I am excited about my current project that my good friend Tony and I are building. Let me give some back story on this build:
It was about 15 years ago. I was working on my first car a silver 1986 200sx and my dad and I were restoring it. The 200sx had every thing I wanted in a first car: Pop up lights, 1980's styling, manual trans, rear wheel drive, sunroof and tail lights that looked like a rubik's cube. The 200sx was a rare car at that point and parts were pretty impossible to find. I was still living with my mom and dad at the time so my dad and I were on a parts run for the Nissan to one of the auto wreckers in the city about an hour from home. at one of the wreckers I came across a shell of something I had never seen before but loved the styling. It was mostly stripped out but half a badge was left along with faded paint so i could make out the text that said Celica. The car was a 1st gen Toyota celica either 1971 or 1972 as the gas filler was between the tail lights. So we got the parts we needed for the Nissan and went home. Over the next couple of weeks I thought a lot about buying the car from the wrecker. I finally worked up the courage to call the wrecker back and ask to buy the car. He said "You will never restore the car" and wold not sell it to me. Over the next ten years I kept my eye out for a Ta22 Celica till one day My dad called me. He said he had found one the next town over from me, about 20 min from where I lived. After a couple of trips to see the car and talks with the owner he agreed to sell me the 1972 celica. I started to strip the car down for a restoration. Then a guy I met at one of our autocross events with the Winnipeg Sports Car Club texts me a couple months after buying the 1972 about a 1973 celica in the local Kijiji for $150 bucks Canadian. The 1973 ended up being in better shape and became the restoration. The 1972 became the parts car that should have been sent to the crusher but, I can't kill a first gen no mater how rusted out it is.
So during the course of the 1973 restoration the 1972 sat quietly under a car cover outside my garage. I almost forgot it was there. Then last October my wife kids and I moved to a new place and it had a shop! Tony offered to help me move my cars to the new place. So now the parts car the 1972 celica was sitting uncovered in my new back yard and I started thinking about autocross and the 1972 on a budget. I Texted Tony and said we should build a cheap race car out of the parts car to go hoon around in. He said "sure as long as it has a v8". Tony is a Ford mechanic so that probably ment a Mustang v8. I Said "No problem I don't care what parts go on it as long as it is fast". The car sat a while and then he said I bought a wrecked 2015 mustang 2.3 ecoboost at auction, "I am going to put the motor into my fox body". After a while he decided it would be a great motor for our 1972 race car and so the project began.
So our goals for this project $4000 to $5000 CDN dollar build cost. Power 310hp(this is stock) to 400 hp, 550 if we end up going to Drag week. A weight goal of 1700-1800lbs. We are figuring this puts us into power to weight ratio of a 1st gen Dodge viper. So we are calling this project SC (Snake Charmer). The front suspension is 1990 Miata. The rear suspension is not decided on yet: either Miata or a solid 8.8 ford. The motor will be set 18 inches back with oil fill in the cowl vent.
I am posting updates for the build on my youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoyYP5fmRkgJLEAr8SSQyQQ?view_as=subscriber
The older videos are poor film quality but i finally got a new camera for part 6:
part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1XMEgRqf4A&index=2&list=PL2Fjf7o07Vlp6C1jB8CFL1E72bOL9n98l
Part 2:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGqEJyJ9vRE&list=PL2Fjf7o07Vlp6C1jB8CFL1E72bOL9n98l&index=1
Part 3:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkZWs2jm20c&index=3&list=PL2Fjf7o07Vlp6C1jB8CFL1E72bOL9n98l
Part 4:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVqqHoN99Dk&list=PL2Fjf7o07Vlp6C1jB8CFL1E72bOL9n98l&index=4
Part 5:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV15-DPKD4A&index=5&list=PL2Fjf7o07Vlp6C1jB8CFL1E72bOL9n98l
(new camera half way through) Part 6:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USgYRmB2DyE&list=PL2Fjf7o07Vlp6C1jB8CFL1E72bOL9n98l&index=6
part 7:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASfXAJKlGsg&index=7&list=PL2Fjf7o07Vlp6C1jB8CFL1E72bOL9n98l
part 8:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKn_TvLz--0
Part 9: comes out today at 4:30 Winnipeg Manitoba time (we will be fitting the ecoboost engine in set back under the fire wall 18 inches back from the oem celica location.