PlutoE210 said:In reply to David S. Wallens :
I sure do love that little gokart track!
Same. We’re fortunate to have access to it.
PlutoE210 said:In reply to David S. Wallens :
Same. We’re fortunate to have access to it.
Hey all!
I'm from Southern Connecticut, and have been lurking for probably well over a decade. Figured it was time to become a part of the discussion.
Current stable is a 2007 Mercedes C350 Sport (one of the fifty or so sporting the factory 6-speed manual) and a 2008 Honda Fit.
By day I'm FCP Euro's resident Mercedes Enthusiast, and I've historically had a bit of an affinity for oddball Benzes (like the aformentioned W203). It's the trusty daily driver at the moment, and while it needs...a lot of love, it's a great little sport-cruiser and one I always wanted to find.
By night (or really, by weekend) I run the Fit in GRIDLIFE's "Sundae Cup" Series, which I've noticed is fairly well-known around these parts. It's gutless, it's bulletproof, it's perfect. Lovingly referred to as the "Fitrari," it's done a half a billion laps on the original 195k-mile engine and transmission and shows no signs of quitting. Wrapping up my season now, but I had a reasonably-competitive season across WGI, NJMP, and Lime Rock (though, I was doing double-duty in our "MINI Cupper," which I was actually faster in) and have some changes planned to be even more competitive next year.
Hi, been reading posts on the forums for a while now but for some reason never made an account. I'm Dave, people call me Dave, and I drive a slow 2017 Mitsubishi Lancer. It's got a CVT, it's horrendously underpowered, but I bought it myself and I'm proud of that.
I do some touge racing on any twisty roads near me, though my friends and I live by a strict "no cutting the yellow line" rule. We just race each other and have some fun in our slow little cars. I have been looking into taking it to autocross events, there's one that happens some Saturday mornings about 40 minutes from me but something keeps coming up preventing me from going.
I am looking to buy a project car to take to the track, though I am stuck between a handful of options. NA Miata, E46 BMW, Honda Fit, or going all out and buying an Evo X or a new GR Corolla (if I can find a good one that's not marked up).
I found this forum a couple years ago from an article about oil viscocities on this site. I was reading that same article today and figured I'd finally make an account while work is slow. Looking forward to participating in here:)
Newish 1997 Miata owner here. I've had an NB, ND, and now a 1997 M-Edition NA. Glad to be here!
Hey everyone, Long time lurker "first time poster"! I feel like I probably posted once or twice over 10 years ago when I bought a 2002 Neon ACR after reading an awesome GRM article comparing the ACR to the Mazdaspeed Protege and Focus SVT. I've enjoyed many years of the magazine and had my fanboy moment when I bumped into Tim at this year's Amelia, in the rain on a Saturday (the cheap seats day). 
Right now I'm driving a 2016 Focus ST, but over the years I've also owned some other fun cars like a 1991 CRX Si, a 1982 Camaro Z28, a couple cool trucks like a lowered 1982 S-10 with a Weber carb and hooker headers... even a 1974 Mustang II with a 302. Just figured I'd say hello!
Hi, I'm Bill Davis. I've owned Datsun Z cars since December of 1986. The one I'm currently driving, a 1977 280Z coupe, I purchased in March of 1992. Interestingly it was actually written up with a few photos in the July 2004 issue of Classic Motorsports for it's LS1 V8 conversion. At the time I was living in Arlington, Texas. Shortly after that I moved to Yakima, Washington and now I've returned to my home state and am in Hauser, Idaho.
Here is a write-up on the car as it is now:
This car is the first professional LS1 installation in the US and is the prototype used by John’s Cars, Inc in Dallas, TX to develop the conversion components he markets and sells worldwide.
My guidelines throughout the development were for the installation to have OEM appearance and daily driver reliability. The nod was always given toward reliability and ease of maintenance rather than extreme performance. The development took 14 months back in 2002/3 and resulted with this car road legal in June 2003 and a full range of kit components.
One difference in this car versus the offered kit components is that this car has no transmission mount. Instead, it has a modified “torque tube” set-up that uses a pair of channel beams to link the tailshaft of the T56 transmission to the input shaft of the R200 LSD. It is unique, completely functional, and has been absolutely reliable for 20 years now.
The car has a total of 251,000 miles on it; 51,000 with the LS1, and about 100,000 miles on the current paint.
