3 Rotor FB build - "Silvie II"

[ducktape]

Almost 10 years have passed since I traded a Racing Beat exhaust for a dented '85 GSL-SE with 140k on the clock. From day one, it was a street-legal track slut. All of the money went under the hood, with almost no consideration for aesthetics given. I slapped a black hood on it to ironically emulate the look of a friend's beater 12a car. He called his "Silvie", and so I named mine "Silvie II". We took them to autocrosses, street car challenges, the drag strip and even to Rotary Revolution. Our favorite jag was to "bump" the each other occasionally, and watch the reactions of horrified Solo II competitors or passengers.

Over the years, it would go from being powered by a tired stock 13b N/A, to a 300hp t04 boosted 13bT, to finally a 450hp REW big-single. Chris Ludwig of Ludwig Motorsports put so much time into building and tuning this car he never had time to build his own. I think he enjoyed it almost as much as I did. All the while, the suspension and brakes were refined while bits of the interior cracked apart and the paint and trim deteriorated. I didn't care what it looked like; as long as it was fast.

When the REW popped on the track at in '08, I bought a D-code Cosmo front clip and set to the task of trying to swap it in. It was beyond my abilities, and once again Chris Ludwig stepped in and rescued the project from abandonment. I had begun trying to build a 12a-powered SandRail, and was seriously considering selling all the parts I had amassed over the years. Chris installed an FC subframe and mounted the motor in the chassis,and began building the wiring harness for the new motor. Just as the project got rolling I lost my job of 7 years and for nearly 8 months the car sat covered in his driveway. I haven't so much as touched the car since '09.

Last week I towed it back to my shop and tried to figure out what to do with the rusting carcass of a race car that had monopolized my 20's. I sat in the garage a long time just staring at it... I figure it needs at least $3k in new parts, and probably 6 months of labor to return it to running condition. Ignoring the body work is no longer an option. The easy way out would be to just run the 20b N/A, something I could probably accomplish with what I've got on the shelf.

I thumbed through all the receipts and photos from previous builds, and was genuinely shocked at all we'd done. Ford rear-end: $3500, NHRA cage: $1500, Haltech Platinum ECU: $1600, Fuel-pump and related parts: $900. The timeslips and dyno graphs showed how it had matured over the years, and the pictures of the gleaming engine-bay in an otherwise clapped-out car made me nostalgic. "After all that" I thought to myself, "Why stop now?". This car has always been special to me, and I wouldn't be happy driving it around half-assed (any longer).

So I've decided to restore the car from bumper to bumper, and finish the turbo 20b. Watch this thread to see me rebuild my dream.