Right Hand Drive

[raleets]

OK, guys, check this out........I spoke with an owner of a reputable auto repair shop today in Swartz Creek, MI, who told me he knows of a right-hand drive Reatta (year unknown) that is owned by a wealthy Canadian fella and it's stored in a warehouse in Swartz Creek.

Supposedly it was built for export to the UK. 

He said this person comes to town annually and takes it for a spin around the neighborhood in spite of the fact that it's not licensed or insured because there is no title for the car.

I know this sounds like a wild tale, but perhaps someone out there has heard of this?

Yeah, I know it sounds pretty goofy, but just though I should pass it along.

Bob

P.S.  This conversation took place at 11am this morning with NO alcohol involved. 

[raleets]

12 minutes ago, raleets said:

OK, guys, check this out........I spoke with an owner of a reputable auto repair shop today in Swartz Creek, MI, who told me he knows of a right-hand drive Reatta (year unknown) that is owned by a wealthy Canadian fella and it's stored in a warehouse in Swartz Creek.

Supposedly it was built for export to the UK. 

He said this person comes to town annually and takes it for a spin around the neighborhood in spite of the fact that it's not licensed or insured because there is no title for the car.

I know this sounds like a wild tale, but perhaps someone out there has heard of this?

Yeah, I know it sounds pretty goofy, but just thought I should pass it along.

Bob

P.S.  This conversation took place at 11am this morning with NO alcohol involved. 

 

[Booreatta]

There is a right hand drive convertible but it was converted for use in New Zealand It has been several years. The owner has passed and I don't know what happened to the car.I remember that Jim Finn was part of the conversion as ;he furnished parts and went to New Zealand to furnish parts and what ever.. I for got the owners name so maybe Jim will chime in here to see if he has any more input

[padgett]

Well Swartz Creek is where GM dumped all of its experiments that were supposed to be destroyed (but often were not).

[AZVET]

There is a place in Swartz Creek named Paragon Corvette that deals in classic Corvette restoration parts (NOS).  GM uses them quite a lot. 

They are all car guys and might know of this alleged car. 

Do a Google search and contact them.  You might get lucky.

[Barney Eaton]

Bob that would be an interesting discovery, should the car be found.

It is somewhat strange that this information would just now surface, 26 years after the last Reatta was built and in the heart of Reatta activity.

[handmedownreatta]

it seems unlikely.just think of all the backwards made dash parts needed.

 

[DAVES89]

There was an article some years back in the Reatta monthly newsletter featuring Jim Finn's conversion...

[padgett]

Well aspects of the design were done by two English firms, Hawtal-Whiting and Lamb Sceptre. Maybe for one of them. Would need the VIN to know where it fell.

[KDirk]

Have wondered myself about that unutilized "Diesel fuel only* indicator in the 88/89 IPC VFD envelope Anyone know if there was consideration of a diesel power plant on the small box Riviera (more likely than the Reatta I'd think) as it shared the same IPC displays for 86-89? 1986 was still in the time frame where GM was still messing around with the ill-fated Oldsmobile gas-turned-diesel engines, wasn't it?  Caddy even got a few, though I don't recall specifically which years.

 

That indicator appears to be disabled at firmware level, ordinarily it's illumination would be dictated by the option content programming parameters. There is no documented option code that would enable it, not that you'd want to anyway.

[padgett]

Between 1978 and 1985 GM expected diesel to be the future. In fact most manufacturers did (BMW, Ford, Vixen Motor homes all used the BMW 2.4 TD in passenger vehicles in the period). Then the Caddies littering the interstates killed that for a generation. Now they had a brief comeback but high diesel fuel costs, the need for DEF, and direct injection gas engines are killing that.

 

The 88-89 Reatta dash is the same one used in the 86 Riviera so designed in the early 80s when GM expected great things. If they had selected the BMW TD (same power) instead of trying to create one that went down the same assembly line as gas engines, things might have been very different.

[Jim]

I didn't do the conversion of the '91 Reatta conversion in New Zealand but was involved in sending many of the parts for the conversion and my wife and I also traveled to NZ and met with the owners and had a VERY nice time in their country.

Cliff and Doreen Humphries did the conversion and sadly Cliff did pass away but Doreen still has the car.

Edited February 13, 2017 by Jim (see edit history)