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My "New" Unique 289 FIA hits the street
Gents - I have been monitoring Unique forums for quite awhile and have finally gotten my car running. One might think I am the world's slowest builder - I bought the car in Sept 1998. If it hadn't been for two wars, a marriage, a child, a couple of moves and the numerous other challenges of life in general, I might have gotten to this point sooner... Alright - enough of the philosophy already. Here are the pertinent details.
As stated, this is a 289 FIA (with the hard top), and I opted to put a 5.0 from a 1995 Mustang in it. Note to self and others - the '95 motor is a bit of a pain in the keester to work with. It took numerous mods to get something that would work. For future reference, the '86 to '93 year groups are much easier to work with. I paired the motor to a 1989 computer and so far it seems to be working out. I am taking the car to a speed shop here in town tomorrow to have the computer "tweaked" just right. Along the way, I have encountered numerous engineering problems like how to remove the Jag swingarms without removing the body or going through wild acrobatics. I removed them with a puller I made so I could have the rearend narrowed 3 inches. Another was to install an air conditioning unit behind the dash - Why? Florida car with a hardtop. To do that, I sectioned the cowl hoop, lowered the tranny tunnel and built a new dash with a "podded" center section to house the gauges. The list of mods goes on thanks to some of the tips I got off the forum.
I took a couple of pictures from the shakedown run and I will post some of them. After I took the pictures, I noticed something curious - the apex of the front left wheelwell opening sits about 1.25 inches lower than the same on the right side. I verified the same coilover lengths and the body seems to be square on the chassis. This was verified by checking the gap between the framerails/front inner-wheel wells and the bottom line of the cowl in ralation to the lower radiator mount. All appears to be square (insofar as a fiberglass body can be square), yet still I have a noticeable difference. I know peter had a similar problem with the rear of his 289 FIA. Anybody else had the same issue? Please measure and let me know...
Anyway, I love the heavy steering, brakes and clutch. In a sick way, it reminds me of the tractors on the farm but much, much faster - even with a sub-optimal computer setup. This is very much a man's car.
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Got car back from the shop
Car runs pretty well now. Car dyno'd out at 259 hp estimated at flywheel and 200 hp at rear wheels. It won't send me into orbit but the car is still pretty damn fast. Not too shabby considering it is a bone stock '95 motor with 225 hp stock. Maybe a cam upgrade in the future...I have posted a picture of the engine bay.
When I measured the body I kinda had to laugh - not at the craftsmanship but about the stories you all have mentioned about the old AC bodies. I guess if anybody asks, I'll just say I meant for it to be that way - just like the originals.
Here is what the dash looks like. Its design is part AC Superblower and part Mustang. The purists out there are probably hatin' it but the idea was to get a A/C unit behind the dash. The construction of the dash itself was pretty easy. The controls for the A/C unit were a little more difficult. I made them to match the guages and cast the knobs out of epoxy resin. As can be seen, the interior is sans carpet right now. I am moving to Alabama in June for school so if anybody knows a good upholsterer in the vicinity of Montgomery, I could use the info. I am hoping to see you all at homecoming as well.