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Number: 1002
From: Marquis Grove <infosyssec@y...>
Date: Tue Jul 9, 2002  6:56 pm
Subject: Re: MINTasc/MCLARENS and Slaughtered Pigs

Body:
Well, suffice to say that there is some fun in taking a beaten pig and trying
to resurrect it back
to its former glory. I guess the secret to it all is to know what you are
walking in to and be
prepared to pay the dollars to do it. And if you are not prepared to wait out
the transformation
or to get the job done right, then ideally your money would be better spent on
purchasing a
turnkey model of a McLaren that ask nothing except that you give it some gas
and oil.

The only problem with a trailer queen is that is most likely destined to remain
exactly that way,
unless of course the owner falls on financial hard times and has to start
driving it around as
their main transportation.

The beauty of a 'resurrected pig' is that it holds no false delusions for the
owner. It is being
resurrected to be driven, as it knows that it will never be able to be parked
next to a trailer
queen and judged ala concours points.

So in said instance the resurrected pig brings to its owner the joy of driving
the car and the
enjoyment of amazing strangers who will ask " What kinda car is that... a
Mustang, Saleen or a
Mercedes ?" ( well.. they never ask if it is a McLaren... ).

The real cause for concern is how the 'slaughtered pigs' got to their state of
crapiness. Was it
an owner who simply fell on hard times or did the car fall into the hands of
someone who was
simply a car beater. Sadly there were people who could afford the original
sticker price of the
McLaren and then proceed to beat the crap out of these lovely little cars.

With regard to the 'accidental pigs', I think we should also be not so harsh in
viewing the
attempts to resurrect these cars and give them a second chance at life.

The car I am working on suffered not only the indignities of being a front end
collision accident
victim, but as well it almost appears that it was stored outside with a rotting
top and exposed to
many seasons of weather elements that damaged the interior beyond belief.

Sandy is indeed correct that it would be better to shell out the big dollars up
front and get the
'bestest' McLaren that your money can buy. But unfortunately, if we all did
that then the
'accidented' McLarens and 'beaten to crap by crappy owners' McLaren's would not
be gifted with a
second chance in life.

And after all, most of the McLaren's that we spot zipping along the roads are
not the trailer
queens that have been locked away in some secluded and well guarded garage.
The odds are that the
McLaren you might spot is one of the orphans that have been resurrected or one
of the 'drivers'
that have had enjoyable mileage racked on to them. So these road warriors are
the ones that
create interest in the marque - as they are the ones that people see in actual
use.

Hopefully when my McLaren is finished people will look upon it as 'one of the
lucky ones' that was
saved from its previous life of misery and resurrected in to a proud
representative of the marque.
Unfortunately, they will not know of the sad and tragic history of this
particular car and
hopefully they will judge it for what it is, an example of a limited production
marque car.

So I can't toss too many stones at the other McLaren's that I have seen grace
the pages of eBay
and AutoTrader.com. Each has a history that could leave you in amazement that
it is even on the
road today. And with such a limited number of production vehicles in the
first instance we
should be thankful when another is kept from going to the McLaren graveyard in
the sky.

As I previously noted in one of my past monologues, my 88's body is now
restored and awaiting to
be sent to the paint shop for the McLaren red that once graced it ( prior to
someone using canned
spray paint to do the body up in black ). The interior is now restored with
just some carpeting
work to be done on the rear seat box and the rear wall panel. The transmission
is new, the
braking system is new, the fuel tank is new, etc etc. So the mechanicals are
now up to par. This
orphan is getting pretty sexy and it is probably a long time since it could
take pride in itself.

But the car will never be able to hold a candle to a well maintained and
original McLaren. But I
will have the satisfaction of knowing the exact state of all the bits and bolts
on this car,
having been so personally involved in its resurrection from 'crapola car' to a
running and sexy
looking McLaren.

So, even though I agree with Sandy that it would be lovely to purchase the
'best example' that we
can find for our budget, there is something to be said about the 'road pigs'
that were brought
back from the slaughterhouse and made respectable again.

Now a question might arise about whether the modification of a McLaren is a
good point or a bad
point. The case in example might be where the McLaren owner has swapped out
the original basket
style wheels and replaced them with five stars or some other model. Or
recently I saw a
super-charged version of a McLaren up for auction. Although these cars have
strayed away from
their pedigree and left the possibility of being concours quality behind, I
have to assume that
these modifications were made to give the owner/driver some personal level of
satisfaction. I
cannot fault an owner for making a modification that improves the ride or
performance of his
vehicle. In fact, I would suspect that the McLaren team might have looked on
approvingly to see
their car stepped up in power or given some upgrade that improved handling.

Where I do find fault is when an owner takes a McLaren and lets it deteriorate
to the point where
it shouldn't even be on the road. At that point it should be either parked or
sold off to someone
who can appreciate the vehicle and who can afford to resurrect it. I shall
forever scratch my
head trying to figure out what the previous owner of my McLaren had in mind
when he let this
vehicle deteriorate to the point where ant colonies were living in the car and
the interior was
damaged by exposure to the weather elements.

The best thing about the trailer queens is that they provide a blueprint for
those of us that are
restoring or resurrecting 'a slaughtered pig'. We have a template that tells
us where everything
'McLaren' goes properly.

The last thought that struck me about 'slaughtered pigs' is that all McLaren's
started life as
slaughtered pigs. As the McLaren boyz took the factory issued Mustang and cut
off their roofs,
removed their interiors and body worked the donor cars, they must have appeared
to have been quite
the 'slaughtered pigs' at that moment in their birth... ;)

Marq__________________________________________________
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