1983 Replica/Kit Makes Sebring Series II

So when you got out of your sports car. specialty car. “toy”. etc. . could you even begin to wipe that smile off your face? If you don't get that feeling every time you drive that car you should own this one. A less than 2000 pound supercharged 300+ h. p. twin rotor motor with a 4. 12 transaxle ratio. That works out to a power to weight ratio of 6. 7 to 1. With 6. 5 pounds of boost you have torque available from 1500 rpm out to your 8000 rpm redline. Torque more like you'd feel in a 3800 supercharged v6 or small block LS v8 but with that sweet rotary “feels like no top end” smooth spin to the top. Interested????. read on….

The Story…. 1983 Bremen Sebring II #420 of a total of 450 produced- This is one of the last production runs of the much improved Sebring II models. The Sebring II was a “clean sheet” of paper redesign of the original Sebring/Sterling style cars. I had a factory 1984 Sebring on special order when the plant announced no more Sebring production. I found this almost completed car which then had a 2. 8 V6 after a 3 year nationwide search. With molded-in dropped floor pans this model has more interior height. width. and leg room than any previous canopy car. Fiberglass is an average of 3/8 inch thick and much thicker in all critical areas. Unlike the original Sterling's the top is lifted by reliable electromechanical screw drive linear actuators instead of hydraulics. I have been building and rebuilding kit cars for 45 years now and have even owned 5 of the Sterling and Sebring cars so I know them inside/out. This car has many. many. upgrades over a typical model and has been improved by me to more like a production car. This was the ONLY Sebring featured in the 2016 Kit Car Nationals at Carlisle as part of their Invitational. In local car shows and cruises it is a consistent show winner.

Paint- The body is sealed with PPG DPLF Epoxy. Deltron red base coat. and multiple 2021 clear coats with cut/buff. Coating is about a 9 out of 10 with only minor typical road rash which is low on the car. It has been garaged its' entire life.

Drivetrain- We have had this supercharged 13 B rotary twin rotor engine in this car for 19 years now. I bought the entire RX-7 car to do the swap at that time. We broke in the “as is” motor then sent it out to Mariah Motorsports for a complete performance build up. We have driven it on long trips as well as weekend getaways. For its' performance level it is economical (18 mpg/city. 25 mpg hwy. ). quiet. and easily cruises at 80 on the highway (turns about 2975 rpm at 70 mph and 3375 rpm at 80). A custom built 4 speed VW transaxle from Transform included heavy duty shift forks. long throw clutch arm. welded 3 and 4 gears. super-diff. . etc (designed to handle 300+ h. p. ). Heavy duty rear axles and C. V. joints .

3 Years of Drivetrain Updates- Since we were coming up on 20 years with this motor/transaxle combo I pulled everything out starting from the shift rod tube to the motor. New bushings. seals throughout. Mohr mid bar transaxle isolator. heavy duty rear mount using CB Performance Rhino Insoform mounts. full Fast Fab adjustable Heim joint Kafer style brace. The transaxle was completely disassembled and worked on by KCR Transaxles and Geno Boyd. We upgraded to a 4. 12 K series ring and pinion. a Weddle 1st gear and special ordered a . 77 overdrive Weddle 4th gear. This is mated to a new Kennedy Engineered Stage II pressure plate and Daiken Super Disc clutch plate. Because of this combo you have an extremely quick car geared much like the original RX-7 but you've got a relaxed cruise rpm. The front pedal assembly was upgraded for quicker pedal action. bolt style heavy duty clutch cable (no more simple hook). and Bigfoot wider spaced clutch peddle (much easier to drive even for large feet). A short shifting Pro Comp all aluminum T shifter was also added. The motor was sent to Defined Autoworks where it received a complete teardown. The original Mariah Motorsports balanced (all parts within 5 grams) rotating assembly (rotors and eccentric shaft) looked like new so this was kept and free breathing Turbo II rotor housings were added. We kept our oil baffle separator and Racing Beat stainless steel oil lines. remote fan cooled oil radiator. and remote large Wix filter. A max street port was done and all new seal package buttoned the motor up. A new exhaust was built using Racing Beat thick wall tube and Racing beat stainless steel pre-silencer. stainless matching muffler and Pypes stainless double wall resonator tip. A 5 wire Bosch sensor was added in the exhaust to report to a cockpit mounted air/fuel ratio gauge. And. yes. you can data log from this unit. I further updated my entire fuel system starting with a new 670 Holley Street Avenger (electric choke). Mallory high flow fuel filter. and Carter Street/Strip fuel pump. The new air/fuel gauge allowed me to move up in jets and a higher power valve as we were making more power since the rebuild. We increased spark with new ignitors. Blaster Epoxy Coils. NGK Blue Wires. and NGK Iridium spark plugs. A new Hi-torque Rotary specific 12 V starter. 104 amp. Alternator. and Duracell AGM battery with battery tender complete the electrics.

