I've owned this car, the Cantara, twice now.

Bought it from an ad with no pictures from a tow truck owner. Dunno what all they did with it but I think it was a field car for logging roads. The body skirts and flares have a ton of stone chips, like, a LOT, so I think it spent time on gravel roads judging by all the bumps and lumps underneath. It had a tail light shot out with paintballs and a bum transmission. That first go round I mostly kept it out of the weather and researched it. I had a lot of stalled projects and money and family woes to contend with, so it sat and was eventually sold. I regretted selling it the whole time.

The first time it showed up on the internet was me asking the third gen Camaro forum if they knew what it was, then Bangshift saw the ad of it for sale and bagged on it. Honestly still kinda burnt about that, tho I will say it was a lesson to me as why one should ot trash others creations on the internet, because it feels like crap to be on the end of that.

it sold and floated around locally for a while, and I think stuff was done but it looked a little more in the weeds each new listing. One ad had it up on like 20" chrome spoke wheels. Props to whoever kept the original wheels, they were part of the Cantara kit. American Racing made them I think?

Ages later, it showed up on reddit, the current owner had just picked it up and did work to it I assume, got it more streetable, trans got fixed, it got a hooker muffler and exhaust tips off another car, a blue one guessing by the overspray on the pipes.

It then vanished again.

Randomly I was told of a friend of a friend that had picked it up to go along with their actual delorean, and that person became a friend. I expressed interest in picking it up again, a decade+ after I'd sold it, and they politely declined, but said I'd be the first to know if they decided to sell.

Their life plans developed and they wanted it to go to someone that "got" it, so here I am with it as of a few months ago at this point.

It was wild to drive it an hour home. The last time I saw it we had to push it onto a car trailer and it about crunched my fingers off between the tire and fender flare, lol.

And here I was actually driving it. Like on asphalt and everything. With all the gears!

The shakedown run home uncovered some fun stuff. Like a quick ratio steering box and a lot of steering column play is the wrong kind of exciting.

So first on the list was replacing the lower steering shaft that goes from the column to the steering box. Having never done that repair it was interesting to figure out. Common fix is an astro van shaft which replaces the rubber rag joints with solid U joints. I found a new OEM style shaft and did that, as I didn't want to modify the car to make the other option work. It removed like 90% of the steering slop, and adjusting the play in the box removed another 5%.

NOW it steers like I'd expect a car of its era and miles to. Way less "hey let's go romp in that field without warning!"

It had a bunch of melted wires badly crimped and taped, so sorted that. new hood struts, because in a decade I learned I hated a broom handle rolling around the floor.

Lots of cleaning, some of the dirt I recognized, which is weird. As much as had been fixed along the way, a lot had not changed at all. It felt a lot like picking up where I left off.

That like, NEVER happens. I guess it is possible, wild.

Uh, starter wire fell off, so fixed that nice. New wipers, figured put what parts I need to do the T-top gaskets, Picked up an early OEM fiberglass Z28 hood. I like the flat hoods look better, unsure if there was a factory flat no vent fiberglass hood? I'll trade a Z28 one for it if anyone has one lying about, lol.

Sourced a factory radio, have that about half installed. Had a typical single din mid 2000s aftermarket radio with tiny fiddly little buttons, so that came out.

Full oil change to synthetic and a nice filter, with better oil and a better filter for later when the carb is for aure sorted. Have new brakes, rotors, drums, wheel bearings waiting for next time it's off all four.

A couple wrecked ones showed up at local junkyards so I picked up a bunch of interior bits, screws etc and have been putting factory hardware and fasteners where they should be.

Have a period correct Cadillac SeVille Bose Symphony Sound stereo for it, but did not realize that head unit needs amps at the speakers to work properly, so just going with a very nice factory radio I found.

New headlights. Looks weird with four shiny new matching lights instead of half working hazy mismatched water filled Sylvania and whatever ones, lol.

Oh, the parts yard car had new KYB Gas-A-Just shocks on the back, so that will be a nice upgrade. I think they put new shocks on it and stuffed it into the median testing them out, they're not even dirty. Watch, that person will be on the reddit F-Body sub, ha. Sorry for your loss but uh, thanks for the shocks :D

Anyway, listing it out it kinda sounds like not much stuff I guess, but as I go I clean all the connections and fasteners and line stuff up nice and take my time. I try to be attentive to details. Paint and shiny? Nah, I like how it looks, but it's going to function like a new seeing machine if I have anything to say about it.

And then to hot-take it, if ever a viable GM performance crate EV setup for the platform comes viable, I'll drop that 305 in a heartbeat of America, lol.

That car would be better in every way with that carbureted smog strangled (but honestly pretty easy to live with and enjoy) v8 relegated to coffee table duty.

So uh, thanks for attending my TedTalk, lol.

I think with haters, a lot of the most vocal and toxic ones were old, and have died off and are not out and going to shows or using the internet like more modern enthusiasts, at least not as much as they were. I'm fine with that. I got a lot of crap locally about how horrible and dumb the Cantara looked the first time around. All the old guys that remembered them new thought it was an abomination.

It's my abomination and I couldn't be happier. I look forward to seeing whatever you do with that Corvair. I always figured they'd be a good candidate to EV. Compact, both gens look good, lots of parts availability, simple as can be, actually remarkably sturdy. Those unit bodies are pretty tough for what they are. They are a very approachable classic car, cost and information wise. And like, four corner independent suspension, air cooled, rear engine, had some hot engine options, heck Yenko Stinger race prepped Corvairs are still mad fast and making laps.

Also no water coolant system to deal with.

A 300Zx would look rad with a hatch like this.

As much as I'd like to make a business of replicating this kit, I think there is a low volume market, What I'd rather do is get some real scans of it and get those out on the internet where the GTA mod folks and other car game modders can play with them, and someone that actually knows cad and blender and such can work up what this kit would look like for printing, then if someone wanted they could just print their own, slap it on with windshield adhesive, and go cruise Night City.