Gday. Im a similar phase to yourself mate. My partner would go before my cars would so she's resigned to me financial incompetance and my childish fantasies with my toys
1. With communication the way it is today I dont see the issue with getting one anywhere in Australia. In my view overseas is the big boundary especially given the need to do your ICV to relevant adrs. With projects Ive done in the past like my Mazda some of the best ideas and insights has come from people outside of my immediate circle and broadening the audience helped me get new insights.
I have very specific engineering standards Im looking for in a kit and I have been struck by the Classic Revival kit. There are a few things which I want to take a different direction on but I reckon its a solid start the CR kit offers.
2. The Lexus V8 is an exceptional engine which meets ADRs and is cost effective. Its a bit down on power in comparison to bigger NA motors but if you want more power later on, go twin turbo, the right setup with intercooling, water injection and all the tricks would see over 1000hp on pump fuel I'd wager - more than youd ever want.
3. Im not buying any kit without seeing the instructions first. What will help alot is buying some technical car / engineering books as these is loads of details in the better books Ive bought.
4. Personally I dont care about donor parts or custom parts - its the engineering specifications that Im interested in. e.g. Various things about the suspension geometry, chassis stiffness etcetc.
5. Youll want to partner up with your engineer all the way through the project. However my advice is to look through the rules yourself......two engineers I had for my last project - the first one was fine with it on paper, took it for a drive with me in the passenger seat and he was gutter to gutter correcting slides and freaked out when it hit boost. The second bloke ended up approving modifications I found out later were actually illegal. Of all things I think this aspect of the project is the most difficult and its the aspect thats very important.