Saturn SKY Redline barnyard find

[njmr2fan]

If I'm not mistaken, I think I remember seeing a posting about a modified Saturn SKY that a member stuffed a V8 into. For the life of me I can't find the post, unless im confusing forums with another one...
I just came across a 2007 Saturn SKY Redline Roadster that's sitting in a barnyard with a bad transmission and broken AC, and will soon get scrapped. The guy who knows them looked over the car, it seemed pretty clean. The guy told him to give him $3k for it, which means to me $2k gets it. (172K miles on it).
Any advice?

 

[zipper]

It was @gmtech16450yz . A link to the car is here.

 

[2kwik4u]

Doesn't look like a redline to me. Missing the badge anyway. Any shots of the engine bay to confirm? I also think the redlines only came with a manual, but I could be wrong on that. I would definitely check, as what the pictures show are the slowest N/A 4cyl/Auto combo. Not a bad car, just not a Redline.

For $2k I would pick that up in a heartbeat (in fact, where are you located?). The transmission appears to be an automatic, and I would either swap to a manual, or just simply swap in a good one.

That chassis is excellent. Grassroots Motorsports magazine did a comparison between a stock '06 MX5 Miata, a stock '06 Solstice (same chassis as Sky), and a race prepped '99 Miata. The Solstice was only 3 seconds behind the race prepped Miata, and beat the stock miata by 4 seconds on a 36sec course. Really cool cars IMO.

 

[njmr2fan]

I'm in Augusta, It's about 3 towns over from me which is about an hours drive. I may try to get out to see it first hand. I too noticed that the seats don't have the redline embroidery, the front lights are wrong and the badging is missing from the rear. Doesn't appear to be a turbo because there's no badge for that either. Maybe the red interior got lost in translation?

 

[njmr2fan]

I give up... I could never complete a job like that. Don't have the space, the tools, the know-how. Super impressed by people like him who do!

 

[robert843]

If it was a red line it’s worth it but I would just fix it with the turbo engine. Since it looks to not be a red line I would likely pass or low ball the heck out of him at like $1000 and pay @veedubtek to source a v8 engine and tranny and do the swap. I literally just bought my wife a toy car a 2007 Miata a few days ago I’m Toying with adding a supercharger or a turbo to make it a fun car.

 

[veedubtek]

Diesel/manual swap all day. Cool cars, can be highly competitive in the auto-x world. An easier to live with Miata really.

 

[robert843]

Diesel/manual swap all day. Cool cars, can be highly competitive in the auto-x world. An easier to live with Miata really.

Ok after seeing that video of the v8 swap being driven I now want one. @veedubtek what are we looking at to pull this off can it be done for $20k

 

[MattFX4]

This car reminds me of a Honda s2000. A buddy used to have a s2000, and it was a fun car.

 

[njmr2fan]

I think we need @gmtech16450yz to chime in. Looked like a ton of custom work, not only for gauges, for everything to come together.