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I had one, black with red interior. Fun to build more fun driving it. Lost it to an engine fire when carburetor backfired and ignited. Engine lid was locked and I couldn't get it out of the garage. Dialed 911 and grabbed a hose, fire department showed up before I could turn on the hose. Someone else must have called the FD because in my panic I didn't wait for 911 to answer and ran for the hose. Garage survived, Gazelle didn't.

Had a few Gazelle's, built a tan and brown Chevette based, bought a white  Pinto based that was done except for wiring and Purple VW powered Gazelle I bought and sold the same day at Carlisle. ( Gordon made fun of that one but it quickly filled my pockets). Built three MGTDs and resto'd another 6 or so followed by a few of those Speedsters.    CMC would not get away with their video' s Porsche references today that's for sure.  CMC Auto Resolution and Street Beasts what a monumental " pork'n "   that was.

Last edited by Alan Merklin

Had a few Gazelle's, built a tan and brown Chevette based, bought a white  Pinto based that was done except for wiring and Purple VW powered Gazelle I bought and sold the same day at Carlisle. ( Gordon made fun of that one but it quickly filled my pockets). Built three MGTDs and resto'd another 6 or so followed by a few of those Speedsters.    CMC would not get away with their video' s Porsche references today that's for sure.  CMC Auto Resolution and Street Beasts what a monumental " pork'n "   that was.

@Nolan posted:

I had one, black with red interior. Fun to build more fun driving it. Lost it to an engine fire when carburetor backfired and ignited. Engine lid was locked and I couldn't get it out of the garage. Dialed 911 and grabbed a hose, fire department showed up before I could turn on the hose. Someone else must have called the FD because in my panic I didn't wait for 911 to answer and ran for the hose. Garage survived, Gazelle didn't.

Bummer; which is why running appropriate air cleaners, fuel hoses and a fire extinguishing system is a good idea. The promo includes all the styles they had; including the Speedster C, which was the first model that I loved; so different from the later extra wide body style. I find the Tiffany model interesting; it was a factory brand new Lincoln Mercury chassis and drivetrain (5.0) with factory warranty. Still don't like the VW Bug turn signals on the fenders. Quirky but interesting for sure.

Hideous Motors    aka Bob's Classics     Bob's Classics, Inc. your source for replica autos, neo-classics, special interest and kit cars. (bobsclassics.com)

This guy has been around for decades in Florida and turns over quite the inventory.

Read the Brush With Death post on his web site, seems a disgruntled employee shot Bob in the ass years ago. :~)

Last edited by Alan Merklin

Hideous Motors    aka Bob's Classics     Bob's Classics, Inc. your source for replica autos, neo-classics, special interest and kit cars. (bobsclassics.com)

This guy has been around for decades in Florida and turns over quite the inventory.

Read the Brush With Death post on his web site, seems a disgruntled employee shot Bob in the ass years ago. :~)

I’d forgotten all about these. IRL they look pretty good except the tail looks like it’s 7/8ths size of the rest of the car. One would rock with a 2L Ecoboost.
966D5331-1A65-40F5-A2D6-3A46FEBFC3A6D9DAA1CB-8D03-4594-81B7-354DEB84F6EA87041856-769E-448E-946E-4DEAC907E1AF

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Last edited by dlearl476

@Alan Merklin wrote: "Purple VW powered Gazelle I bought and sold the same day at Carlisle. ( Gordon made fun of that one but it quickly filled my pockets)"

I was very impressed that you owned it for all of two hours or so (AND made a profit, so it at least paid for your Carlisle week), but that purple color just BEGGED to be sprayed over with something better.      Someone had to be a true lover of Gazelles to want that thing.

One of the founders of the Data General computer company got in to building a high end Gazelle-like car for a while.  IIRC, he invested in the floundering Zimmer car company and built a number of them on a Ford or Fiero chassis, depending on model.  The big one looked like this (Alan:  Notice it's NOT Purple):

Zimmer

This was a lark for him - He invested in a bunch of start-up computer companies that mostly did super-well so he could buy a car company just because he liked the car.

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Last edited by Gordon Nichols

Nope.  That's the real deal, but remember - This would have been in the later 1970's or '80's, IIRC.  And don't forget - The lowly Mustang II front end is sitting under a whole lot of Hot Rods built since the 1970's (Even Stan would love one, if he could squeeze it under a Speedster).

The big one was built on a stretched Mustang frame and the smaller one on a stretched Fiero.  He also invested in a company that built a car called a Cumberford Martinique, but I don't think they ever got past a few prototypes.  

The guy's name was Henry Burkhardt III and he started at Digital Equipment Corp. around 1963 after dropping out of Princeton, and created the highly advanced PDP-X computer (which was not adopted by DEC), was later a co-founder at Data General in 1968, then later Encore and a bunch of others.  He held a lot of patents, one for the shared memory/multi-processor architecture used in all of our computers today.  He also founded KSR which sold it's patents to SUN as the basis of all of their high-speed processors (SUN servers) later bought by Oracle .  I only met him in passing at Data General, but his reputation there was huge.

To say that this man was a genius fell far short of reality, both on the technical and business side - His founded companies almost always made money.  When he died in 2000, C. Gordon Bell (co-founder of DEC) wrote his eulogy, which can be read below.  It's worth a few minutes to read about this truly remarkable person, no matter what kind of career you've had.

https://gordonbell.azurewebsit...emorial_Comments.htm  

BTW:  Gordon Bell introduced "Bells's Law" which, loosely paraphrased, states that computers are introduced at a constant price over time with ever increasing functionality due to advances in technology.

That's why new laptops, smart phones and tablets keep coming out with new features or faster speeds but still cost the same when new.  He's worth doing a Wiki-Search on, too.

Last edited by Gordon Nichols

@Alan Merklin wrote: "Purple VW powered Gazelle I bought and sold the same day at Carlisle. ( Gordon made fun of that one but it quickly filled my pockets)"

I was very impressed that you owned it for all of two hours or so (AND made a profit, so it at least paid for your Carlisle week), but that purple color just BEGGED to be sprayed over with something better.      Someone had to be a true lover of Gazelles to want that thing.

One of the founders of the Data General computer company got in to building a high end Gazelle-like car for a while.  IIRC, he invested in the floundering Zimmer car company and built a number of them on a Ford or Fiero chassis, depending on model.  The big one looked like this (Alan:  Notice it's NOT Purple):

Zimmer

This was a lark for him - He invested in a bunch of start-up computer companies that mostly did super-well so he could buy a car company just because he liked the car.

That makes sense. Looking at Stan’s link I was trying to figure out the connection between the Zimmer and Tiffany cars. FWIW, I think the changes they made to the rear of the car improved it at least 10%. Still very Liberace-like, but some people like that.

A neighbor a couple of doors up stopped by when I was adjusting the clutch. He offered to give me a spare set of jackstands.

We walked back to his garage and hidden inside was a non-running '80s Excalibur that he is going to get around to one day.

I said polite things, but not my cup of tea.

In my mind, an Excaliber is a completely different animal than a Tiffany (or even a Zimmer).  Originally, an MB SSK body on a Studebaker Hawk frame/engine, it was subsequently powered by everything from 350’s to FI Corvette engines to 454’s after Studebaker’s demise.

Granted, styling isn’t for everyone (I think it says it all that Phillis Diller owned 4) but it’s a world away from CMC’s Tiffany.

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