So what does it mean when my wife wants to go out in my 84 Camaro? I mean, other than the fact that deep down we're both white trash.
There were no cops whatsoever. The owner of Wheeler's Cycle shop said that Jan/Feb, when the weather is good, is the best kept secret of the Dragon. The roads were fantastic with a ton of enthusiasts, almost no slow drivers, and zero enforcement. It's not like you could go much over the speed limit anyway on that road, though. As for the NSX, has it still not been sold, or is the new owner extremely anal... like most NSX owners. Since getting the NSX, I've had the opportunity to spend some time in and around a few F-cars and Lambos of the early to late nineties, and I am always shocked how much better looking my NSX is, ESPECIALLY with regards to the interiors. The insides of a Diablo or F355 look positively prehistoric.
Come on, I thought everyone knew the IROC wasn't introduced until 85. Well, at least all the white trash and mexicans down here know that. Our favorite activity is taking the Camaro any time we go somewhere classy. My father-in-law paid for our honeymoon at a really expensive resort. It was awesome to see my Camaro parked in a lot with Land Rovers, Mercedes, BMW, and even a Bentley. We like to take it to fancy restaurants too, especially if there are people waiting outside, or eating on the patio. I love that my wife gets as much of a kick out of it as I do.
There is something fun about driving an absolutely horrible car. Mine was a maroon '87 Chrysler Conquest (non-Tsi) with oxblood colored interior that I drove in 02-03. I bought the car as a joke (it was only $900) but ended up enjoying driving it. It flew on the highway and I was in a bit of a disagreement with my employer about a company car (they didn't think I needed one) so I drove it daily for 8 months. The seats were comfy as hell, it had a sweet digital dash and automatic seatbelts. It was funny to my friends for about two weeks but when I refused to take out any other vehicle out they grew sick of it quick. It was a absolutely horrendous looking car and I wish I still had it.
Hey now, let's not get too carried away here. It may be 26 years old, the "High Output" 5.0L might only have been rated at 195 hp, and it might scream "uninsured white trash/minority driver" but absolutely horrible? No sir, not at all. I sold off an 05 Grand Prix GXP (LS4 V8, 303hp) with loaded interior, because once I got the Camaro I wasn't driving it any more. I don't know exactly what it is about that car, it's not that fast, it doesn't have all the gizmos inside, the styling is definitely aged, but I can't help smiling any time I pop the T-tops off and hit the road. I know I posted about the car when I first got it on the other board, but for those of you that don't know, this car was given to me by my father-in-law, George. His brother, Jimmy, bought the car brand new in 84, and drove it for two years. Jimmy had a drug/alcohol problem, and the family made him stop driving in 86. The Camaro was parked in the barn, and just sat there until 92. It was pulled out and taken to the mechanic, who flushed all the fluids, rebuilt the carb, and did a couple other maintenance things. I actually have the invoice. The car was returned to the barn, and forgotten. Jimmy died a couple years ago, and left everything to George. Last October (15 months ago) I was moving some furniture out to the barn for George, and saw this Camaro buried in the corner, covered in rat piss and shit, 15 years of dust, and some rugs and other stuff they were storing out there. I made a comment to my mother in law that George had a pretty cool car sitting out there. Three days later, I got a call from George, telling me that if I could get the car running, and out of his barn, that it was mine. I was out there the next morning, and it's been mine ever since. I drove it home running on half the carb, 1 new tire, and 3 tires that were flat spotted so bad my teeth were shaking. It barely made it to my garage, but it was mine. It had 31,000 miles on it when I got it running, now it's up around 37,000. The interior is perfect, since it was in a dark barn for all but its first 2 years. The only think I had to fix in the interior was that I had to re-glue the headliner fabric. Mechanical repairs were all routine, nothing special. To satisfy requests via rep, a few photos of the redneck-mobile, fittingly taken at George's ranch:
I used to valet park a 1985 Toyota 4wd pickup at a club I went to. When you paid for valet parking you got to walk right past the line to get in immediately. It was awesome.
I have an '05 impala and in the last couple weeks the heat stops coming out of the vents when it's parked idoling. It hasn't done this before but it did start right after the few days we had temps near 0. It's a lease, but I'd like to fix it myself, insted of taking it in. Thanks in advance.
What does the engine temperature gauge read when this happens? Is the air still blowing out the same speed, just colder, or does the air stop blowing? Does it ever happen other than idle, like on the highway in cold weather? Have you checked your coolant level?