The car has been competed at Texas Motor Speedway, Texas Motorplex, Motorsport Ranch, and Renegade raceway along with hillclimbs and autocross events.
Drivetrain:
Exterior:
Interior:
Sound System:
Lighting:
Suspension:
Brakes:
Photos:
In reply to 48Phantom :
Wow - it's great to hear from someone whose car we featured many years ago. Thanks for the update (it looks like a fun ride) and please be sure to keep us updated on any future projects. Welcome!
In reply to David S. Wallens :
Just stopped in to say HI, and to say how cool this place is. I will be in the classic section, lurkin and answering any q's that I can. Nice to be here.
My name is Matt, and I just joined a few days ago, even though I have been a lurker for a while. I own a 3rd generation Mazda RX-7 FD and enjoy the experience of building and driving cars as well as learning new things about them.
Hi, new here. Just joined to get some ideas and maybe some help on building my truck. It's a '95 S10 2.2l T5. Building a 98+ 2.2l motor with around 11:1 compression, cam, upgraded valvetrain for 7500+ RPMs. Control by MegaSquirt, LS coils, wideband O2, flat response knock sensor, etc. Cobalt SS radiator/fans to convert to a sealed cooling system. Planning on putting 3.8l Camaro T5 gears for slightly better gearing.
Keeping everything as simple as possible, manual rack and pinion, unassisted brakes (98-02 F body brakes all around), gutted interior... weight goal is 2500lbs curb with me in it. Not sure if I can get there but if I can pull that and squeeze around 200hp out of the motor, should be a fun ride.
Still have a long way to go...
In reply to 4bangin :
Awesome project! Welcome! Please feel free to keep our group posted through your project by creating a new thread in this forum: Builds and Project Cars forum | Grassroots Motorsports . Once again, welcome!
I may have 100 posts here but i never really said anything about who I am. I sadly cant take my cav out for a spin and update yall about it more, because im only 14. Ive been interested in cars since I was a baby, back when my dad had a integra. Love it here, but I sadly don't get to spend much time here cause I only comment here at school during my free time. Still enjoy learning and reading about others project cars. Hope you don't mind me being here. See you around!
I'm john. Im new here.
This is weird but: I got here by googling myself, and in doing so, I found my former best friend who I haven’t talked to in over 20 years. After scrolling through a fraction of his (currently) 41,597 posts, I determined he’s still awesome, so I thought what the heck, people our age drop dead all the time and I don’t want to go to my reward without ever talking to him again. So, I signed up, patiently waited the requisite amount of time I had to in order to PM someone, and then I sent him a message. Turns out we fell out over really stupid reasons and it was the best thing I ever did hitting Send.
Tl;dr: Don’t torpedo your relationships over something stupid. Friends are a priceless commodity, and from what I’ve seen you all have a pretty keen sense for what things cost. Swallow your pride, talk it out and save yourself decades of bitterness and regret.
(Also, I could’ve got sucked into his weird geeky motorsports world a lot sooner and that’s a loss I’ll just have to live with.)
and this is why i have not been in the batcave much in the past couple weeks.
stay awesome, christine
That is really cool, happy for you guys. Also curious how you found yourself here googling yourself...
RBCA said:This is weird but: I got here by googling myself, and in doing so, I found my former best friend who I haven’t talked to in over 20 years. After scrolling through a fraction of his (currently) 41,597 posts, I determined he’s still awesome, so I thought what the heck, people our age drop dead all the time and I don’t want to go to my reward without ever talking to him again. So, I signed up, patiently waited the requisite amount of time I had to in order to PM someone, and then I sent him a message. Turns out we fell out over really stupid reasons and it was the best thing I ever did hitting Send.
Tl;dr: Don’t torpedo your relationships over something stupid. Friends are a priceless commodity, and from what I’ve seen you all have a pretty keen sense for what things cost. Swallow your pride, talk it out and save yourself decades of bitterness and regret.
(Also, I could’ve got sucked into his weird geeky motorsports world a lot sooner and that’s a loss I’ll just have to live with.)
Super awesome story!
In reply to mtn :
It was a phrase I used to use, which was also the title of my old blog. Decided to restart my old blog as a Substack, googled myself, and hit #2 was this loser, stealing my catchprase.
No regrets. It's been an extraordinary couple of weeks.
