Geeto67

Stone http://www.whobeds.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/installing-driveway-pavers.jpg

There are a ton of the Harbor Freight used ones on CL for about 1/2 what a new one costs. Most get used for a season and then sold at a loss. I would bedliner the deck on the HF one anyway as their paint is shitty. here is the cheapest one I saw: http://columbus.craigslist.org/mcy/4989323534.html

Yes it is the cheap rental trim level. Cloth black seats (not gray, black!), red sparkle paint, no options but a radio. 2014 model. It's not ugly. Car has 22K rental miles on it. The doors don't even line up though. Up until this week my worst car list was: - 2014 Nissan Altima (another rental) - 2014 Camaro V6 Auto (yes the 300 hp one) - 2007 Chrysler Sebring convertible - Dodge Omni - non supercharged/turbo mini cooper surprisingly the jeep patriot I had as a rental in Jan didn't make the list. It was gutless and it handled like a buckboard, but the interior was actually pretty nice.

I have a rental Chrysler 200 for the next couple of days. I finally understand why the only people who buy them are rental agencies. For those of you that don't know me, I drive a 20 year old jeep wrangler. I do this by choice because the car is sentimental, I own it free and clear, and it has a great old feel like an old pickup truck with all the rattles and squeaks and lack of comfort. By comparison the Chrysler 200 is comfortable....so long as you are not driving it. The seats are plush, the interior quiet, and if you don't have to reach the pedals it's roomy if you are over 6'ft. That is about as complementary as I am going to get about this car. the steering is both firm and numb. The wheel offers no feedback but MOPAR engineers had to build in some resistance so you wouldn't feel like you are playing pole position at the arcade back in 1985. the pedals are too high and it puts my feet at a weird angle so I end up driving it mostly with the cruse control and the brake. The transmission shifts like it has nothing better to do but still doesn't want to do it. Everything feels both cheap and poorly assembled. It literally makes me want to drive it off a bridge so I can spare someone in the world the lack of joy this car delivers. Seriously, I want it to die in a fire, preferably with me not in it. I know Chrysler banked a lot of their future existence on this car and based on what I have driven I don't expect them to be around much longer - it's that bad. So what car could you not stand driving.

I saw a bright metallic green S or P85D last night in old dublin. Really a striking car. Surprised that it was a custom color. That's all I have to add to this thread, I'd rather have a Volt and an expensive motorcycle than a tesla.

- Dublin "Cafe Racers" bike night Is the first Monday of every month. Hosted by the Ton Up Columbus club at the Dublin Village Tavern. Primarlily vintage bikes but all are welcome. Already in swing as the first one was in April and the next one is this upcoming monday (May 4th - star wars day). - Nutter Hardware in Upper Arlington, the last thrursday of every month starting in May (May 28th). Vintage bike focused but all are welcome. Last year there was free food for anyone who showed up on a bike. - QSL as mentioned above - Grandview Euro Bike night, The 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month starting at 6:00. Hosted by Motohio at the Bank Block section (between 1st and 3 rd Avenue) of Grandview Avenue. Euro bike centric but all are welcome. Other notable events - The VJMC used to do an event at Iron Pony but I think that has moved to Xenia: http://dayton.craigslist.org/mcy/4969064604.html - Pinned: May 16th at Rice Paddy (rain or shine). http://www.pinnedohio.com/ - Marysville Motorsports did a B.S and Bikes morning saturday mornings last year, but no idea if they were going to do it this year. - Columbus Cars and Coffee: Every Saturday morning rain or shine from 8:30-11:00 at the Cup of Joe next to the Lenox AMC off Olentangy. It's a car event but motorcycles are welcome too. I'm usually they every weekend on the ducati. - Pinned- - :00 PM

This, I was so hoping it was this and the explanation involved the words/phrases "Squee" and "Shart with delight and fear". Nice car, good luck with sale.

