1984 Acadian
This is my Acadian that I bought brand new in 1984 which I customized over a period of 7 years.
I bought it brand new with only 18 klms on it in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on May 17th, 1984 for only $7287.00.
Options were; 2 tone paint and Tilt Steering...not much really, but hey...it's an Acadian, what would you expect for a cheap car. Don't get me wrong, I think GM had a great car going if you were in the market foaffordable and yes, very reliable transportation (don't believe those poeple who say these were crap, I owned 3 in total and never had any issues with any of them). This was my second new car of this body. The first was a 1979 Chevette which I also bought brand new for $4250.
After a few years, I wanted to have something faster, not having enough money to buy another car I set out to make this little Acadian go faster. I visited my local speed shop and ordered a V6 swap kit from Hooker Headers. The rest as they say is HISTORY. I bought a 3.8 V6 and Automatic Transmission from a wrecked 1985 Olds Cutlass Supreme.
Notice the odd configurations the right side headers go. The collector was right below the main pulley and both exhaust pipes would go down the left side of the engine. The reason for this was starter (not shown) was in the way on the right side not allowing any room for the exhaust to go out that side. Changing the oil was nearly impossible when the engine was hot and the way the headers went it was pretty tough on batteries (the battery touched the header pipe). This picture was taken when I pulled the engine out to repaint it. I painted it grey because that was the colour of my interior. The carburetor was an Edelbrock 750 and the air filter was a Pro Street Blower Style.
See...it did so too go very fast. After this picture was taken I measure the burnout marks. This car did not have posi-trac but the marks were 165 ft on one side and about 60 ft on the other. I was truly astounded that I had twisted my first rear end. Sorry for the crappy picture but it was taken off the video I had made of my burnout. Fastest I know I had it was 135 mph with still room to go, I was being followed by a guy in a luxury car with a digital dash. He followed me to the next stop light and rolled down his window to tell me how fast I was going. It was like, "What the hell do you have in that thing? That is not stock, is it?" To be honest...it was very scary so I never did it again, car was too light and didn't hold the road well at that speed. The car weighed nothing compared to where the engine came from, I went from 65 hp to 180 hp, nearly triple the original.
Oh, one other note, the right side tire was bald in about a week because showing off this power became very addictive. I eased off after I had to cough up another $265 for another tire.
Next was paint the car a much 'cooler' colour....black!
This was a very cheap paint job. It cost me a whole $60. I did it myself with the help of a friend using cheap black enamel paint. It was good enough for a year...then I started getting picky and I wanted to go the next step and built a show car.
This paint job was much better...base coat clear coat pearl metallic black with airbrushed pin stripes and new logo...Acadian GT. No such car existed, so that was my new name for it.
This was the first time in an indoor car show and it was very easy to win1st in my class (sub-compact custom) since competition was very small. If I were to show this now, I would have a lot of competition.
Second show...first time out doors...won 1st in my class...again.
I needed to go another step and I renamed the car.
Full ground effects
After spending many days with card board mock ups and 2 years on the rear spoiler I decided to create full ground effects out of fiberglass. I had also built a custom aluminum grill and used 1988 GMC Sierra headlights. You can see one side of the Supertrapp exhaust. The exhaust on this side is actually from the Driver side of the engine. The windows were tinted 25% in front and 5% in the rear.
A good view of the spoiler. This was a 100% original hand fabricated fiberglass spoiler with a 1987 Mustang GT center mount brake light. Many people asked where I bought it and they couldn't believe I had fabricated it from scratch. Note the personal license plate "WYLD FX". Final look was awesome and it lived to it's Wyld FX name. The step area of the ground effects was covered with a custom bent strip of 16ga brushed stainless steel.
-1996- Toned it down a little, went with a very low profile air filter and put a stock hood back on. I felt the sleeper look was better. The only way people new it wasn't a 4 cylinder was because it didn't sound like one. They knew there was something much more powerful. I put over 45,000 klms on this car since putting the V6 in...man that was fun driving.
After owning it for 12 years, it was time to move on so I sold it in 1997 and never saw it again. Probably a good thing, I would have likely missed it.
...I had my fun, time for something new! Restore my 1975 Monte Carlo.
