Welp, the GroupMe chat knows, but i replaced the Ridgeline with a vehicle i've been lusting over since I first read about and set eyes on. I first fell in love with the 2004 MKIV R32. I obviously couldn't afford one, but loved watching videos on the AWD VR6. Then came the MKV R32. I won a raffle while i was at an R32 Club event on Shenandoah in 2007. I was tracking the Integra there at the time, but the raffle ticket allowed me to take the MK5 R32 on the track for one of my sessions! The german rep who brought the car (only one in the US at the time) was pretty frightened saying multiple times (in a heavy german accent), "Please, i need to drive this back to Detroit in one piece" as i hauled it over the crowns of shenandoah. That one felt heavy and sluggish, but fast. I still enjoyed it very much despite only being DSG, a complaint i mentioned to the rep when he asked for feedback. The MK6 Golf R was what it was. I liked the tail lights the most, so i eventually got that for my MK6 GTI. I loved the design of the MK6 R nonetheless.

The MK7 was also pretty hot and i lusted over the Lapiz Blue ones i saw for quite a while. Bringing the MK7.5 with the facelifted headlights and subtle exterior accents, making DCC standard, and making limited options was a real nice touch. The one thing i loved on top of all that was the standard 6yr/72k mile bumper-to-bumper warranty offered for the MY18 and MY19 VWs, thanks Dieselgate.

I have been shopping around casually since about November just monitoring prices and seeing what they've been listed for and what kind of mileage they've been seeing. One of my larger concerns was prior hoonage because it's an R. Modifications, DSG, and higher mileage signaled for a higher percentage of prior hoonage/abuse.

Since i knew i would lose money on the Ridgeline sale i was looking for as minimal of a financial hit as I could while obtaining most of that standard B2B warranty and less miles; i wanted to know most of its history. I talked with the wife about the transmission and she mentioned she wouldn't drive it much if at all even if i got the DSG. She basically said, "it's more of a performance car. it should be a stick"  [emoji813] (giggity) So i shopped around casually for a 6-spd in good condition. I found this one with ~6900 miles, 2019 Model Year, one previous Owner, and priced aggressively. 

It feels so good to drive; I am in love. It has the similarities and familiarity that i loved about the MK6, but it's quicker, grips more, newer, and has more safety and tech. Ideally a cool funky Spektrum color of some kind would've been the top choice, but i wasn't willing to pay that premium new or used. From the standard colors i would've chosen the Lapiz Blue, Tornado Red, and Indium Grey, in that order. I nixed the Black and White ones unless it was a screaming deal. I am obviously a huge fan of the Tornado Red since i chose that for the MK6 GTI when i bought that in 2010. I'm warming up to the wheels (not a fan of black wheels), so they may be swapped with 19" Silver Pretorias or the Englishtown/Speilberg wheels that came standard on the MK7.5s.

Current Plans: already ordered the euro spare tire kit since US versions came with a fix-a-flat kit. Fix my android auto issue with my phone/cable as i have the same issue with my wife's sportwagen; it didn't happen with the Honda for some reason. a proper wash, clay, and wax when it gets warmer.

Future Plans: Vag Com quality of life tweaks, wheel swap, winter wheel set over the summer sometime, APR Plus Stage 0 Tune (warranties the powertrain for the OEM manufacturer period), likely a clutch sometime after said tune (if i tune)

Haven't heard details yet. Just heard the date. 4/25/20

Pasting the email here for visibility.

Quote:THE ANNUAL MM GO-KARTING EVENT
 
As most of you know every year, we try to get the current members and alumnus together in a fun afternoon at a go-karting track.
This year it’s going to be at GForce Karting, the same place as last year. And the date is March 21st (Saturday), at 11am. The price for alumni or family/friends is $40 per-person.
We will be cruising there in a group, leaving from JMU R1 parking lot at 9am, everyone is more than welcome to join us.
We are also planning to have lunch in downtown Richmond after karting.
GForce Karting address:
800 E. Laburnum Avenue, Gate 2, Richmond VA 23222
http://www.gforcekarts.com/
 
Thank you for your attention, if there are any questions please let us know. 

