Who here is new to the forum?

New to Grassroots, got a 2008 Lexus LS460 for $500, hoping I can do something with it.

Not really "new" but it has been several years since I have been around really. The pics of the mystery car shell I had posted that got shared here kind of got me back. 
 

Still out in eastern Oregon. Getting ready to hopefully start building a new house this year along with a nice area for me to have some racing stuff up and a sim rig since there is not much in Motorsports out here. I have 3 kids now and both my boys are getting into wanting to learn about cars and racing. That has actually led us to a new project that I should hopefully be picking up end of this month or next month depending on when things thaw. One of my co workers has a couple old Super Beetles and some spares they are making me a package deal on. The whole family is going to be in on the project and the plan is to build it as a road rally car. As we get the cars home and start tearing into them I will start a build thread.  This will be a whole new kind of beast for me as it will be my first air cooled rig.  Anyway good to be back. 

Long time reader, excited to finally join!

I've had a pretty eclectic vehicle history, but with a couple little ones now I've settled on a 2010 Sienna daily and a goal to find a fun weekend car for cheap. Thinking along the lines of Miata or MR2 now, but not 100% opposed to a fun, light FWD car either. 

New reader/user from IL. Got my first car late last year and its a 2023 GR86. Hoping to start Autocrossing this season when my local SCC starts up again and get a track day or two in as well. It is my daily but want to slowly use it more for motorsports and buy some old beater sometime soon for daily use. Looking to learn about driving and also slowly getting handier with work on my car.

Welcome everybody! We're looking forward to hearing about your latest builds, advice and questions!

I have a question that I don't know where to address. How can I search GRM? The search feature on the tool bar is for the outside world - don't want that. In particular I was wondering when the Subaru engines (say, a Crosstrek) ceased being a big headgasket problem?

Thanks,

Chris

Subscriber for years finally decided to join the fun here too. I enjoy my Litle British Cars. 1975 Morris Mini and 1966 Austin Moke. 

Just joined. Getting back into autocrossing and going to learn HPDE.

GRM newbie here.  I've been autocrossing for a number of years and doing rallycross and ice racing (rx style) when possible.  I just moved back to MT, which means rallycross is going to be a lot easier.

I found the GRM forum while looking for a rx car. Thanks in advance for all of your knowledge! I'll try to contribute as I can, but will mainly be sponging off you folks.

Dean 

Yes, welcome everyone, and there’s plenty of room in the pool. 

Thank you for joining us. 

Hello all,

Joined a year ago but neglected to introduce myself. Been racing since 1967 with laydown karts, road racing motorcycles and LSR bikes. For money I wrenched on British and Italian sports, sports racing and formula cars from 1967-2012 as well as an instructor for a Honda backed bike tech program from 1980-2012.  Got my start with Sprint cars in the Maryland/Pennsy area back in the days of Jan Opperman. My first car was a Mini Cooper.  Never owned a sporst car as all my time and money went to racing karts and motorcycles. Also one season racing snowmobiles. Came to the conclusion I was crazy but not insane and went back to warm weather racing. 

Moved to the western mountains of NC in Jan 2020.  The area I live in is in a triangle of the towns Burnsville, Bakersville and Sprucepine. In my humble opinion this area has the finest driver roads in the US. Deals Gap Tail of the Dragon has nothing on us. Finally bought my first sports car, a 2008 Miata NC. Got it with 26k miles for $10K in FL just before I moved to NC.  In July of '22 I discovered the Appalachian Hill Climb Series and I was hooked. Went back to watch again this year and decided to set up my Mazda to be a street/race car so I can run in July this year.

Will be posting to get advice on the best components to set up the suspension and brakes.  Jim

That is a terrific part of the country, my daughter lives in Hendersonville, just south of Asheville

Willie_B said:

Subscriber for years finally decided to join the fun here too. I enjoy my Litle British Cars. 1975 Morris Mini and 1966 Austin Moke. 

Hey, I know those cars! Welcome WillieB.....

I'm Wayne, long time subscriber but haven't been active on forum.  I was SCCA racer for over 20 years and am now track day participant and SCCA regional steward.  I got out of cars for about 10 years while I got my world in order for an early retirement. 

My track car is 1984 Mazda RX7 with LC9 LS swap.  Approximately 425 hp in 2500# car.  I usually take in the LS Fest and a few other track days as my schedule allows.  As is often heard, my life feels busier now with obligations after retirement. 

In reply to TexasEx :

Sorry, missed this when you posted it. Best way to keep the search here is to just specify the website in the Google search bar. Yours would be grassrootsmotorsports.com: subaru head gasket

Margie

I once subscribed to 19 car and motorcycle magazines, now with what ever Hot Rod has done it's three

Grassroots Motorsports and Hagerty Drivers Club and MotorTrend.

Motortrend is attached to the app and Hagerty to my Mustang insurance so really only GM gets a stand alone payment.

Its truly sad how the good good ol days only lasted 25 years. 1975-2000.

Hi everyone! New to the forum here, from Montreal, Canada. I'm an engineer, been out of school for about 5 years now. 

