Sleeper Rice Car

[frakenstein5spd]

I have what may be one of the best sleeper cars in the US, but need some help trying to find stuff to throw at it. I own a 1991 Mercury Tracer LTS. Yes, I know it's a front-wheel-drive 4-door econo-box, but's that's the point. Factory stock, it pulled a .84 g on the skidpad in 91, and the same year Miata pulled a .85 g. It's got plenty of potential. It has the same 1.8L DOHC engine as the Ford Escort GT/Protege. That is the same 1.8L that Mazda added to the Miata after 92. I know it can take a turbo kit, i just can't find any. Any one have some ideas?

Thanks for the help

5spd

[Egg Nog]

I wonder what kind of swap would work... what about a Ford Taurus SHO V8 conversion?

[Misho]

Originally Posted by Egg Nog

I wonder what kind of swap would work... what about a Ford Taurus SHO V8 conversion?

My guess is that the SHO unit would be too physically big to fit in. Would probably have torque steer issues anyways.

[mooseTSi]

u will have to do a lot of work. you can by any turbo as long as u can make it fit to a mazda 1.8 exhaust manni. try mazdaspeed or just do a search on the internet for miata turbo kits. another think is that since they dont make a turbo kit for that car, u atre going to have to make all your own pipes, and that can get expensive. you'll need to do some internal mods to that engine, again look at miata sites. and youll need some ecu work and someont to tune it, along with some gauges, afc, etc. goood luck, that will be a great sleeper

[Egg Nog]

Originally Posted by Misho

My guess is that the SHO unit would be too physically big to fit in. Would probably have torque steer issues anyways.

You're probably right, but this is a fairly large car we're talking about anyway A little custom work, a lot of elbow grease, damn the firewall, it can be done!

How much room is there in the engine bay, frankenstein5speed? I'd hate to overstress an engine like that with forced induction, so a swap would seem like the way to do it.

Is this the twin brother of the Ford Tempo? I remember seeing a sleeper Tempo on the net a while back...