      For the ones that are interested in participating in the International Drive History Conference, the Madison Automotive Apprentice Program (https://madisonauto.org/) with support from the Department of History and the Historic Vehicle Association, is giving the opportunity to attend the event. They have arranged funding to cover registration, travel, and lodging costs for three JMU students. The conference is held at the 27-acre NB Center for American Automotive Heritage in Allentown, PA, April 23-15, 2020. The transportation will depart from JMU the evening of Wed April 22 and return to JMU by late afternoon on Sat April 25.


    This event is for those who are interested in the world of historic vehicle restoration, preservation, research, collection management, automotive-related museum professions, or the many other professional positions in this vast area of economic activity, this is the conference where you can explore the possibilities and meet leaders in the field. You do not need to be technically or mechanically inclined or skilled.

    Please contact Professor Kevin Borg, from the dept. of history at JMU,  by February 15th on his email:  borgkl@jmu.edu. Please include your name, email, major/year, and a brief statement of your interest in this conference opportunity (less than 100 words).
 
Don’t forget to take a look at this short video from last year: https://youtu.be/raHj9T3ogws . 


If there are any questions, please ask one of the officers.

The first event of the year for NASA-MA. Shake off the rust, get your cars ready, and bring your snow shovel! 

I'll be doing my TT Check Ride Friday and DE3 that weekend. 

Registration: https://nasaproracing.com/events/3268

Information: http://nasaracing.net/march-27-29-2020-vir/

There's also a Karting Enduro at the Kart track that weekend: https://nasaproracing.com/events/3292

Students, if you want to work with NASA this year, reach out to BRANDON so he can get you hooked up with Laura to discuss working opportunities.

If you've never driven before, $50 gets you a hyperdrive session, which is one classroom lesson followed by 20 minutes of instructed track time. You can not beat that value.

Let me introduce you to my car (some of you may know already because I bought it from the Bridgewater area), I drive a 2000 BMW 540it.  It is a v8 station wagon and is painted glacier green over a black interior.  When I bought the car everything worked great and I had about a week of normal driving then it stated running rough, turned out it was a bad coil pack on cylinder 8, $60 and 5 min of work later I was back running 100%.  I drove the car off and on until about early May and that a when a cam position sensor went out on me so I decided to bite the bullet and whilst I is was working on the engine I decided to refresh the cooling system and may as well do the timing chain guides because PO didn't  know the last time they were done.  The job took about a month and the now I thought I had 120k of future trouble free miles because the engine held great compressino and had fantastic leakdown numbers when I got it back together. Well turns out I did not clean out the oil inside the cam bolt housings and all 4 cam bolts backed out when the car was running.  After a couple of months of trouble shooting(all of which can be found  if you want the thread I can PM it to you) I finally figured out it was the valves that must not be properly seating/sealing when it needs to be sealed. Turns out I was right and I had 13 bent intake and 2 bent exhaust valves, ok now I know why they say the "The most expensive BMW is a cheap BMW) but new heads  were pretty cheap and now I have an engine that will be nearly new, so the m5 conversion I was planning on this summer may have to be pushed back so I can enjoy this car in its stock form for a bit.  I will try and get some better photos of the car next time I am back home

                   

So ever since I bought the Honda Rebel 250 last year I wanted to upgrade once I got comfortable on the bike. I was always cramped on the Rebel (I’m 5’10” 230lbs), and, while I enjoyed learning to ride on it, knew I wouldn’t have it long. I sold it back in November and started looking for a replacement. I rode a couple Harleys (what I really wanted) in a Softail slim, a fat boy, a dyna wide glide and an 883 iron, as well as an Indian Scout 60.. I ruled the iron out almost instantly because of the high seat height. The dyna was ok but I preferred the Softail riding position and options. The Scout was really nice but literally everyone I know that rides around here has a Harley so it was hard to go against that grain. I looked around for a month or two and stumbled upon a 2013 Softail Slim near Asheville shortly after Christmas. We negotiated back and forth and I made him an offer on 12/29 and met him at his place on New Year’s Eve. 

