Guest Appearance: The Baby Goat

Specs: The ricer-racer pictured above belongs to my friend David. It is a 6- Speed 2003 Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V. That's a mouth full haha (insert "that's what she said"). Basically it's a 2.5 litre FWD 4 door economy sedan. It produces 175hp and 180 ft-lbs. Whoopdee flippin do.

Opinion: Oh the baby goat. The punching bag of the sports car club. It's ugly, slow, broken, noisy but not in a good way, plastic, rattly, uncomfortable, uneconomical, and offensive to all 5 senses. Yes it tastes bad. It is held together with tape and zip ties, everything breaks, it's solid motor mounts transmit all the engine's vibrations into your spine, it has one (count it one) bucket seat, a moron for a driver, it three wheels, and worst of all it gets it's nickname from the exhaust sound that resembles a baby goat being beat to death with it's own leg. The paint looks like the car was invited to a party, made an @$$ out of itself, everyone there keyed it, and a monkey with a paint pen tried to touch it up with $h!t in it's hand. With the combination of bucket seat, driver, and sloppy suspension you will likely end up sitting on the door at some point. The Koni performance shocks reduce the roller coaster feel, but the leaning in the turns has turned into you sliding out of your seat at .95 G's. Frankly, I hate it. I despise it with every thing that I am. I have a hatred so deep for the hunk of $h!t that I cut it down as often as I can. But I don't hate it for any of the problems it has. I hate it because it's driver can outrun me in it in spite of it's unending fallacies. He outruns Corvettes and Bimmers and all manner of sports cars. He has raised the bar for everyone of my friends. Autocrossing is no longer about setting a good time. It is about setting a better time than David and the Babi Gat. It is about defending our logic that a faster car should be faster. It is about beating this latently homosexual college senior and his busted-@$$ toaster. Despite all the hatred, David is one of my best friends. The truth is the Baby Goat is our muse, and David is an artist.

-Keep surprising them Buddy.

It's actually a Review!!!!: 1996 BMW E36

History: The Third Generation of BMW's ever popular 3-series the E36 is a very successful Chassis. Weighing in at 3100 lbs and some change, this RWD(Rear Wheel Drive) sports car was sold as a coupe from 1992-2000, a saloon(4-door) from 1991-1999, and a Cabriolet(convertible) from 1994-2000. A popular European model was the 318ti, which was a shortened, smaller version of the 2 door coupe. With an independent rear end and suspension born on the race track, the BMW E36 was a fun and competent street and track car. Riding on the coat tails of it's predecessor's popularity, consumers worldwide bought them like hot cakes. Thanks to the sales numbers there are plenty of cheap E36's in good condition ripe for the picking.

Opinion: First and foremost, I am biased. I own a Nissan and love it beyond all comprehension. Being a proud JDM(Japanese Domestic Market) whore I look to Japanese style trends to pick parts for my beloved Z. That being said, I do not inherently hate Euro, American or any other nationality of car, I just know and love JDM. It takes something exceptional to impress me. My room mate Zach has the 1996 328is (the "s" at the end means 2 door) pictured above. I've driven it around campus a few times and I must say...I'm surprised. I'm surprised because I like it. This little Black 3 series has been implanting the Euro bug in my brain for the greater half of this year. When it first arrived in Clemson after Christmas break, I was enamored at the phaser-like induction noise from the 2.8 litre (yes I spell it "re", no I am not a pretentious prick) Inline six brought me in. It's german and therefore the crisp handling and responsive 5 speed transmission inspire confidence and the insanely forgiving suspension make you look like a hero when you over step it's boundaries. My biggest problems? It's too low for a GT car. We had a fairly steep incline leading into our dorm parking lot and he dragged when my car glided unscathed over the sidewalk. Also, IT'S GERMAN!! I blame my hatred for Deutsche Autos on my Dad's time bomb of a porsche 944. His car has yet to have any problems.

Pros: It's German

Cons: It's German

The Bottom Line: I used to think I wanted a 240SX for a track car, but I want an E36.

Profiling: classifying the people in my math class... and some car news

Two days in a row I have found out things about the people in my class.

Tuesday: we hit a point in our lesson on series. The teacher said that a (written how it sounded) "McLaren sum is a Taylor sum centered at zero". She then asked if there were any questions. Without hesitation, about 7 guys raised their hands. The teacher looked a bit surprised. She called on (who i call) Tony Stewart....he looks just like Tony Stewart! Anyway, he asked "how do you spell it?" She said M-c-L-a-u-r-i-n. We were disappointed. Profile: there are 7 other car people in my class.

Today: The teacher got a little lost halfway through a problem and trailed off while saying "this...is...: the guy in front of Tony Stewart said ever so nonchalantly "Sparta" and kicked over his empty soda bottle. I almost pissed myself laughing. So did about half the class. Profile: those laughing spend too much time on the internet.

Car Stuff: David got his front bumper ripped off by a redneck. Now he has a really cool looking front bumper from his last instructor at CMP. Pics on my profile. Also, I'm rebuilding an old Briggs 5 horse and putting it on the doodle bug. Loving the 300zx right now. Probably painting the stock wheels this weekend. Wish me luck.

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.

A rough weekend for cars

I've dealt with 2 major engine failures in one weekend. I found out Saturday that when trying to start the SC2, it threw a rod. Fail number one. Back to square one as far as a track machine. This isn't horrible news, as I found out that the SC2 has almost no modification potential. Nobody's ever built one to be fast. So the silver lining is there, but faint. Fail Numero dos: after a blazingly fun run through the mountains of Ceasar's Head, on the way back, the bearing on my fan failed and launched the fan into the radiator, subsequently richocheting and slicing up the belts, raising the temperature so fast Patrick McGinnis and I rolled to a stop and killed the engine. To top it off, the illiterate wrecker who delivered my car to the offending shop that caused the bearing breakage scraped up my front bumper and started the mangled engine...Twice. The first thing I told him was to not start it. Oh well, if there's any damage, he's paying for it. I have to thank Zach Gobeille for driving my ass around to meet the wrecker, and for his AAA, and for keeping me from murdering a hillbilly flat-bed driver with my shoe. Anyway, Vanessa'll be back in action soon and I still have a spot open for a track car. Let's hope for something cool.

Recent Activity

I finally tried my hand at SCCA's STX class in my 300ZX. I came in 5th. Out of 8. The upside? I learned that the new Dunlop Star Specs make my braking distances drastically shorter and that I need to make my transmission grip more. Time for new tranny fluid and some practice. I came into possession of a 1994ish saturn SC2 twin cam. Yay free track cars!!! Now to spend the summer working, going to school, and starting project saturn.

Tragedy and Safety

I got some disturbing news today. My cousin, who will remain unnamed, is 21. She was married last year. Today her husband died on his motorcycle. He was 22. I won't go into details, but it rings home the importance of safety. I know so many people who have gotten hurt or killed on motorcycles. It isn't safe and it isn't worth it. I would love to one day have a track bike, but until they make motor-ways for 2 wheeled vehicles, it just isn't safe to ride on the highway. That is not to say that cars are indestructible. The real lesson is that our motor-ways are deadly. Tens of thousands of people die every year on USA roads. Keep an eye out and stay safe.

Keep the motor running.