Motorweeks Maxton Rollerskate on BAT

If you're a certain age, you remember this car. I'd have to assume it's done right. Of course the main question since it's close to me, will I fit?

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/maxton-rollerskate/

IIRC this made a brief appearance on the Maxton Rollerskate Owners group on FB. I seem to remember that it has been gone through fairly recently.

As to "will you fit", I think that mostly depends on how tall you are. IIRC I'm marginal fitting a standard chassis one at 5'11", but have plenty of space in my long wheelbase one.

Edit: Just skimmed the ad. The fact that the carb "needs adujstment" seems a little odd after the extensive service it has had a couple of years ago. Dell'Ortos don't really go that bad just by sitting, but then again these don't have the vacuum advance hooked up and feel weak at the bottom end. IIRC there are also a few Racing Beat specific needles or jets in that carb, and you'd hope that they're still present.

Oh, and I remember the seller asking about exhaust routing information on the above FB group - based on the ad, the car has a non-original exhaust on it, which might have something to do with the need for carb adjustments.

In reply to BoxheadTim :

I'm 6'2, so not sure. The BAT comments say they recently changed the exhaust from side to rear, maybe that just needs the carbs dialed in. 

I think at 6'2" fit might be a tad on the optimistic side.

My recollection is that they basically returned the exhaust to the original configuration after someone found out that uncorked rotaries are loud. All Maxton have the faux side pipe on the RHS, but that pipe then goes into a muffler behind the axle like you can see in the pictures. There's not much muffling going on under the cover of the side pipe IIRC. I don't think it originally had a 2.25" exhaust so they might well have to accidentally leaned out the mixture. Not that would bother a rotary, oh noes.

I also don't love what they've done with the seats, assuming they would've looked close what's in mine before. 

BoxheadTim said:

They basically returned the exhaust to the original configuration after someone found out that uncorked rotaries are loud. 

I had a laugh right now imagining that.

*turns key, cue asthmatic sounding Mazda starter*

*engine starts*

"OH GOD MAKE IT STOP TURN IT OFF MAKE IT STOP"

*ears ring for next hour*

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I think they forgot a small muffler somewhere if the ears stop ringing after only an hour 

Tim and I drove one of the original Maxton development prototypes in Colorado a zillion years ago. It did not suck. If this thing stays under $10k it's going to be a heck of a steal on a really fun car.

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

They are really fun cars, and I really need to take mine out a bit more often.

Despite the history I think this is really a 10k-11k car (if that, nicely sorted one seem to go for mid-teens) given that the more often I read the listing, the more like a project it sounds to me.

Wow, what a blast from the past! This car was originally owned by Mike Whitfield, a friend of Craig Singhaus of MotorWeek fame. I worked on this car many, many years ago for Mike after he did some mechanical damage at the Giants Despair Hillclimb. It stayed with me for a few weeks and I installed a Mazda RX-7 GSL disc brake rear with 4.10 gearing, proper proportioning valve, an aluminum flywheel, Centerforce clutch assy, did some carb tuning, set the timing and delivered it back to him to run the Rose Valley Hillclimb. It was a cool little car, kind of like a much more civilized Lotus 7 replica as it had a heater and better interior appointments. 

Steve_Jones said:

In reply to BoxheadTim :

I'm 6'2, so not sure. The BAT comments say they recently changed the exhaust from side to rear, maybe that just needs the carbs dialed in. 

BTW, the owner mentioned in one of the comments that he's something like 6'3" and the reason why he's selling is that he's not fitting the car very well.

Can some of you lot please bid on this thing? My bidding finger is really starting to itch at the current price and I don't need another one of these.

Still looks like it's very well priced at the current price level.

When I was a kid I lusted over this car. Motorweek was the only real car based tv I had access to as we had no cable. 

I think I started the original what happened to the roller skate thread here a bunch of years ago.   But alas. I'm 6'1" and too fat. Buying this thing would be an exercise in frustration. Too bad. I'd get patgoss liscense plates for it. 

BoxheadTim said:

Edit: Just skimmed the ad. The fact that the carb "needs adujstment" seems a little odd after the extensive service it has had a couple of years ago. Dell'Ortos don't really go that bad just by sitting, but then again these don't have the vacuum advance hooked up and feel weak at the bottom end. IIRC there are also a few Racing Beat specific needles or jets in that carb, and you'd hope that they're still present.

I thought custom drilling jets wasn't necessary with Dellortos because the jet selection had finer .01mm increments compared to .05mm Weber jets.

j_tso said:

BoxheadTim said:

Edit: Just skimmed the ad. The fact that the carb "needs adujstment" seems a little odd after the extensive service it has had a couple of years ago. Dell'Ortos don't really go that bad just by sitting, but then again these don't have the vacuum advance hooked up and feel weak at the bottom end. IIRC there are also a few Racing Beat specific needles or jets in that carb, and you'd hope that they're still present.

I thought custom drilling jets wasn't necessary with Dellortos because the jet selection had finer .01mm increments compared to .05mm Weber jets.

IIRC there is a specially drilled emulsion tube in the carb that's Racing Beat specific.

Interesting. 11.5k with reserve not met. To me that already feels that it was priced at the high end, but maybe I'm not giving enough weight to the car's history.

In reply to BoxheadTim :

I agree, I figured $12k was the money. As I mentioned in my original post, you'd assume this one was one of the best, as you read the comments, it's more and more "needs some work"

In reply to Steve_Jones :

To be fair, they all seem to need some work.