Sweet Car Thread.

I dunno dude.  I'm trying to stay positive here, but I don't see it.  And this coming from a guy who owned a Jeep truck.

I know it's a stretch but I've been watching Mecum Auctions for years and years. Trucks took off about 5ish years ago and are soaring right now. It would have to be the right one, Rubicon for sure. Good luck trying to buy a Scrambler ( a real one) for under 20K right now, a nice one is 30k+

Anyway, I'm a total sucker for 4X4's. Always have been.

Yeah, I mean people are weird.  Ya never know what's gonna be the next fancy.

I just mean from a practical standpoint I'd rather have a real, long bed truck or a short wheelbase Jeep.

My Jeep truck was an original Willys, and I believe it had the same wheelbase as the Jeep, it just had a pickup bed on it.

Those Willy's trucks do stupid money --- even a 2wd will top 20K

Yeah, I bet if they are restored and original.

Mine was 4wd and straight 6, top 'o the line.  It was also a runner, not a show truck.  And I also beat the shit out of it.  I actually drove it out in the woods, fields and seasonal roads.  The only pavement it cared to see was getting to another one of those three where I didn't have a dirt road as an option.

I would actually love to have a resto-mod.  Nice medium lift suspension, Chevy V8, heat, etc..  but I'm not about to dump my retirement into more car/truck nonsense.  Been there, done that.

I don't know if you've ever watched the show "Mountain Men", but this guy, Rich Lewis has an old Willys p/up named "Wilbur" that he uses for hounding mountain lions with his dogs.

It's a pretty cool truck, and reminds me of my old rig although he has wider, more modern tires.

You don't see too many of these anymore.  The Fiero GT.  From the brilliant engineers and product developers that would eventually develop the hideous contraption forever immortalized by savant meth cook Walt White in Breaking Bad... the Aztec.  Some of them exploded upon rear end impact... in an area dominated by lift assisted full size trucks, it just doesn't seem safe

This one is in really good condition.

Only GM could take the best possible engine/drivetrain layout and make it the worst imaginable.  This was not a particularly great era for them all around.

The Aztec is an engineering masterpiece compared to a Fiero.

WTBS, GM started to friggin' kick ass in the sports car category in the late 90s with the C5.  Corvette went from kind of bland and guido to world class at a ridiculously affordable price, virtually overnight (actually not, they spent a lot of time developing that car and killed it Le Mans racing with it).  I'd still love to have a C5 Z06.  Even the early, weak ones are awesome cars.

This is one of my favorite Vettes that I often see around town... it's actually someone's everyday vehicle. I see it all over the place.

That's a C4 body.  No idea what it's actually driving on though...

Cunningstunts wrote

I dunno dude.  I'm trying to stay positive here, but I don't see it.  And this coming from a guy who owned a Jeep truck.

....and you can again with the Jeep Gladiator.

nepa wrote

I'm not saying it's not a neat looking car, but aren't Fieros and the newer Beetles driven exclusively by women?  Some sort of law of nature.  Similarly, only white haired old men drive a Buick.

D.B. Cooper wrote

Cunningstunts wrote

I dunno dude.  I'm trying to stay positive here, but I don't see it.  And this coming from a guy who owned a Jeep truck.

....and you can again with the Jeep Gladiator.

Read back one - my response was to Camper posting that thing.

campgottagopee wrote

I had an 88 GTI 16v --- what fun that car was ---- Vdubbs have always been cool

This might look familiar to you then:




I was in the process of converting it into a full SCCA Street Prepared/Improved Touring race car when this pic was taken.  I think had figured out most of the stuff and had the suspension worked out, which I engineered myself.  I used Koni dampers all around and built double adjustables into the stock housings.  Springs were linear rate race springs.  I forge what rates I was using.

I had some monster hoosiers mounted on 13" rims, but not in that picture.  Not sure what was going on then, but I know I had some rubbing issues with them.

The engine was mildly built to the specs in those classes.


I gotta be honest, I didn't love that car.  It didn't handle all that great and the engine was a little weak.  At least for how it was classified in racing structure.  The 8V version are much more competitive because they race a class down.  I hated the shifter.  It has to be the worst linkage in the automotive world.  The brakes never worked well.  Or as well as I wanted them to.  I tried all sorts of stuff, different master cylinders, bleeding, rebuilding everything, etc.  I think they just feel kind of shitty always.  I even tried a Jetta front brake setup.  No change.

I eventually took it apart and made it a street car again, and gave it to my wife to drive.

In retrospect I wish I would have built a CRX instead of that car.  They were just faster on the track and easier to work with.

I raced the shit out of that little car.  I bought it brand new.  It's a Dodge Neon American Club Racer.  It's basically a stripped down rental car with a more powerful engine and decent suspension.  it's supposed be "race ready" right from the showroom floor, and specifically for SCCA Stock/Showroom Stock racing.  You're allowed to change the brake pads and put sticky tires on it.  It was fun stuff and pretty affordable.  I never won a National championship, but, I wasn't really going for that.  Just a kid who wanted to do some competitive driving.