The Suspension- Starting at the front the car was built originally with a new front beam. Front springs have been softened for more ride compliance and slight lowering. Over the years we have added 20 pounds of high carbon steel triangulation so simple tow links could be used to easily tow this car behind just about anything. My wife wanted this so we could drive our main vehicle to faraway shows and split up so we both had cars there. It works quite well with a collapsible tow bar and safety light set-up (all included with car). About 15 minutes of simple connections and you are “safely” towing this car. My Hyundai Santa Fe averaged 25 mpg at 75 mph highway speeds on our last long trip. Double caster shims in the front beam makes self-centering for towing and higher speed cruising a snap. New brighter LED driving lights also make night time driving much easier. Also. up front you have a new TRW steering box. all new tie rods joints. the front brakes are CSP vented disc brakes with the correct 20. 6 mm large master cylinder. You'll also find an in-line proportioning valve which can fine tune the Porsche rear disc brakes. The front end has a Sway Away ¾” sway bar with stainless steel mounts. The rear also has a ¾' sway bar with stainless steel mounts. Sway Away adjustable spring plates. custom torsion bars and urethane fittings complete the rear end. Front shocks are new Boge units with correct screw in bump stops. Rears are new HG gas shocks with urethane bump stops. The wheels I most use on this car are the American Eagle (quality Centerline clone) mags with H rated tires all around. Tires have less than 5000 miles on them. I also have the original Western Turbine all-aluminum wheels which are very lightweight. I've used those as winter wheels in the past.

The Interior. also updated- Old stock seats were replaced with new Scion TC reclining suspension seats. We kept the Pioneer AM/FM/CD unit. 6 inch front Infinity speakers with moveable tweeters. and the rear 6 x9 Pioneer speakers. The dash now also has a rear view camera monitor (also has infra-red night vision) that actuates automatically when the car is put in reverse. This monitor also has a second channel if you wanted to add another camera. All of the rest of lights/switches/dash controls work. The air conditioning system has been updated many years ago to 134a and a new drier was added to the system. It blows ice cold. The heating system performs equally well. This car does have a factory pop up sun roof which can be removed from inside. Like all Sebring's the windows pop open 4 inches and also can be quickly removed from the inside. A single quick-release button takes off your Momo steering wheel. We run the black one you see in the pictures for street and show it with the red one.

And outside- Kit car mirrors drive me nuts. They are either so cheaply made they won't stay up at high speeds/track or they are sturdy over-the-top vintage chrome things that don't fit the character of these low-slung cars. I was at an exotic car show once and saw these Testarossa style double jointed mirrors. They are sturdy at speed. set high enough on the car for a great field of vision. and even had room for a small blind spot mirror in the corner. And they look “right” on the car.

