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Our New Old Car : : September 9, 2010 |
| Well, this past weekend (4/8/05-4/10/05) was a bit of a whirlwind. We drove our Saturn SC2 to Buffalo for Holly to borrow this summer, flew out to Colorado and drove home a new old car. It is a 1991 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 (1 year older than my current 3000GT). To find out why I would sell my 1992 to get this 1991, read on. First, the bad: this car is in need of some TLC... it needs some mechanical work, a little body work and quite a bit of cleaning up on the interior. Next, the good: the car has 90K less miles than my 1992 and it is one of 4 known custom 3000GT targa-top (removable hard top) cars in the world. Yes, only 4 in the world. Well, 5 if you include the HSX (3000GT concept car) that appeared in "City Hunter." I'll post more pics of the interior as I get things done but for now you'll just have to enjoy the exterior. Additionally, this car has a "99 conversion" done on it. This means that the body has been converted to the new style from the old. New bumpers, new lights, new hood, and new sideskirts. How this was done... This car belonged to a member of 3SI who went by the screenname DustinP. He did all the custom body work on the car himself with the help of friends. I believe a relative of his owns a car dealership so he was able to use their resources when working on the car. Reinforcement: All pillars were reinforced with cold-rolled steel plate. The interior of the floorpan had 4 inch steel c-channel welded in parallel to the length of the car and steel plate was welded laterally at the front and rear of the floorpan. Beneath the car, two trapezoidal frames made of square steel tubing were welded on either side of the exhaust/driveshaft channel and tied together with steel plate used as tension straps. This prevents flex sideways and front-to-back with the roof removed. The rear roof section had a custom piece welded in to it to reinforce and provide the roof with an attachment point. Spyder Parts: The 3000GT Spyder is essentially the convertible version of this car, however, it was only available in limited quantities in certain years (not available in 1991). In my opinion, this targa-top mod uses the best ideas of the Spyder to give a roofless car which holds truer to the original sleek design of the 3000GT than the Spyder did. The windshield frame was removed and replaced with one from a Spyder. The removable roof section is actually the fiberglass section of a Spyder roof. These are quite expensive and very difficult to obtain so here's hoping mine never gets stolen! Body Mods: The front turn signals, front bumper, rear bumper and sideskirts are from a 1999 3000GT. The headlights and spoiler are from a 1998 3000GT. The hood is a second-generation 3000GT hood with a custom heat-removal scoop built into the rear center of the hood (directly above the upper intake manifold) and two intake scoops fiberglassed into cut-outs in the strut cover bumps. The wheels are 18" Moda R6's. Interior Mods: Off-white custom interior color with new black carpeting. Custom white leather trim panels (upper and lower door, center console sides, etc) are coming soon. Also soon to be installed is my Pioneer removable faceplate stereo and MB Quart speakers. Hopefully, a 4-point roll bar is in my near future. Mechanical Mods: Installed: Tein S-Tech Lowering Springs, EGR Block-off, Stillen Downpipe, Powerslot Rotors, Hawk HKS Pads, JoeP MBC, K&N FIPK. Coming Soon: Spec Stage II Clutch, Lightweight Aluminum Flywheel (Fidanza), 450cc Injectors, SAFC, Walbro 255lph Fuel Pump & Hotwire Kit, Lightweight Underdrive Pulley, 15G Front Turbo(?) |