A fun Budget Build:

Grab a blown motor 996.1 coupe, manual for the lowest price possible with a good body and interior. Thinking a good search would get you one for about $9k.

1. Coilovers - $1,300
2. Lowest cost LS engine 5.3 out of the Truck or stay aluminum and go with a higher miles one in good order - $1,200
3. Renegade swap kit - ??
4. Stock mufflers for the sleeper set-up

Someone over on LSX tech built a nice one similar to the above description and sold it for $25k or so complete.

The best part is when this is done the upside is $15-20 oil changes, more power, an engine that will run forever and if it breaks costs about $1,000-$1,500 to replace. The mild downside is you might slightly raise the center of gravity. Overall tail weight will stay the same or may even drop.

 

Show her the GTR wing from the 996TT and I'm sure she will think the 996 Cab Gemballa spoiler is very tame.



I only went with the front bumper =)

 

The cost of the renegade kit is what's holding a lot back as a deluxe kit along with all the nickel and dime pieces can easily get you over the $10k mark just for the conversion parts. Only a handful of converted guys have working a/c.

Most that's going to go through the conversion hassle will not wanna drop a old $1200 truck motor in there. Most likely they'll go with a more modern LS motor with aluminum heads/block which is another $8k. Add on painless wiring and FAST ecu for another $2k and you can see this really doesn't fall into the "budget" category any longer.

If you go with modern LS, it will be lighter than the m96, but the weight is distributed more high so from a handling perspective, it's a wash.

As for $15-20 oil changes, depends on if you're using synthetic on the Chevy. I know I only pay around $27 for oil changes(including filter) on my m96 996 using m1 w/rebate.

 

Agreed - The kit cost almost forces you to want to go big on the motor. The one that sold for $25k was a giveway.

http://jalopnik.com/for-25-000-see-i...six-1448692371

I pay $40 in oil 0w40 M1 and then probably another $13 for the mahle filter on Amazon. That is impressive if you can get 10 quarts of oil and a filter for $27.

 

That link is member White-Out's old car here. He recouped quite a bit of cost by parting out a Camaro IIRC as he bought a whole parts car for cheap.

I buy Mahle oil filters in bulk which comes out to around $7 each. M1 costs $22.88 per 5qt jug around me and I get $12 rebate from Mobil so a couple bucks off the current price mentioned which was what I used to pay before they increased their oil filter prices a bit.