First car was an NB1 miata. I never tracked it, as I didn’t want a roll-bar on a street car. Since I’m in the city, did not want to risk a rear end + roll bar. NB1 seats were not confidence inspiring in terms of rear head protection. Instead, I drove it through university, + used it to learn how to wrench. Gave it a full a/c retrofit from Treasure Coast Miata, and lots of stuff from The Parts Groups (when it was active).

Currently I've got a Civic Type R I daily drive. I bought it brand new during the lockdowns at MSRP. The plan is to start tracking it this year. Cheers!

I've known about GRM mag for years, but found this forum only recently while looking for primary-source info on Flatrock something something. Then, traipsing through various threads revealed impressive levels of both discourse and technical skill. This looks like a solid internet hangout, so here I am.

I have a more-or-less-stock early (4/89 build) Mazda Miata wearing its second repaint. It's taken me to HPDE, A/X, TT, and drifting(!), and introduced me to tech days, rollbar installs, and countless good people. The hunt for a cheaper track fix steered me toward motorcycles, and still more good people.

My wheeling and wrenching heyday has passed, but maybe some nostalgic dabbling is in order?

Signed up today!  my name is Ethan, I have a heavy background in fabrication/trades with a degree in fine art. I've always been passionate about building, modifying, and learning along the way. I'm not sure if my preference to do it on the cheap was born out of necessity or a underlying montra of self reliance and creativity. ANYWAYS, my project now has got to be my most favorite, a 1976 lancia scorpion, setup for rallycross! I'll be going into my first race season July at dirtfish providing I finish up the necessary bits and am up and running. I'll post the build thread up when I give myself the time. Anyways.  I couldn't have gotten here without a passionate village of folks with a keen interest in keeping Motorsports approachable! 

Welcome everybody! We're looking forward to hearing more about your projects and our community is looking forward to seeing how they can help along the way.

Hello all. Been a LOOOOONG time lurker here but never posted until today. Primarily because I don't have any projects going on right now, or even own a car at the moment. I do have a history of fun cars though. Multiple 2 and 3rd generation Camaro's and Trans-Am's, several Jaaaag's, a couple beater Mercs, and my favorite, a Lotus Esprit V8. And much other random junk I've drug home over the years. Also a huge boat guy.. I posted my tools for sale earlier and, upon reflection, it seems kinda rude to have that as a first post, so I thought I would say hey.

I've been in Charlotte for more than 20 years now and have absolutely loved it, although I'm in the process of moving out right now.

And since no first post is worth a thing without pics, let's do that.

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Thanks for the thread - I was just searching for that very thing - How do i get involved :)

Just new here, we're looking to build our presence online and Ive been told I need to participate in forums like this for exposure.  I'm brand new to this and I want to make sure I'm adding value as well so any tips anyone can offer on how I can best contribute would be really appreciated.

Bit about me and my people.  We're an Engineering workshop based in Pukehohe, Auckland, New Zealand.  We sell Trade supplies from the shop front and a few years we launched a website so we could serve all of New Zealand.  That's because on the weekends, Elliott likes to compete in the Speedway so we decided we'd include the race reports on the website too

So yeah, we love racing, we love tools, we love Tinkering so I think we fit here.  We work on really cool projects in the workshop so we're looking to build a "Job of the Month" section into the website too so its all exciting times here.

What about you guys? 

What brings you to the forum and what are you lookig for from fellow members?

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Mark Langren

Langren Motorsports 

Second generation Porsche Pusher

Long time OCA, SCCA member and long term subscriber

Please forward to letters to editor

Track events in the Midwest started with PCA Chicago region at Road America in 1966, dads first occurrence was 1968, he and Jack Zimmer brought it to Donnybrooke fall of 1969.

At that time one had to be 18 to be a member, my first track events were the summer of 1977, my first vintage race was Chicago Historics in 1987.

Hello all,

Came across the website recently from my little rock in French Polynesia. I've liked cars since I was a kid, mostly driving them and looking at the ones that look good. Trained auto tech and general tinkerer as well as Permaculture designer for that healthy dose of Dharma.

I currently have a stock mk6 golf tdi (1.6 CAYC engine - euro market) with a slowly agonizing DQ200 DSG7 dry clutch POS. A few plans in the near future, best-case engine swap. A minima, a not-ticking-time-bomb trans and some body modification to remove weight and make it more practical. It is destined for DD so nothing drastic. Function + a little form.

My main centre of attention is the bmw E82 120d with some engine work needed, waiting on parts. This one is definitely set to get a healthy motor and trans in there, a proper cage and some tubular structures front and rear, major weight reduction and a custom body kit which will be step one as soon as I get it running and find a good set of wheels coz the ones that came on it are shockingly bad and I can't reshape the car without the right wheels on. Some people just have terrible taste :/

Always keen to learn a ton of stuff which is how I ended up here. I particularly enjoy geeking out on trick fabrication, machining, aerodynamics and general engineering/design.

Good luck to everyone with whatever you're up to out there ;)

New here from Texas.

For the last few years, every dumb idea I've had and researched on Google kept leading me back here, so I figured I might as well cave in to the insanity, and join.

Currently working on a 1971 Dodge Tradesman (B100) van, which I want to swap a Mazda MZR (Ford Duratec) and M5r1 into. The eventual plan is to build a Dajiban style early van, with a high revving N/A 4cyl.