Wait, what happened?

Well this is a week or so late but shit has hit the fan with my cars. Driving the Z back up to Clemson, some electrical gremlin reared it's evil head and it had to limp back home. That left me with the porsche (see previous review) which was less than enjoyable. As good judgement showed, I got the Celica up here as soon as possible, and the porsche decided to eat itself. Something along the lines of the reverse gear in it decided it wanted to play, rough housing within the transmission ensued, and now reverse is dead, the other gears are worse for wear, and the housing is cracked. So Z=in the shop, 944=out like a light. But wait, that leaves me with the Celica. The Celica that leaks water if the thermostat opens. The Celica that has a non functioning fuel pump. The Celica that has more rattles than a desert snake pit. Busted door hinge, leaking oil, and it just keeps going. It has become my daily driver. It's inconvenient and annoying, but it's still carrying me around. Well now a new windshield, new radiator, and new fuel pump are on the way. Not in the works, not the next thing to do, on the way. So that leaves, what, an oil leak? It's miniscule and will be fixed as well. Then what's wrong with it? Rattles? Fixed with an hour and some fire retardant padding. And then... seats? It's shaping up to be a fairly nice car quicker than I imagined. Call it necessity or effort. Call it what you want, but the car is seriously coming to life. The only problem I'm facing is whether or not to continue the pursuit of laughs in favor of building a nice street car. On the one hand, the ironic ricerness of the car is so much fun. "Is that a mini mayonnaise jar? Let's hang it from the bumper!" is just one of the insane and childish things we've said and done. It is unabashedly fun to ride around in it, idling like a boat and cutting a tire loose and generally making a scene. It is the kind of car everyone wants but no one is willing to deal with or be seen in. On the other hand, it is an interesting looking car and is lightweight. I could tone down the stickers, clean everything up, and build a respectably performing classic JDM machine. I'd like to find a nice medium, silly but serious, ricer but respectable. The sad truth is that a balance that contradictory is hard to achieve. I really ought to get a plan and stick to it, but the decision of where to take the car becomes harder every day.

First new post in a while

Well, it's been almost 2 months since my last post. In the last post, I recapped my engine failure in the Z. Turns out Meineike put in used parts, didn't replace everything they said they did or that they were supposed to. Nightmare there. Huge bill and legal mess involved in that. But on the plus side, all those autocrosses and mountain runs were with bad timing and a bad tune. I have Torque now! WEEEEEEEE!!! Anyway, Vanessa has more power and will be getting Adjustable Koni's installed within the month. If all goes well, I'll get a job after I get back to Charleston. That should pay for the rest of the parts for the 5 speed swap, then if anythings left, I'm looking for a proper helmet and harnesses. Wish me luck.

300zx, My personal car.

History:

This is my 1990 300zx. It's an automatic, non-turbo model. The 300zx was originally produced in 1983(1984 US). Having driven one of the first ones, frankly, they were, when stock, wedge shaped $h!t boxes. Sloppy, kinda ugly, and almost no power beyond the seemingly endless turbo lag. The first Gen 300zx was more or less the same as the 280zx before it, just as all the previous Z-cars of Datsun/Nissan had been. It handled about the same as the original fairlady Z...only worse. The remedy? Nissan spent 7 years building the next generation of Z. In that time, they moved the car from a quick, low cost, sports car, to a full size, high tech, money pit, FAST AS BALLS semi-supercar. They also made a fairly cheaper, non-turbo model. The 300zx had such insane features as rear wheel steer(twin turbo only), corner specific wheel geometry, and a semi-rollcage hidden within the interior bits. The 5-speed TT could rocket up to about 160mph. The nonturbo is arguably more impressive in that it doesn't lose much of this performance, regardless of it's claimed loss of 80 HP. Either they lied, or nissan is better without turbos.

My Opinion:

Well, i've been driving this car almost every day since sophomore year of high school. Frankly, it's pretty bad. The automatic is comfortable, but a bit slow. and if they were worried with comfort, why put in race style bucket seats that bend your shoulders so far forward, your knuckles drag the ground. The back seats are too small, the trunk can't carry much more than the T-tops... that leak. In fact, for such a big car, there isn't much room at all. The wheels look goofy and it's actually ugly without some sort of spoiler on the back. It doesn't get very good gas mileage for a 3.0L. Everything is expensive. And yet... I love it. There's something there that outweighs all the problems. The car has a fiery passion that lurks in the shadows of the RPMs the majority of the time you drive it. But every once in a while, the beast that it is will rear it's beautiful head and pull you by the nuts to the edge of euphoria, carrying with it a wail that shatters all doubt to anyone within ear shot that the thing is alive, and it's angry. In retrospect, it's not a very good car for a high school student, but it's a very good dose of lead-foot disease to anyone that can afford the maintenance, which isn't that high as long as you don't touch the internals. In fact, don't even look at them. Remember, the car is angry. And fast? oh boy is it. i've had it up to about a buck forty (private road) and it felt like it wanted to keep going. But reason kicked in and i eased off. The car went and pouted until I opened the taps again about a week later. So one day, go out and drive one. Spend more than a week with one and you'll want to keep it forever.