Greetings from a former (briefly) employee of Ryan Motors in Vista California, who also completed the first customer-built Ryan RSK-718, this before my employment with the soon-to-fold company.
My Spyder is, for several reasons, based on a VW pan (1969 IRS version). Cost was a consideration. The VW pan eliminated many costly components. Given that, my car cost $18,500 to build, plus some donated labor by friends in car shops and my own labor of over 600 hours. I was under some time constraints, so i built it in 5 months from finding a worn donor car to driving the finished Spyder into Ryan's lot. I had some innovations Ryan's shop car did not have and Bill Howard, Ryan's president and founder, asked me to create a construction manual, as none was available from GP Spyders, from whom Ryan's had gotten the body molds. I did this but Bill Howard has the CD and I did not keep a copy. I would be pleased to answer tech questions from any other builders. I believe we sold a few Spyder bodies and other components before closing, so there may be others out there.
Another reason for using the plebian VW pan and suspension is that registration in California was both easy and cheap. My car's tags cost about $40/year. I have specialty car insurance for it from the Automobile Club of Southern California. They required 18 photographs of the car, plus inspection by their agent, before insuring it. Insurance costs about $500/yr, but this may reflect my age (70) more than ordinarily low rates. I have full replacement value collision and comprehensive. Since Ryan's is out of business, I do not have ready (any?) access to replacement body parts, tho I would approack Thunder Ranch in the San Diego area for spares.
My engine uses the OE cases and little else from VW. 1835cc is the displacement with twin Solex Kadron carburetors, an Engle 110 cam, CB's 045 heads, a counterweighted crank, 009 distributor and alternator conversion. The transaxle was redone by Transform in Long Beach, CA and has all the heavy duty modifications common to desert racers plus close ratio 3-4 gears and a 3.44 ring and pinion. at 3000 rpm my car is going 72mph true. I have never driven it over that.
I fitted 11" Brembo discs to the front, tho they are not necessary, in my opinion. They do stop well, but I had to reduce the pad size to compensate for locking up the front end.
Rear suspension took much trial and error sorting. I presently use Works Performance 13.5" motorcycle rear dampers with their heaviest motorcycle springs. These do not settle much and the rear of the car is too tall so I will replace these dampers with 12" units, possibly 11.5"
I completed my car in April of 1999 and drive it weekly, tho not for great distances. It was a headache to build but that burden has been lifted weekly as other motorists always give me a thumbs up or shouted compliments!
When I worked at Ryan's (4 weeks in December, 1999) I did purchasing and data entry initially. The quality of our turnkey Speedsters was fraught with little glitches and I asked to be made quality control manager but Ryan's folded when a major investor pulled the plug. It was a sad day for the dozen or so of us who worked there. Bill Howard was a very decent man beset by problems of organization. He was a splendid creator of new business ideas, but not a good production manager. I have fond memories of him and Ryan Motors and if he should read this I would be very pleased to hear from him.
My car resides in Santa Rosa, California, where it may be seen regularly flitting between rows of vineyards here in the wine country of northern California.
Ralph Glorioso
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