The story goes that the second owner had previously been into modified Japanese cars and had owned a heavily modified Supra beforehand, but then wanted something different. The actual events seem to be lost in the mists of time but as far as I can gather, the second owner considered to car to be down on power and the car was eventually fitted with a Motec ECU as well as a custom exhaust system to replace the rusty original that was beyond repair and original replacements were found to be nla. After much time and expense the original engine was coaxed into producing around 350 bhp. I have seen elsewhere that this was later replaced with the last new old stock Ghibli Open Cup engine sourced from Eurospares and was then further developed by Owen Developments in Oxfordshire, supposedly to 365bhp. The car has had a number of rust repairs in the past due to the original owner using it as a daily driver in all weathers and the wheels were colour coded when they were refurbished after they were found to be leaking (a common issue on Speedline Alessios). Interestingly this car is one of 2 UK Cups that were supplied with KMH speedometers due to a manufacturing error (the other is *0183).
A couple more shots of the modifications:
"Interesting" front grille. When I saw the car it had the headlights from a late Biturbo (known as the restyling) such as would be found on a Racing or a second series 2.24v. These have the small round projector outer lights and the square inner lights. Even back in 2005 or so, Ghibli headlamps were very difficult to find and these were the only solution at the time to a broken headlight.
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another shot of the rear wing
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Matching black leather cushions for rear seats
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and here is the power graph from Owen Developments which I believe is from the original engine on Motec engine management running standard boost
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I think it would still be the cheapest Cup in the UK due to its perception amongst those in the know but its probably not as bad as its reputation suggests, its certainly had a lot of money spend on it in the past.