Please Graduate Roadster 8901

[Straversi]

This is a long overdue graduation thread as I now have 1,000 miles on the car but better late than never.

I love this car! If I had to do it again, I wouldn't change a thing.

Love the Coyote/TKO-600/IRS drivetrain. Thank you Mike Forte.

I had a pretty good build plan in place when I started but I didn't have a strict budget or timeline and found myself at the forum's mercy to spend money on aftermarket options. Thanks to all of the forum vendors. I'm pretty sure I bought something from all of you and I am happy with the quality, service and responsiveness I received from all of the vendors. I won't list them all since they are all called out in my build thread as the components were installed.

I love the paint. Huge thanks to Jeff Miller! No matter what you do as a builder, the paint is what people notice first and last. Blue and white is not for everyone, but this is the car that I've seen in my head since I was a kid and now it sits in my garage. Still unbelievable.

Thank you to Paul (EdwardB). Your 20th anniversary build thread helped me and inspired me beyond description. Thanks to Dave Hodgkins, WareagleScott, Gumball, Jeff Kleiner and to the entire forum community. I would not have taken on this project if I hadn't come across this forum and realized that there would be an amazing level of help available if I got stuck.

Last of the thanks goes to Dave Smith and the FFR team. The MK-IV is a great car. If you buy one completed, you are getting an amazing machine. If you are fortunate enough to build one, what a fantastic experience.


Here are a few photos and quick video of my completed car at one of my favorite spots. Not a bad place to be on New Year's Eve, 2018.







Short video.

https://youtu.be/Co8R7ivWN9I


Last Thoughts:

As I was packing up my receipts and documents I came across this magazine. I find it fitting to end this thread with the magazine that got this all started for me.



I had never bought or even seen a Kit Car Magazine before, but I saw this in a grocery store and the caption "You Can Do It" grabbed me. I bought it, read it cover-to-cover about a 100 times. I think I fished it out of the trash a dozen time as my wife couldn't believe I still wanted it. But this was the beginning of a great experience for me. This magazine unveiled the brand new Mark-IV, explained the SB-100 registration process, showed me that the wiring was doable and described the FFR community with a write up on the 4th annual Huntington Beach Cruise-In.





I think that was 7 or 8 years ago. When Dave Hodgkins showed me that you could modify these cars for the big and tall, there were no more barriers to overcome.


Lastly, thanks to my wife Dana. What was that...., order another one? Thanks dear!

-Steve