Greg is building a Pre-A coupe…for me! The adventure has begun, first payment sent and most of the major decisions made. I don’t need to tell the regulars how helpful this forum and its members have been to the research process. I crawled all over the internet for a long time and found this place so helpful I had to become a supporting member. I also appreciate the way folks contribute, but don’t denigrate other’s choices. On so many forums threads devolve into a flame-wars over some inconsequential thing. That never happens here, it’s just good people sharing “the madness” as y’all say around here. You probably want details, so here you go!
The major points so far:
-200 Subaru generated ponies hooked up to…
-Rancho transaxle with limited slip, 3.88 r&p, with custom ratios
-IRS pan w/narrowed axles
-LED headlights and bulbs in brakes & signals, LED 3rd brake light hidden in eng. grill
-Beehives
-Heat/AC/defrost (Greg hides it in the coupes so it won’t ruin that lovely Pre-a dash)
-Roadster style seats in leather (love speedster seats, but wifey isn’t comfy in them)
-Hidden bluetooth receiver for tunes
-3 point seat belts (I know, tiny frail car, but easier to find my body come the worst)
-Outlaw style build, w/bumpers, but no exterior trim except mirrors (aero) and grill.
-No Porsche emblems
-Some cool little details Greg and I are cooking up
I’m still going around in circles on colors, but I’m getting really close to making a decision this weekend. I’m also waffling on wheels. The build sheet currently says Vintage 190’s in 5.5” but I keep thinking about the 16X6” Porsche space saver spare wheels and the greater tire choices that would give. I think that the suspension was designed with high aspect ratio tires in mind, and the sidewalls are part of the suspension. I also know it’s possible to over-tire a platform and make it steer like a truck. Part of the fun of these is the light steering and road-feel from the manual steering…but 200 horses, traction, etc. Feel free to chime in, gang.
A little about me: I’m not unfamiliar with madness of many forms. I used to race motorcycles back in the day and have even built a couple from scratch like a sound of singles racer using a TZ-250 Gp bike frame with a 700cc 4 stroke single grafted in, and an aluminum framed, air-cooled Ducati. The idea of this car has been floating in my head for decades. In another time I’d have taken on building it myself, but moving to the northwest from the east coast meant shedding lots of the tools collected over 40 years of tinkering. I miss them, but it was the right decision. As for cars, well, 5 or 6 air-cooled VW’s, a rusty 914, Saab 96, MG midget, dad's mini cooper (learned to drive in that one), Uncle Charlie's MGA, and a host of other crazy sh*t spread over 40 years. Thank god my wife has always had a Honda so there was at least one car that worked all the time.
And that’s it for now. The engine and transaxle have been ordered and I think we’re looking at 10-plus months on the build. I’ll keep this post live with updates as they happen. I also want to put in a word for Greg at Vintage Motorcars. He’s accessible, responsive, and knowledgable. He’s got a tough job interpreting and bringing other peoples dreams to reality. I spent some time owning a bicycle shop that specialized in building high-buck custom road bikes. I know how badly this can go wrong, but he consistently gets it right. All the good things I’ve heard about him here have rung true. I don’t expect that will change. He’s a mench.
Till later,
Michael