Kevin,
You haven't posted here in awhile. How did the engine repair go?
In a surprising move, even to myself, I changed my status, too, a couple of weeks ago. Like you, I was hoping to find a RHD drive car even if it meant starting from scratch. I budgeted a lot of time for the project. However, when a car came up that I couldn't refuse, I ended up with a really nicely built LHD and I'm very satisfied with the result.
Actually, I'm more than satisfied. The prior owner is a wonderful fellow and I actually think of him as a budding friend. Also, for kind of roads I drive the car on, LHD is eminently safer.
Have you been driving your car a lot since (hopefully) fixing the engine problem? What kind of driving have you been doing?
For me, it's been an addiction having the car. I can go a dozen miles in any direction and be out of traffic and onto my choice of straight empty roads or curvy empty roads. In the two weeks I've had the car, there have only been three that I haven't driven it and one of those was because of rain. It's a blast!
My car has TMW FI with a Big Stuff 3 ECU. Have you played around with the ECU in your car? I love to tinker on computers which brings up a story about the college girl, Sage, who's grandmother lives next door.
Sage and her roommate, both babes, had come to visit Sage's grandma just as I was pulling the GT40 out of the garage on my way to appeasing my addiction. They came over to oogle the car so of course I offered first Sage a ride, then the roommate.
After I had taken them both our for fairly lengthy rides on one of the twisty routes, they were oogling the car some more and one of them asked, "What are those two round things in front of the windshield?"
"They're gas caps," I explained.
"It has two gas tanks?"
After I told them it did, one of them turned to the other and said sort of dreamily, "It just keeps getting better."
So, back to the ECU, I was up till 1:00 the other night playing with the Big Stuff program on the computer. Like I said, I love that kind of shit. I think computer programs are like computer games in need of mastering. The next morning I was up kind of early and playing with the program again. My sugar plum, also a babe and who, of course, knows how much I like to play around with computers, said, "It just keeps getting better, doesn't it?"
Like you, I also considered that RHD car at Chicago Motor Company (CMC). The car I bought was in the Chicago area and I called CMC beforehand to ask about the ridiculous price. I told them I was going to be in their neighborhood, how much cash I was bringing, and asked if it was worth my time to stop by and look at the car.
My easy decision was no, it would be a waste of time. The car is privately owned and at their place on consignment. The owner's lowest price was $115 K. Geesh. It would cost about $120 K to duplicate the car as I would have if I had one built new. The car I ended up with would cost $135 to duplicate and the prior owner allowed me to have it for considerably less than CMC's lowest price.
Anyhow, Merry Christmas. I know mine has been.