Gauges- VDO Cockpit model ammeter. voltmeter. gas. oil pressure. water temperature. and supercharger boost. We also updated the speedometer and tachometer with VDO style matching Sebring personalized Speedhut units. The speedo is a 200 m. p. h. GPS unit that is incredibly accurate. Allows you to make wheel/tire size changes for track or street without any recalibration. It's also capable of providing other performance data as well. The tachometer is a 10. 00 r. p. m model with adjustable shift lights.

And the rest of the Story…. And now this is Karma…. So I owned this car for about 15 years. spent another 2 years doing the rotary conversion. drove it. enjoyed it…. got the itch to build some different kit cars and trucks and…. sold it right here on eBay. About 8 years go by and I'm trying to figure out what project I want to jump into next. My wife says. “What kit car did you really like the best out of all of them?” I said. “Well. my rotary Sebring. ” I decided to look through eBay. buy another Sebring and start from scratch again. I got to looking at this red Sebring with a supercharged rotary engine and thought. “Hmmmm…Hey. that looks like my old car…. wait a minute…that is MY SEBRING. ” So I bought it back almost 4 years ago now and started this “upgrade” program on it to go with my retirement years. What I didn't count on though was physical problems with both my knee and of course. my clutch foot. Earlier injuries with arthritic material are now building up. Even going to an automatic tranny or incorporating an electric conversion won't solve the knee thing with getting in and out of the car. Soooo…I guess Karma just wanted me to have a taste of this car again. And. I am fine with that as it has been a blast to own it this second time.

What it takes to own this car- If you look me up you'll notice I have 100% feedback. That's because I am brutally honest about any kit car I have built or rebuilt. Although these Series II Sebring cars have the most interior space of all the canopy top cars some people just don't fit in them. My seats are shimmed up so the max. height of a person would be about 6' 2” and maybe go 320 lbs. (I'm 6' and 250 lbs. ). The seats could be set down lower to allow a person up to about 6' 4” and maybe. 350 lbs. and that's about it folks. If you are “leggy” you'll love this car. tons of leg room with 7” of seat base adjustment back and forth and infinite seat back recline. DOT approved 3 point seat harnesses are on both seats. Room for about 200 lbs. of luggage behind the seats and even folding lawn chairs.

Ride. Drivetrain. Performance. Handling and Room to Grow- This car rides about like a C5 Corvette around town and more like the C6 Corvette on the highway. If you are used to big torque muscle cars this car is completely the opposite of them. This car runs. sounds like and accelerates more like an Indy car coming out of pit lane with what seems like a never-ending rpm pull to top end. No pistons to hammer at the crank and torque building at a 1. 1 ratio to horsepower as you accelerate. Around town you can go down into the 1000 to 2000 rpm range even in your overdrive 4th gear without lugging or bucking the motor. Docile enough for anyone to drive and puts my wife right to sleep when cruising at 80 but you can still hit mid 4's in 0 to 60 with just 6000 rpm shift points and that is without abusing the transaxle. Go cart like handling past 1 G. with you hanging on to the steering wheel. Want it faster? It's scary fast enough for me but I built the motor to be more reliable by keeping the h. p. and tune where it is at right now. With alcohol/water injection ($300 to $400 mod. ) you could get much more aggressive with timing. fuel. etc. . and squeeze another 40 to 60 h. p. out of this twin rotor. And then. there is just plain “crazy. ” By going to a 3 rotor motor (only 7 more inches of length. yes. it will fit and bolt right in) you pick up a little extra weight but those engines are reliably in the 400 to 500 h. p. range. If going that route. I'd go Porsche or Subaru on the transaxle. Logan. at Defined Autotworks would be more than happy to build you a 3 rotor engine.

Mileage. tc- The current GPS speedometer is sitting right at about 29. 00 miles. I will still be driving occasionally during the sale period. That is indicated on the title as non-actual miles since the speedo has been updated before. True total mileage on the car is just about 70. 00 miles. Keep in mind also that the state of Ohio considers kit cars re-registered in our state to be classified as Rebuilt Salvage.   And. of course. I had to put in a bunch of 0's for the VIN because eBay cannot accept the Bremen Manufactured VIN which is on this title.   I currently run Ohio Historic tags on the car and it is exempt from all emissions testing here. Every state handles cars like this differently.

