Here's the first interior photo of the eight-wheel, dual-rotary juggernaut first profiled here weeks ago, and now dubbed the Greatest LeMons Racer of All Time, or GLCOAT. This is only the start of the engineering mystery underneath its fiberglass skin.
The GLCOAT (other names are under consideration) had been the work of a now-deceased Illinois man, who supposedly spent nearly $100,000 on its creation. While the pictures from the auction suggested a crazy-quilt of parts mashed together, Speedycop found an awe-inspiring amount of handiwork throughout the car, from the kitted-out Mazda rotaries that could churn 450 hp to exhaust tips made from square, heavy-gage steel tubing:
It's absurdly over-engineered, and in the best possible ways. I'm guessing the builder was an aircraft engineer, in addition to being a talented master fabricator, as many of the bolts are drilled and wired to prevent movement...The bare gullwing steel door frames are so heavy, I doubt most people could open them while seated in the car! I'll have to rig up a strut system to assist in entry/egress. The giant hood probably weighs over 300 pounds by itself, and the trunk isn't much lighter. The fiberglass is thick enough to walk on!
Speedycop has managed to get the car's aircraft-style bank of warning lights up and running, and the engines have turned over, but getting it moving under its own power will take a little more time. Beyond that, there's the question of how you take something the size of a small apartment racing, even if it has four-wheel steering.
You can read Speedycop's entire account, and give him tips on how to pair back-to-back truck differentials, here.