I originally started my quest for sports car
supremacy/performance before I even had a license. My
father and I built my first Porsche 924 engine when I was
16. We did a fairly good job, THE SECOND TIME AROUND.
Apparently my dad was new to Porsches and he didn't know
that in 1976 Euro and 1977 US the 924 used two different
main bearings. The second time around he got it right.
Guess he should have used a little plastigage to check
clearance. He was in a rush.
Two Porsche's and six
years later, I found my upgrade from my then 1978 924.
A 944S 87 model that was sitting at a Import Auto
Repair Shop. It was gorgeous, it had the special
"S" rims that only appeared on one other model
that Porsches made, the 928's. It had ABS, Full Leather
Electric Sports seats, factory alarm, electric sun roof,
cruise control, power steering... the list goes on and
on.... The only thing it didn't have... a working
motor. The previous owner busted a timing belt and
bent 8 of the 16 valves. I talked to the shop owner,
and he told me, that the kid who owned the car was screwed,
because his dad bought it for him, but he couldn't come up
with the $3k it was going to cost for repairs, and the dad
was pissed. So that's where I stepped in, and bought
the car as-is and took it home 2-3 weeks later. I was SOOO in love with the car, that the
minute it showed up to my house, WITH BLOWN MOTOR, I
immediately washed it, waxed it, Armoraled it and called all
my friends over to see it. EVERYONE loved it... and they
ALL wanted rides... problem was, and I had to tell each one
of them... the motor was busted. Well it didn't take
me long to get up the rest of the money I had to rebuild
that 188hp 16 valve 4 banger. And I did all the work
myself, with few parts going out for actual machining,
except for the head (replaced all 16 valves) and block
to get it honed. And I was done.. (It took like 3 months
to get it done right..) Damn did I feel like the man. I gave
everyone of those friends of mine a ride, and they ALL loved
it. All except one....this one guy... well he just
liked it... I'll explain that in a minute..
Well I
took it with me to college that following year, and I used
it to talk to the ladies, impress the frat boys, and piss
off the cops. Well.. one fateful day, I made a mistake
that would change the life of this car..... I put it up
against a 5.0 Mustang. Anyone care to venture how I
faired ?? I got my BUTT kicked. I was pissed.
Why ?? Why did I lose, my car looks better, handles better,
and has 188hp ?? How could he win so bad ?? two
characters... V8.
I
then asked my VERY good friend (he was the guy who just
"liked" the car when I first got it running) at
the time... "hey.. how come you can KICK a Mustangs ass
and I can't ??" His answer ... 3 numbers.... 350.
He told me that his S10 blazer that could destroy Mustangs
and beat Corvettes by a small margin, had a V8 350CI motor
that he and his dad put in. One year later, I was
fed up with losing... I thought Mustangs were bad, guess how
I felt when a Vette would kill me ?? I thought to
myself.. "Lets do it !!". I then began an
exhaustive search of how, who, when, where and how much it
would it cost to do all this. I found 2 companies. Renegade Hybrids using Chevy V6/V8 conversion and another
guy who was doing Buick V6 conversions. The Buick V6
guy eventually went out of business, and also gave me
indications that he was looking to do so when I first called
him. That left Renegade Hybrids, at the time owner was
"Andy". Andy was
a hell of a nice guy, but let me tell you, he didn't know
shit about doing a "bolt-in conversion" like he
claimed on his website, videos and phone conversations.
I bought his kit, at the total cost of $4176 including ALL
pieces SUPPOSEDLY necessary to getting the car STREET
WORTHY. The parts in this kit were far from that. Now
Renegade
Hybrids is under a new owner!
My original "Bolt-in" took an entire summer to
complete. I worked with a fellow Porsche lover, also a
Engineering Student at University of North Carolina, and we
BUILT this conversion the WAY IT SHOULD have been from
the start. Andy (originally owner of Renegade Hybrids)
was against doing things right, IF it required welding.
He felt that the average John Doe, didn't know how to weld,
and didn't want or have at their deposal welding equipment.
Well, I gave him MANY solutions to his FLAWED design, and
everyone of them, he answered with "Yeah, that sounds
great, probably will work better then what I designed, but I
cant do that in my kit, because the average guy doesn't have
a welder". Instead Andy liked to use words like "Wallerring
out", "OBLONGING holes", "cock-eye'ing
angels", and everything else short of duck tape
(although that may have been a suggestion of his at one time or
another). Well we did it right. I had my first
"muscle machine", 305ci and it ran like a top...
well as far as I knew... Well I took it to the
street, and I LAUGHED at the Mustangs, and I Beat the
Corvettes by a little, and I THOUGHT.. I could beat my
buddies 350 s10 blazer. Well, I took him for a ride in
my car, and he said "Its better". I could
have killed him, I said "Get in your s10, and we'll see
how much BETTER I kick your ass." Guess what...
it was a stale-mate. I couldn't beat him, he couldn't
beat me. I didn't do all this to TIE.. hell no !!
I began the fight for power again. I asked everyone
where I COULD get a a 350.. and I found one.. and I bought
it... then one day, I stop buy a muffler shop (another good
friend of mine owned it) and I told him, I am going to have
you build me ANOTHER custom exhaust, this time, to work on a
350.... He told me.. Hell if your going to do a 350 over
your 305, why not do a 400 ??? A FOUR HUNDRED ??? Your
kidding me ?? Such a motor exists ?? I was a PORSCHE
guy, not a Chevy guy, I thought 350 was the biggest small
block you could get. NOT only did he know for SURE
they had such a beast... HE HAD ONE !! Two hours later.. I
had one... I bought his off of him. Well now that I
already CONVERTED the Porsche to accept Chevy V8's I had NO
problem putting this 400 in after I had it rebuilt.
Needless to say, I WON !! TO THIS DAY, not a single STREET
legal car has EVER beaten this MONSTER.
Most recently,
I converted the 400 into a RACE READY 377 Cubic Inch NITROUS
monster, with a MOTOR ALONE horsepower rating of 500 and
with the 250hp nitrous kit, total 750hp. It will
produce 900 ft lbs of torque with the nitrous! This new
layout has less then 3,000 miles on it, and I have NOT used
the nitrous yet, because I HAVE NOT taken it to the drag
strip. The car can currently BURN 1st and 2nd gear off
the line, or while your moving, simply by giving the car
full throttle. Then it you throw it into 3rd gear
during rapid acceleration, it will "kick you
sideways" and burn the tires in 3rd. You tell me
where you would EVER be able to use the nitrous system on
this monster ??? ONLY AT THE DRAG STRIP. The project
is done. I CAN'T be beat on the street! Sure guys with
HUGE race budgets can beat me at the DRAG STRIP, but they
CAN'T see me on the street, I always win on the street, even
against my buddies NEW Z06... GET THAT CRAP OUTTA HERE...
Viper ?? OWN 'EM. They cant beat me either. To
show HOW serious I am about the cars performance, the
WINNING bidder can take $1000 off his FINAL winning bid
IF HE CAN BRING me a car that is street legal and the car
beat me. I WON'T even use my nitrous system, no need to, the
car that can beat this doesn't exist. The motor alone
in this car makes over 500hp and cost roughly $10,000 to
build (parts and labor).