I wish I had pics because I also raced it in the winter and on dirt.  I never did a full multi-day rally, just rally cross.  That was a lot of fun.

I gotta say, that little car didn't owe me anything in the end.  It was pretty damn reliable.  I trashed a transmission about halfway through my time with it and clutch, lots of brake pads, suspension bushings, tires, but other than that, not too much.  I raced it almost every weekend for about 4 years and then traded it in on a new car.

Well I guess camp is too bitter to respond to my stoke, so I'll keep going.  Maybe someone will find it interesting.

I traded that Neon in - dealer just thought it was a regular base POS, but I got good money for it.  I wound up with one of these:



Black with those horseshoe rims.  That isn't mine, I don't think I have a pic anywhere.

That car was my favorite of any I've had.  It was just a super well done vehicle.  The engine (turbo FSI), was great, the chassis was good, the ergo i.e. shifter, steering wheel, seats was the best of any hot hatch I've ever driven.  I also thought they looked pretty damn good for a hot hatch.

Never raced that car.  Was just a DD.  I always felt it was one of those cars that was really awesome up to 90% of it's limit, and then it just sucked.  Which isn't great for a competition vehicle but for the road, perfect.

That car was also incredibly versatile.  I did a lot of camping with it.  Towed a small trailer with it.  Drove great in the winter with snow tires.

I thought it Eons ahead of the 89 I had.

Since my last 3 posts here were so wildly successful, I'm going to make another

Ever buy a car off of eBay?  I have.

I picked up a 1991 British Racing Green Mazda Miata Special Edition a few years back on an online auction.  It's tough to buy a car if you can't drive it or really look it over, and even then, you'll likely miss something.  This car didn't look perfect but it was said to run and drive well (eh... we'll get to that later) have less than 70k original miles and didn't appear to ever have been driven in winter or salt.  I wound up winning the auction (obviously) and although I paid a tad bit more than I wanted for the car, it was still looking like a pretty good snag.

Then came the process of shipping the car to me.  It was in Allentown, PA, I was in Rochester, NY.  I could have got someone to drive me down and bring it back but thinking of all the nightmares that could occur in that journey, I decided shipping was best.

Car shows up at my house about a week later.  It looks a little rough.  I start it up.  It runs, but not great.  Kind of sputtering and it doesn't seem to have full power.  Top looks original.  The rear window, which is plastic is brittle I cracked it the first time I touched it.  Oops.  TIme for a new top.  Back to the drive.  There's a small leak somewhere in the exhaust as the car sounds a little loud and it's smells kind of like gasoline when I accelerate hard.  Suspension seems pretty beat and wallowy.  Tires are good, clutch feels good, trans shifts good.  Interior is OK - about as good as you can expect for an over 20 year old original interior.  Quite a few dents and dings here and there.  OK - no big deal.  I'm more concerned about the engine.

I check the compression.  It's OK on 3 cylinders, 1 is really low.  Almost nada.  Not great.  I suspect valvetrain, but no idea really.  Could be cracked piston or block.  I start pricing out used wreck motors.

So after a few days, I get it to my work garage and decide to dive in.  I'm really crossing my fingers it's something in the head or valvetrain and the bottom end is fine.  So I pull here apart.



Pre-surgery.



Mid-surgery.

I got really lucky and it appeared to be a burned exhaust valve.  Question was why?  Was I going to rebuild and it would shortly burn another?  Lots of carbon everywhere, and remember that gasoline smell.  Seems like the car was running really rich.  I went through and checked some critical stuff in the fuel injection system - everything seemed to check out.  I couldn't check the O2 sensor, but I was real suspicious, so I changed it.

Rebuilt the head, cleaned all the lifters, new water pump/timing belt, belts, etc, etc... Put it back together and she ran like a top.  Then to the top.  Put a new soft top on - man that's a PITA.  New shocks, joints, changed the diff and trans fluids.  Mechanically it was pretty top notch now.

Then the body.  I took it to a PDR guy and had pop out the worst stuff.  The trunk and hood are aluminum, and that's a lot harder to work with, but he did a great job.  I couldn't tell where the dents were.  Some touch up paint here and there and a buff and it was looking pretty good:



Drove it for a couple summers and decided I didn't really love it.  It was OK, but I don't think I'm a convertible guy.  Or a Miata guy.  I was actually looking into an older 3 series BMW as an alternative when I bought this.  But I'd had enough of quirky German cars with my VWs.

I sold it for a pretty good price to an older lady who was looking for a cruiser.  I gave the money to my wife so she could go to Europe for a week.  No regrets, it was a good learning experience.

I love the Miata..
That car is a blast to drive

my buddy bought a 2010 Porsche boxster for a song on ebay..car runs like a top

I bought 52 cars online just this week --- LOL