Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - 12:10 pm, by: Shane Ilich(Ferret)
hmmm....I've had mine coming up on 2 years now.
purchase of car - $11500 stamp duty - $300ish insurance - $1600 per year **this has since paid for itself in some respects crash repairs - $4300 *covered by insurance FMIC, pod filter, 3" dump pipe and exhaust - $400ish *also covered by insurance leftover cash, done by myself & a mate 17" Rims - $800 (2nd hand; including rubber) Radiator repair - $300ish Stage 1.5 Shift Kit - $450 Single turbo conversion and manual conversion - $6500ish (done together, majority of labour done by myself and a mate, including fuel pump, fuel controller, boost controller, other odds and ends, and purchase of some tools) Fuel - $50 week x 100 weeks = $5000ish Service costs (oil, brake pads, fluids, etc) - $400ish year x 2 years = $800
I've since sold off things like my old turbos, auto box, shift kit, diff, etc which has helped recoup sme of the costs of the conversions, but I havent kept a track of those sales.
Way I look at it, I've got a manual, single turbo soarer, looking at roughly 380-400rwhp, which has cost me about $20k (including buying it and then the conversions). For similar money I could have been driving around in a late 90's/early 00 commodore, or maybe a newish camry or something. I would still spend roughly the same money on servicing (assuming no warranty), and fuel - well, its the price I pay for to be happy with what I drive. I dont smoke, and I dont drink much any more, so I can justify an extra 10 bucks a week on fuel as my vice. The only thing I consider is an added expense directly resulting from the soarer is insurance, but considering I've already got 4.5 grand out of them already, havig only been insured for 2 years, I cant even fault that as such.