Piranha
dragster
Piranha
Formacar
It was never
Marbon Chemical's intention to manufacture cars, but merely to
create a market for their plastic products.
AMT purchased the
rights from Marbon to build the plastic car, and agreed to
purchase the plastic bodies and fiberglass chassis from them.
Originally AMT planned to build 50 cars a year. To promote the new
venture, AMT decided to build both a drag racing and sports racing
version of the car. They even gave the car a new name, the
"Piranha."
The Piranha dragster was build and toured
the drag racing circuit in 1967 and was a big hit.
Soon, AMT
started to build the street versions of the 1967 Piranha. Changes
from the original CRV design included an extended roofline, small
hinged hatches in the side windows, and optional "Gurney
bubbles" in the roof for more head room. AMT had planned to
offer the Piranha for sale to the public for around $5,000.
Unfortunately, due to the high cost of building each car by hand
and obtaining the Corvair engines and parts from GM, it cost AMT
well over that amount to finish each car. After about four
streetcars were completed, and GM announced they were dropping the
Corvair very soon, the arrangement between AMT and Marbon broke
down. AMT turned over the four unsold Piranha coupes and all the
extra parts to Marbon and they parted ways. Marbon stripped the
AMT I.D. plates off the finished Piranhas, added CRV logos to the
bodies, and distributed them for display at various company
facilities, including their home office in Washington, West
Virginia.
Marbon did find another customer for the CRV in a kit
car company located in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Cycolac bodies were
sold as bolt-ons for the VW chassis. They were available in both
coupes and roadsters with Marbon furnishing the bodies to the kit
car company. Eventually, the company made molds of the body and
produced a modified version in fiberglass.
By this time, Marbon
Chemical had created a second generation plastic vehicle called
"Formacar." A new design had been created, building on
the successful testing of the CRV program. One prototype was built
and the concept almost sold to American Motors, but there were
problems with the new plastic chassis that ultimately killed it.
Promotional materials for Formacar often included photos of the
new car sitting next to a "CRV" which was actually a
Piranha. A sharp eye can detect the modified Piranha roofline,
side window "hatches," and bulges in the roof.
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