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So this car has been my daily driver and occasional weekend project for 4 years.
I'm married now, so the car has to go... *insert typical joke about getting married and selling a muscle car*
To keep the long story short, I picked up this car from a guy who races Porsche cup cars on the weekends; back in the mid `90's his buddies had asked him to build an American race car... the first iteration of the car is what came of that endeavor. It had started its life out as a "C" code inline 6 with an auto in Poppy Red. Carl stripped the car down to bare metal and went ground up on it.
The end result was a stout 347 stroker mated to a Tremec TKO 5 speed with a Currie 9" rear. The car then drove a total of 400 miles over 20 some odd years (yup, that's actually accurate). Eventually Carl was offered a great price on a cup car that he didn't want to pass up; so he liquidated some assets. I found it on Craigslist and not more than a week later I brought a cashiers check and some cash.
Over the last 4 years, I've gone ahead and had the car repainted (20 year old paint sucks). Went with the then current Wimbledon White but added Guardsman Blue stripes done with a proper color sand to get the surface smooth as glass. Rebuilt the interior and added creature comforts like LED lighting and a dome light.
More recently (about 1.5 years ago, and 8k miles) I had the entire engine torn down and built up by a shop in Las Vegas. At the time I added a new harmonic balancer; had the crankshaft balanced, lightweight flywheel and new clutch. A few months ago, went and swapped the drive shaft with a 4" aluminum unit and had the rear end rebuilt with a Detroit Locker. Around the same time had new tires and alignment done.
Inside you'll find no stereo, no AC, racing buckets from Recarro with 4 point harness's attached to a roll hoop.
Underneath, she runs full length headers into an X pipe feeding into Flowmaster Super 80's piped into a custom side exhaust outlet; aside from cross braces and custom low clearance subframe connectors.
Total weight of the car is mid 2900's and the dyno from the build back in `94 had her putting down around 325hp at the wheels. I would imagine that's been a bit outdone with the more recent rebuild and better exhaust setup (shorties were on there initially) but have yet to dyno the car.
As for the drive? It's perfect. Smooth through all RPM's up to around 95 mph; a bit of shifter chatter at that point but you'll likely never be driving that fast on something that isn't a track. I've taken her on 700+ mile roadtrips over the years and she's been a great companion to many adventures. Gonna suck letting this one go.
What's left...?
Oh yeah, in the interest of adding lightness; from the windshield forward... everything is Carbon Fiber. Hood, fenders and front valence are all Maier made CF pieces that cost a hell of a lot more now than they did 4 years ago but it was well worth it cause Racecar. The side scoops are also functional (yes I cut a 3" hole into the body of a car- terrifying experience).
I can have the car delivered just about anywhere in Southern California either by driving it or getting it towed in a trailer if you prefer. Alternative delivery methods are at the mercy of the buyer...
One last thing! Carl was really good about keeping documentation on the car; and I kept that trait going. I have a stack almost 2" tall of every important receipt (and some not so important- Bolts: $8.53); all together I've put in around 20k after purchasing the car, refreshing it's track worthiness but making it a car you can go take to Costco as well.
Here's a quick run down on the numbers (and yes- a receipt accompanies each figure below [some older figures are adjust for inflation since 1994]):
Original engine build: $10,800
Seats $2,700
Rims: $2,000
Brakes, suspension and drivetrain: $8,000
Transmission: $4,000
Repaint: $9,000
Carbon Fiber body panels: $2,500
Custom exhaust: $2,700
Engine rebuild and new parts: $7,000
Drive shaft: $500
Rebuilt rear end: $1,600
New tires: $500
...that's over $51k and doesn't even cover the cost of the original shell.
All together, if you were to build something like this from the ground up you'd be looking at around 70k and 6 months of time. Unfortunately, something is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it- so it goes.
In conclusion, I'll say that this car is just about as good as it gets when dealing with a 50 year old car. The car gets looks everywhere I go; and there are few things better than driving it down the highway around sunset. Best of luck to everyone; maybe some day I'll build another in "Thunder's" honor. Cheers. |
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