Hi all, first post and new here, from the Kansas City area. I've been turning wrenches on all my vehicles for the past 25 years or so (since my first car), having started off with V12 Jaguars (a simple, reliable, easy to maintain first car ) and owned a bit of everything since. I was a professional mechanic summers in college where I studied to be a mechanical engineer, and have spent my career in aviation thus far. I've always been interested in road/track racing, but the various things haven't lined up to do it.
A few years ago a friend gave me his former IT7 racer, a 1983 RX-7 with full cage etc. that had been sitting for around a decade. I resurrected it with the intent of making it a current track car, and the past couple of years have driven it at Track Night in America at my local track (Heartland Park Topeka - which unfortunately seems to be closing down). It's been a tremendously fun car even to just do track nights with, although I haven't yet successfully participated in a real race. I'm hoping I'll be able to get some guidance around here for where it might find a home racing wise. The initial plan has been Lemons, but again, it just hasn't happened yet.
My stable is otherwise pretty full. Beyond the "regular" cars I have a Factory Five Mk4 Roadster (Cobra replica) that I built and also am into adventure motorcycles (have a couple of BMWs and my wife has a Triumph). I've got a YouTube channel (not sure what the views/policies are on sharing links to those around here) where I discuss my projects, most of which are around the Cobra and also our RV, which has taken up most of my wrenching time the past few years.
Looking forward to meeting new folks here and finding a place to race my RX-7.
RBCA said:In reply to mtn :
It was a phrase I used to use, which was also the title of my old blog. Decided to restart my old blog as a Substack, googled myself, and hit #2 was this loser, stealing my catchprase.
No regrets. It's been an extraordinary couple of weeks.
i fully confess to salting various points on the Internet with that phrase, and a couple others. I am 99% sure of where you found it, too.
is why I hate facebook from the beginning, it cannot be indexed by search engines. seems wrong somehow.
TheTed said:Hi all, first post and new here, from the Kansas City area. I've been turning wrenches on all my vehicles for the past 25 years or so (since my first car), having started off with V12 Jaguars (a simple, reliable, easy to maintain first car
A few years ago a friend gave me his former IT7 racer, a 1983 RX-7 with full cage etc. that had been sitting for around a decade. I resurrected it with the intent of making it a current track car, and the past couple of years have driven it at Track Night in America at my local track (Heartland Park Topeka - which unfortunately seems to be closing down). It's been a tremendously fun car even to just do track nights with, although I haven't yet successfully participated in a real race. I'm hoping I'll be able to get some guidance around here for where it might find a home racing wise. The initial plan has been Lemons, but again, it just hasn't happened yet.
My stable is otherwise pretty full. Beyond the "regular" cars I have a Factory Five Mk4 Roadster (Cobra replica) that I built and also am into adventure motorcycles (have a couple of BMWs and my wife has a Triumph). I've got a YouTube channel (not sure what the views/policies are on sharing links to those around here) where I discuss my projects, most of which are around the Cobra and also our RV, which has taken up most of my wrenching time the past few years.
Looking forward to meeting new folks here and finding a place to race my RX-7.
There is almost more RX-7 content here than on rx7club (where I am peejay). Cannot wait to read about your exploits. I got an '81 by similar circumstances and it is my nice weather driver and occasional rallycrosser.
YouTube exploits are more than welcome, we have this weird community vibe thing going where we share all of our motorsports experiences.
I'm not really new; I have been reading GRM for a number of years. I ended up here because of either Mazdeuce's Grosh or Unicorn threads. Despite my lack of motorsport participation I just really like the community. I have started posting occasionally when there is a thread where I think I have a clue (generally not automotive) so I might as well introduce myself.
My first car was an 81 Saab 900 Turbo. I did most of the maintenance on it, within the limits of my abilities and space to work (being a college student parking on the street in Boston). Got married after college and traded the Saab in on a boring 88 Camry. Since then we have owned a variety of wagons and mini vans. Had a family, got paid more and had less time so paid other people to work on our cars for the next 30 years or so (though for some reason I did interior stuff, I think I replaced every door lock motor on the Voyager and Caravan that we owned).
Last year we bought a beautiful red 2008 Saab 9-3 wagon as our retirement fun car. I planned to maintain it myself for the satisfaction of doing so, shamelessly asking for help and advice here. Now it has been in an accident so there is either going to be a "how do I get the fender off my parts car" thread or I will be looking for another fun car.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:There is almost more RX-7 content here than on rx7club (where I am peejay). Cannot wait to read about your exploits. I got an '81 by similar circumstances and it is my nice weather driver and occasional rallycrosser.