I'm not sure what the temp reads. The air is the same speed, just colder. I've only noticed it at idle and durring slow city driving. I haven't checked the coolant, I'll be sure to do that. Thanks.
Three things that come to mind, in order of ease/cheapness: Coolant level Thermostat Water Pump If your engine temp gauge goes really low when the air gets cold, your thermostat could be sticking open. If your engine temp stays the same or goes up while the air gets colder, it's either low coolant, a bad water pump, or maybe a few other things, but those three would be the best place to start. Thermostats are easy to change, and only cost about $10-$15. Just remember to buy a new gasket as well. Water pumps can be a little harder, but for most cars are a fairly good do-it-yourself project.
Ok, I'm looking at buying one of the early S2000s. I found one with 56,000 miles on it, a 2000 model year. I've heard mixed things about these cars. One friend of mine who races in Grand-Am warned me to stay away like the plague. Other people seem to enjoy them. Anyone have any experiences? I love my Miata, and thought about adding a rollbar, seat, forced induction etc to make it a better track car but the S2K is much more comfortable and still performs.
The stock intake on the VQ37 is so good, it is commonly accepted that an aftermarket intake will yield no additional horsepower. High flow cats are fine if you are going to do some sort of forced induction, but again, they aren't the weak link in your system. If you are going to do anything, a set of headers or a y-pipe that eliminates the stock pre-cats will yield a lot more hp (and by "a lot", I mean 10-15... maybe). Of all the modifications, the Borla will be the most gratifying simply for the sound. Bottom line: there isn't a lot of bolt on mods you can do to that engine that is going to be much more than a placebo.
I think you'll have way more fun doing up your Miata. There are also way more opportunities to race with a Miata than an S2000. Spec Miata is some of the "best" racing out there. Some of the biggest cheaters run in that class too, but overall, tons of fun. When you're underfunded, and not able to pony up the time or money to go racing to win (they say "win at all cost" for a reason), it becomes more about the group you're racing with. Some of the best racing around my parts is mid-pack in Pro 3 BMW's (3-series BMW's). These guys have $5k into their cars, and there are about 10 of them that are so damn close to each other in skill and equipment that you'll never know who the hell is going to win on any given weekend. The knob that shows up to the track with the $250k "club racing" car, pit crew, and a fresh engine/tranny every other race might be walking off with a $5 trophy each time, but those Pro 3 guys are having way more fun. $0.02
I should also mention... When you look at going racing, go investigate the various sanctioning bodies and classes, then build/buy a car for whatever class you think you want to run in. The worst thing you can do is buy a car without doing that homework, and then try and figure out where you can run after the fact. You generally are stuck in the bottom of a class leaving the car as it is, or you need to dump shit-loads of cash and effort into modifying the car to be competitive.
I'm just dicking around at HPDE type events. When money allows I'll build a dedicated track car and have a DD. I like the S2000 because it's more comfortable than the Miata but is still a fun convertible that doesn't suck. What kind of cheating goes on in SM? I can already think of a few but I'm just wondering what it is specifically.
Cheating is an art form in spec Miata... usually with trick-valved shocks/etc that are made to look like stock, tricked out engine parts that aren't supposed to be in there, that allow it to rev higher, or have slightly higher compression, etc. The theory behind a "spec" class is that they're all supposed to be pretty well the same. For instance, in Grand Am, all of the Porsche teams (TRG, us, etc) run sealed engines from Porsche. This means that at 60 hours engine time, we send the thing off to Virginia in a crate, and they send it back all rebuilt, and with a little seal on it. If that seal is broken, we can't race. At any given time, a Porsche or Grand Am official can walk up to our car and reflash our ECU, as we're all supposed to be running the same configs. There are certain parameters we can modify and tweak, but a ton of control parameters are limited to certain ranges or values as set out by the factory and Grand Am. We have to run a specific air intake constrictor that limits the amount of air the engine gets. Seeing as an engine is just a big air pump anyway, that controls the amount of HP we can make. And on and on. Well, Spec Miata is kind of supposed to have these same restrictions, but are maintained by the "honour system". When shitty drivers do 2 seconds a lap faster than hot shoes, the car has been fucked with. There's been a huge debate about bringing in "claims racing", such that at the end of the race, anyone can buy the podium cars for a set price, in the hopes of levelling the playing field, but I don't ever see that happening. In the end, people do a lot of fucked up stuff to win themselves a $5 trophy. Just Google "spec miata cheating", and you'll see all sorts of posts from the spec Miata forums about the cheater parts, etc. It's fucking hilarious to watch.