East coast hot rod build - long hood 911

[lee88]

I'm contemplating a hot rod / "R Gruppe" type build of a long hood 911. I own other air cooled 911s including restored cars (2 G-series and a 993), but would like to have a long hood styled 911 that's unique and that I can drive to my heart's content and not worry about mileage, unoriginality, etc. I'm not interested in building an RS clone... no offense to those that have them, but I just want something uniquely wonderful rather than a less expensive facsimile of a wonderful car. I also want to build a street oriented car that still retains its interior, motor with useable powerband rather than a super peaky one, etc... not an all out track weapon. Kind of like a Singer... though I have a substantial budget, I don't really want to lay out $300K+ for a hot rod type car though they do build beautiful cars with unbelievable attention to detail.

For any folks on the east coast who've done similar projects, which shops did you work with? There's obviously a plethora of shops in California and Oregon who do well regarded builds and I wouldn't rule that out, but I live in New England. My preference is not only to work with a group closer to home, but also to patronize one of the good folks here on the east coast as we have plenty that sometimes don't get enough credit (Musante, Exotech, Speedsport, CPR East in MD, Lufteknic, etc).

I've worked with some shops in MA and RI for basic service and even a rebuild of the 2.7RS motor in my '74 MFI Carrera, but never a ground up build of a car. I may do some basic work like some of the stripping/prep of the donor car and perhaps a few final assembly or cosmetic items, but would prefer to work with a shop that has expertise in building full cars and has a majority of necessary capabilities in house (e.g. machine shop, fabrication / body / paint, dyno, etc).

If you've undertaken something like this and would share your shop recommendations (and any of your build story in thread or PM), I'd certainly appreciate it. I've done searches here, Pelican, and Rennlist so have read a few anecdotes but haven't found many threads with recommendations for this type of project (please feel free to point me in the direction if I missed obvious ones). Thanks.

[Longballa]

Lee, you'll find that most shops sub out the paint and body work as it's a totally different skill set than wrenching. I'm not on the East Coast but shoot me a pm if you want to talk on the subject as I've done a few of these now. -Scott

[Bill Simmeth]

Welcome and good luck on your quest. If you're in Rhode Island, you're not very far from Automobile Associates in Canton, CT. They are one of the best (so I hear, have no direct experience) and have helped other members with their hot rod builds. Here's a link to their website.

[tom1394racing]

The team at Auto Associates are experts at long hood hot rods.

PM me and I will share my experience working with them on my RSR hot rod.