There’s no way you can predict what you are going to see at SEMA. It is literally impossible. Sure, we get press releases and invites to things being unveiled and first shown to the public but the reality is that there are hundreds, maybe thousands of cars that are just there waiting to be found. As the automotive gods would have it, one of those cars for me was in the Borla booth and it was as unlikely a love and I’ll ever find in my life.
This is (what I believe to be) a 1970s/early 1980s Manta Mirage that was built by Counts Kustoms by all places! These cars were designed to be loosely street legal Can-Am style machines and were actually called Manta Can-Ams to start before they likely got sued. Designed to hold a small block Chevy and use a Corvair trans-axle, this car is a really nicely done version of what was likely a slight rough kit car back in the day. Showing off Borla’s cool stack EFI injection, this one has looks and performance to boot. We dig the Batmobile looks of the flat black and red accent stripe, the tidiness of the interior, and the wheels they have stuck on the thing.
With an Aeromotive Phantom tank and a FAST Efi controller on the injection, this thing likely goes as if the devil himself was chasing you. We cannot speak for the durability of the Corvair transaxle of if they went with a more modern unit but we know that this thing would turn heads and be fun wherever it was driven.
1970s kit car goodness elevated to SEMA levels. That is a win.
Check out these images of the Manta Mirage in the Borla Booth at SEMA 2018 –
You can see them building it on the current series of counting cars. It looked ok when they started it but they soon found some big issues such as the engine bulkhead being fibreglass
A race car just doesn’t look right in a matte black finish or any kind of matte finish.
agreed – reverse the color scheme, and wow.
Porsche has tradionally tested it’s race cars wearing matte black paint, usually with the relevant sponsor logos as well.
Killer.
surprisingly tasteful for Count Customs….their stuff usually makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit.
This looks suspiciously like a VW-based kitcar that was on sale in the 1970s. I can’t wait to see that Shitrolet motor tear itself from the fibreglass bulkhead and leave the whole thing stranded on the fast lane of the interstate!
Very close – it is a kit car, and Manta did offer a VW based version of this, but the Mirage version was designed around a small block Chevy.
You should buy some p*$$y or eat a snickers!
Eh Hole!
Do you really think the engine is mounted to the bulkhead?
I own one of these cars located in British Columbia, Canada. The engine is certainly not mounted to the bulkhead. This car is NOT built on a VW platform and has a full tube frame under it with Mustang II type front rack with adjustable coil overs. Cool (in my opinion) fun car! Rick
j c whitney chrome wheels so not match the racecar persona mr.custom,,,,paint em