This is the Build Thread for 95' Eagle Talon Build. Reply below.

Goal: Revive my abandoned 2G Dsm into a full blown Drag Build

History: I first got into DSM’s back in 2013. My first car was a 1998 Eclipse GS model, thanks to The Fast & The furious. Not having a background in cars or performance at the time: as my friends got into cars, I quickly learned that I was going to need a turbo model. Quickly sold my GS and picked up my 97 GST (still have). As a teenager with limited funds, a AWD GSX seemed out of reach. So to my naive self, I convinced myself that an AWD conversion would be the cheaper way to obtain an AWD 2G DSM. in 2014, I purchased this 1995 Eagle Talon AWD Chassis, and began my AWD Conversion on my 1997 GST. To this day, my AWD converted GST remains a constant project, always needing something. Between 2014 to present day, I’ve gotten to purchase and build a few different Evos.

And instead of Scrapping this old stripped down 95 Talon Shell, I’ve held onto it. And finally in 2026, I decided to do the impossible. Restore this chassis from its abandoned state. And to add to the stakes, in July 22nd of 2026, I decided to revive this shell, assemble parts and get it running in time for the 2026 DSM Shootout ( Highly Unlikely )

Ive always wanted to do a Build thread here on DSM tuners, But with my GST or my Evos, I just never took the time to document properly or take pictures of the process. So hopefully this Eagle Talon Build can fulfill that bucket list for me.

Anyways..

Here is my 1995 Eagle Talon Revival & Drag Race Build.. From the beginning to Present Day

2014.. Bringing home the 1995 Talon Donner car for AWD swap (Red GST in the back)



Random picture of the Talon Sitting in 2016.. Should have been scrapped then

2017 ish.. Made the Talon a rolling chassis, and picked up some junkyard bumper and hood for it. Started cleaning it up, and I rattle caned some of the panels to make it look less ghetto . I think Ive always wanted to restore this car, and subconsciously did so over the years..

2018 I let my best friend convince me that I should paint the shell silver.. I am not a fan of silver, as I currently have an Apex Silver Evo 8.. not a fan of silver..

2019 me and my group of friends really got hooked into Drag racing. This is when the idea of a dedicated drag build was born.. some FD RX7 wheels wrapped in Hoosier QTPs made the silver not look so bad (don’t have any pictures but this is when we also sourced another AWD rear subframe and converted this shell back to AWD)


Turns out 3am searching for photos proved me wrong. One picture of re-installing the AWD rear end onto this shell


2020.. I had enough of the silver. I was interesting in actually learning how to paint, so a full tear down & “backyard DIY Prep” to change the talons color once again
First time Spraying with an actual air gun, was super excited how it turned out


My Best Friend Alan was always down to work on the cars, free labor sanding the body down




2023 it had been a few years since any work on the Talon. Was feeling the effects of growing up. Purchased our first home, and the parents said it was time to get the Talon out of their backyard

Cool little comparison. 2014 when the Talon first arrived, and 2023 when the Talon finally left
2023 Eagle Talon has landed at its new resting place. Our first home! Next to the 97 AWD Swapped GST

2026: pulled the car out from its rotting space & closer to the garage. Finally committing to saving this shell

How the shell currently sits in 2026. Sad it’s sitting on dirt for now. Hopefully I can get in the garage soon


Archer Fabrications 2G spare tire well delete. Beautiful piece BTW, covered up that eyesore of when I cut the out the spare tire well



Drove out to Las Vegas to pick up some of Alex4g63’s remaining DSM parts.. really needed a driveshaft, but left with some more goodies like a complete rear subframe with axles and LSD Rear Differential

How the builds going so far.. really want to get this car running and across the country for the DSM Shootout. We’re running out of time

Spoiler alert*
We did not make the 2026 DSM Shootout I have never been and I have been saying I’m going to go one day.. days turn to years. Hopefully next year?

