It took us roughly two hours to get to our home town, and after we dropped a few of our guys off, me and two others headed straight for the nearest repair shop. After giving the boffins another two hours to inspect the car completely, they told us it was a complete write-off.



The whole front end of the car was bent so hard down to the X-bone frame that even if they spent vast amounts of money and time into repairing it, it still wouldn't have any sort of structural stiffness or rigidity and would never get insured. However, there are some parts on the wreckage that are worth some money. For instance, the engine. A surprise to us, but apparently the block, the crank, the head and the pistons are all intact after the mechanics swiftly lifted the engine out of the engine bay (it was being held in by towing rope when we were towing the car with us). Everything else, like the fuel injectors, oil pan (naturally), transmission etc. were of little use. A few other things were valuable too, like the rear bumper and tail lights along with the interior which was mostly intact (save for the airbags which have fired off).

After all this, the chief mechanic gave me an offer. If we gave them this wreckage, which they can then scavenge and sell whatever they find that's valuable to make a profit, they will give us a rolling S2000 chassis that's in good condition. I said 'yes, sounds like a bargain', and handed him the money which was V$2,450, then immediately took off, while I was left feeling rather pleased.

Soon, however, I realized why he made that offer, and why it was so cheap.



It had no engine, no lights, no seats, no wiring and the wheels weren't included, they're only there so the car could roll into the shop. So really, not much to speak of. But I took it anyway, because it's surely an improvement over the totaled wreck that I brought in, and because I can actually work on it in the future, even if it's slowly.

So now I'm currently at my house with my ca- sorry, chassis in the garage. What do I do first? Get some wheels and try to find an engine?