This month our very own Red Sleeper tells the story of how he aquired his original 89 Colt turbo. It's also one of the very few All Wheel Drive swaps on this forum. Here is the story:
My Colt Story
It started my junior year in high school. I've had a handful of turbo DSM's by then, and I had just received an awesome deal on a 6bolt long block. I was looking for my next chassis to put it in.
One of my good buddies mentioned a Colt, that was the start of it all. Someone in my class had a 90 Colt E for sale, but he couldn’t get it running right. He had sold the intake pipe off of
it and it ran like shit. I paid $200 for it, did a tune up, added the intake back and BAM, it ran great. I bought turbo axles, mounts, and all the other goodies to swap it. I ended up trading it for a non running 89 original turbo Mirage, it was a flood victim. I cleaned the car inside and out, had it looking VERY nice, put in the 2.0, stock turbo transmission, FMIC, and a 16g. I almost had it all put together when the person I bought it from called and said he could not get the title. So, after a month of busting my ass, I ended up parting it out. Someone (bitaddicted) drove down from Michigan and gave me $100 for all the turbo goodies, wheels, spoiler, brakes, lip kit, cluster, even the mounts.
That was the end of my CSM story, or was it?
A few years went by; I built a few other cars. I built a 91 AWD Talon that was a low 12 second car. One day I was working, thinking about my past cars. I got that wild hair up my ass to get another turbo Colt. So, I went back to 4g61t.org and looked to see if there were any for sale.
What do you know a black 89 original turbo Colt popped up. It just so happened to be 150 miles away for $2100. That was it, I had to have it. At this point in time, I had $100 to my name. I called the seller and he gave me all the information about the car. It was black, decent paint, 14b, SMIC, 450s, JDM 1.6. I told him I would most likely take it and that I would call him back on Friday to let him know what was going on. I decided to part my AWD Talon out. Somehow, someway I ended up coming up with $2000 in 5 days. I sold everything I could to get this car.
I drove down that Saturday to pick it up.
In May of 2006, he pulled into the parking lot, and I saw my first glance of it. I looked it over, had him start it, handed him 2k, grabbed the title, and left. I didn’t even test drive it. It turned out the car was on 20PSI and fuel cutting. I lowered it to 16PSI and we were golden. I had the car for 2 days and put on a BR afpr, Walbro 255, FMIC, suspension 16g, and 550's. This was still on the 1.6. The best I could get on this setup was 13.7 @ 114. Well, I got an amazing deal on another 2.0. Stock 90 6bolt with 140k, I drove 3 hours to get it. $150 later, the Colt had a new heart. It was bigger, better and much faster. I had it back on the road in 2 days. It was a blast to drive, I was eating Mustangs for breakfast and c5 Vette’s for dinner. The car was starting to get scary to drive. It spun to roughly 90mph on street tires and 70 with my drag radials. The season had come and gone by this time.
November of 2006 was here and it was time for a turbo upgrade. I bought a GT3071R and took it to the shop I was working at to put it on. At this time, I worked with someone who picked up a 95 Civic hatch super cheap and wanted to AWD 4g63 swap it for shits and giggles. We had the swap all figured out. I ended up telling him it was a bad idea, and not to waste such a clean car. A week later I decided the Colt was going to be an AWD colt. I told him, he laughed and said good luck. A few days later I put it on jack stands and I started cutting. Once I cut the rear floor out, my stomach dropped. Thoughts of me just ruining a turbo car ran through my head. What if I couldn’t finish it? What if I couldn’t figure certain things out? What if I bit off more than I could chew? It was either finish it or send it to the junk yard. I couldn’t send my pride and joy to the junk yard. During the build I had so many people expecting me to fail. "It'll never run again, send it to the junker," I can’t tell you how many times I heard those words. It was enough to push me harder. A few months went by, I got a bit burned out on working on it, literally. I caught myself and the car on fire multiple times. I even ruined a perfect set of rear turbo seats.
It sat for a few weeks, and then back to work it was. I can’t tell you how many days, weeks and hours I have in this thing. Not to mention blood, sweat, and money. I ended up up-grading a lot over that winter, a lot more than I thought I would. Some weeks went by, more money was spent. I finished it up early March of 2007. Sometime between when I started to March, I traded my GT3071R for a slightly used GT3582R. When I took the car out for the first time I took it easy………….
Took it easy? No, I’m just kidding, I beat the crap out of it. It was insane! I had never felt a car pull like this one. The car felt absolutely ridiculous. By May, I finally had all the kinks worked out, it was time to take it to the track. It was a turd. All I could muster was a 12.8 @ 114 on 17psi. I was not happy and even put the car up for sale. I soon learned that the throttle was only opening 3/4 of the way. I fixed the throttle, put on a built head with cams, and went back to the track. The first pass was a 12.1 @ 120. I was determined to break 11’s by the end of the day. The 2nd pass was an 11.90 @ 120 with a slow shift into 2nd. I knew I could get lower into the 11's. On the third pass, I broke the transmission, but the entire pass was WAY better than the previous one. In the 1/8th, the MPH was higher by a few MPH. I put in a new transmission in July and went back to the track in August. I couldn’t get the car to trap over 117mph. I had just installed an intake pipe the week before, so I pulled that off thinking it could be the problem. To my surprise, the compressor wheel on my turbo was trashed. I pulled the turbo off the next week to send it out and get it fixed. Upon removal, I pulled both the compressor housing and the turbine housing off. After pulling them off I saw that the turbine wheel was also trashed; I had just wasted a $1000 turbo. To this day, I have NO clue what happened to the turbine wheel. It may have been like that when I bought it, since I bought it used.
So, today, the car is still running strong, even on a trashed turbo. The turbo still makes 30psi and pulls like a raped ape, but I don’t think the turbo is making near the power it should on that PSI. The season has just started back up and the car will be at the track A LOT this year. A new turbo will be going on within the next month or so, along with a handful of other mods I have in the garage.
Thanks for taking the time to read about my car and for awarding me Ride of The Month.
Thanks to everyone on 4g61t.org for all their help and support throughout my project. My girlfriend, Amy, has also helped me out a ton during this entire process. I cannot thank her enough. Also, thanks to my friends for the help and support. Lastly, thanks to Raceline Fine Tuned out of Cincinnati, Ohio for giving me the AWD parts car and allowing me to use the shop for a few months. I cannot thank you guys enough.
Mods:
Stock 6bolt short block
ported head
1mm OS valves
BC springs/retainers
BC 280 cams
JMF SMIM
DSMlink
Walbro 255
FIC 1000cc injectors
BR AFPR
-6 feed from the tank
Summit racing fuel filter.
GM MAFT W/3.5'' MAF
Large 2g fmic 24x12x4.5''
3'' iC pipes.
Tail BOV
ARP head studs
OEM HG
4'' intake pipe
Stock oil cooler
Magnus heat barrier gasket.
N/A throttle body
Eprom ECU
ACT2600
welded Center diff/
EvoIII trans with US ring/pinon
AEM wideband
3'' full exhaust, magnaflow muffler.
GT3582R blown up.
Chinabay manifold.
Gvr4 front brake upgrade
Falken Azenis
Rays, Gram lights 57c
I know there are a few more mods I am forgetting.
) in this car but the end result is well worth it. I'm also partial to black Colt's for some reason.
VERY nice ride. I need a bucket under the pc for my drool! If you ever come anywhere near the east coast, i wanna see 