I bought mine in 2001, so coming up on 10 years. I paid $5000 and it had 77,000miles. I replaced the clutch and drove it for a while. Then the go fast thing hit and its been all down hill from there. I did a motor rebuild, replaced the turbo with a Mutt level 1, made intercooler piping for a FMIC, up graded the clutch/flywheel/fuel pump/AFC2.
Then after that I built a wiseco/eagle motor, 60trim turbo and supporting mods, aem ems, etc. I sold most everything after swapping the setup into my red 90 Talon awd. I would say up to then I had around $16k including the price of the car.
The current build has been in the making from about 2004. But in reality it took about a year at 20 or so hours a week with 2 guys working on it. The parts total in my current setup is huge. I had over $8,000 into the engine alone, that lasted 300 miles before cracking the cylinder wall, with all the parts and the 4 machine shops it was at before it ran. I had the fire and need to buy another AEM EMS, but I figure total in parts for this setup $30,000. Then the labor, if you figure $60 an hour for 2000 hours. Based on that I am well into the 6 figure range.
But lucky for me we have done all the fabrication and custom 1 off parts for this build. So total out pocket in the $40,000 range.
And for my money spent I have come to 650awhp on a DynoDynamics dyno running E85 and 38psi. Ran a best of 10.06@148mph in the 1/4 mile on the second pass ever with this new setup. More to come for sure in 2011.
~John