Duncan Smith

Email: duncan@mightybot.com
Town & State: Vancouver, BC
Web Site: http://www.kitcentral.com

Type of car: Diablo Roadster
Body: 1998 IFG Phantom Roadster SE
Chassis: Stretched Fiero with tubular suspension and support frame
Engine: GM ZZ4 SBC crate motor
Transmission: Undecided, Audi looks favourable
Starting Date: March, 1998
Projected Finished Date: The next pass of Halley's Comet
Influences: A friend asking me if I would rather own a Hummer or have a vehicle that looked like a Hummer (back when I was in my Hummer phase). This friend was asked to build a Cobra kit for someone. If he did, his compensation would be a free Cobra kit of his own. While flippig through the Kit Car magazine that he showed me, I noticed every other page was Cobra-this or Cobra-that. Then I came across an IFG ad featuring their new Roadster and I said "If you're going to build something, build something like THIS!". Two weeks later I was sold on the idea, and planning the parts.

Occupation: software architect. I build the mission-critical application framework and complex business logic for healthcare and banking institutions.

Let's see, I was an infanteer in the Canadian Army, a hardware support manager for a multinational electronics retailer, and a software developer with a number of large projects.

I've always had a crush on the Countach. Ever since I saw it for the first time as a kid in Cannonball Run. From that point forward I'd dream of driving around in one of those carbeurated works of art. When I saw the Diablo I figured the Countach dream was over. After all, the North American version of the Countach is a bit uglier than the European one. Being somewhat of a pragmatist, I gave up on the dream but never on the attraction. When I started to build my kit I was preparing my wallet for the biggest expenses (body, suspension, engine, etc).

I was committed to the project in March 98 when we rolled a stripped Fiero onto it's side in the driveway (they're pretty light) and welded the IFG crossmember to the bottom. Unfortunately, soon afterwards, my father passed away from complications due to cancer treatment and my kit budget became a family support budget. I've never really picked up since then, so my kit sits idle in a garage as a quiet reminder of better times. Someday though.

I started the Diablo Support Centre as a complimentary site to Dale's invaluable Lambo Builder site. At first it had an IFG slant, but became applicable to any Diablo kit simply by changing the name. I figured it would attract a dozen or so people. It now registers 28,000 hits a month and features over 600 members.

For hobbies, I include the administration of KitCentral, amateur psychiatry (jk), and some pro-bono programming for non-profit organizations.

Duncan has a great web site (click on his logo to visit his web site)

This site is a great site for kit car information, this site is a site you must look through if you are interested in building a Diablo. It has a forum that other builders write in with there questions & problems (and of course it has the answers), and has some great builder diary to view there progress - thanks Duncan