The bad- Short list here. As I mentioned before. very minor wear and tear (road rash) low on the car. There are 3 almost invisible (they don't even show up in pics) gel coat cracks in the very back of the car.   Oddly enough almost every Series II car I've ever seen has these same defects in the gel coat so I have always assumed this might be more of a manufacturing flaw. They haven't moved in 30 years…. And the last upgrade I had planned was new carpeting. It's not that bad and there's not much of it that is visible but I'd switch it out. That's it….

Transportation- You have several options here. (1. ) If you are less than a couple hundred miles from me I'd just come and get it with a friend and drive it home. Yes. its' just that easy. (2. ) If you are much further you could come in with a class II or class III trailer hitch with a 2 inch ball and I can hook you up to flat tow the car. My key ring splits into drive keys and top/deck keys. Power the top up. put car in neutral. set ignition key to unlock column. and power top down. The car will follow you home like a lost puppy. (3. ) Have it shipped by roll back. trailer. or semi-truck. I've shipped cars all over the country by putting the shipping out for bid on Uship (internet based shipping). Competitive rates (yes. they can show you proof of insurance) available from a lot of great shippers which are coming back empty many times. No matter which way you want to work this I'll be happy to help in getting you or your shipper on the road. Okay. so the only thing I wouldn't do this time of year with this crazy winter/spring is fly in and drive it a great distance home. You could get pounded with sand. salt. brine. and people gawk at you so much just to see what you are driving that they can easily slide into you if the weather goes bad.

The Bottom Line- This car is in very good condition. I have had it compete in cars shows in Tuner. Custom. Kit Car. and even Vintage classes and it won awards in 2 out of every 3 shows it was in. If you look down the column of ads for kit cars here on eBay carefully note than most of them have less than 10. 00 miles on them. Ever wonder why? It is usually because they've just never been “worked out” enough to perform well or even be reliable. This car is a “driver” and has been up and down the eastern U. S. (trips up to 2500 miles long) since it was built with constant maintenance and updates. This car has always received the best in parts and service. Just check out the list of gurus that have breathed life into my car:
Mariahmotorsports- Original builders of the motor. They are on the web.
Kcrtransmissions- Transaxle upgrades.   Also on the web.
Defined Autoworks- Current rebuilt upgraded motor.   On the web and many videos on YouTube.
Geno Boyd Transaxles- Current transaxle upgrades… Geno has over 400 videos on YouTube.

If you want to own an exotic kit car that won't embarrass you at the next traffic light or leave you stranded on your next vacation this is your car.   Since the last Sterling kits were selling for just about what I am selling this car for it would be difficult to build one of these canopy style cars to this level of quality and performance at twice what I am asking for it.   No tire kickers or dreamers.   The car can be seen by appointment with me personally.

Payments and other legal stuff- Because of what seems like never-ending fraudulent activity on the internet. unless other acceptable arrangements are made. all transactions will be done by electronic funds transfer directly to my bank account. A non-refundable deposit of $2000 must be transferred to my bank account within 48 hours of the close of this auction. The remaining balance of funds must be transferred with 6 days of the close of this auction. Upon notification of receipt and clearance of all funds I will send the title for this vehicle by overnight mail. Of course. you may also pay that balance in cash at any time for immediate possession as I have the clear title in-hand. The buyer is to arrange transportation. This vehicle is being sold as is. with no expressed. implied. or written warranties. It is the buyer's responsibility for any inspections or assessment of vehicle condition. If you do not understand anything mentioned above about this car please ask! Since the car is also being sold through several other venues I reserve the right to end the listing if the vehicle is no longer available for sale. Although I have tried to accurately and honestly represent the features and condition of this vehicle I cannot guarantee that accuracy.

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