I am dying to know the story behind this and the origin of the stain.

http://dayton.craigslist.org/mcy/4969064604.html VINTAGE MOTORCYCLE SHOW - MAY 30, 2015 - At Williams Vintage Cycle in Xenia, OH. Announcing the 3rd Annual Vintage Motorcycle Show at Williams Vintage Cycle, Xenia, OH on 5-30-15 (the Saturday after Memorial Day) Show classes for pre-1990 bikes. Japanese, British, American, European, Cafe, Chopper, Brat, etc. If you've got a cool old bike, bring it on out. (show bike entry $15 - includes FREE T-shirt) Proceeds to benefit SICSA (Society for the Improvement of Conditions for Stray Animals). Please help us donate to such a great cause. Free Parking for ALL motorcycles. Free Admission to all. FOOD / MUSIC / BIKES...what more could you ask for ? Car parking within walking distance. Mark the date on your calendar now. May 30th

I really don't think your differentials are the problem. The binding you mention is it only on sharp turns? If so, that's crow hopping. It could also be failing u-joints. just because the dealer says their paperwork says it is done doesn't mean the work was actually done or the problem hasn't returned. if you haven't read this thread yet, you should: http://www.saabcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217890 the TSB for Crow hopping is in there. From what I understand about this either the T-case, the Prop shafts, or the U-joints are about to take a massive dump. I've had 4WD cars for years and usually when I got binding in turns it was never the diff, it was always the front u-joints and sometimes a ball joint that would cause a u-joint to bind. Even the cheapest model 9-7x is worth $6K in average retail according to NADA so you may not be as underwater as you think. Ask Cordell about the crow hopping issue. He's at Lash and this issue affected all GM cars on the platform including the trailblazers so he may have more insight into it. He said in his Lash post that he can do some of the orphan marque stuff like Pontiac and Saturn, maybe he can do Saab as well since it is just a re-bodied trailblazer.

FWIW jegs had a display of those wheels if you want to see them in person.

It sounds like you have the crow hopping and drive line lash issues. There is a TSB out for both and both may cause your car to eat encoder motors. Did you do the tire marking check where you mark each tire in the 6 o'clock position drive 10 feet in a straight line and then see how far the marks are from each other? It sounds like this car is going south in a hurry, and driving it till it breaks isn't the answer because if it breaks before you get to the point where it is paid off then you have a worthless car and a car payment. It looks like you have other cars, can you drive one if them until this heap is paid off? My advice is to pay it off to the point where you are not underwater in it and then get away from that thing as fast as possible. It's still worth something now, ain't going to be worth something when broken.

I hadn't considered this, because like mallard I thought OBDII standards covered it, even though as the owner of a VAG product I have had first hand expirence with borrowing a VAGCOM to read what scanners won't. The OEMs blow when it comes to DIY working on their products, up until recently the factory service manual alone for the audi was $600 which to me is highly unreasonable. I lived through that time period, or at least the 80's and 90's portion of it, and I can tell you that's bullshit. What died was the enthuasist car culture being dominated by domestic cars in that time period and the rise of Honda, Subaru, Mitsubishi, and nissan as legitimate enthuasist cars. If you are looking for someone to blame that kids aren't into 60's english cars or old cars in general, blame rust as most of that old junk requires bodywork that is out if the skill set of most enthuasists period. What isn't shocking is how many people can't change a tire or their oil today in an era of run flat tires and 5000 oil changes, it's how many people couldn't back then when it was more if a necessity. I am a 100% and old car fanatic and a member of generation x, but even I know fixing minor rust is beyond my skills and I've done full drivetrain swaps on a car in less than a day. We live in the golden age of performance now because there is more of a market for it than has ever existed before. Even people who are not traditionally considered "car people" are excited about rwd v8 sedans and AWD manual trans wagons. That's huge. If you want to complain about people not being into old cars bitch about how spoiled we have all gotten because of new cars. Having an old car is almost an exquisite form of torture reserved for only the most hardcore of Luddites - remember anything made before 1978 is likely not going to have air conditioning, power windows, disc brakes, fm radio, electronic ignition, rims bigger than 15", well designed suspension, sound deadening, sealed interior without wind leaks, crumple zones, shoulder harnesses, safety of any kind really, diagnostic gauges, and comfortable ergonomically designed interiors with pleasing to the touch materials (anybody remember vinyl seat burns?). You have to find sweating and smelling gasoline fumes and opening the hood once a day in public places an enjoyable expirence to drive an old car on a regular basis, and even in this crowd there aren't many willing to put up with that.

Rally pat makes a good point - I am surprised nobody mentioned a 2002-2007 WRX wagon or an 08 and up WRX hatchback. or a Forrester. Or a Legacy GT wagon.

