I was fortunate enough to stop off the Michigan Road exit of I-465 in Indianapolis to visit one of top car builders in Grand American, Fabcar. Dave Klym took an hour or so out of his Saturday lawn mowing to show me around the shop and answer my questions. Thanks Dave!

When I rolled up to the building, the first thing I saw was a half-covered #22 Fabcar Toyota sticking out of the garage door…and this was my first ever DP sighting. All I have to say is wow…what a car. What a sight. I liked how the cars have looked in pictures, but in person they are striking! I couldn't get over how low the profile was, something I was not expecting. It was smaller and sleeker than I pictured in my mind. The fit and finish looked excellent, both inside and out.

After I was finished drooling over the #22, I walked deeper into the shop to reveal the #45 that the Gunner team ran at Daytona, sitting on the rack. Dave is working on some improvements that will be tested on this car. I didn't get to see the bodywork, as it was upstairs, but seeing the guts of a DP alongside the outside of the #22 was interesting.

The #45 may race again this year, so stay tuned. Dave also told me that there are still things being worked on for the #22 car, so that car has hope of racing this season, too.

One interesting tidbit…Did you know that the new graphic treatments on the Brumos Porsches (just behind the side windows to "change their shape") were designed by the head designer of the Boxster? It's on both cars, but it shows up much easier on the white #59.

Also in the shop were a few more cars, like the first mid-engined Porsche 911 race car (designed by Dave), a Porsche Club racer, and a Diasio D962 that was getting a Mazda rotary installed (is being re-badge D962R). Dave also designed and build the Diasio's (see their website here http://www.diasio.com/). 30 of those cars have been built.

Dave does all of the design work for Fabcar, then gives the designs to his 2 engineers to make happen. He likes the current size of Fabcar because of this, he can still design and work in the shop instead of being solely focused on running the business side of things.

I don't know much about machinery, but Fabcar has a huge Haas machine, plus every other tool fabricators need to create. Fabcar makes every part of the FDSC/03 except the bodywork, which is made by Dave's good friend, Max Crawford. Dave showed me some Porsche pieces he's changing from aluminum to steel pieces, and the craftsmanship was extremely good. I was impressed.

Dave and Fabcar have a long history. Dave ran the #73 Carillo Rods Indy car team in the '70's, and even designed their own car…He has pictures of it being tested at Ontario Motor Speedway. In 1977, they won the first ever pit stop competition at Indy, a pretty cool achievement.

He also built Bob Akin's ballistic 935, Al Holbert's 962, as well as Porsche's tubs for the 962. For a while, Porsche sent Lufthansa Air Boxes Dave's way every few weeks, and he had to fill it and send it back to Germany. Fabcar also does quite a bit of work for Porsche Club people, and build the Diasio's, as mentioned. Fabcar also built Mazda GT Cars in the 80's, so they don't do just Porsches.

Side note: picture from my trip will be posted next week sometime, including pictures of his Daytona Prototype concept drawing, done before the greenhouse and front radiator rules. More on that when you see the picture.

After about and hour of being shown around and talking sports cars with a true expert on the subject, he had to get back home, and I had to head up the road to the Little 500 in Anderson. It was a very well spent hour, and he invited me back anytime to see what's going on. Thanks again do Dave for the hospitality!

Now, on a very serious note, there were casualties in doing this report…please don't call PETA on me. 3 birdies were killed on the trip, one in my home state of Illinois in an incident on Rt. 1, and then in a separate incident 2 little birdies playing together on County Road 450 in Hendricks County, IN. Rest In Piece, little friends. Then my antenna broke off on the way home…and that's sitting in a ditch (I hope) on Rt. 1 somewhere. I'm more broken up over that…LOL!

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