Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Ok. But I'd say the same still applies. Surely your builder knows what he is building and to what tolerances and limitations? As a punter, I'd go to a engine builder and say for example: "I want a 3.6 with an aim for reliable 400hp. I'm not so bothered about low end torque as I'll be using it on a circuit so I want to be able to work the engine hard to get the power out of it so it needs a safe, but high redline. What can you build me?"

The commercial offering isn’t (planned) to be like that - it’s a build to spec where you provide your engine on an exchange basis, and you get back either a 3.7 or a 3.9.

If you got a track special built you’d likely be ok with a total rev cut and if you slot second rather than fourth you’d expect the engine to be wrecked.

Not so much a fast road car engine- or at least that’s what we think.

The engine designer is asking us what additional margin we should add, basically.

I spent hours and hours trying to decide what to do with the headlamps and decided to cough up the money and find a pair of original pop ups, none of the other style lights suit the look i'm going for unfortunately. A pair of originals cost me close to a grand all in, not cheap but from my research I got the cheapest running/driving totally rust free chrome bumper vette on the planet so well worth spending the money on making it look nice. This pic shows the look im aiming for, but with the BBS wheels which i'm contemplating refurbing back to gold as they were new.

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and the wheels which were custom ordered by BF Goodrich bitd for development of a particular famous tire (the name of which i've forgotten) in a 5x120.6 GM specific pattern. Magnesium centres, stupidly light apparently.

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@Dazaa this is wild.

How much for the car and how much to import it?!

Car was around £7500, shes rough but rock solid with absolutely no rust whatsoever. Shipping £2500, I spent another 4 or 5k on parts which are hopefully being shipped inside it.Wheels cost me around £1500 all in but I won't know for sure till they arrive and I'm hit with the customs bill.
Initial budget was 20, I don't see it happening for that since a good paintjob will be 4/5k, the entire interior needs to be replaced and i'm very tempted by a decent coilover suspension kit and rack and pinion steering conversion. This is also my first (drivable) car since passing my test 5 years ago

This is very good indeed! I like the coil over/ rack and pinion idea, it would be a fantastic car if it had some decent handling! Plans for paint and interior?

Sounds liok a plan.

Will say my 2p tho.

Prefer the splits currently on it.

:^)

I like the brake cookers too

70s v8s on 8” centrelines have stoked many a teenage stiffy

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Uuuuphhhhhhh! Thats proper straya!

Monaro GTS?

I’d have sawn my own head off with a frozen poo for an orange hq gts when I was 17

You would've killed yourself... Two of Lori's mates ran their first Commodore SSs into trees, they both walked away from their crashes...

Crashing a Commodore is basically a right of passage.

Yeh from what i've heard the stock steering is atrocious, found a really good deal on the suspension and steering parts too.
Paint, i'm torn between blue or black, blue being a factory colour and black never offered on the c3.
Interior still not sure, i've bought a new black carpet set, potentially Corbeu bucket seats, black leather trim with red stitching over the dash and all the tacky plastic

They don't do it for me unfortunately...

Ha!

i wouldn't put them on a vette, either.

A crazy old Italian mate of mine had a black one (and a Camaro and a Harley Sportster in his living room), he lived in a little cottage terrace on the New Kings Road... He used to take me out in it, it was an amazing sensation when he dropped the clutch and the front of the car reared up and you could only see the bonnet out of the windscreen... Brilliant car, even more fun than my other mate's '66 Mustang, which I absolutely adored...

Enrico made his money selling crap leather jackets to Bros, amongst others... Vince took Mick Jones's spot in The Clash, he'd minicab his Ford Granada in the spring and summer, then garage the Mustang, rent his flat out and live like a king in Goa for the rest of the year... Great life...

Boring car buying question: Is there any reason that a private seller is preferable to a trade seller? or vice versa? (2nd hand, nothing exotic, cheap car type purchase)

And is Auto Trader generally the best option?

cor thats a nice one, i've spent hours and hours researching c3's online but never seen that picture. I must say, nobody has done BBS wheels on an American car (mainly because you'd have to custom order them in 5x120.6) so i'm not entirely sure how they will look. Would have prefered if they were 17's, fill the arches better with lower profile tires, will defo be doing white tire lettering to pay homage to the old school GY Eagles.

I think the older cars need the balloon tyres, lower profile stuff doesn't look right.

Cobra's need 6" of sidewall, for e.g.

A lot of people will pay a premium to buy from trade, particularly a reputable dealer, as they have a reputation to withhold, and may also throw in a warranty, not to say that there aren't plenty of disreputable dealers out there, but a quick google normally shows them up. Buying privately you have to probably do more of your own due diligence, HPI etc. getting it checked over by a friendly mechanic.

Cheers!

absolutely mental work dude. all kinds of awesome. look forward to seeing you get it back to blighty and up and running.

and though you weren't polling for opinion about colour I would go blue over black every time.

will be sweet as either way