What the OEMs are really trying to solve for in short term are: 1) warranty repairs related to tampering that can't be proved 2) control over the people who make parts for their cars without paying their licensing fees Long term might be autonomous cars and other things but really I see this as a heavy handed approach to solving two areas where the OEMS have some money leakage and reputational risk exposures and potential liability. There will always be people who want to tinker, and there will always be racing including grass roots. It just might take a different shape.

Too much power is when you look at the gas pedal funny and the car flips backwards on it's roof. When your car is a homemade tilt a whirl as much as it is a car then it's maybe too much...or not enough chassis - I can't decide. There really is no set number, as the hellcat proves you can drive 707hp everyday with a factory warranty if you want to (whether someone actually does it is another story) and there are 300-400hp cars that will feel less comfortable than aggressive prison rape if you try to drive them daily. This depends on a lot of factors: - how old the car is - how much stuff actually works - how much bullshit you are willing to put up with - how skilled you are, etc. - whether your work minds if you show up drenched in sweat - are you able to adapt your driving style - are you patient There are more but these are some of the basics. I drove, by choice, a 400hp (est at flywheel - 350 dyno hp at wheels) 1967 GTO as a daily in the late 1990s. The car constantly overheated so I had to run the heat even in the middle of summer, had no abs, no A/C, hated hot restarts, sounded like a lars ulrich drum solo being played inside a tin can in the car, had a cam so heavy that the brakes transitioned from power to manual when the rpms dropped below 1500, road like a hay wagon, had a manual valve body with a shift so hard it felt like a kick in the ass every time the car shifted even at 5mph, and was generally miserable. It liked to spin the tires at every light and hang the tail around every turn. for an early 20 something it was awesome and I didn't work in an office so coming in sweat was the price to pay for badass awesomeness. Conversely my father's 1990 Zr1 made the same power, handled better had abs, modern tires and suspension, took pump gas, the a/c worked and it never overheated. and it weighed the same. As a 20 something I was willing to put up with a lot, even now I am willing to put up with most of that same stuff in a 200hp 20 year old jeep wrangler - but not everyone is a masochistic internet asshole. Point is, if you are struggling with the car chances are you are having a hard time adapting. give it it time, either you will adapt or hate it so much you buy a crappy honda civic auto as a commuter.

Im positive luck had something to do with it. He went 40k without an oil change in the 30-70k mileage range on a car he bought new. He was also a dealer tech (yamaha boats) and then restored old Brit cars before going back to school to get an engineering degree in robotics, so I'm pretty sure he breaks his new toys on purpose just to have something to do. I'm also sure that engine is sludgy as hell and I will never buy a used car from him. That said he poly bushed the whole car and then proceeded to have no end to trouble with the suspension, but that was his only mechanical trouble. He had a lot of suspension and brake mods done to the car it was at the point where if you mashed the brakes as hard as you could from 50 mph the computer rolled down the windows and put the flashers on because it had thought you were in an accident. But back to the wife's car - we are both lead foots and the car averages between. 23-27 mpg in mixed driving. If we take a road trip, use the cruise control, and keep it under 80 we see 30mpg. I can't fault it's fuel efficiency.

VR6 A3 is quattro DSG (haldex). It is essentially a 4 door R32 without the good brakes. the VR6 is a tough engine but now you are dealing with more systems, more stuff to go wrong, and more service items. My buddy with a Mk V R32 went 40k miles without an oil change so the engine is tough. The philosophy I have with Audis is that the less electronic stuff in them the less problems you have - base 2.0Ts are dressed up hot hatch VWs. If you can live without onboard nav and fancy gagets the car is just nice, simple, sporting German transport. I do not even want to think about what a service on a DSG costs, but I imagine any repair where you pull the tranny is expensive. The Vr6 is about 40 more hp over the 2.0T so there is def the fun factor. Wife's car has cold air, turbo back stainless exhaust, and bigger injectors. It had a tune but we flashed back to stock, with the tune the car was as fast as my friends stock R32 but now...who knows. We flashed it because the first week we kept getting CELs and decided it wasn't worth the extra boost or whatever.

