66 Corvette Mako Shark

[xtrmes]

Just picked this car up last week. It was built back in the 80's for a cost of $180,000 and used just for the ISCA shows. The car didn't need to be registered so it didn't have all the stuff to make it street legal.
The car was showed for a few years it was called the Centurian. It was rated #2 in the nation. I verified this with World of wheels and they are going to be sending me the magazine it was featured in and some info they have on the car.
The car was retired and sold off to somebody who just wanted the motor. The car was then sold a few times through the years. It looks like somebody tried and failed at making it street legal and installed a big mess of wires in the car trying to get lights and other things needed working.
The car is highly modified, Lots of major fiberglass work. The body wraps right around under the car and is smooth all the way across. You can't see the frame driveshaft transmission or anything under it. The custom paint job is on the bottom of the car as well as under the hood and door jabs. It has gulwing doors, complete cantilever billet suspension truly a one of a kind build. Also has a custom interior that I'm not a big fan off. But that can be changed.
I was going to try and keep the car as close to as possible to what it used to be and try and restore the paint job. But after getting the car here it needs more body work then I though.
I'm going to pull out all the wiring and rewire the car with a Painless harness. Then go through the body and repaint it.
I have a BBC with an 8-71 Blower on it making 850HP at 6 pounds of boost.
Going to give it a restomod look.

[J-440]

Man talk about 80's nostalgia. How much you want for that cell phone? Cool car bro!!

[xtrmes]

I know the cell phone is cool. To bad you can't use analog anymore. My friends think I should keep it in there just for the looks.
The car has a cool history built by earnie ball. So it would be cool to restore it.

[BMR Sales]

I just got some "Miami Vice" Flashbacks! Cool!

T.C.

[Restocreations]

No offense meant by this, but it looks pretty close to a 78ish Corvette to me. I wonder why they didnt just start with that year instead of a 66?

[xtrmes]

I have no clue. But I thought the same thing. They used a 70ish Mako Shark kit.
Its OK with me because I like the 70 style better. The 66 Mako Sharks don't look at good.
They went crazy on this car they smoothed out the floors and the wheels even painted the graphics on the bottom.
I'm going to give it some updates.
Should be nice when its done.

[LeighP]

Nice to see some more pics of this project.
Are you going to keep the 80's graphics, or just stay with the basic colours?
The interior does need redoing....one thing about 80's show cars that doesn't need to be kept...those interiors.... lol
I'll keep following along....cool car!

[xtrmes]

Hey leigh fansy meeting you here. The dash is going the door panels and seats aren't bad. I removed the dash and all the wiring today. Somebody tried to install a painless harness and failed. So I straightened it all out and I'm going to reinstall it with a racecar type switch panel.
Should be fun.
The graphics have to go the car needs a complete repaint. I was hoping to save them I kinda like them.

[raustinss]

Build a corvette to match the one from the movie corvette summer,then you can have a his and hers lol

[xtrmes]

The one from the movie was terrible.

[Restocreations]

But the movie was so Awesome! Definitely in my top 10 pick. ;)

[LeighP]

One of the Corvette Summer cars is here in a private collection in Australia. I found it for sale in a car yard here in the early 80's....what a hack job, lol. Its since been restored and rebuilt properly, but the owner never shows it.

[xtrmes]

I always wanted to build that car. But there's parts of it that look terrible. Lol

[FRENCHBLUE72]

That is a pretty cool looking car looks like someone went nuts with the marble...

[xtrmes]

Its actually not bad. Just on the nose and tail and a strip on the roof. But the whole car needs a repaint so it will be gone.

[xtrmes]

Found some history on the car. Spoke to the builder and he sent me these pics. A member on Corvette Forum actually had a World of Wheels magazine the car was in and he sent it to me. Pretty cool.
I wish I still had the motor that was in it. A Fuel Injected all aluminum 427.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/02/SeniorPicture68-1.jpghttps://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/02/SeniorPicture67-1.jpghttps://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/02/Scanernjesstuff-1.jpghttps://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/02/SeniorPicture64-1.jpg

[Bob in St. Louis]

That's incredible. "Subscribed".

[GT500KR_Vert]

Awesome!!! I bet after all these years that the model looks worst than the car :)

[xtrmes]

I'd think the same thing. The car I can bring back. The model not so much. Lol


Awesome!!! I bet after all these years that the model looks worst than the car :)

[SS PUNISHER]

Whoa! That thing is sick! Subscribing!

[xtrmes]

Now for some progress. I gutted out the interior to find a mess of wiring. Somebody tried to install a painless harness in an attempt to get the car street legal and just made a mess out of it. I spent two days trying to straighten it all out and just ended up ripping it all out and starting over. Going to be installing a Painless 10 circuit race car harness.
You can see theres also no transmission tunnel. Somebody removed it for some reason. I found one online so I will be fixing that.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/02/IMG_20131214_150931_618-1.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/xtrmes10/media/66%20Corvette/IMG_20131214_150931_618.jpg.html)
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/02/IMG_20131214_151003_031-1.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/xtrmes10/media/66%20Corvette/IMG_20131214_151003_031.jpg.html)

Everything cleaned out. I also removed the shifter.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/02/IMG_20140104_155433_611-1.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/xtrmes10/media/66%20Corvette/IMG_20140104_155433_611.jpg.html)

They had this tiny little master cylinder that was made in England. Just tied into all four calipers. Good for a car thats not driven but not this one. So now it has a Wildwood dual master cylinder setup. One for the front and one for the rear.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/02/IMG_20140112_143019_812-1.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/xtrmes10/media/66%20Corvette/IMG_20140112_143019_812.jpg.html)

