The man who went from a turbo to a NA PT Cruiser
The AUTO FASHION import REAL powered by AUTO MESSE was held at Kobe Meriken Park on 3 December 2023. We spoke to the owner of Chrysler PT Cruiser Cabrio Limited at the venue of this event, to learn more.
This is his second PT Cruiser
Mr. “Macochib” has been the owner of a 2006 Chrysler PT Cruiser Cabrio Limited for about two years. In fact, he had driven a PT Cruiser before this car.
“I used to drive a turbo called GT. The car I’m driving today was given to me by another owner of a PT Cruiser club, who didn’t want to sell it to a stranger or a second-hand car dealer. I kept both cars for a while in case the previous owner changed his mind and wanted to drive it again, but when the GT had over 200,000 km and various problems started to appear, I gave it up and switched to this one.”
The concept of customization is like an American car
The previous owner was a woman who “tweaked it in a girly way”, but when Mr. Macochib was left with just this one car, she started customising it to her liking. The body colour, which was originally a single colour of silver, was all-penned to a two-tone colour.
Other body-related items include an Eager front bumper and grille, Trick Cruiser roll pan and Mopar side steps at the rear, and a smoothed rear gate. The suspension is now on WORK GOOCARS HEMI wheels, KW dampers and a FOX muffler, while the engine bay and interior have also been touched up.
“I repainted everything to my liking and added pinstripes to make it look like an American car. Also, this is a late model, but I gave it an early model face. The parts fit together, but the shape of the inner fenders are completely different, so I had to do some modifications. I wanted to remove the roll bar because it makes the car look bigger, but the only thing that remains from the previous owner’s days is the pinstripes on the bar, so I kept it. Also, I changed from a turbo engine to an NA engine, so the intake, exhaust and ignition systems have been lightly tuned. I also changed the brakes to Wilwood. I also painted the instrument panel red and had the shift knob pinstriped with a fire pattern.”
The advantage of American cars is that you don’t have to worry about parts supply
Mr. Macochib has driven two PT Cruisers so far, what is the attraction?
“I fell in love with it when it first came out. I thought it would be okay if it was stock, but when I went to PT clubs, everyone was amazing. So I was inspired by that. The Cabrio has a different feeling of exhilaration, and the seat height is low, so your eyes are a little lower, and the ceiling is low, so it’s like a slightly chopped-up version of a roofed car, which is something I like. If I were to do it in the future, it would be air suspension, but I feel like I’ll have to spend a lot of money on maintenance. But that’s the nice thing about American cars, there are quite a few rebuilt parts available in the home country, so I don’t have to worry about that.”
translated by DeepL
