We sunk a total of $3707 into Michelle's donor car and it had four wins in 2008...

That will change, though, as it will be getting a new clutch and a few other upgrades soon.

Wow!

It helps a lot when you do the motor yourself!

What did you all do to the car?

Update: First mod:



Adds 20 H.P. - even without the motor!

One very nice side benefit of the new rules allowing the instrument cluster to be deleted is it greatly simplifies wiring. The motor harness is separate from the rest - it plugs in just in front of the fusebox on the later style cars. It looks like I can isolate & power that harness, and then just have a powered fuse block to run the ignition, fan, wipers & fuel. Then I can remove the whole rest of the loom under the dash, leaving just the brake light, & fuel pump/gauge wiring. No more sorting through wires seeing which ones go to the IC, no more cut/capped wires - just pull the loom! All this mess goes:





The plug for the motor harness can be seen in front of the fuse box in the second pic.

I came across an estate auction that had a ton of 944 parts - picked up a lot of the big & little things we need for the build

-Welmeister antisway bars front & rear - new in box! (missing front droplinks, though)
-Several sets of Cookie Cutter wheels ( car came with late offset 16's, that we sold)
-Setrab oil cooler
-Longacre switch panels
-Multiple ancillary gauges
-Weltmeister front A-arm busings
- Rear Torsion tube - assembled with Delrin bushings, and powdercoated black - a little undercar bling! I don't yet know what size torsion bar is in there yet, though - I'll have to pull it out & see.
-Used straight-through stainless steel muffler
-New clutch friction disk
-Quick Release steering wheel hub
-Spare fuel ralis
-Front of Motor reseal Kit
-Head gasket kit
-A few other items I can't remember now

Paid $1,650 for the lot - updated the original post.

Sterling Doc wrote:


Here's all we did to her car to get it track ready for 2008. Some of the parts were discounted through my contingencies from 2007, which definitely helped keep some costs down. I've got a detailed spreadsheet of the entire build, but here are the highlights:

Engine and transaxle prep: $205
* Timing & balance belts
* New shifter
* Tune up (engine & transaxle oil change, air filter, thermostat, couple of hoses, etc.)

Suspension, tires & brakes: $1508
* 26.8mm turbo bar (free from my #76 car)
* KLA front sway bar brace & delrin inner bushings
* 22mm rear Welt bar
* GC front coilovers w/350lb springs
* Used 28mm torsion bars
* Brake fluid change
* 15x7 phone dials from Craig's List
* Stock bushings, shocks, brake pads
* New Toyo R888's

Safety Equipment: $1507
* Hanksville Hotrods cage (discount via my 2007 Championship contingency.)
* G-Force 6-pt FIA harness & window net
* Right side net
* Battery cutoff switch
* Seat back brace
* Steel lug nuts, tow hooks, cage padding.

Everything else: $522
* Ultrashield Rally Sport seat
* Aftermarket steering wheel from eBay
* Oil pressure gauge (eBay)
* Motorcycle battery from WalMart
* Shift light (eBay)
* Xylene, black spray paint, etc.

Stuff sold from the donor car: -$35.00

Total investment into the donor car: $3707
(BTW, the donor car cost $2200)

This car ran surprisingly well at this level of preparation! We really concentrated on getting it down to weight and doing our best at a home alignment. Fortunately the car was in very good shape to start with; the suspension bushings were intact, the stock shocks were fairly new and the body looked quite presentable.

The turbo bar with delrin inner bushings & reinforcement braces is really a good way to go; that surprised me, actually. We found the biggest limitation to be the brakes; the pads were cheap and became unpredictable at high temps.

Over the winter we need to change rod bearings, the clutch and put some decent brakes on it. Also, we are upgrading the torsion bars to 30mm and will probably replace bushings while we're in there.

Oh, yeah- she also wants silver flames on the sides...

Sterling Doc wrote:


Holy crap. What an excellent find!!