What do you get when you give a Canadian  long cold winters and no beer? A buggy  worthy of any show field!


                Dan Macmillan (AKA: the Krazy Kanadian)
                has been up to his old tricks again with his
                latest and possibly best creation, the
                Phoenix. This buggy has been a ground up
                lesson on how to make people everywhere
                say “ What the…!?”.

            I met Dan last year in Niagara Falls for the  June Jitterbug. We had previously only  communicated via the
    World Wide Web,  but I figured now was as good a time as  any to drive up and meet him in person.
            Dan is somewhat like Santa Claus. His  large frame would be intimidating to most,
 but his cheery smile lets you know right  away that he is a good fellow. My Wife and I enjoyed the company of Dan and his daughter during our three-day adventure.

 I recently received a picture of Dan’s buggy and was impressed with the achievements  he has made. I asked him to provide me with additional pictures and text to give  everyone and idea of what this certified Mechanic can cook up.
Mike J. www.madbuggies.com

              Dan MacMillan: The birth of the Phoenix.

About 3 years back while working in my  driveway on my 1968 Jeffries Mantaray II Kyote a young  guy stopped in to check out my buggy. One of the first things he had to say was "I have one  just like it at home”. My response to him was "Ya right", as Jeffries only made about 150  Kyotes. After talking for a while it became apparent that the only similarity was that it                was a dunebuggy and he wanted to find a chassis. I told him where to look and what  costs were involved and before I knew it his body was for sale. Sight unseen I offered  him $50.00 and he accepted my offer. Upon seeing it, I realized it was a Manx clone, I   had to turn him down as  it was in incredibly bad condition. He then said if I gave him $20.00 I could have it. Well
 for $20.00 it was a sale.
    I loaded it in my trailer and headed home occasionally looking  into my mirror and wondering why I wasted $20 on this piece of junk. First of all I did not like the looks of a Manx and secondly it was rough. Still by the time I got home, ideas began
 coming to  me and the look kind of grew on me. I put it in the back yard and started collecting the  parts I would need.      Fast-forward 2 years. I managed to locate the chassis and other parts  and began to assemble my ideas. The first things that had to go were the headlights and the rear fenders. I reshaped the rear fenders to resemble those of the Hustler and  shaved the Manx style headlight mounts. My plan was to use composite headlights in the hood but what to use was the question. I thought of mini  fog/driving lights but when I was handed 2 1995 Ford Crown Victoria headlights I knew  what to do. Cut them in half and glass them into the front end. High intensity mini driving lights are located between the front-end suspension tubes and are the high beams. Next on the  list were  side pods. I also dislike the factory pods offered these days so I made my own using a
 fiberglass truck cap. Cutting and repositioning the pieces as necessary to create the  pods.  Then glassing the whole thing to the body. I also had a big piece left over from the cap  and  seeing as I knew I was making a 2-seater, I decided to convert the back seat into a   trunk.  While constructing the trunk the idea came...POWER TRUNK...so I did.  Next were the mirrors. I just happened to have a set of POWER MIRRORS from a 1988   Mercury Sable.   The original owner for some unknown reason cut this big hole in the hood for the gas  tank  filler and had a round piece of wood held on with a bungee cord to cover it, you guessed it,  it had to go. But what to do with the hole? Well I just happened to have a gas tank door   from
 the same Mercury Sable so I mounted it to the hood but then realized I needed a way to  keep it  from opening while driving. Guess what??? POWER FUEL ACCESS DOOR. By this stage I  wanted to  mount the hood but still had lots of electrical to do so I made the hood a POWER HOOD.  Then came  the windshield. As anyone that has seen my Kyote with the 45 degree windshield can   tell you, I   hate vertical glass so I set the windshield at 40 from vertical and tied it into the roll  cage.
      While on the topic of the roll cage. It is purely cosmetic, being made from the safety  railing  from a set of bunk beds and some exhaust pipe. I figure if you are driving fast enough to  flip one of these cars then the cage is NOT going to help you.
     Taillights were another thing I wanted to be different. I went with 1988 Mercury Sable Wagon units mounted left on right and laid down sideways. In addition to the stock  brake and signals   on the rear are secondary brake and signal lights made up of 8 high intensity red LED's   each, located within the scoops created by the trunk lid. These are pretty much invisible until they   are turned on.   

