Here's one-of-a-kind American-made Daedalus inspired by European classic sports roadsters

ONE-Off Indeed, many people are fascinated by the figure of classic racing cars such the following British-made Aston Martin DBR 1 of 1950s, which is said to have ruled the world's famous racing arenas like the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Sebring and others. Because at that time by the manufacturer, the racing car was made in limited numbers. So it's not surprising if its creative fans were inspired to make the copies.

The Daedalus was an American hand-crafted two-seater roadster built by Kris Heil, inspired by Aston Martin DBR 1, Ferrari 250, Jaguar C- and D-Type. (Picture from: JournalClassicCar)

Among the many copies that have been ever made, it turns out that the most famous is the Daedalus which built only one unit by a gentleman from Aptos, California named Kris Heil. From what its look, the immediate reference points are the sensational and curvaceous European sports roadsters that ruled the road at Sebring, Le Mans and high-end tracks around the world in the late 50s and early 60s.

According to its maker, Kris Heil, that the Daedalus was not only directly inspired by the Aston Martin DBR 1 that had won at the 24-Hours of Le Mans 1959, in the first (driven by Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori) and second position (driven by Maurice Trintignant and Paul Frére), but that there was a fair amount of styling borrowed from the Ferrari 250, Jaguar C- and D-Type, too.

As you can see, the Daedalus nose was inspired by the Aston Martin DBR-1. (Picture from: JournalClassicCar)

The maker of Daedalus, who is now 70 years old, further tells that he built this gorgeous single-seat car creation in British green racing color in his garage over 11 years, ranging from 2005 to 2016. Besides that he wanted some American heritage in there, too, so it’s powered by the straight-six GMC engine (built from 1952 to 1960) that was frequently hot-rodded back in the day.

Heil who formerly has career as a firefighter, also known race car builder, and honed his classic car building skills from scratch by watching videos only. For the Daedalus, he fabricated the car's aluminum body manually by using an English wheel, which then put on the tube chassis. After finished, the Daedalus managed to become a star when it was exhibited for the first time to the public at The Quail: A Motorsports Gathering in 2017 in the custom coachwork category.

As you can see, the Daedalus nose was inspired by the Aston Martin DBR-1. (Picture from: JournalClassicCar)

By considering what happened next, when a nightmare happened, which was then able to arouse sympathy from classic car owners around the world. The incident occurred in August of 2017, while Heil was driving the Daedalus on the freeway, headed for the Danville Concours. It was early in the morning, and practically no one else was on the road. According to Heil, a car came out of nowhere and “crossed five lanes of traffic to punt me in the back at speed and push me into the center divider. I was alive, but every panel was bent, the chassis damaged, the suspension torn off the car.”

The Daedalus got all new interior features that have many comforts including custom leather seats and wool carpeting, part of the rebuild. (Picture from: JournalClassicCar)

It didn't take long after the incident, Heil immediately started on the rebuild of the Daedalus, and took over five years more until now, but the car is finally finished again, only needing a cut and polish. Once finished, the Daedalus looks track ready with all new interior features that have many comforts including custom leather seats and wool carpeting, due to Heil used the accident to fix some things in the car he thought he could improve. The body lines have been refined, and the car has new gold headlamp bezels.

Meanwhile, its drivetrain still to use the 302-cubic-inch GMC straight six, coupled with a modern Tremec five-speed manual transmission. It’s running triple sidedraft Weber carburetors that ride on a manifold fabricated by Heil himself. Then to tame the car speed, it relied on the Wilwood disc brakes all around. 

The Daedalus is powered by the straight-six GMC engine, estimated could put out 280 to 300 horsepower. (Picture from: JournalClassicCar)

Then what about the Daedalus performance? To this day Heil doesn't know yet, but he wanted to ensure it could reach 100 mph smoothly without any complaints or threats to stability. He estimates the car's engine could put out 280 to 300 horsepower, which is plenty to get an aluminum-bodied car weighing just 2,650 lbs to run fast. But the zero to 60 time is up to the next owner.

Based on all of those mentioned above, we could be understood for presenting the Daedalus really requires extra patiences, moreover if the such car creation took up 16 years of your life? It's no wonder if Heil expresses all his feelings, as he said, “I’m tired of it, I’m done with the car. I built it twice.” For this reason, the Daedalus is also said to be sold immediately, at a price no matter how high it is that probably won’t account for 16 years of sweat equity. The money from the sale will be used to finance another Heil's projects that were previously put aside when Daedalus was built. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | THE DAEDALUS | JOURNALCLASSICCAR ]

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