First off, incase you haven't figured it out. My name is Tim, and I live in rural eastern Ohio. I'm married with a child. This means it will take a longer process to get my Tempo up to the standards I think it would be at. I've got other responsibilties to take care of before I work on my car. I got my 1988 Ford Tempo on my 21th birthday. At that time it was a daily driver and only took me back and forth to work. I had no intrest in doing anything to it except keeping it on the road to get to work. I never realized the potential of this durable little car until I discovered TempoTopaz.com
If I would have know about the site back then. I would have taken better care of this car.
Now some people may say What's the point? I answer this by saying. This was my first car and like alot of other people out there. It holds a special place in my heart. There arn't many bolt on performance parts for these cars. What we do with our cars, we either have to adapt from other Ford cars trucks, or custom build. With that in mind, we have had to become very creative. Most of the Tempo's and Topaz's I've seen with performance mods were designed or adapted by their owners. Because there are so few aftermarket parts for these cars, we have learned a great deal of things. We have worked out how to place engines from Escort GT's, Probe's, Taurus's and from other applications into our cars. For anyone that wants to dismiss me , and say this car is worthless. I will have to tell you that this car has outlasted many other better cars. Granted Ford did not give us the best to work with. But the 2.3L HSC engine in the car has a very long lifespan. Most owners of Tempo's and Topaz's have over 100,000 miles on their cars and they are still daily drivers. The cars have been mocked, for not being speed machines or for having been made less that quality. Like any car, if you do not keep it maintained, it will fall apart. As of 8/8/02, I bought a 1989 Topaz LTS. This car is fairly rare, and has the 2.3L HSO (high specific output). I have found that I very much enjoy driving this car. It has alittle more power than my Tempo, and has a better suspension package After owning the car for 1 day. I have decided that this car will be my new project. I am going to keep my Tempo running just because it holds a special place in my heart. I bought my Topaz used at a local GM dealership. I only paid $200 for the car, plus another $91 for tax, title and fees. The guys at the dealership had no idea that the car was rare and actually somewhat worth something. The problems with this car are only minor. A broken mirrow cowl, a power window off track, and I found out the gas tank is leaky. All in all, it was a good deal for the price.