   Time for paint.
The amazing part about this is the entire car, not including the airbrushed Phoenix on the hood and rear, was painted using spray cans from the local Canadian Tire store  over a period of 2 months. The base is a product called Mystify and flips colors from blue  to purple to red to copper/gold. On top of that I did a hand drawn 4 color flame job in red, white, orange and yellow. My friend that did the airbrushing has since gone over the flames with an airbrush.  The roll cage, windshield frame and parts of the engine  are red anodized paint, a  silver base with a clear red coating. The entire car was then clear coated with 3 layers of    2-stage epoxy clear coat. Next I had my neighbor airbrush the Phoenix onto the hood  followed by 2 more coats of clear.
The instrument cluster came out of a 1983 Volvo, mounted in the center. 1/4"  Plexiglas back  painted metallic grey completes the rest of the dash and houses the power accessory switches,  headlight switch, collapsible in dash cup holder and the 200 watt am/fm cassette stereo  w/ 10 disk changer. 2 speakers are located in the sides near the front of the seat  bottoms, 2 are in the front vertical wall of the trunk at headrest level while a 160 watt   powered sub is on the same vertical wall but at the bottom between the seats. All other  control switches are contained in the 1985 Dodge Caravan tilt steering column. The  interior sides are done in black exterior carpeting with polished aluminum trim, as is the  center tunnel. Floor is mirror finish aluminum diamond plate. The clutch and brake  pedals are stock units with aftermarket aluminum pedal covers while the throttle is a  custom made unit with aluminum pedal cover. Seats are from a 1984 Toyota Tercel with all mounting tracks removed to keep my head below the roll cage. Shifter has been shaved to a height of 3.5 inches (incredibly short shift throw). Mounted on the underside of the roll cage between the seats is a fire extinguisher and between the bars above the   trunk is a solar battery charger as this car consumes power just sitting there. It has to   do with the system of relays used to control the hood and the alarm system. Alarm is  capable of detecting motion and power changes. It will totally disable the car and  activate a full-blown police siren and lighting unit for the headlights. A setup of 14 high  intensity red LED's are located inside the headlights operate in sequence like the scanner on the front of the Knight Rider Trans AM when the alarm is armed.

    The engine, this was a toss up between a 1600dp, a 1700 T4 out of a bus with single 2bbl carb or a 1700 T4 out of a 1973 Porsche 914. I finally decided to go with a Type 4 from the Porsche  914. I have converted it to 2 pdsit 32 carbs and modified intake tubes  to locate the air cleaners outside the body behind and below the taillights but still above the engine. Clutch is a 220 mm unit out of a 1973 VW bus.

   The exhaust is a custom design and has been modified to exit in front of the rear wheels.  It is comprised of 1977 Type 2 exhaust manifolds, 2 Chevrolet Chevette mufflers and the manifold to heater box turnaround pipes from a 1977 T2. The transmission is a stock 1966 Type 1 swing axle. A custom frame extension/engine support and trailer hitch/wheelie bar with an extra engine mount made from a universal Chevy transmission mount makes sure the engine stays put and delivers all the power to the wheels . The wheels are a set of Appliance Wheels Wire  Mags 10x15 rear and 7x15 front. Tires are rear L60 15 while the fronts are 195 50 15.   Three spoke knockoffs complete the tire/ wheel package. Front shocks are Monroe Sensatracs from a 1995 Ford E250 van while the rears are Modified Monroe Sensatracs from a 1996 Chevy C3500 pickup

                The rear license plate is electrically operated, using a rear power vent window motor and actuator from a 1987 Dodge Caravan,  to display my legal plate for driving when the engine is running and flips over to display a custom Personalized California plate that reads GR8 YF  {GREAT WIFE} when parked.
 
 

Page 2 The Pictures

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