Just watched my 5.0 drive away with its new owner, and although it may be surprising to some people, it hurt when I saw it leave. I thought it would be painless.
Bought her in sad, sad shape in 2003 when I was 15 for $1200, sight unseen. She was a 1988 GT hatchback, Oxford white with Scarlet (Porno) Red interior. AOD, 2.73s, not much else. It looked like she had a rough history; defensive driving class papers in it, tickets, and a good deal of rust.
Fixed her up nice with all new panels and paint, and test drove it on a slippery road with a 50 mph speed limit in the middle of winter when I still had a learners' permit. On that first drive, the hood latch failed and destroyed my freshly painted, brand new hood, windshield and roof. So it began.
Drove it to high school and back everyday when I was 16. Boy was I king of the parking lot. That summer, I bought 3.73 gears to wake it up, and they did just that. My dad also bought a red '87 GT convertible for $1100. That was going to be the replacement. A gorgeous red GT convert at 16? What could be better? Well, as hard as I tried, I could never let my hatch go. We sold the red convertible for $12000 last week; it was my dad's project.
Then the transmission started slipping. The previous owner probably did a few too many 1D1 shuffles, and I was the one to pay for it. Might as well make it fun. In went the Ford Racing wide ratio kit (only cost me $100!!!), 2200 RPM stall converter, and a wicked valve body. She went.
Turbines suck, so I put on a set of 5 lug, 18x9 Cobra R's in gunmetal. Wrapped them in Nitto NT555 235/40ZR18 tires and went with it. Those set me back around $1000, but she looked cool. At the same time I put on a set of Steeda upper & lower control arms (the good ones that run around $700 for a set of 4). Now she had traction.
Then I thought performance wasn't sufficient, so I bought a pair of chrome Bassani equal-length headers (for $125!), a Bassani stainless catless X-pipe (for $167) and a Cobra intake (for $193!). Gave her a few more ponies. Then came the supercharger. A nice ProCharger P600B, with 30# injectors and 80mm mass air meter. Paid $1100, shipped. I swapped to mass air for this, and it ran like ****. Around this time I paid $850 for a pair of Twisted Wedge heads, but the seller decided to not send them, and keep my money! Well, off came the injectors and mass air conversion, and parted out the car.
Then I added a 3000 RPM stall converter and 275/50R15 ET Streets. Now she could REALLY launch.
I took it to the track last September for the first time. Put on my ET Streets and she gave all she could. She went 14.39 @ 92.01 MPH, with a 1.9768 60'. Not bad for a first timer.
After not being able to sell the car for awhile, I thought might as well try again. So I bought a Turbo Technology Inc. turbo setup for a good price. Being in college, I couldn't afford to piece it all together, or even keep the car, so it had to go. That turbo setup just made 412whp, and 500+ ft. lbs of torque on another car.
The new owner is still skeptical, but he gave me $4500 for a car that needed some rust attention. Every year it just sat in storage, developing rust on the quarter panels that I got sick of fixing. I drove it twice this year. He's a body man, so I'm sure she'll be gorgeous again.
From all the bucks spent maintaining my baby, all the fun I had street racing with it, having the coolest car at my school, even though I took a major loss on this car, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat. I turn 20 next month, and I guess this is my goodbye to my teenage years. Thanks for reading.
Bought her in sad, sad shape in 2003 when I was 15 for $1200, sight unseen. She was a 1988 GT hatchback, Oxford white with Scarlet (Porno) Red interior. AOD, 2.73s, not much else. It looked like she had a rough history; defensive driving class papers in it, tickets, and a good deal of rust.
Fixed her up nice with all new panels and paint, and test drove it on a slippery road with a 50 mph speed limit in the middle of winter when I still had a learners' permit. On that first drive, the hood latch failed and destroyed my freshly painted, brand new hood, windshield and roof. So it began.
Drove it to high school and back everyday when I was 16. Boy was I king of the parking lot. That summer, I bought 3.73 gears to wake it up, and they did just that. My dad also bought a red '87 GT convertible for $1100. That was going to be the replacement. A gorgeous red GT convert at 16? What could be better? Well, as hard as I tried, I could never let my hatch go. We sold the red convertible for $12000 last week; it was my dad's project.
Then the transmission started slipping. The previous owner probably did a few too many 1D1 shuffles, and I was the one to pay for it. Might as well make it fun. In went the Ford Racing wide ratio kit (only cost me $100!!!), 2200 RPM stall converter, and a wicked valve body. She went.
Turbines suck, so I put on a set of 5 lug, 18x9 Cobra R's in gunmetal. Wrapped them in Nitto NT555 235/40ZR18 tires and went with it. Those set me back around $1000, but she looked cool. At the same time I put on a set of Steeda upper & lower control arms (the good ones that run around $700 for a set of 4). Now she had traction.
Then I thought performance wasn't sufficient, so I bought a pair of chrome Bassani equal-length headers (for $125!), a Bassani stainless catless X-pipe (for $167) and a Cobra intake (for $193!). Gave her a few more ponies. Then came the supercharger. A nice ProCharger P600B, with 30# injectors and 80mm mass air meter. Paid $1100, shipped. I swapped to mass air for this, and it ran like ****. Around this time I paid $850 for a pair of Twisted Wedge heads, but the seller decided to not send them, and keep my money! Well, off came the injectors and mass air conversion, and parted out the car.
Then I added a 3000 RPM stall converter and 275/50R15 ET Streets. Now she could REALLY launch.
I took it to the track last September for the first time. Put on my ET Streets and she gave all she could. She went 14.39 @ 92.01 MPH, with a 1.9768 60'. Not bad for a first timer.
After not being able to sell the car for awhile, I thought might as well try again. So I bought a Turbo Technology Inc. turbo setup for a good price. Being in college, I couldn't afford to piece it all together, or even keep the car, so it had to go. That turbo setup just made 412whp, and 500+ ft. lbs of torque on another car.
The new owner is still skeptical, but he gave me $4500 for a car that needed some rust attention. Every year it just sat in storage, developing rust on the quarter panels that I got sick of fixing. I drove it twice this year. He's a body man, so I'm sure she'll be gorgeous again.
From all the bucks spent maintaining my baby, all the fun I had street racing with it, having the coolest car at my school, even though I took a major loss on this car, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat. I turn 20 next month, and I guess this is my goodbye to my teenage years. Thanks for reading.
