Unless you would be planning to keep it at a race track, you would not want to own a car like this. It would almost certainly be miserable to drive at legal speeds. That 2.0L engine isn't going to make any useful power below 5-6k RPM. Keeping a turbo like that spooled for any meaningful duration is guaranteed to get you pulled over by the police.
It is more than the speed potential. This thing is very likely not capable of running pump gas, and has to be running very rich. The cost per mile, just in fuel, would be insane. Also, good luck passing any sort of emissions controls for road use.
Premade as in have someone built it for you?
Well, the same way they did it. You offer up a load of money to a reputable build shop and come back in about 2-5 years depending on how busy they are.
Nearly impossible. For the same price and effort, you can probably get a high end Porsche 911 or similar which will be way more practical.
The next level up would be to get a modified car from a company that has very strong ties to the manufacturer, such as Ruf with Porsche, Roush or Saleen with Ford Mustangs, etc.
Trust me either of those options will be more than anyone but the 1% top skilled or thrill seeking individuals can handle.
You don’t- without that knowledge you would not know what to pay someone to build and why. It’s also going to be extremely complex and unreliable, and likely not street drivable or street legal.
Step 1: Get ~$250k+ in cash for the initial build.
Step 2: Start learning. If you don't know how to evaluate the work of your builder you may have a few false starts finding someone who can actually do it, which will cost you even more time and money.
Step 3: Learn some more. Owning a vehicle like this is a constant development effort. The work will never be "done" so unless you have a mechanic on retainer you will be working on it constantly.
In short, unless you have like a million dollars to spend on a toy and staff to keep it running you'll have to shoulder at least some of the effort.
The best way with finite money is racecarsdirect or some other similar platform.
Cons are you're getting someone else's project.
Pros are they've already sunk stupid money into it.
You can get great cars on there if you have someone in the know to bounce deals off of.
The best way with infinite money is either some very high end small batch restomod or to even commission one of the large OEMesque motorsport shops to plan and build a one off. Smaller, specialized shops are also an option but the amount of people who're learning on customer vehicles is high and they'll be so hyped to get a large project they'll promise you the moon with entirely good intentions and then fail spectacularly.
Just to quantify it, most "restomods" start at $100K USD.
Decades ago I had a buddy that did something similar with a VW Bug that he did "on the cheap" doing almost all the work himself and things like paint through connections he had, I never talked price on it but it was at least $30K I'd bet and probably more like in the $50Ks, and took around a decade.
Honestly, just learn it like anything else. Understand the basic components of an internal combustion engine (block, crankshaft, rods, pistons, camshafts, cylinder heads, valves, intake and exhaust manifolds), the 4 cycles the engine goes through (intake, compression, power, and exhaust), how fuel delivery and ignition systems work. And then there are tons of resources on tuning and you can get the software for a laptop.
Then there is the building of the engine and understanding clearances for specific applications and RPM's, value train harmonics when thing start getting to crazy high revs like 9500.
Still very learnable but outside the scope of standard engine rebuilt stuff.
It isn't that simple. I've been learning to work on my own car over the last few years. I'm not even doing anything crazy just fixing up an older vehicle and modernising some parts of it (mainly interior).
I had to fix the wiper system. The wiper system you would think it wouldn't matter much whether the parts are aftermarket or not. I was very wrong, parts that even look almost identical may not work properly, due to differences in tolerances.
There is also different revisions of particular parts and it will become obsolete. You can lose an afternoon on the internet just doing that.
Then there is the tools. I've spent about a small fortune on tools. I have 3 torque wrenches, 3 sets of sockets, 3 sets of spanners and loads of weird specialist tools like special pliers. There are many jobs I can't do myself because they needs specialist knowledge to do properly e.g. gearboxes.
You have to be prepared to spend potentially years on it and huge amount of money, even on relatively simple projects.
There is a reason that a lot of guys get into old 4x4 pickups and do those up, because they are a known quantity and parts are readily available.
As someone building a particularly stupid car in a genre almost but not entirely unlike the OP (a turbo LS1-swapped Rover P5), I am not totally making stuff up when I say that this:
> You have to be prepared to spend potentially years on it and huge amount of money, even on relatively simple projects.
is not at all mutually exclusive to this:
> Honestly, just learn it like anything else.