Nice new dash from Dashworks. Doing some modifications to it. Adding four gauges in the waterfall section.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/02/IMG_20140109_215655_360-1.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/xtrmes10/media/66%20Corvette/IMG_20140109_215655_360.jpg.html)
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/02/IMG_20140222_155827_313-1.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/xtrmes10/media/66%20Corvette/IMG_20140222_155827_313.jpg.html)

Then lastly for now the motor I'm going to be installing dynoed at 1023HP at 14 pounds of boost but I'm going to be running it at 6 for street use. Should be around 850HP so I figured I'd add a bit of strength to the frame.
The pics you can see the foam I'm planning on wrapping all the tubes in fiberglass and blending them in. Keep it smooth under the hood. The tubes will be run all the way to the rear of the car to tie it all together.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/02/IMG_20140214_150836_850-1.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/xtrmes10/media/66%20Corvette/IMG_20140214_150836_850.jpg.html)
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/02/IMG_20140222_161657_644-1.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/xtrmes10/media/66%20Corvette/IMG_20140222_161657_644.jpg.html)
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/02/IMG_20140222_161650_289-1.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/xtrmes10/media/66%20Corvette/IMG_20140222_161650_289.jpg.html)

[xtrmes]

For the gulwing doors they came with no hardware. I couldn't find anything that would work in a gas rod you can just buy over the counter.
So I ended up having to have a custom set made from a company over in Germany.
They had to custom design these and retool. A total cost of $1000 just to hold the doors up.
These are 400 pound units and they came with a tool to let out some pressure so I can adjust them to the perfect pressure.

[66larkgs]

cool project.. lets see some pictures of the new motor

[xtrmes]

This is the motor that's going in. Should make it fun to drive.

[xtrmes]

Now some progress pics.
Got a new dash from Dashworks and doing a few mods to it. Making a removable top so I can easily access the master cylinders.
Also adding some 1 5/8 tubing through out the car to stiffen it up. Going to have allot of HP. I also wanted to add some strength to the front subframe.

[Tig]

Awesome project.
That is going to be one fun car to drive with that motor.
What transmission are you going to use?
The history on it is awesome.

Keep up the great work, lookin forward to your updates.

[xtrmes]

I have a TCI full manual with reverse valve body TH400.

[xtrmes]

Got some more progress done today. Did some more tube work inside to tie the front tubes together inside and tied them down to the frame. Its going to continue all the way to the rear.
Also relocated the reservoirs to the center mounted on the cross bar. I made an access hole in the top of the dash to access them.
I trimmed up the dash pad. Needs a bit more shaping then it will get wrapped. Going to keep it easily removable to access the reservoirs.

[FlyDoc]

I like the changes to the dash that you are doing.
just thinking that the suspension may be lacking in handling, because it was made for show not go.
any plans on checking or changing the geometry?

[xtrmes]

Once I get the motor and trans in it and back on the ground I'm taking it to a friends shop. He has a brand new digital alignment rack.
Then we can see where's it at. I'm sure it can't handle any worse then factory. Lol

[xtrmes]

More progress today I'm keeping a clean look under the hood so I decided to cover all the tubes in fiberglass. Its adding some more work but once its done there will be nothing in there but the motor. All the wiring will be hidden too.

[85coupe50]

Very cool to see some old national show winner car being resurected into something MORE fitting to the times. The car was interesting in design but for sure it shows it's age.

[xtrmes]

Its a bit more then I originally thought. Its to bad it was long forgotten for many years.
But its been a fun project so far. I have allot in store for it.


Very cool to see some old national show winner car being resurected into something MORE fitting to the times. The car was interesting in design but for sure it shows it's age.

[xtrmes]

I started doing some work on the Corvette again. I posted a pic above the gas rods for the doors to hold them up. After many months of trail and error I fially got yhe doors to work correctly. The mounts where not in the correct spots for the doors to open and stay open.
So I had to move the mounts and do some redesigning. Now they work good and stay up.
And after speaking to the builder of the car he said they never really stayed up correctly.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/12/IMG_20140901_165803502-1.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/xtrmes10/media/66%20Corvette/IMG_20140901_165803502.jpg.html)

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/12/IMG_20140901_163951509-1.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/xtrmes10/media/66%20Corvette/IMG_20140901_163951509.jpg.html)

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/12/IMG_20140901_152454257-1.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/xtrmes10/media/66%20Corvette/IMG_20140901_152454257.jpg.html)

[xtrmes]

I also spoke with S&W Race cars and they are building me a pair of rear frame rails for it. Since I discovered it doesn't have any. I also ordered a cage for it. Once the parts come I can get them installed and make some progress.

[High Plains Mopars]

No offense meant by this, but it looks pretty close to a 78ish Corvette to me. I wonder why they didnt just start with that year instead of a 66?

The '65 Mako Shark II is what drove the inspiration for the C3 Corvette design that started in '68. The original Mako Shark was made in '61. wiki has a good overview of them; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mako_Shark_%28concept_car%29 This car even has some Manta Ray clues in it with the bare dash.

[OLDFATGUY]

Does anyone know how to get a hold of the owner of the 66 mako shark? I actually helped work on this car. If anyone knows please inform me!!! thanks, Dino

[Alwhite00]

I like it!

[Motown 454]

Great project! I'll be watching.

[ryeguy2006a]

Super cool thread, but being that the last update was 7.5 years ago I doubt the OP is still around.

[xtrmes]

I'm actually still around but the car is not. I had made allot of progress on the car and found someone who really wanted it so I sold it.
The car lives in Seattle now.
I'm not sure of what the status of the car is.
He said he would send me updates but I never heard from him again.
I bought back my 76 Pro Street Trans Am after the Vette and have been working on that when I have time.