I realized I hadn't done a follow up to "The Beginnings", so here's a small catch up to current. I'm not living in a trailer on the side of a mountain about 15 minutes North of Victoria, British Columbia, and there has been a fair number of cars since getting here! But we'll pick up where we left off in the beginnings post. Treat this as part 2, if you haven't read #1, click the link above first.
The next car was an 1985 FB RX7 GSL. There's a big story and write up with it: HERE.
Following the Epic RX7 was a terrible terrible car. People think they are cool, because really, they look amazing, but books and covers often skew judgement, leading to the terribleness that lies beneath these piles of junk. I will never rock a Starion again, without a complete drive train and steering swap. Throttle body injection tractor motor, recirculating ball steering and a steel dash, electric zip belts, a small section of a long list of design flaws.....
We ended up in Japan with the help of a Great Dorikaze-r Rob Lee, perhaps you remember him from this post? :
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After Japan came an interesting acquisition. To follow up the 'never sold in Canada' theme began by the Starion, I found an '85 Izusu Impulse Turbo. Now for those of you assholes sitting at home reading this, thinking about the beer in the fridge and deciding whether or not 1pm is a good time to start drinking, don't even fucking think to tell me "Ya bro, my brother had one of them, but it was FWD auto." This is not the same car, this is a FIRST generation Impulse designed by Giugiaro. Those same rednecks sitting at home thinking who's this Giorgetto dude and Chevettes are pieces of shit. Well Giugiaro is the Car Designer of the Centurty, and the Isuzu impulse is a turbo 2L, rear wheel drive, 5 speed, with LSD, GM T-series car. That's right, it's a factory FAST Chevette, a completely different platform than the second generation Impulse.
Sadly, there's a few cars missing in this whole obscene obsession. I've owned WAY to many cars. Some of them include:
The Non-Boo
The Zeeboo!
And the Boo
All of the above wagons are AE95 Corollas. a TRUE, alltime, 50/50 split 4wd wagon made by Toyota and sold both in Japan and North America. You can read more about these wagons in this thread.
Holy fuck, I'm going through this list of cars, and I just can't handle them all!!!!!!! I didn't realize how many fucking pieces I owned at some point or other. Like my post covering all the Corolla's I've owned....eighteen of them!! Serious read this shit.
Because there was a few more like this:
Like the Rotarolla, which is probably the most Epic thing I've built, and I mean, we built it: from a bare shell to a finished car.
The Show stopping blue AE70 sedan. Seriously, I had a guy walk past a 1200hp, $250,000 wide body JZA80 supra, without a glance, to come give me props for this car!
Or how about the $10 '84 SR5? This was so fun to drive at night, as the dash lights would eventually just suddenly turn on, otherwise, you'd be driving along and have to turn the roof light on from time to time to check if you were doing the limit, and when you drive with my kind of 'insurance' you need to know.
That Black Sr5 was basically the end of my Ontario Career. As Robin and I grabbed this free Tercel Type S, off of Kijiji, stripped the interior, through some driving lights and Sparco Sprint Juniors in for comfort along the way across the continent. You can read more about our trip here.
Now on the other side of the Country the cars began rolling in even before we landed! Two Corollas were ready and waiting for me before we even landed!!!
There was my new love in life, the '82 Banana Wagon, which you can read a bit about here, and some pictures here.
At the same time, I picked up this blue SR5, which sadly was to become a parts car for the wagon. HERE
And just after the Blue SR5.....was this FC, which was a trade for the shell of the SR5. Who knows, that's nuts to me, but we beat the SNOT out of this car, hatchless in the rain, sliding around on public streets causing mayhem to tires and the wiring, which is the very reason the car had to go away. It suddenly stopped running the one day, and the harness was so insanely hacked apart with an AFC, some ghetto alarm, a home installed immobilizer, and some other crap. It was a nightmare.
At this point the interesting builds and silly driving adventures kind of die, but there's still more cars!
Like the Free, someone ditched it in my Driveway: Crown Victoria! This guy had a bad week. His Crown vic threw a rod, and ended up in my driveway, giving up on the car, he came back to rescue his belongings from it on his motorcycle, turned out of my driveway and got hit by a truck. Shit storm of fail. The car was quickly donated as a parts car to someones build project.
Shortly Following the Crown Victoria was this Free Alfetta. Although needing a lot of work, it's engine was to end up in the Banana wagon, but it's too nice to hack up. The owner gave me the car after selling his Europa and home to move his family to England, practically in tears we towed it away. He recently called me and is moving back, so he's more than welcome to take his Alfetta back and give it the love it deserves.
And now I think we are caught up to at least today, who knows what tomorrow holds? Betsy is a $250 rescue from a teenager with big dreams. Robin and I hustled our asses off a few afternoons to UN-T-Bone the car and give it some new paint. :) Here's the good side. The car will remain a daily until the wagon is wrapped around a tree, or Robin starts getting more of an itch for performance driving.
So what's the moral of the story up to this point? Don't be like me, pick one car, and focus on making it better! Although driving a near endless variety of beaters has not only made me able to drive most cars well, at their limits even with the unique limitations provided by each, I've found my progress towards a specific final goal to be a clouded windy and steep path. PICK ONE YOU ADHD FUCK CAKE! :D Oh and I skipped three cars, though if you go to the "Eighteen till I buy" post, you'll see them....sort of.
Edit! Update!:
1982 Tercel came across recently. Rebuilt 3ac, solid mechanically, but needs an inspection. Fail.
1975 Corolla parts car. Running 2tc, but that's about it. :(
Current Daily: '72 Super Beetle with 4 speed Hurst shifter. Fun, but impractical for now.
Edit update, even more. Though I feel I'm missing many still from these lists.
'83 Cressida, owned it for less than a whole day. Bought it for an event. More about it here!
'84 Toyota Van. Saved from being used as a practice fire/rescue vehicle for the local fire department. Currently in use.
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'83 Cressida, owned it for less than a whole day. Bought it for an event. More about it here!
'84 Toyota Van. Saved from being used as a practice fire/rescue vehicle for the local fire department. Currently in use.
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