It’s a 2013 Softail Slim with 1983 miles as of the day I bought it. Matte black paint, white wall tires, six speed transmission and the 103 engine. Has lots of the Willie G Skull aftermarket stuff as well as LED headlight, signal lights and tail lights. It basically had all the options I wanted to put on one so I jumped on it.

Towing it home




Once I got it home






Started to rain at the office so we pulled mine and my coworkers 883 Iron up under the overhang 


So I’ve always heard it’s best to not park a motorcycle directly on concrete and you should have some sort of rubber based carpet under it to avoid moisture traveling up. We recently remodeled our office and the flooring guy that won the contract is married to one of my wife’s coworkers and has been a friend of ours for a few years. I snagged a few pieces of the carpet and adhesive to keep it from moving to park my bike on. 



So Sam and I are horrible gift givers and exchanged valentines gifts last week. She got me new black clutch/brake handles and black Willie G Skull mirrors which I love. I also had the jiffy stand (kick stand) looked at because it felt like it was flimsy. Tech found the spring was totally shot and replaced it so it would spring into place with some confidence. 

Hi everyone, my name is Matt, I'm a Computer Science major and I own a 2000 BMW 540it, it is the perfect size and comfortable enough to be a daily driver and has plenty of power from the 4.4l v8 to still have fun.  I saw this forum in a DakarYellow M3 on BringATrialer and decided to join seeing as my BMW will be on campus as soon (complete new top end.  Still doing research on production numbers and rarity but you will never see another one like this in the USA.  Sorry for the lack of good pictures of the car, I need to change that this summer


Maintenance in the past year:
- new LED strip in gauge cluster (common pixel repair)
- remanufactured heads (5 year warranty) 
- new VANOS
- authentic 2003 M-Parallel staggered wheels with Hankook ventus v12 evo2 OEM specs
- replaced broken interior trim (cupholders, center console "garage door")
- timing chain guides (main and individual cam guides)
- timing chains (main and individual cam chains)
- timing chain tensioner (main and individual cam tensioners
- water pump
- intake manifold gaskets
- PCV
- CCV
- valve gaskets
- rear air bags (both)
- cooling system revamp


Upcoming upgrades:
- repair small rip on drivers seat
- replace cloth gray interior headliner and A/B/C column covers to black Alcantara/seude
- upgrade the muffler to make it a little louder
- rear hatch struts (they don't need to be replaced but I'll so it to make sure it won't be a future repair)
- replace chrome line trim with shadow line trim
- repaint black door frames gloss black 
- style 62 winter set
- style 49 summer set 
- m5 parts car for m5 touring conversion (hopefully coming in August of this year)


           

Hey guys. I have a torsen LSD out of a Supra that needs to be rebuilt since its leaking out of the pinion and axle seals. I'm planning on putting it into my 2002 GS300 and need to get it rebuilt before I throw it in. So far I feel like I've struck out in finding a place to do this. The contacts in the area that I've reached to either don't want to touch it because its not what they're used to working on or want $800+ if I supply all of the parts ($400).  Does anyone here have any recommendations for a shops around the NOVA area that will do a differential rebuild for a reasonable price? The going rate seems to be around $400 including in expensive areas like CA from what I've seen online. I'm semi inclined to do the job myself for that price since I essentially have all of the tools to do the job (minus 2 or 3) that I could get at the Hazard Fraught but I'm not feeling confident about correctly setting the pinion spacing and resulting gear pattern. Any advice would be appreciated!

Almost one year to the day I bought this thing, anyone want it for parts? ~190k on it, engine needs at least a front timing case, oil pump, harmonic balancer, or just another engine. Had typical frame rust issue which I think we did a good job getting fixed. Radio doesn't work, everything else does, as did the AC until the condenser was recently removed. Still runs and drives, just not for long!



$600 dog not included