- Owner: MarkJTaylor
- Location: Hartford area, Connecticut USA
- Year: 1978
- Model: Coupe
- Engine: 2.3L
- Transmission: 4 spd Manual
- Email me

I bought my II for $1000 from a friend who was restoring it but then he ran out of time to work on it with his new job so I snapped it up quickly. Before that, he and my other friend found it when he stopped at a car audio place. They were originally going to make it their promotional vehicle for their sound systems but it never got finished. My friend talked him into selling it for $600 (it didn't run and was on jackstands). I was about 13 or 14 when he first got it and when I first fell in love with it. He put about $6000 into it over about 5 years using it as a daily driver the whole time. When he put it up for sale it had been sitting in my friends garage for 7 months then it was towed to a shop because a key broke off in the ignition. Then it sat there for another 4 months (he was good friends with the owner) just rotting. Then he told me he was selling it. I quickly decided to buy it from him. He originally wanted $2700 for it, but I talked him down to $1500 because of all the things that were going wrong with it (brake lines rotted, battery, carburetor). He was going to fix everything but I couldn't wait for that so he knocked $500 off the price. I ended up paying $700 total to get it running safely again. Over the past two years I've put a lot of time, money, and love into this car. After a combination of being a daily driver for a friend of mine before I owned it driven through 5 New England winters in a more rural area of Connecticut and the car being 30 years old, the body was really starting to show it. I washed and waxed it weekly but it never really looked that good, and waxing took forever as the paint was really oxidized and came off when I buffed the wax off. I finally took the time to polish the whole car. It started as trying to get a couple scuffs out that turned into 5 1/2 hours of polishing, and then another 4 hours the next day. On the third day I waxed her and she SHONE. Around the same time, I replaced the rear bumper as it had been damaged in an accident. Just before winter 08 I had the rear leaf springs replaced and now she rides a lot smoother. The stance is now slightly more aggressive looking. When it got nice this spring I took the time to go over the car again with some polish to freshen it up a bit as driving it through the winter seemed to dull the paint down a bit. Right before winter set in I did some bodywork below the trim line where rust was starting to really get bad. The paint isn't a perfect match, but it makes it look better then the nasty white scale that was forming. I also did a complete front brake job and now, even with non-power brakes I can stop on a dime. I also have a second pair of the 14" rims that are currently on the back that I will have put on the front with another pair of Cooper Cobra GT tires sometime this summer. The otherwise perfect interior has has a few "accidents" fixed or replaced, but with being a daily driver, and going places with friends things happen. The only mods to the interior are a set of oil pressure and temp gauges and a low end but nice sounding sound system. I had the engine rebuilt at the beginning of the summer of 2007 with 100100 miles on it. This is where most of my time and money went, and describing what happened would more then double the length of this writeup. It involves an incompetent shop, 4 engine failures over a year,(under warranty) many major headaches, and finally going elsewhere. Modifications include: Holley 4160 (390 cfm) 4bbl Carburetor, Offenhauser 4bbl dual plane intake, Ranger roller cam, Headman Hedder, 2 1/4" exhaust, Flowtech Warlock muffler, smog delete, EGR delete. I plan on adding a MSD ignition system when I get some extra money as the stock system is 30 years old and wasn't really designed with performance in mind. I love taking it to shows, but due to working 2nd shift, I really miss out on a lot of cruise nights. I still have plenty of work to do on it, and I will be updating this page periodically.