Anyways back to the Talon.. I decided to fill up what’s left of my garage space and push the Talon into the garage (makes me feel like I’m getting some serious work accomplished )

STM Manifold and the Talon

Dug up some old wiring and ecu. Hopefully sort this out to get a first start up when it’s ready


Drag pieces for the talon (not really needed, but it adds to the “drag car” aesthetic )
Carbonetics Headlight deleted (fun fact; passenger side we purchased from Red Demon V1 during one of Boostin’s Garage sales), Carbonetics drag lip & Angry Aero Bumper Shutters

I had mentioned that I originally purchased this shell back in 2014 ish to use as a donor for the AWD swap on my red 2G.. that means I needed to re-AWD this shell tac’d the drive shaft hangers in and mounted the drive shaft that we drove all the way out to Vegas to pick up the Talon is AWD again!
Driveshaft installed. Currently have a Universal driveshaft safety loop up front…

Doing things backwards but pieced the interior together. Even threw in some evo x paddles to see how that would look.. all this will have to come back out for the cage though..

Threw on the Jegs SSR Star wheels just for giggles.. but they’re for the evo looks good on the Talon though


JEGS wheels and the Mickey Thompsons installed on the evo

Decided to work on more aesthetics.. to keep me motivated on actually finishing the car instead of letting it sit another decade.

Drag front end installed

And since the evo got new shoes that means the Talon gets some new Donuts to roll around on

Been slowly working on getting an engine together. I’ve put together a “stock” 7 bolt bottom end and started to work on the head recently. Initially wanted to just drop in the stock motor with semi built head just to get it running for the sake of time, but the more I sit here and read others build threads the more I tell myself I should probably take the time and do it right the first time.

So I’m thinking, I’m either going to build the 6 bolt that I’ve got sitting in the garage; or pull the built 2.3L (ibeams rods & split thrust 7 bolt) I’ve got sitting in the red DSM and put the “stock” 95 7 bolt in that car..

My messy assembly bench


While I try to figure out which engine / build to go with, I guess I need to get the drivetrain started.

2GA auto trans. Need to swap the the front clutches on it, and have a translab Shift kit that needs to be installed. Installed new trans cooler line fittings & dip stick breather from Antilag Racing



Picked up some spare filters from NAPA. If there’s a better alternative to use I’m all ears first time auto guy

Mocked up transmission cooler




Speaking of spares; I’ve been rounding up 2GA converters just in case bummed I missed out on precision billet converters so I’m still searching; but for the time being I got in touch with Florida Torque Converters and just sent out one of my converters out to them


I need to stop being lazy and replace the front clutches in my trans. That will probably be next up on the list. I have a set of kiggly 6 discs; but it’s probably better for me to swap over to 5 discs; so I’ll get those ordered next and then probably tackle that

have not read through the whole post yet but had to comment on how closely this project parallels my own. Started with a '95 TSi auto in high school, always wanted to convert to awd but never got the funds or time to do so. 2016 came around, i found a rolling 95' TSi AWD 5spd and it's basically been sitting on jack stands since then. I'm gave up on planning a date to have it on the road but have gotten back into it this summer and making some progress. Kicker is this car (and my TSi auto) are both that blue-green color i can see your roller was. Funny how dsm addiction looks so similar in a lot of cases

hocka09 said:

have not read through the whole post yet but had to comment on how closely this project parallels my own. Started with a '95 TSi auto in high school, always wanted to convert to awd but never got the funds or time to do so. 2016 came around, i found a rolling 95' TSi AWD 5spd and it's basically been sitting on jack stands since then. I'm gave up on planning a date to have it on the road but have gotten back into it this summer and making some progress. Kicker is this car (and my TSi auto) are both that blue-green color i can see your roller was. Funny how dsm addiction looks so similar in a lot of cases

Click to expand...

