This guy lives on the road behind my house. He's in his mid-30's, has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, loves to toy with cars in his spare time, and he's an absolute genious when it comes to swaps.
The car is a 1992 Mercury Sable Wagon. The engine is a 3.1 (3.0 Bored) DOHC V6 from a 1994 Ford Taurus SHO, as well as the 5-speed manual trans. The Supercharger is from a 3.8 Buick engine from the late '90's. The intake manifold is custom fabricated, as well as the entire exhaust system, engine mounts, etc.
This car is his daily driver, except on rainy days because of the large hole he had to cut in his hood for the supercharger.
The car has made a best of 388whp on the dyno at Hyrbid Dynamics in Youngwood, PA with stock cams and no Nitrous. He has since added Nitrous and a set of adjustable cam gears to get a little more length out of the exhaust cycle (the stock cams close the valves too quickly for forced induction.)
I'm thinking this is the guy that would be able to make my Twin-Turbo AWD late 80's Chrysler Minivan dream come true (using parts from a 3000GT VR4).
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It's obviously not staying that way- he was just under a time restraint to get the car done before summer was over and will eventually work on the cosmetic aspect. I should try to take pics of the car with the hood down before winter is over so you can see just how far the supercharger sticks out....it's quite hilarious.
I must say, however, that it is very interesting to take a ride in a station wagon that spins the tires through 3rd gear at 80mph.
The Wagon is currently down due to a blown 3rd gear in the trans. While it's apart, the owner is searching for a Quaife LSD that will get both front wheels turning!
His CURRENT project- a 1988 RX7 with a 3.8 V6 from a Grand National. Seems the guy was heavy into Grand Nationals before he built his Sable Wagon, so he had a fully built engine and trans just waiting to go in the RX7. The project is 85% complete....the engine and trans are in, manifold(s) built, turbo installed, exhaust piped. All that's left is some misc. wiring, intercooler and piping, and the rad and cooling fan need fitted.
His next project is putting a Subaru SVX motor into something, and turbocharging that as well. It seems the 3.3 from the SVX shares many of the same engine parts as the WRX engines so finding parts to take the build may be easy. He's not sure what the engine is going in at this point, but it may be an early '90's Toyota Tercel converted to RWD. Should be fun laying down 400-500hp with a 2200lb car!
