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Reply to "Cheap 550 project"

The car in question is a Perry, modified with some tubing to mid-mount the drive-train. It wasn't super-well thought out, as there is nothing to locate the swing-axles besides some EMPI shocks with helper springs, attached to a skinny little frame member with a 3" bolt and spacer. The diagonals running to the front of the car tie in at the stock VW mounting point, which is about a foot too far towards the center on either side. If you look at the 5th and 6th pictures, you'll see that they had to remove the bulkhead between the drive-train and the seat-backs, and that the engine pulley is about 2" from the driver's tailbone. If you tried to dry sump this car, you could have your own home colonoscopy kit.

Even if you could do the work to make this thing right, it'd still be oddly proportioned. I really WANT to like these cars, as I'd be the ideal Perry Spyder candidate (I've been on record as being too oddly shaped and "thick" for a more normal Spyder)-- but they're just not desirable to me. They were built on a standard (non-shortened) VW pan, and are as long as a freight-train. They all have the same square-nose shovel look on the front end and the same bubble-butt out back.

There is a reason Perrys are the unloved spinsters of our little corner of the automotive pageant. They are not good looking at all and don't cook well. I'm sure this car has a great personality and will make somebody somewhere a great little conversation piece. Not me, however-- this is a hard pass.

Last edited by Stan Galat
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