Suggestion from personal experience: 8P Audi A3 (2006-2011). Some of the 2006-2008 pre-facelift cars are under $10K and they can be had with a DSG. They are essentially VW MK V GTIs with out the premium that comes with a GTI (seriously NADA value on a 2006 audi a3 is $9175, book on same year GTI is $9225). Issues are well known and well documented: do coil packs and cam follower every 30K miles, and timing belt every 70K. block off EGR and replace diverter valve with upgraded or forge unit. That being said my wife drives one every day with a 6 speed manual so....if you buy an auto already my wife is more man than you. Sexist ribbing aside, the clutch is pretty linear and light and the shifter isn't notchy like other Germans so if you had to make your wife drive stick every day till she learned it would be an easy car to do it in. It is a surprisingly fun car do drive and the interior is nice, often nicer than the GTIs (Dat tartan cloth tho). For some reason we actually were able to find the only A3 2.0T 6 speed that has less options than my brother's 0 package 2006 GTI (he had projector headlights and ours does not). she drives this everyday: http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/3edbb9cf.jpg Here is what I can say about service. If you have it serviced at the audi dealer they will charge you a fortune for literally everything. However, they will pick up the car from you and drive you home (at least if you live in dublin or close to). Plus they give my kid snacks and coloring books and don't mind when she crawls inside the showroom R8 and stands on the seat to work the steering wheel (she's 3, nobody can say no to three year old kids). However if you take it to a private garage the car is no more or less expensive to service than a VW GTI. ECS has the hookup on parts and is way cheaper and there are a lot of places that cover A3 mods in detail. We bought the car with 29,000 miles on it and it now has 75K. In that time we have replaced 2 sets of tires, one cam follower, a taillight (it was leaking), 3 bulb trays (because of leaking taillight housing), 1 set of coil packs, 1 set of brake pads (hawk GT pads) and 2 rear wheel bearings. We used this car to do auto-x in NY but have yet to use it for that in ohio, and when we lived in brooklyn we shared it as a solo car and I had the GTO and Jeep in storage. Currently the only issue with the car is that the thermostat is stuck open and it throws a check engine light every 5 days or so. I reset it by disconnecting the battery and it's good for another 5 days. When we do the timing belt we will replace the t-stat as it is buried so deep in the engine that it isn't worth fixing unless you are doing other things.

I don't at all, at least I am not trying to make it sound like something can be done in a weekend. I posted the ECTA site and there is a lot on there to read about how to do this and get into it. If someone out there wants to get into LSR I don't want to discourage them, but Doc you are 1000% correct this isn't a weekend pass test and tune at a drag strip - it is class based sanctioned racing and it costs money and time and preparation. I tired it once and failed miserably and it cost a small fortune. So far everything I have said has been prefaced by read the materials and rulebook which is a good start to realizing how serious an event this it. Since you have the most experience here, maybe you would like to elucidate as to what really goes into racing with the ECTA with a production vehicle? as that seems the most attainable for some members. I had posted this because I plan on spectating and I imagine others want to spectate as well. There are going to be some awesome street cars and bikes there, some of them going over 200mph in a mile stretch. I'd say that is worth the price of admission. Also the ECTA is always in need of volunteers and maybe some from here want to sign up to work the weekend to help foster local racing events? Plus you get to know everyone involved.

doesn't hurt to try. depends on whether your rust is structural or surface. I think you are limited in the licensing runs anyway to 115mph until you have made two passes, so pick a class, safety wire a bunch of crap, and make your licensing passes. Then go home, prep the truck for real and come out at the end of the season to set a record.

Make sure you read the tech sections and the rule book before you plan on showing up for a run. This isn't just show up in a t-shirt and jeans on your 'busa and make a kamikaze run to top speed for a mile down the runway - this is class based racing with a strict tech inspection and licensing qualifications like they do at Bonneville.

about the track http://ecta-lsr.net/welcome-to-ecta-lsr/about-the-ohio-mile-track/

http://ecta-lsr.com/ http://ecta-lsr.net/events/hot-rod-top-speed-challenge/

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/Pinned%202014/70E501C0-6859-42BA-9D40-48556362D5F6_zpslsnhsbls.jpg http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/Pinned%202014/9F615EE3-EC75-4B23-9FD1-4C3E72C17C50_zpso0xaafgx.jpg http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/Pinned%202014/483FA4AC-74CF-4E1C-B44E-783C4138831D_zpscmoslmxm.jpg