I'm very seriously contemplating purchasing a $4000+ turbo kit for a $1500 car. Yay or nay?
I'm very seriously contemplating purchasing a $4000+ turbo kit for a $1500 car. Yay or nay?
I would have to ask, WHY, when you could probably piece something together for much, much less.
Depends on the $1500 car
Do what is going to make you happy. I put $2000 worth of suspension pieces in a $3000 car. No regrets.
I once put $8500 into a $1500 car. At the end it was an 11 second car that I ran for another 65K miles so every penny was well spent.
But why would be my question...I understand the 'simplicity' of not having to piece together a bunch of parts but if you could save $1k or more, why the hell not.
For example, there's a procharger kit for the BMW N52; the only actual kit AFAIK. $4,700. Outside of their "special tune" and possibly the bracket, chances are you can find everything else for much, much cheaper. It just won't be as quick and easy as clicking 'Add to Cart' and taking out your credit card.
In reply to TheRX7Project :
Because I work 6 days a week. Because proven kit. Because warranty on all parts. It is a bit steep but It can reasonably be done in a weekend (what's that?) or two with no fab work.
It is a very familiar 2005 focus (I owned it for 4 years), been in the family since. A bit rough around the edges, but solid and quite low miles (130k IIRC). ZX3. 5 spd. None options. Weighs like 2500# and is tons of fun.
In reply to barefootskater :
Then yes. I understand the predicament of time V money.
Plus, count me in on the Focus train, there's a reason I've owned 5 and will probably own another again before too long. One of mine was an '01 stripper ZX3, and I had a blast with that car.
I am debating $2000 in wheels and tires for a $4000 car so I can win $5 trophies.
#autocross life
Price of the car is irrelevant.
barefootskater said:I'm very seriously contemplating purchasing a $4000+ turbo kit for a $1500 car. Yay or nay?
Same thoughts here but I started at $2500. Watching!
Eh, the kits were $4k when the cars were $10k. The cars getting cheaper doesn't make the kits less valuable.
codrus said:Price of the car is irrelevant.
Quoted for truth.
I bought a car for $1500. Put somewhere around $6500 or so in it, I didn't really keep track. And in the end when it was time to sell it on I looked at it and asked myself how much it was worth. I figured $1800 is about what I would pay for it so that's what I sold it for.
Nick Comstock said:codrus said:Price of the car is irrelevant.
Quoted for truth.
I bought a car for $1500. Put somewhere around $6500 or so in it, I didn't really keep track. And in the end when it was time to sell it on I looked at it and asked myself how much it was worth. I figured $1800 is about what I would pay for it so that's what I sold it for.
Double quoted for truth. My wife has suggested I sell one of my projects and sink the money into the other. Problem is, I'd never get what I have into them- or even close- out of them, so I'll just keep sinking money into both of them.
FuzzWuzzy said:But why would be my question...I understand the 'simplicity' of not having to piece together a bunch of parts but if you could save $1k or more, why the hell not.
For example, there's a procharger kit for the BMW N52; the only actual kit AFAIK. $4,700. Outside of their "special tune" and possibly the bracket, chances are you can find everything else for much, much cheaper. It just won't be as quick and easy as clicking 'Add to Cart' and taking out your credit card.
Unless you're buying inferior parts, it's typically not cheaper.
codrus said:Price of the car is irrelevant.
Yep. I'm doing some math and investigation right now but I'm looking at dropping ~$7000 on a $1500 car that I paid $1600 to have shipped in an enclosed trailer all the way across the country. If it's what you want and you intend on keeping it for a while the price you paid is irrelevant.
mazdeuce - Seth said:Eh, the kits were $4k when the cars were $10k. The cars getting cheaper doesn't make the kits less valuable.
That is the most sensible bit of enabling I've ever heard. Damn.
Relevant to my interests of an $8k VF eng supercharger kit for an $8k B7 S4 avant.......
mazdeuce - Seth said:Eh, the kits were $4k when the cars were $10k. The cars getting cheaper doesn't make the kits less valuable.
I seem to recall Keith having a similar discussion with callers almost daily.
I put about $8000 into an engine and supercharger to drop it in a Miata I paid $3900 for
Sometimes time is a factor. You are paying more for someone else to make all the mistakes for you. You pay extra for that time the kit makers invested. People that say, "I can do it cheaper," rarely add up the time they would spend engineering, fabricating, tuning, etc...
This is GRM... So why not buy 2.5 more $1500 cars? Or 6.66 $600 cars? Maybe a couple of cars and a bus?
With a nod to Archie Bunker: Would it make you feel better if you paid $10,000 for the car and then put another $4,000 into it?
I just committed to buy a $300 pair of shocks for a $500 car that hasn’t even made it into my garage yet & needs the engine/trans installed before I can drive it & see what else it needs.
Appleseed said:Sometimes time is a factor. You are paying more for someone else to make all the mistakes for you. You pay extra for that time the kit makers invested. People that say, "I can do it cheaper," rarely add up the time they would spend engineering, fabricating, tuning, etc...
QFT.
For the record, I have put a turbo on a non-turbo car, just for fun. So I fully understand snowballing costs, wasted material, trial and error, redesigning, etc... I think it cost about 4x what I initially thought and that was using a chinese turbo and modding the carb myself (don't worry, I had installed a wideband and it actually was tuned and ran pretty well). That experience was great and of course I could do it cheaper and faster the next time. That being said, I have zero experience tuning EFI, and there are no tuners in my town to help me out either, so that part of it would be the biggest drawback for me as far as vehicle down time, potential for destruction and driveability.
Thanks for all the responses though. You folks are a very helpful bunch of enablers, and I love you for it. Now the problem becomes getting my mom into another car (currently my parents own the focus and are sitting on several car projects that need to be made road worthy) before I can bring the little Ford back home with me.
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