The 2g Spyder Project is still on hold. We'll come back to that some day.
Project Spare Parts was sold. While it was a fun project, it wasn't truly what I was looking in the long term being a 1G FWD 5-speed. While it was a quick and fun car to drive, it lacked some comforts and opportunities I just wouldn't find from that specific car.
My preference for DSMs is in the 2g body and AWD. While I appreciate a nice manual transmission, I find the automatics to be more street friendly.
Years ago a fellow DSMer came to my garage to offer a hand in removing / installing the transmissions in my 2g Spyder. Given that I was swapping that car to an automatic, he inquired as to why and made mention of an AWD automatic 2g DSM his Aunt owned, which had been parked for a number of years. He fell out of the scene and never acquired the car, but being good friends with another local DSMer, connections were made and the car finally made it's way back into the limelight this spring. It was sold to a guy I regularly bought parts off of for Project Spare Parts.
The car was nearly bone stock; to a point I don't believe there were ANY modifications done to my recollection. The new owner's plan was to put the car back into commission after fixing the relatively easy reason it was parked - a blown intercooler coupler.
After some tinkering, he had the car running and briefly sold it to his non-enthusiast neighbor. The neighbor lost interest over a month or two before the car ever left the property, so the transaction was reverted without any title work ever taking place.
Now back in the hands of what would be the previous owner, he wanted it to be a stout yet streetable automatic car, but his cam selection and otherwise stockiness wasn't allowing for the 16G he'd now installed to build appreciable pressure for quality launches. After some back and forth, I offered to buy the car from him if he wasn't able to make it perform to his liking. No amount of tuning was going to make the car launch as hoped for on an otherwise factory 7-bolt and automatic transmission with a 16g and 280 cams.
I left the previous owner to his devices and listed Project Spare Parts for sale. At this point a GVR4 came on the market and the 2g was no longer of interest to the previous owner. If I could just sell Project Spare Parts, the dominoes would start to fall and many cars in the area would change hands quickly.
As luck would have it, I had an interested party within a week or so. A few nights of back and forth over beers, we settled on a price and the [Diamond] stars aligned.
The sale was finalized just before the 2016 Shootout in August, which was perfect because I could source a lot of parts for cheap. It wasn't until after the Shootout that we'd collect the car and bring it home. Despite it's semi-drivable condition, the car was decommissioned sometime in 2007 or 2008 as the State Inspection sticker and LOF sticker suggest. I wanted the car to be turned back to [near] stock and would allow the previous to keep a number of parts he'd installed such as his 280 cams, injectors and Link. I opted to leave the 16G on the car and didn't throw objection at leaving the BC springs and retainers under the stock cams. There was also no reason to remove the head studs that were installed along with a new head gasket by the previous owner.
So, I have in my possession a pretty raw 1995 Eagle Talon TSi, AWD, Auto car that is essentially stock after ~110,000 miles. It was a daily driver until it was parked nearly a decade ago and shows it's wear. Fluids, filters and the like all need addressed, but this is a great start to a restoration project that shall remain stock, for the most part.
Enter Project 2g Talon.
Project Spare Parts was sold. While it was a fun project, it wasn't truly what I was looking in the long term being a 1G FWD 5-speed. While it was a quick and fun car to drive, it lacked some comforts and opportunities I just wouldn't find from that specific car.
My preference for DSMs is in the 2g body and AWD. While I appreciate a nice manual transmission, I find the automatics to be more street friendly.
Years ago a fellow DSMer came to my garage to offer a hand in removing / installing the transmissions in my 2g Spyder. Given that I was swapping that car to an automatic, he inquired as to why and made mention of an AWD automatic 2g DSM his Aunt owned, which had been parked for a number of years. He fell out of the scene and never acquired the car, but being good friends with another local DSMer, connections were made and the car finally made it's way back into the limelight this spring. It was sold to a guy I regularly bought parts off of for Project Spare Parts.
The car was nearly bone stock; to a point I don't believe there were ANY modifications done to my recollection. The new owner's plan was to put the car back into commission after fixing the relatively easy reason it was parked - a blown intercooler coupler.
After some tinkering, he had the car running and briefly sold it to his non-enthusiast neighbor. The neighbor lost interest over a month or two before the car ever left the property, so the transaction was reverted without any title work ever taking place.
Now back in the hands of what would be the previous owner, he wanted it to be a stout yet streetable automatic car, but his cam selection and otherwise stockiness wasn't allowing for the 16G he'd now installed to build appreciable pressure for quality launches. After some back and forth, I offered to buy the car from him if he wasn't able to make it perform to his liking. No amount of tuning was going to make the car launch as hoped for on an otherwise factory 7-bolt and automatic transmission with a 16g and 280 cams.
I left the previous owner to his devices and listed Project Spare Parts for sale. At this point a GVR4 came on the market and the 2g was no longer of interest to the previous owner. If I could just sell Project Spare Parts, the dominoes would start to fall and many cars in the area would change hands quickly.
As luck would have it, I had an interested party within a week or so. A few nights of back and forth over beers, we settled on a price and the [Diamond] stars aligned.
The sale was finalized just before the 2016 Shootout in August, which was perfect because I could source a lot of parts for cheap. It wasn't until after the Shootout that we'd collect the car and bring it home. Despite it's semi-drivable condition, the car was decommissioned sometime in 2007 or 2008 as the State Inspection sticker and LOF sticker suggest. I wanted the car to be turned back to [near] stock and would allow the previous to keep a number of parts he'd installed such as his 280 cams, injectors and Link. I opted to leave the 16G on the car and didn't throw objection at leaving the BC springs and retainers under the stock cams. There was also no reason to remove the head studs that were installed along with a new head gasket by the previous owner.
So, I have in my possession a pretty raw 1995 Eagle Talon TSi, AWD, Auto car that is essentially stock after ~110,000 miles. It was a daily driver until it was parked nearly a decade ago and shows it's wear. Fluids, filters and the like all need addressed, but this is a great start to a restoration project that shall remain stock, for the most part.
Enter Project 2g Talon.