The Other Showroom: Current / Past Rides (Pt II)

If the van's a rockin' don't come a knockin!  

Ohh yeah... haha....love that color.

haha. "AMBRLRT"

Phew,me and my big mouth

It's about time u own a road warrior,Mopar "B"!!! 

Don't know about the Mopar B ,but I still love the color...haha...

Aside from the warped rotor she rides good. Not super good on gazoline tho.

Finally got some more pictures of this IROC I bought back in the spring.  Been working on it alot.  New plugs, oil, filters, exhaust, tore the top end apart and cleaned injectors, added a fuel pressure gauge and had to replace the in tank fuel pump.  Runs great now.  It's about to go to storage for the winter.  Then spring time I can work on the body and get it painted.  You can see the Riv in the background
 

Looks solid! My dad has a red IROC he bought new in '86. It sits next to the Riv in the garage pending restoration. It was stolen twice I think? And the interior is all cut apart. I want to start working on it with him soon so we can get it back on the road!

I always have loved the way the TPI systems look.

Thats cool. The original owner of the car. That sucks it's been stolen a couple of times. Glad he got it back. They are cool looking cars and I agree. I like the look of the TPI systems.

Stopped in Morgantown, WV on my drive back from NYC to pick up the car:

Will she burn rubber @ 60 like people say??Sharp.

I haven't turned off the TC yet - out of fear!  

AA wrote:

I haven't turned off the TC yet - out of fear!  

U happy dog!!!

AA wrote:

I haven't turned off the TC yet - out of fear!  

Dont worry buddy,you'll get used to the power soon enough...n then it'll be time for moar upgrades.Yer Riv's gonna get pissed at ya

Oh forgot to mention. My Riv isn't going anywhere, and will still be driven daily most of the year.

I don't think I'll be be modding the GTO much. The previous owner did a few bolt-ons, including Vararam intake, Kooks long-tube headers, full Magnaflow cat-back, Speed Inc. ported intake manifold, SLP tune. Guessing +50-ish HP over stock.

Wheels will still break loose with TC on, just not as much!

...Do some donutz then we'll talk

The damn seller put brand new Nitto 555s on. I can't bring myself to it!

I've been meaning to do this for awhile, but I wanted to create a new thread and show you guys a new car I purchased last summer. It's a 1992 Ford Taurus SHO.

Now, to start things off, I've always wanted one of these cars, especially a 5 speed. I have a soft spot for under-appreciated Ford performance cars, especially the SHOs. Instead of following the crowd and buying a Fox, SN-95, or New Edge Mustang, my favorite Fords are the Thunderbird Turbo Coupes, Supercoupes, and SHOs.  

If you haven't heard the story of the SHO, it's actually quite hilarious. In 1984, Ford decided to create a mid engine sports car to compete with exotics from Europe. The car was being tested and engineered by Roush and Ford signed a contract with Yamaha to build the engine. By 1986, Ford had bigger priorities, and the GN34 project was shelved to make room for the first Ford Explorer. However, there was still the matter of a signed contract with Yamaha they had to honor. Instead of putting the powerful 3.0L 24V DOHC engine under the hood of the Mustang or Thunderbird, some powerful narcotics must have led somebody to suggest dropping the engine into the Taurus. Thus, the SHO was born.

Now, back to the car. I found it in Kansas City, about 5 hours from home. It was my favorite color combination, Red with black interior and the first year of the second generation body style. The 1992 is actually my favorite year because it's a little bit of a hybrid between the two generations, and the last year that SHOs were produced exclusively with the manual transmission. It has the older first generation steering wheel and center console, which I actually prefer. Both were updated in 1993 and although some will disagree, I think the updates were less sporty and far too mundane. Black interior was also discontinued in 1994 and 1995, so you could only have a black interior second gen in 1992 or 1993.

I bought the car from the original owner with only 70K miles on it. Of course, being from Kansas City, the car has a little bit of rust, namely on the door sills, which is a common problem area for SHOs. They had a terrible water drainage system and it liked to puddle up around that area. There is also some surface rust on the subframe, but nothing a nice sandblasting and undercoating job can't fix. The body panels look great.

The car is quite the project, but I bought it because I wanted something to restore. The engine and drivetrain are perfect, and the car runs really strong. It's been sitting for a long time, because the brake lines were rusty and needed replaced and the owner couldn't afford to get it done. We had to trailer the car home because it had no brakes other than the emergency brake. We bought a nice 93 donor SHO with a blown automatic transmission, and we've been stealing parts off of it to get my 92 on the road again. We replaced the brake lines, calipers, and rotors with nice used ones off of the other car, and finally solved the brake issue.

The car will get repainted soon, as the paint is pretty faded and the clearcoat has started to peel. However, the interior is in beautiful shape, with a perfect console, door panels, dash, and carpet. However, as with most 21 year old cars, the leather was old and cracked and in need of replacement.

So I decided to get the seats re-done before my upholsterer could go out of business. From the looks of things, business has been pretty slow, and I didn't want to miss my chance. He quoted me a good deal to re-do all of the seats, and this was my chance to start putting my personal touches on the car. My car came from the factory with 50/50 seats, black leather with cloth center inserts. I'm not a fan of cloth, so I decided to go with full leather. The early 1990s Supercoupes came with dual stitching in the center inserts, so I decided to go with that theme for my SHO, which shares seats with the Supercoupe. They have the power side bolsters that hold you tight during cornering, which is such a cool feature to have.

I'm a sucker for red and black leather, so I decided to go with black leather with red leather inserts, with red stitching throughout. The final result is incredible, and I'm extremely happy with the result. I even had him make me a new leather boot. The car was licensed and insured on Friday, and is finally back on the road for the first time in more than seven years.

The car should begin preparation for painting and sandblasting the subframe soon, but I'm going to drive it around a bit and enjoy it for a little while first. The painting process will soon follow. I plan to do quite a few upgrades to the car, and eventually make it my track car. The SHOs have quite the pedigree when it comes to autocrossing, and I think it would make the perfect car to get me started.

I'd love to keep you guys updated on my progress, and here are a few pictures of the car and what I've done so far. Sadly, I forgot to take good pictures of my seats before reuphostery, but they were pretty rough. The driver's seat was had more duct-tape visible than leather.

My pictures of the car on my camera at home with the car, so these are the only one's I have on my phone while I'm up at school.

Before cleaning and reupholstery:







After a little detailing and reupholstery.

A good friend of mine has an 05 (w/the spoiler n hood you're not keen on, though his ram air is functional as he cut the hood n fed the plenum into it directly) Awesome car w/ the ls2. Chipped, straight-piped, modded a zillion other ways. He's the guy that brags na power. His last dyno showed 480hp at the wheels. Crazy.

Funniest thing he ever said was how my Riv is the only car he's ever heard over his own while he's driving. Meaning my supercharger cuts through that straight-piped 6l v8 haha

Pic by my house last winter. (That car is 'fun' during winter, just sayin)

Sweet looking GTO you picked up there, AA.

You should have gone way out of your way to come visit. Just saying.

Nice job with those seats, they look sharp! I've always been a fan of the early SHOs with the Yamaha V6. Very fun machine and a real sleeper! Good find, and nice work!

I know. I passed by friends in NY, DC, DE, WV, PA, and family in OH. It was like canon ball run. Drove like 10 hours straight through the night to get the car home.