YouTube exploits are more than welcome, we have this weird community vibe thing going where we share all of our motorsports experiences.
Thanks, Pete. I have also been considering whether this RX-7 would be better served returning to a more street-type orientation vs. track specific at some point in time. I'll make a new thread about the RX-7. The car itself is pretty basic - interior removed, header and free-flowing exhaust, mostly just removing the standard extra junk and the Nikki carb has been gone through for race purposes. They're really fun machines, as you well know.
In reply to myusdmcavalier :
Congratulations on your frustratingly unkillable car. I had one for a few years, put a ton of miles on it, and only retired it when the rust caused it to start disintegrating.
Hi Drivers!
I'm a Lifelong racer here--I'm Gerard I also go by Gerry. . I was in my first wheeled race at 6 years old. And I was in my first racing accident a few minutes later. I was in the hospital for two months--and I almost lost my leg.
By 17, I was dabbling in street racing in the NYC area. I'm a Yonkers native. By 18 the moneyed guys with fast cars were gunning for me... Good Times.
I did my 1st racing school at 23: The Jim Russel British School of Motor Racing. Heel and toeing? Non-synchro transmission... HUH? Good thing I was out of money because it took me almost year in my street car before I owned that technique.
At 29 years old I had more of a budget. I did the 3 day Formula Ford Racing School with Skip Barber School. And then the Spenard-David Racing School in Canada. And then I did Skip Barbers' Racers Car Control Clinic at Lime Rock which was wet skid pad training in both a Formula Ford and an M3. And then we used the M3 on the little Autocross track there. I was also do lapping days with Skip and I tested the waters in his race series.
My wife worked for an Airlines so I flew for sales tax. And so I was deciding on either Jim Russel at Laguna Seca, or The Bertill Roos Racing School . I picked up the phone and called Roos... Bertil himself answered the phone. He told me I wasn't using my eyes properly and he was the ONLY person that could teach me the right way to drive. I listened... and He Was Right. I also did the advanced school. Tons of lapping days and the race series.
Then I went to The Performance Institute at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. This was the same place that tested and made recommendations to improve fitness and race skills as used by Indycar racers. Besides Bertil Roos this was THE best thing I ever did for my driving. Their Sports Psychologist helped put me on a level I never could have reached with out him.
I was still doing the Bertil Roos Race Series and took 2nd 6 times in 10 races the season before .
The next year at Bertil Roos I was dominant.
Then I did a data logging day with Jesse Roverana, he owns the Stock Car Experience at Pocono now, but back then he was Bertil's chief track instructor. I beat him by .4 of a second, he'd never lost before. My second best lap was .1 slower this his best so we used that as a baseline. I can't tell you the amount of times I had previously spun trying to run with him... and so that was so SWEET! Jesse btw, was one of The best racing instructors I ever had, and he taught me so much.
I won the Race Series that year.
Then I rented FF2000 from South Shore Racing to run at Pocono. I was almost like family at Roos by then, so Jesse let me use the track practically for free. That test went so well--a team owner who was there with his driver offered me a professional racing contract.
I had to say no though... I was 34 by then. And I had a wife, a mortgage, a contracting business, and a newborn.
I continue to work on my driving. And my fitness. I am still a driver athlete.
Three years ago I picked up the phone as I always wanted to teach racing, and I call Jesse at Pocono. They were going to give me a shot at being a stock car instructor even though I have never seen one in real life. Then Covid hit.
I recently founded CHECKERED BLOOD Inc.
We will be selling Racewear, I'm still looking for a decent supplier.
And my baby: my Ultra High Performance Driving School. I teach on Public Roads. I also have a 9 year old kart racer out of Australia as my associate instructor. His name is Sebastian Eskandari and He is BRILLIANT. A Two time Australian National Champion. At 8 years old he won the Australian national against 12 year olds. He just won the World Title for Under 10 Year Old as a Factory Tony Kart Driver. And the Ferrari Formula One team is already having casual chats with his dad. The FIA would not give him permission to race 12 year olds (his dad wants him to race older kids. I agree with that strategy in terms of driver development). But Australia will so this season young Sebastian will be racing against 13- 15 Year Racers and he will have Just turned 10.
This is my my website here. It also links to that Kart racer's website Sebastian Eskandari : https://checkeredbloodracing.com
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