Anyone here car nuts?

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Amity has a real zest for life

Hey! That Baja is a local! He did a full STI engine swap, build thread is here:

http://toptierimports.com/index.php?topic=7443.0

Wow! I just realized you live in Canada. This person is one of the most famous Baja owners on the internet and goes by the name of Nitro350z on Scoobytruck. I've been following his build post there (same post you linked to) for a while and he's done some amazing custom mods to his Baja. It's absolutely beautiful and he's also an excellent photographer.

He sure has, there's a lot of cool builds and cars in and around Winnipeg. My buddy has a mint RHD Legacy Touring Wagon GT-B Twin Turbo. That thing hauls ass once it gets on the second turbo. I myself wanted one, but parts could get pricy to get/import. Labour isn't an issue thankfully, I'm a real DIY guy, and I'd like to reach New Zealander DIY status! The builds those Kiwis come up with are legendary, and most of them do it all themselves!

Oh yes. I've played with cars for many years... I recently sold off a 2004 Porsche Cayenne turbo, 450hp. It was a pain on the maintenance end and just to replace a headliner with factory eqvt. fabric was $3,000! All because the headliner was starting to lose adhesion in the Florida heat. Plus it had some other issues, I had to do the cooling pipe repair after one of the sub-standard plastic pipes let loose at 61K miles and that was a pain. Friend of mine that's a line tech with Hyundai and I did the repair in my driveway over a weekend. Had to take the intake manifold clean off of the engine to access the pipes, it was in the valley of the motor where the work needed to be done. And we threw in a starter while it was open as the icky pink Porsche coolant saturated the original starter when the pipes went.

Quick story, it was so funny.... I was looking at a 2009 BMW 335D that CarMax in Sanford, FL had after I made the decision to get rid of the Porsche. The car was loaded and had low miles on it, paddle shifters, etc etc... it was advertised for around $24K. Anyway... I gave them the Porsche for an appraisal while I was out test driving the 335D.... After I drove it and brought the BMW back I walked over to the salesman's cubicle and sat down. The offer for trade-in from CarMax was $2,500. I laughed.... and laughed.... and told the salesman that the used car appraiser needed to be substance-abuse tested, got up and walked out. I sold the Porsche for $15,000 on private party sale a week later.

My daily driver is a 2011 Chevrolet Caprice PPV... rather rare car, not many in private ownership here in the US. I display it at car shows and yes, it's been modded. SLP Powerflo exhaust, Rotofab CAI, rear end ratio change from 2.92 to 3.45, street tune.... it'll chirp the 1-2, 2-3, and sometimes the 3-4 shift when I get into it. And.... I have NO personal knowledge the car will do 150 in 5th gear before it shifts into 6th....



Eric

Awesome! Did you get the 335, or go with something else?

You listing the costs for repairing your Porsche made me realize this is why I'll probably never own something exotic. Would much rather start with a humbler platform and build it up. It's more fun that way anyways.

Also the image you posted is broken...

Ending up not getting the 335D, actually went a little older and got a loaded 2005 Mercedes E320 CDI. It gets close to 40 MPH highway, I put a Green Diesel Engineering eco tune on it to help with turbo lag. The tune didn't help with fuel economy as advertised but the car does feel more "peppy". I really need to dyno it with and without the tune in to see the results. The tune does modify the EGR operation, which is the bad point of that series diesel (EGR causes carbonization). That and sub-standard copper crush seals used with the six injectors, which when they go bad result in what's called "black death" from injector blow-by. Poor Mercedes design. But this car was a cream puff that had always been garaged, 42K miles on it when I purchased it. The former owner was the CEO of a K-street DC lobbying firm, when I cleared the GPS after I bought it I found entries like "Sam Rayburn House Office Building" "Kennedy Center", etc etc... Driving Dynamic Seats, Logic 7 stereo, can't ask for a more comfortable car on a road trip except for a limo probably.

I have just been for a drive for a few hours and done around 100 or just over miles in my little Mitsi. As several roads were single track so 20mph was too fast for the corners, and one of them wasn't wide enought to take a modern tractor. A range Rover would be too wide! so the average speed was only 30mph, but the car did give an average of 62.4 mpg. It's nice to have a little trip computer onboard. For most of the journey it was averaging 65 to 68mpg, but I put my foot down a bit on the way back as we had to get back to feed the animals. It was showing 63mpg before I had to climb this hill! It is a nice little car with a lovely sounding engine. It has a nice turn of speed when one needs it too, but don't expect much economy as it can go right down to the higher 40's.
It was a nice drive.

Not a car nut, but I really like my new car, a Honda FIT. My old car gave me a lot of trouble, and it was time for a change. My new car is bigger and gives me a greater sense of safety and security.

Picture shows Mum and Mitsi.
Mitsi does good mpg. Nice car... I love Mitsi! I love my Mum too... Of corse I love my Mum.

Your Mum looks like a nice and healthy person.

Cool car, too.

Took the picture a couple of weeks ago when we were on another minor road and I stopped to have a look at the water under a bridge.

That’s all water under the bridge

Seriously, I like that picture.

Thanks. Is typical of the scenery here. Green. The car is lovely. My brother has one as well. His has a petrol engine and mine has a diesel engine. Both cars run well and are economical. They may not be the best quality internally but they are cheap to run and seem to accelerate well. Small on the outside, yet spacious on the inside, and easy to drive. I couldn't find the power steering reservoir to check it had enough fluid. After a day of looking I found out why. Electric power steering. It works well actually, as it works with the same assistance at low revs as it does at high revs. It is quick enough. A type of car that I do not know how quick as it is difficult to tell. It is, however in its element climbing hills!

I confess to not being able to drive a manual transmission----a most disconcerting thing were I to rent a car in the UK.