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Cheap 1,000 HP


Geeesammy

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It is/was a Norwood car.

 

http://www.bobnorwood.com/Norwood%20Story.html

 

In the 90's nothing was bolt on for these cars and basically everything on it performance related is one off with nothing else like it. The turbo kit is one off, now a legit HKS TT setup for a Mk4 goes for damn near $10,000.

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Does anybody else feel like there is some great story associated with this car that we are not getting? Think about it, someone takes what's is basically a $1200 car in 1999 and pours buckets of money into it with a notable Ferrari, Porsche, turbo guru, makes 1000hp with it in a time when that was almost completely unheard of for a 6 cyl asian car. And leaves the rest of the car mostly stock. No slicks, no racing class mods, not even one of those fast and furious 5" auto meter tachs.

 

I bet that car has some interesting late night stories to tell if it could talk.

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Does anybody else feel like there is some great story associated with this car that we are not getting? Think about it, someone takes what's is basically a $1200 car in 1999 and pours buckets of money into it with a notable Ferrari, Porsche, turbo guru, makes 1000hp with it in a time when that was almost completely unheard of for a 6 cyl asian car. And leaves the rest of the car mostly stock. No slicks, no racing class mods, not even one of those fast and furious 5" auto meter tachs.

 

I bet that car has some interesting late night stories to tell if it could talk.

 

 

There's some very minor details in that thread:

http://www.supraforums.com/forum/showthread.php?394525-Project-Twin-turbo-7M-has-begun

 

 

 

That car would end up being a nightmare to sort

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It apparently too $100K to make it back then.

 

I hate to be "that guy" but it's really easy to spend that, esp over time. I had a buddy that used to race an 8 second honda. I once asked him how much he thought he had in the car and at the time and off the cuff he said about $120K. Of course that was over 6 years and included extensive work to the chassis as well and repairs after breakages (it ate 2 liberty transmissions a season), but it didn't take into account his labor rate. Speed costs.

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like imagine if you saved that, you could own a brand new z06 outright and have enough left over for some bolt ons and a tune.

 

And if your drove it with some gusto you would wear parts out and break things and spend $$$ over the years.

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why in the hell would anyone put $120k in a Honda? blows my mind... like imagine if you saved that, you could own a brand new z06 outright and have enough left over for some bolt ons and a tune.

 

To go 8 seconds in the 1/4 in a time when there were fewer people with fast FWD sport compacts than had walked on the moon. If you break it down that's $20,000 a year in cost of car to go racing, which is cheap when compared to some more serious pro or amateur classes running similar numbers.

 

here is a pic of the car right before it ran 9.39 @ 162.53mph in 2011 at Raceway park.

http://www.grs-motorsports.net/fotos/jeandsm/etown/111002/ht/67.jpg

 

he sold the car in 2014 and bought a 10.5 tire fox body stang. He's running about the same numbers with that car but at approx half the cost, but he's not anywhere near the top of his class like he was with the honda.

 

At the time he was an A&P for several different airlines, he's now a manager at Jet Blue. From his "spending" with the civic he learned a lot about turbo plumbing and now he has a decent side business tig welding turbo setups for cars that don't have kits available. I always kid him that he spend probably about as much on that car as I have on my undergraduate education and the experience makes him more money than my English degree ever did.

 

So why would someone spend $120K on a honda? right time right place and because racing.

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why in the hell would anyone put $120k in a Honda? blows my mind... like imagine if you saved that, you could own a brand new z06 outright and have enough left over for some bolt ons and a tune.

 

No matter what brand it is, few people get a vehicle and plan to invest as much as they do. Once your balls deep into a project, your only choice is to throw in the towel and lose your ass without any payoff, or keep spending and hopefully achieve your goals.

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When I see cars like this that were once a very high end build, I wonder at what point did it go to shit. I'm sure pretty much every piece of the build is now very outdated, but if it had just been maintained it'd still be a nice period piece making a lot of power. Did it sit in storage and get forgotten, or just get passed around and beat on once it became "affordable"? I'm guessing paint for the bumper just wasn't part of the $100k budget for the build.
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Keep in mind (to Miller's point especially) that when these cars were being developed to hit new time/speed goals, they were innovating for their niche. That's always going to be expensive.

 

I look at HOT ROD Magazine on a monthly basis and they have a page dedicated to that same month's issue 20yrs/40yrs ago...it's funny how hot-rodders couldn't make 300hp on a street small-block chevy for less than $4k+ (adjusted for inflation). Now, you can get a 300+hp LS motor that gets 20+ MPGs and is 50k+miles reliable from a junkyard.

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