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This car was a legend in our circle back 15-20 years ago. My close friend “The Limit” picked it up for 16k and put another 30k into the Greddy T78 single turbo setup, tuning, and a mazda refurb motor. He has been building his family, building his dreams, and has finally agreed to let me take ownership and save this icon.
Some updates on the plans. This car has a long road ahead, probably 2 years for initial build. It can become very expensive as this will be soup to nuts, so it will he staged. Some refinement of the build will come later on. My focus is towards body restoration, but not all my attention. A highly reputable paint and body shop in my area has agreed to take the car. I am currently on the list and waiting up to 18 months for that. I am dropping the tranny (synchro springs are atleast toast) and it is going to JO Motorsports. I have yet to comp test the motor. It may end up in my kitchen, taken apart, and mildly street ported. I will reuse the Greddy FMIC and Fluidyne radiator for now. Apexi is coming out. T 78 coming out. Chasis parts coming off for powder coat. Full interior strip. New Super pro bushings. New Stop Tech brakes. Coilovers. Under carriage strip and rerubberized. KBD 99 spec bumper. Inner fenders coated with SEM. Car goes to paint. Turbosource has put a nice setup together for me, goal 400 whp. EFR8374, Haltech 1500 with terminated harness, haltech coils, new injectors, new rails, Radium surge tank, dual 460s, and running the Greddy Ti exhaust. Big oil cooler on one side, big steering cooler on the other. New molded carpets, may do black conversion. Seats and interior will be phase 2 but something will be in there. I probably missed a bunch, but like I said it is a lot. A true RESTO-mod.
Looks like you have a project on your hands. Cool to see the old school turbo kit that was the go-to back in the day for 90s Japanese Cars. I think the biggest hurdle you may run into with this build is sourcing the interior if you decide to convert to black. It's getting harder to find these pieces and more expensive by the day. It's nice to see people still bringing these back to life rather than parting them out.
A labor of love for sure. And yes, my aspirations for factory look were gung ho at the beginning. Now it is a later stage of the build. Gone in 60k is accurate, and it will change to 70k when I hit that final finish stage. I was even hesitant about the 99 spec bumper, at first, but, as we know, it is kind of essential.
Looks like you've got your work cut out for you, best of luck, I had to dig deep to find parts to do my build several years ago, it is bound to be even tougher now. Am I understanding correctly, Someone spent $46k to get this car into its current state?
Engine out! I have a hundred little projects going on right now. Rebuilding the calipers, crazy bead blasting parts, cleaning abs, throttle body, interior…but this is a milestone! And a kitchen rebuild…. a dream come true.lol
Looks like you've got your work cut out for you, best of luck, I had to dig deep to find parts to do my build several years ago, it is bound to be even tougher now. Am I understanding correctly, Someone spent $46k to get this car into its current state?
sorry I overlooked your question before. At one point, 2003-2008 ish, the car had a new mazda refurb motor, the greddy t-78 kit, apexi pfc, all installed and tuned. The car was all original and looked solid. Then it got drove through some shrubs, cracked the bumper, and eventually parked in a field. I always hoped my friend would sell it to me and let me bring it back.
Time to get rocking on this body. Siebon is saving me some time on the hood! Pic from the assembly a couple months back. Close to where the engine is now. Just received the oil pan brace, time to install.
This build is really inspirational to me, I can't wait to see where you take this car! Mines in similar condition so it's fun to see what you do with it. Sub'd.
Are you going to be selling the old Greddy single setup? Shoot me a DM if so!
10-19-23, 07:54 AM
