Okay so I'm going to pick up from my introduction on the newbie intro page.
WARNING LONG NEWBIE POST!!
So
I'm ambitious and don't physically have my car yet, thus no pictures. I'll do what I can to get picks. Here's the deal with the car as far as I know. I'm buying it from the father of a co-worker. The co-worker states the father is a very private kind of guy and does not like visits from people he doesn't know and would like me to only come in the company of his son. Thus I have to take leave and the son has to take leave at the same time, then we have to drive out about 4 or 5 hours, two states away to see the car. Then if I want it I hand the guy some money and it's mine. He's not in a hurry to sell it so I have time, according to the son. I'm working on getting it as soon as possible but life happens and when you're young and not rich it takes longer to do some things. So I'm left wanting and hoping for this car. In the long run I'll get a 70-74 Chally or Cuda. I don't know why but they are my favorite cars in the history of cars. I am a huge fan of the Hemi so it's gotta have one.
Background on me:
US Air Force, stationed in southern Illinois just outside St. Louis MO. I'm 27 years old and married with one child. Probably 12-18 months worth of deployments left in my enlistment. Moving to another base is likely to happen at least once in the next 3 years. After that who knows. I have absolutely no experience or training of any kind in auto mechanics. I have no problem taking my time and learning. While my wife might, I don't have a problem buying all the tools to do the job. Or at least renting them. I'm not just interested in having the car, else I would just go buy one already done. I'm interested in restoring it, I want to do the work, get the experience. It's kind of a way for me to become one with the car, ya know? (that sounds weird)
Ambition:
A 70s Chally or Cuda with some rocks. I want to hit 800-1000 HP without nitrous. It's gotta be able to kill other cars without too much effort. I want the old Chally/Cuda look on the outside and something a bit more modern on the inside. I'm not into huge stereos or in dash navigation or any of that crap. It's gotta sound like it's got muscle. I'm not interested in the blowers that are raised above the hood. I like that rally hood the 70 Chally has.
Engine
Initially I was thinking a 6.1L Hemi but Niel (Chryco Physco) offered that I could attain the 800-1000 HP I'm looking for by doing a 440/512 stroker. Now, not knowing anything about engines and not sure what a stroker is, it sounds cool. I thought I would start with a block and build the engine on it. Avoiding buying a working/crate engine and then gutting it only to buy performance parts. 73Chally offered the option of buying a complete drivetrain out of a totalled Chally thus cutting cost on what could be a nearly brand new engine anyway. So what thoughts do you all have on this? With a goal of 800-1000 HP and probably something like a 7 second 1/8 mile run, 440/512 stroker vs 6.1L Hemi.
Carbed or EFI?
While I'm paranoid the grid will one day just go off and I don't really want a computerized car, I think I still would like to have EFI. Even if the grid goes down the Chally won't drive for too long after. I think I want to go EFI because I was reading about an EFI system from FAST that self tunes on the fly. That's important to me because my home state has a lot of elevation changes, and I don't mean from 800 ft. to 1200 ft. I mean like 4000 ft. to 6000 ft. and back to 4000 ft. in less than 50 miles in some places. So EFI that tunes on the fly sounds useful.
Handling
I want it to handle around curves, cause there are a lot of those back home, but I want it to handle on the straight road, and I mean like racing kind of handling. I don't intend on street racing but I want to be able to post up a few kills here. Additionally though I do want to be able to take it to the local track and do some racing there.
Transmission
I think this one is not too hard of a choice, it has to be a manual trans. I know there are all kinds of cool components that will make the auto get up and go comparable to manuals but I just like having a manual. What would be the difference in a 4 speed and a 6 speed? What are the benefits of one over the other?
Interior
I want this car to be my daily driver. I don't buy things to look at them. I want to drive the crap out of it. So it has to be comfortable on the inside. Again, something a little more modern looking on the inside. Some cool dials and stuff. Maybe a computer system that connects to all the instruments and digital speed-o or something like that. Stereo is important only to the point that everyone needs tunes but beyond that it doesn't matter.
Exhaust
Obviously needs to make it sound like it's got a beast under the hood. I like the stories of someone's exhaust scaring away the ricers. Plus it has to add performance.
Am I missing anything?