As anyone who has ever built a car under a deadline will tell you, be it a parts-all-there kit or one from scratch, things will invariably occur that put a crimp in the original work schedule. Sometimes the lay-off is only a month; sometimes it takes years before you can get back on top of it to get it all finished (20-year-old projects are not really that uncommon). Such is the case with two articles that have been regularly appearing in Kit Car for some time: the ECOCAT build-up series and Last Chance Garage.
When Ed Zinke first dreamed up the wild ECOCAT project-the Shell Valley Cheetah roadster powered by an Ecotec engine-he was the publisher of Chevy High Performance (a sister publication to Kit Car). But toward the beginning of last year, his position in the com-pany changed and he became the publisher of Popular Hot Rodding, GM High-Tech, KIT CAR, and overlord of the popular EngineMasters program (which has recently become a magazine of its own). With his new responsibilities, less time could be devoted to outside interests, so a year later, time has finally caught up with him and his too-cool project. Roughly halfway done, and needing only paint, wiring, and upholstery to finish the job, Zinke hopes to be back on the project soon, and have the car back on the pages of Kit Car.
This issue will be the last of the popular Last Chance Garage series of articles for a bit, while author/builder Joel Heinke takes a break from writing his articles and concentrates on other life matters. The series started in April 2001, and has covered the chassis build-up as well as the near-completion of a body buck that Joel hopes to one day pull a mold from-the last step in building his own Ferrari GTO replica. It's been a very hands-on type of article, showing the ups and downs a homebuilder would run across building his own vehicle from scratch. We expect to have the conclusion of his series in Kit Car soon as he finishes up the plug for his GTO. Stay tuned for more.
But build-up articles will always be a part of Kit Car, and next month we'll be making the announcement on a new yearlong series of articles following the assembly of KIT CAR's newest project vehicle. Each of the stories will cover how the car went together, plus what problems there were in building the car, and how we overcame and solved them. It should be some fun, and we're looking forward to it. And though we made some inroads last year at testing completed cars on the track (slalom, quarter-mile, skidpad, braking), we're happy to announce we'll be back at the track doing more car-to-car comparisons in the near future.
And last, but certainly not least, we ask the question: Where were you in '64? After the recent London Cobra Show, a handful of car owners stuck around, hoisted a few brews, and just chatted about life in general. What was surprising was the fact that five of the seven people sitting at this table were Vietnam vets, which got me thinking. If the hottest car at the track in 1964 was a Cobra, and most Vietnam vets were 18-20 years old, then maybe that's why they're so popular with the 55-60 crowd nowadays.
To test that theory, I'm inviting any Vietnam vet who either owned a Cobra or currently owns one to send us a picture of the car, and tell us what unit you were in, and when your tour of duty was. Send the 1- to 2-meg images via the Net to kitcar@primedia.com (adding "Cobra pics" to the subject line), or through the U.S. Mail to 774 S. Placentia Ave., Placentia, CA 92870. We'll try to print as many as we can.