The New Project

I think my interest in Cafe-Racers has diminished, I have never been much of a two-wheel guy. Don't get me wrong I loved riding my bikes with my dad and there is the fact that I have been riding a bicycle since I was three(thats without training wheels). But you can ask any of my friends or family members that my true passion has and always will be cars. I love learning about them, I love looking at them and I love driving them. There is a funny thing about driving them though, I actually havent driven that many great cars. I have however driven so many trucks that I cant really count and so few cars that the last car I drove on a regular basis was a Vauxhall Corsa while on my mission to the south of London. It was an English made car that makes the Toyota Eco look big. It had a 1.0 Liter, 3 cyclinder engine, it is front wheel drive and just plain rubbish. That car contained everything I hate about cars. I am truly ashamed to say this but that car was so much fun to drive! Funny how things work out huh? But it truly was no sports car.

I havent ever been a person to buy a sports car or even a car, due to the fact that if I need to drive a car everyday my demands actually require a Truck. Hence the reason I have a 2007 Toyota Tacoma. It has a 3 inch lift, and beautiful black HD rims with gorgeous BF Goodwrench A/T tires. I know that sometimes I complain that I dont like my truck anymore and that I would like to sell it to buy something different, but I really wouldnt. My needs arent even close to making my truck obsolete.

I really need to remedy this situation. One day last week I was wasting time watching American Muscle Car on NetFlicks. It was an Episode about The Judge, a super unique Pontiac GTO. For some odd strange reason it triggered a memory in my head. Back when I was 15 I became obsessed with kitcars. Imitation highend, unique, cars built on frames of much less expensive frames of other cars. There was a certain car, it was a Pontiac Fiero with a one of a kind body placed on it. Well I became obsessed, I looked at the very few pictures on the website and had to have it. $13,000 didnt seem like too big of a price tag for a one of a kind car for a very hopeful teenager. Well my Dad decided that it was not meant to be for a new driver(well technically new). Instead he bought me a 1967 Ford Mustang(dont ask me how that works, cause I really dont know) I loved that car, unfortunately I only got to drive it for one very short year. My dad and I ripped that beautiful piece of machinery apart down to bare metal and  for the next two years while restoring the mustang I drove so many different trucks that I really can tell you what is better between a Dodge and a Chevy. But no cars, except for a month stint in a Geo Prism(Pile of CRAP!!!). Two years on a mission and only six months of that was in a car. Not enough seat time for a Car Nut like me. I came home from the beautiful U.K. with a new appreciation, I have discovered that Supercars were the new toys to have, not Muscle Cars. Muscle cars were for fat blokes named Hubert from Texas and that Supercars and Sports cars were the new sophisticated toys.

Being fresh off my mission I didn't have anything to drive except the newly restored, not quiet tuned Mustang. I am not going to lie to you, I loved it, even though the steering takes a Worlds Strongest Man competitor to turn the wheels and the engine is in horrid shape. The carb doesn't work properly, it leaks like a 13 year old girl watching the Notebook, the transmission feels like the shifter is going to come out of your hand and the the damn thing is so huge. But it didn't have any problem taking down any of the economy sports cars that have been recently released. There is only one problem with that car. It isn't mine, my dad has claimed it as his own. He had a mustang when he was 16 and well he loves my mustanf a whole lot more than I do. I liked it better when it was old, busted and rusted.

So I have wanted something of my own for the last two years. I toyed with the idea of cars for racing. A tuned up Subaru Impreza, thought about it and well they just suck. They are weak and the motors are so crap that unless you turbo them you might as well be driving a Dodge Caravan. Also there is the issue that it was made for tree hugging hippies so they can drive up the dirt roads and go for a little walk around a hillside to make them think they are connecting with nature. Attention to Subaru lovers, they weren't the first to do four-wheel drive cars and I dont care how long you say they last, if you take care of the damn thing any car will last over 200,000 miles. So that idea was shot down because I am not a miracle worker and I am not made of money. Next I toyed with the idea of entering a Mazda MX-5 Miata series at Miller Motorsports Park. All they allow you do to the car to enter the series is a MazdaSpeed kit. So it wouldn't cost me a fortune, but at the end of the day it is a gay mans sports car. So what to do? Well I gave up for a long time, thats where the motorcycle/cafe racer idea came in. I love my projects what can I say? Well some tinkering around after watching that fateful episode, I started to search through websites and ebay looking at my favorite base for a project car.....A Pontiac Fiero! Ok, ok I know a lot of people dont think its a pretty car and well I will agree, its not. But its a mid-engine car thats small and its got a lot of lovers out there with great parts. So a 1988 Pontiac Fiero GT is going to be my base vehicle.

So the real reason I started to imagine a project car was not because of my pure love for this car. After reading Wikipedia information on it I actually thought it was quite rubbish. All in all my research told me that the '88 was the best car to upgrade. It has a more sophisticated rear suspension than any of the other years, a true tri-link suspension. It also recieved several upgrades with brakes and other suspension goodies like A-arms. Those last two didn't matter to me. I would eventually replace them with much better products. So what inspired me was a the first link on Google when I typed "Custom Fiero". A random unexpected name "V8 Archie Fino" came up in the image results. I fell in love immediatly, it had supercar style, Lotus styling, and it would be a constant tuner which is what I needed. So here is what it looks like!

This is a full body kit. It replaces every single body pannel with the exception of the roof. I plan to paint it gloss black with a few hints of Ferrari red. The only place I have decided is the lugnuts and a single spoke on each of my six spoked racing rims.  The next thing I will do, assuming at that point I have quite a bit of money to burn on my project is to take out the weak 2.8 Liter V6, 140 horsepower, 160 Ft/lbs of torque. I plan to replace it with, no not the very popular LS1 V8 out of a Corvette, I want to put a lightweight 3.8 Liter, 240 hp, 280 Ft/lbs of torque supercharged V6 out of a Pontiac Grand Prix. I plan to match it up to the Pontiac G6 6 speed manual transmission.

There are a lot of other things but big brakes, coil-over suspension, a complete motor overhaul, Corbuea seats, the V8 Archie dash kit and power steering.

And last of all..........Lambo doors!!!!

Just Kidding, I probably wont do that, Its a bit gaudy and wants to be a super car too much. I want to just have a fast car thats fun to drive. I will let you know how it turns out.