I didn't really know what I was doing when I started my project. I had an idea and the desire to make it happen. I barely knew how to use a MIG to do the fab work, so I got good (enough) at it. I knew nothing about LS engines, so I learned enough about them at each point I needed to know something about them. I only have a vague idea of how I'm going to do the next phase of it; I know that I can figure it out with enough thinking and by making all the mistakes I need to make. I don't know how to TIG, and it'll be really useful if I do, so I am learning how to TIG.
Start somewhere, and the more you do, the more you can do.
> As someone building a particularly stupid car in a genre almost but not entirely unlike the OP (a turbo LS1-swapped Rover P5),
I have no idea why people do this stuff to a nice car like a Rover P5. It isn't my car though.
> Start somewhere, and the more you do, the more you can do.
Obviously. But I had to do a lot of stuff that I wasn't prepared to do far quicker because the previous person who doing this took short cuts. I almost had the dash catch fire because someone did a bodge job on electricals instead of paying £15 for the correct part (a plastic plug).
The point I was making is that you are making it sound far simpler than it actually is. There been a good few weekends that have been sunny and I have honestly felt like I was wasting my time and couldn't face working on it.
I had to fit a new turbo and it took me about 3-4 weeks. Not because it was difficult (actually it one of the easier and nicer jobs IMO), it was sourcing parts around the turbo such as gaskets, copper washer kits and other dumb stuff like that.
There was constant trips to tool shops because I was always missing like a tool, trying to find a fitting/gromit in Halfords (they never have it) or a parts supplier 40 miles away in the sticks. It all adds up in both time and cost.
Now I know roughly who the order from, what I should order from etc. But that is going to be different for almost different manufacturer and worse if the stuff is more niche/custom.
The amount of the projects that get given up, suggest it not that easy.
(I don't know why your comment got flagged. I vouched for it; whatever we might argue about here, I don't think you're out of line in any way.)
I actually feel everything you have said apart from this P5 being "nice" (it was fucked). Like turbo delays - I had that on my other project, and going from "I need a new turbo" to "I have a new turbo and things adjacent to the turbo" took damn near a year by itself. I know how this goes!
So I hope I did not appear to say that it's EASY. I've put in enough hours to know that it's not, and if it was everyone would be doing it anyway. It does in fact take a lot of time, and willingness to learn, and plain old determination, and money. I will say it's something that IS possible, and that I still agree with this:
> Honestly, just learn it like anything else.
But...I suppose we'll know that for sure once I have an actual working car, right? :)
If you're starting from 0 that's probably a decade long commitment before you're able to start to execute a project like this.
There's a youtube series 'project binky' where a pair of professional car tuners rebuild a mini cooper and stuff a Celica engine in it. They already have all the skills, own a shop and all the tools and it still took them years.
similarly, there's a youtube channel called Mighty Car Mods that does builds also and even the ones they "rush" can take months and thousands of work hours from people from multiple disciplines (body repair, paint, electrical work, tuning, etc.). Not cheap at all.
A decade would be very quick. The amount of specialist knowledge that went into every part of this project is crazy.. After a decade's worth of projects I doubt I'd be confident to tackle the steering and suspension design on something like this, let alone all the aero.
I've been working on cars for 20yr, I weld, I have done CAD/CAM/CAE stuff, rebuilt and modified engines, done custom suspension work... there are so many aspects of a project like this that are just completely unknown to me, like I wouldn't even know where to start. Many aspects of this build are not things you can really learn or research on your own.
You can't, unless you a Saudi billionaire. These things are completely custom, are hugely expensive (why they have sponsors all over them) and often they will have work lined up for literally years.
You also wouldn't want one. They cannot be driven on the road really as they aren't legal. They will also break a lot. Generally the more tuned a car is the more maintenance it needs.
If you are interested in cars, you are better getting an older vehicle and somewhere to work on it e.g. a garage and working on it as a hobby at the weekends. You will learn a lot more and can actually enjoy it.
You can have one built; you just call Vermont Sports Car lol.
Yes, price is a major factor.
No, you are completely incorrect on street legality; and way far from the truth lol
The basis of a WRC rally car is that it is indeed street legal; and is required to be driven on the public roads with a proper license plate in between the stages of the rally.
While I agree with your comment about learning more by doing the work yourself, you don't need to be a billionaire to acquire one of these. Yes, they are expensive. A typical pro-level WRC spec WRX STI rally car from Vermont SportsCar goes for about $600k. They are actually very reliable though. And thats a bargain compared to just about any modern hypercar.
Rally cars also must be street legal because they are driven on public roads between stages.
