Most people who attended the Challenge Concours day probably noticed a little girl following around the material girls racing team and just adoring them. That was my oldest daughter Ruby. She thought they and their car, were the coolest thing ever. So when the opportunity came up to buy it, i did. Now i wanted it for myself too for other reasons, but she is so excited to be apart of this build.
Normally i am against buying a challenge car and bringing it back, let alone a previous winner. Mainly due to the fact that its already been built. But i have some ideas i would like to make happen and i think we can improve on an already impressive platform. plus at $1500, i couldnt afford NOT to buy it. (shameless plug, the turbo solstice/spitfire, is still for sale!)
Starting with getting it a little lighter. it currently weighs 3100lbs. which honestly, isnt that bad. but i would like the race weight (as it sits with the driver) to be under 3k pounds. which means i need to find a way to drop about 300lbs total. Some of the ways i plan to do this lies beneath and with the dashboard. the stock ac compressor and serpentine setup, the wheel and tire combo, and the battery. we also want to do a few things that will put some weight back into the truck so this goal is a challenge.
Next, for those who dont know, the police interceptor version of the taurus, did NOT come with a manual/select shift option. the column is simply PRND. now they use the same transmission as well as the same PRNDL switch. We are about 90% confident that wiring in a switch into the PRNDL switch to activate that non used circuit and turning the gear indicator light on in FORSCAN, that we will be able to use select shift. The next step would to either find momentary buttons or a paddle shift equipped steering wheel. this will help in autox to keep the truck in a gear so it doesnt hunt, and also allow sweet awd donuts.
Continuing with our plans, most folks were duped with the fake turbos sticking out of the hood. We would like to make that a reailty. the hoonitruck has real ones, and we think with some creative fabrication, we can accomplish this as well. this will be both ashtetically awesome and provide a much needed turbo upgrade to the baby hair dryers that are currently maxed out. this will also allow for external wastegates, more boost, and side exit fender exhaust, just like the hoonitruck.
Last but not least, we would obviously like to replicate the hoonitruck as much as possible. I have currently sourced a free 73 f100 front grill and bumper which is where most of the honnitrucks looks are derived. i previously mentioned we wanted to address the wheel and tire combo and this was to both save weight, and get the look on point. it will also have a third advantage which is getting the budget down. these performance pack wheels in chrome are actually pretty rare and sell for roughly 800-1200 for a set. given we paid 1500 for the entire truck, this is huge for us. Although the hoonitruck has a black base for its liverty, we plan on keeping the base pink and doing everything else on top. keeping the pink theme to prevent my daughter from murdering me in my sleep.
