Is this worth considering?

[svtcarboy]

There's a 1988 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe being sold near where I live, and I wonder if this car is worth thinking about (I'd love a second car to play with more than the SVT Contour), and have thought the T-Bird would be a nice choice...

Anyway, the car has 88,000 miles and they're asking $2500. The car is a bit rough cosmetically, and would need a deguadification program (spoiler from a Fiero GT, and too many red painted trim items that AREN'T factory).

The concern is the mechanical changes this car has undergone. I know nothing of these kind of things, so I may be worrying needlessly. The car was an auto, but has been converted to a 5-speed, and the turbo swapped out to one from a 5-speed (if I understood correctly, it may have been to an aftermarket). The axle is still from the ATX, which they say is shorter, and would help 0-60 times.

So is this car worth a second look, with the understanding that I need to have it thoroughly checked out like any older used car, or should I not even waste my time and run screaming?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide...

 

[Hitman 2k1]

Funny.. a friend and I were just thinking of buying a TC and suping it up. I've seen some of them with over 300 hp before. There are guides on the internet for getting them over 300hp. The first thing I would do is the 2.5 stroker kit. If it's got a manual the stroker alone would put you over 200 hp.. the 5 speeds had like 190hp and the autos had 145. I'm not sure how much boost they can take but the 88 birds were very light (much lighter than my 94) So putting power on them makes them respond pretty well. The intercooler on the 88 is damn good! From what I hear they are better than the ones on the SVO Mustang. So I think if it runs with just 88K miles then it would be good buy and a hell of a car if you started putting parts on it.
It would be kinda cool to have an American turbo 4 super sleeper.. and the 88's looked damn cool. There's all kinds of things you can do to them.. check out tccoa.com and ask anyone there if they know more about them.
If you want a second car to play with I'd go for it and see how fast you can get it.. you might be suprised.

 

[thundercoupe sc]

I just bought a turbo coupe like a month ago

I just bought a 5-speed turbo coupe like a month ago, stock mine ran 15.5 at 88 mph, I put flowmaster cat back $200, k&n filter $20, boost controller $7 and I just ran 14.3 last wednesday. My turbo coupe has 180xxx miles on it and it runs like a champ. It killed my super coupe pretty bad, on the street it killed couple of contour svt, plenty of mustangs and hondas, at the track it out ran a 95 lightning with supercharger and 99 lightning, plus 99 gt with slicks and some other stuff done to it barelly won, he had like .05 sec on me in the end of 1/4 mile, the car is fun to drive to.