It’s crazy how much alike we all are in this community I loved the OEM color this shell was, too bad it was spray painted black when I picked it up and my backyard white paint job doesn’t do any more justice . Feel like parts are becoming more scarce to find now a days so that discourages me a little; but I’m still staying committed. Idk what it is about these cars but they’ve got me hooked

No real updates yet.. just Manifesting the vision.. still waiting on converter so cleaned things up around the car this weekend. One day it’ll be an actual drag car

The “engine room”




On an “unrelated to the Talon” note..

The wife has convinced me I need to stop making excuses and actually take the Evo to the drag strip for once. Been too scared to take it the track after I finished it, but no better way to rip the bandaid off than to just do it I guess. So we’ll be bouncing back between getting the Evo ready & getting more parts for the Talon

Had sent out one of my spare torque converters out to Florida Torque converter. Hadn’t heard anything in a while but didn’t want to stress out. Finally checked tracking and found that UPS had “misplaced my package” and are working to locate its location. My worst nightmare

On to more Talon stuff. Switches.. Do they have Designations yet? No. Do we know their functions yet? Also no. Does it look cool? Yes

Some goodies are starting to show up

Always been a huge fan of FP, so I picked up their 3782 .82Ar to power this car!

Recently got a chance to listen to Street Alpha Podcast with Robert, and their HD line of turbos really fits the current goals i have for the car (which is get the car finished & just make it to drag strip and enjoy the work we’ve put in with the car). Long time user and supporter of Forced Performance, excited to see how it does

Couldn’t help but immediately mock fit this thing up! With the Hyundai Valve cover too

It’s like Christmas in October

Got my converter back from Florida Torque Converters. Hoping we can get that 4500 stall also got my Kiggly 5 Friction clutch discs in as well as VOLK Pilot bushing (really hate fighting this losing battle of OEM parts, but so glad we have vendors still out there in 2026 keeping this platform alive)

And while out in the garage I had to take another look at the turbo setup I’ve got a side bumper exit mocked up on it right now. Hopefully don’t end up having to make any adjustments to that

In full blown parts hoarding mode.. got in on the group buy and my MGM fab 2G trans pan showed up today! As well as some spare 91-96 T-cases.

Going to send a Transfer case out boostin for a 300m tcase build. Probably going to pull the trigger on a DSS driveshaft soon.. And still need to pull my valve body and get it sent off to Aaron Gregory for a build.

Things are coming along slowly but surely

Finally finished my friends Red Evo X and out of the (extremely cluttered) garage, which means I got to bring in the Evo next to the Drag Talon

Stick shift class & Auto

hoping to see this car at the 2027 Shootout!

Boy your turbo sure looked familiar. Mine is the baby brother. I can't believe it's been almost 5 years ago since I bought it

Pjj said:

hoping to see this car at the 2027 Shootout!

Click to expand...

That's the plan! I failed to get this car to the 2026 shootout, so having the goal post change to 2027 Shootout SHOULD ** knock on wood ** give me enough time to finish this car and bring it out! worst case scenario, ill just tow it out there to sit in the parking lot for the weekend

1990TSIAWDTALON said:

Boy your turbo sure looked familiar. Mine is the baby brother. I can't believe it's been almost 5 years ago since I bought it

Click to expand...

FP has those yearly Black Friday deals, i remember it was 2022 or 2023, they had the 3582 on sale for less than 400 bucks! bought one and finally got to use it on my Evo this year! figured id give this 3782 a try on the Talon

Small update but an update regardless. Actually embarrassed about this one, but when i dropped this subframe for the AWD swap all those years ago, I thought the brake line was in the way so i just cut it, since i had never planned to keep this car after stripping it of parts.. I guess it was finally time to address that issue. I maybe should have made a whole new line from the LR caliper to the prop valve. But instead i just ended up purchasing a pre-flared line from NAPA, along with a union, cut, cleaned up and flared the OEM hardline and joined them together. Im not sure how this will hold up under heavy breaking, for now ill just have to see. It did not leak during pressure test, but real world application can be different.. Also was missing brake fluid reservoir so had to get one of those from eBay

I used NiCop line (25' coil) and replaced all of my rear brake lines. It is very easy to work with but you probably already know that.