Further show business details were added to the Corvair's basically drab engine room. Since the air-cooled pancake-six was low mileage, no rebuilding was required, but any external part that could be removed was triple-plated and highly polished by American Plating Company, while the aluminum parts were buffed to a dazzling luster that could momentarily blind you. As the Forcasta project progressed to a finished status, Paul Matz trimmed out the four-place, space-age cockpit, and the aerodynamic exterior was covered in ten coats of hand-rubbed grape lacquer. Designed to be an all-around show car, a crowd pleaser, the car received a few more gimmicks. As Starbird recalls, "The Forcasta was equipped with a wireless remote control, a modified unit that was used for flying model aircraft. The car could be started up and the bubble raised and lowered without having to be close to the car. That always excited the spectators and really drew them over to the car. The neat thing about the remote control was you could carry it in your pocket so it couldn't be seen."
Starbird also comments on his choice of automobile to serve as the Forcasta's foundation. "Back in 1961-62, the Corvair hadn't been given the bad rap yet and was really considered a technical innovation, but I had the guys puzzled with the engine. They couldn't believe that after I had put a Hemi in the Predicta, here was the Forcasta with the little flat-six."
Darryl took the fabulous dream custom on the show circuit for the first months of its existence, winning awards just as the Predicta had, including the Sweepstakes Champion at the Oakland Roadster Show. At the end of that time period, Starbird turned the keys and remote control for the experimental custom over to Chuck Miller, who took it back to Columbus, Ohio. "Chuck showed the Forcasta back East some, then I lost track of it," recalls Darryl. "He sold the car later on, and the new owner changed it. Then, another new owner changed the Forcasta even more. The last time I saw the car, the handbuilt seats, pedals, and all the time-consuming parts were gone, and the bubble was halved. It would take a lot of time and effort to restore the Forcasta back to its original condition. I'm thinking about building a clone in a few years when I get a few projects at the shop finished. I'd rather start with a nice Corvair that has a solid floor and use new metal instead of saving the overworked original body. That would make it last another 40 or 50 years into the future."
You can bet the farm that when the new Forcasta is built, it won't be "face-lifted" by a new owner someday. The king of the bubbletops keeps his creations housed in the climate-controlled Starbird Hall of Fame, where they are preserved for-what else?-the future.