What we’re building
Since it first turned a wheel in anger, the Chevrolet Corvette has remained America’s true sports car, and was destined to become an undisputed icon of American Road Racing. For more than 5 decades, this car has delivered its drivers to the Winners Circle more often than any other American design. With that pedigree, it is only fitting that the Corvette was chosen by RaceKraft&Design as the ideal platform to develop an adapted race car for the mobility impaired driver.
Craig Rehabilitation Hospital in Englewood, Colorado, is a world leader in spinal cord injury rehabilitation hospital and research center. Patients come from all over the world benefit from the progressive research and rehabilitative techniques at Craig Hospital to gain restored mobility and function. As the “driving force” at Craig Hospital, neurosurgeon Dr. Scott Falci makes much of this small miracle possible by pushing forward the science and practice of mobility restoration from neurologic injury. All Craig patients are inevitably faced with one of the greatest challenges of their lives, each going through the personal journey of self-questioning, eventual reinvigoration and empowerment. It is with this in mind that Dr Scott Falci, cofounder of Falci Adaptive Motorsports reached out to RaceKraft & Design to demonstrate the true power of the Human Spirit, and what it can accomplish when confronted with adversity.
Enter Mike Bauer, an SCCA racer with an inextinguishable passion for motorsports who was injured in a fateful motorcycle accident several years ago, and is now paraplegic. He has been a patient of Craig Hospital now for many years and views the return to motorsports as the penultimate goal of his neurologic recovery. The indelible spirit of Mr. Bauer has served as an inspiration to the constructors of RaceKraft & Design to conceive, design, and build a C5 series Corvette with hand controls and special ingress/egress capabilities for the mobility impaired driver. Our goal is to provide Falci Motorsports with a fully race ready Corvette that Mr. Bauer can use to demonstrate the capabilities of a mobility impaired driver, bringing this ferocious beast to the very edge of its performance envelope. At the same time, the car can provide a lucky passenger with the thrill of their life, and can accommodate a mobility impaired passenger as well.
The process of designing and building such a unique vehicle has been anything but straightforward. Unique control systems for throttle, braking , and gear selection, for a street vehicle have been adapted to the demanding environment of road racing. Compared to a “traditional build”, the challenges of building a mobility impaired machine are many, and the project marches on with continued engineering challenges. We look forward to this car hitting the race circuits of North America in many different exhibition capacities. . . Follow the adventure along with us!
