This pony got into my lasso

Now I know what Christmas in July feels like. Past Friday, I came home and found this in my driveway.

So I ran to get the keys and my wife pulled out the camera. Hopefully her Facebook update would not be too embracing for me. :)
 
Frankly, it was not easy to find this. One would wonder how hard is it to buy a car? Well, in this case money is everything. If you've got cash in your hands and the sticker price is not a problem, it is easy. In my case, I had a check list to meet: 99-04 years, 89 octane, manual transmission, low km (around 100k km or less), some mods are good but no crazy power mods (remember my octane limit) and ,of course, in good condition. Oh, did I say I want to spend as little as possible ($3000 that is). Believe it or not, just the technical requirements put a lot of cars of limits. The only ones left were GTs and Bullitts. Bullitts don't count too. They are way too rare. So I was left with the most generic mass produced V8 mustang. What could be the problem then? Apparently, even though mustangs are very common on the roads, there aren't that many V8s running about. Out of those, too, we have even fewer with a stick shift. Guess what comes next, those who have a V8 mustang with a manual transmission seems to be knowledgeable chaps and value their cars. The fact that I did not have many bills in my hands did not help either. Thus, the search for donor turned into a lengthy affair.

I also have to contradict a couple of my statements in previous post. I did end up getting a car of Impact Auto. That is from Canada. In my defense, that was the second mustang that popped up in half a year. In the States, I saw one sell about each week. The main reason for not landing an American car was the shipping costs. I had to lower my bid to stay within my budget for the entire purchase. Keep in mind that at every auction I had to compete with people who live in the same area and are willing to go extra few bucks since they have no shipping expanses to worry about. Now that I come to think of it, that's one of the reason I was able to get this car. It was in Hamilton. Thanks to Ways Auto for delivering the car and helping me with the entire process.

Now to the more interesting facts. I did see the car for the first time when the money have left my pocket already. That means there were surprises, both good and bad. For example, I saw Magnaflow engraved on exhaust tips. :) But two wheels had damage and one tire was punctured. :( Oh well, I bet there's more  surprises to discover. For instance, I wonder who makes blue springs for Mustangs?

So we are off to strip parts and try to recover some of the donor cost back. Anybody needs body and interior part?

Canadians must be crazy

The most important step is to start with a good foundation. I was looking for a donor car for a few month now. I have been monitoring the used car sales, private listings on Kijiji as well as local Mustang club. One thing was obvious. Good stuff does not cost cheap. So I turned my attention to auctions selling off cars after collisions. Now the prices were in my comfort zone. I was recommended to look into Copart. And frankly that's where I spent a lot of time. However, not that may cars were in Canada. I mainly was looking at the near by US states. I saw a 2001 Cobra sell for about $3500 and a Mach 1 for $1500. My expectations were that Mustang GT would cost me about a $1000 give or take. I have been recommended a business that can buy and deliver the car for me. The obvious advise I got is to look near by and not as far as US. Mustangs are very common and I should be able to buy one locally and save a lot on shipping. Thus, my new search place is Impact Auto. It did not take me long to find the car I want. The night before auction I dropped off my deposit and was waiting for the results.

In the morning I was 200% confident that by next Friday I would have a Mustang in my garage. But I was missing a small detail: Canadians don't value their own money. The auction began and almost in seconds the price went over my maximum $2000 mark. In the end, US car imported into Canada and with a front collision in nondrivable condition sold for $3350. Did I mention that SVT Cobra sold for that much in US? Well, a normal response would be: "but you get cheaper shipping". True, I would have saved about $500 on shipping but it still does not justify another $1500.

The bottom line is this, we are looking at the US manufactured car sold in two neighboring countries where the currency is at almost the same value. The laws allow for US sold cars to be imported and registered in Canada. In fact, we have a free trade agreement that allows for US manufactured goods enter Canada with out duties. There are some paper work and associated fees but they are not excessive by any standards.

Moreover, this Canadian willingness to overpay stands true for new cars too. For instance, 2013 Boss 302 is starting from $48,799 in Toronto and after 1.5 hour drive, $42,200 in Buffalo. That's about $7000 just for getting speedometer to show kilometer numbers bigger than miles.

Yesterday was supposed to be a great leap forward for my project. However, it was a day of realization of a sad fact. Once again I find myself looking over the border.

Getting to it, sort of

Well we have the idea, let's get to it. Based on the info I gathered around Factory Five website, Western Canada Cobras and various forums, I was not crazy. It is actually possible to import the car kit into Canada. Build it at home and then register with Ontario. After putting all the rules and regulations readings behind me I was set to find the source of power to propel this project forward: a Ford V8. This task should be easy and straight forward to some but not me. Remember I drive a Subaru, DIS, EFI, DOHC are all very dear to me. Now, if you don't know any of those things you are probably not following me. On the other hand, if you are familiar with them you are definitively not clear. So I'll leave it open for now. The choices are 302 small block, 4.6 modular or Ford Racing gems in crates. Well after some excessive drooling and cost calculation, I've decided that 4.6 modular is the motor for me. I do like my electronic toys (that's all those acronyms) and Anna is not giving up on stressing that the power is not nearly as important as fuel efficiency. 4.6L motor is all of that and is probably less rusty since it comes from more modern Mustangs. Once the prey was identified it was just a mater of a couple of clicks and I was striking a deal on a 2002 Mustang GT. The deal went sour in the end. I was devastated. I came to a sad realization that I don't have a garage to build the car in. I called all of my friends and relatives but nobody would surrender their garage to my Mustang with a minor accident damage. Worry not, I have my second half to support me in exactly such tough times. She, having extensive education, has applied her analytically thinking and spotted the problem: no garage. In the next few weeks we bought this

There was a house in front of this and that meant we had to sell our condo and move. It was the necessary evil. I could not proceed without the garage. With the garage, I need be constantly reminded that the house is my first priority. None the less, I was happier than any kid on Christmas once everything was said and done.

Let's start

Just a short intro. Lets skim over the boring stuff.

• I like cars
• I like working with my hands
• I like WRC (it's a motor sport :))
• I drive a Subaru. 

The story:
 Once up on a time i met a girl. Her name is Anna. She did not drive. After many years of constant encouragement from me, she still does not drive. At one time I even promised to give her a MINI cooper if she gets the license. No luck. The shocking answer i got "I don't like that car". What girl does not like MINIs? Since I obviously could not pick a car for her I asked what she would like. Here's the answer: "something pretty". I wasn't getting very far with that driver license issue so i gave up. This resurfaced later when i was admiring this car

It's the legendary Caterham 7 from http://www.caterham.co.uk. Unexpectedly, Anna shared my passion by proposing to build a kit car. Yes, IT WAS HER IDEA. There was a small speed bump however. She graphically described her passionate repulsion to the car above. And you would have to take my word here, it was graphic, descriptive and very detail oriented monolog diminishing every aspect of that car. So what do i do? Standard move: throw my arms up and "Oh yeah, you pick then".  Here's the list http://www.kitcarlist.com/. A couple of days later she comes back with this

Now the interesting bit, she went as far as "I'd drive that". There we go! We finally found the car that she is willing to drive. At least, that's what i keep telling myself. Another one of those is that I will build these for a sole intention of her driving it. The source of the chosen kit is http://www.factoryfive.com.Now we have an idea to turn into reality. The project Cobra was born.