was treated like most sports cars were and the person who drove it didnt bother letting the fluids warm up before getting on it and caused damage to the engine from lack of lubricationbut the really weird thing is that it was turbocharged at all, turbocharging was a european only kinda deal in the early 80's because of the success of the Audi ur Quattro in group B rallying in late 1980, 81, 82 and 83 with its turbo charged 5 cylinder motor and 4 wheel drive system sorry the presenters are abit annoying in those vids, I couldnt really find anything else about it on youtube. which got everyone else to start making turbo charged 4 wheel rally cars like thishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_RS200http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_5_Turbohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancia_Delta and for the most part only the europeans turbocharged and put 4 wheel drive on their cars because of the sucess of that car and the only american car that I know of from that time period to be turbocharged was the Buick GN/GNX in the middle 80's that GM killed because it was faster than the corvette. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alleycat Posted July 8, 2011 Report Share Posted July 8, 2011 Barrett Jackson Car AuctionI don't know if any of you watched the barrett jackson car auction from orange county but there was a ferrai daytona put on sale there it was on reserve and it was not met.They were asking alot for it.I watch the barrett Jackson all the time and see some beautiful cars.[ATTACH=CONFIG]4263[/ATTACH]I just thought I would share this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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