SOLD

Time to thin my pile of stuff before I move to NOVA. I bought a set of wheels from Colton with dreams of finishing my Tacoma, but never did. They've been in my closet for 2 years.

I'm not exact on the details, but I'm 99% they are these. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.summitracing.com/parts/usw-84-5760l/overview/">https://www.summitracing.com/parts/usw- ... /overview/</a><!-- m -->




Should be 6 x 5.5 with either a 4" or 4.5" backspacing. I don't know.
$100 for the set, or whatever. Offer me something.

I also have a diff drop and stainless steel extended brake line for a first gen Tacoma if anyone knows someone.

Roll Call?

I guess I got put on grid and busy work of coolers/scales setup/tear down. Didn't think I'd actually get a spot working.

Seems like it's going to be a lighter weekend.

Brian - Instructing/DE4?
Jake - Instructor Clinic/Racing?
Justin/Casey - Working?

First a disclaimer, I've built this car over 7 years and its the week before finals so this is going to be a brief summary of the car and its history. I will also add pictures whenever I get a chance to get them all together from my various devices.

I purchased the car back when i was 14, for $1000, It had been sitting in someones backyard in Alexandria for a couple years and the father had purchased it to restore with his son but the son lost interest. The car was originially red and with GM's of the era the clear coat was completely gone. The car was originally equipped with a 305 TPI and 700r4 that was bad, the owner gave us an extra 700r4 to go with it and the adventure began from there.

My dad being the king of preventative maintenance had us pull the engine and reseal it entirely along with replace the bad transmission. Prior to the re-installation of the engine and trans we replaced all of the old worn out bushings, ball joints, shocks and anything else that was a potential hazard. The new components helped with the dry rot from sitting and you know 20 or so years BTW the car is 100% rust free. We also added in a new but cheapish dynomax exhaust because V8 along with some Foose Classic Legends that were ungodly heavy and were only 7 inches wide with 225 tires on all four corner. I was still young and had no clue what I was doing at this time.

After the car was back on the road and driving for about a year we started looking for paint shops that would do a good job and do it right. We found a local shop that was all about it but ended up jerking us around for six weeks with the car and never did anything but pull some trim off the day before we threatened to get the cops involved. Long story short the paint job is from MAACO and is far below my standards(having grown up going to car shows at Carlisle and other of the sort). The plan is to get through college and get everything settled and ultimately find a hard top car that I can transfer/build another car with the funds and time to do it the way I want to.

So back to the "originally equipped" 305, turns out someone took all of the 305 TPI components and slapped them on a chevy van 350 and threw it in the car with bigger injectors which caused the car to run horrible and never start when cold for a number of years soooooo what does everyone do? LS SWAP

I drove to NJ to buy a wrecked 02 Trans Am that we could use the entire drive train from which we did, we used the motor, trans, driveshaft, rear end, and gas tank for the swap and it worked flawlessly. Well mostly, the car haunts me with a cold start issue and wont idle by itself until the car warms up, we've traced it back to the IAC and have talked with many people and cant figure out why the IAC wont retract when cold.

After driving the car throughout high school I wanted to make it handle better and was introduced to autocross and track stuff from the club of which made me empty my wallet at the fastest rate possible. The mod bug to take this car known to fellow mullet men as a simple drag car and make it turn well had begun. The suspension has changed a couple times and ill just list the parts as the car sits today. Additionally, the 4l60e lasted one autocross season and was uhh lets say tired for the time being, so i picked up a t56 with 32k miles from a fellow ls swapped thirdgen that had all the parts needed and swapped it in over winter break.

Current Parts List
5.7 LS1
T56
Koni Yellow Shocks and Struts
Ground Control Weight Jacks
4th Gen gas tank(Internally regulates the pressure for the ls1)
4th Gen Rear end w/ Disc brakes
Upgraded 4th gen front brakes
2000 Forged OEM Vette Wheels all around 18X9.5 (275/35/18 w/ Potenza RE71r)
Fays2 Watts link(better suspension setup than panhard bars, allows rearend to stay centered through suspension travel)
GMMG Catback 2.5 from headers to y into 3 inch
Stainless Longtubes and single highflow cat
Tubular Rear control arms with relocation brackets to keep the geometry in check
Subframe Connectors(i will be adding additional braces to stiffen the wet noodle chassis that GM created)
Caster/Camber Plates(Not yet installed, sitting in the garage)
Stainless Steel brake lines and 4th gen master and brake boost(Sitting in garage)

Im sure that im forgetting a lot because the car has had a ton of changes but its extremely fun where its at. The t56 has a leak that ill be looking into once school ends and I plan to pull it out again and make sure everything is fine. In the long term id like to rebuild the ls1 with some cnc ported ls6 heads and a cam which should bump the car to around 450 wheel which is plenty for what I plan to be doing. Im looking forward to trying to get into the track stuff more but have been hitting every autocross event around and love to surprise people with what the car can do.

Like I said ill keep adding to this the more I remember and try to get some more pictures as time permits.

I'm sure Hampton Roads isn't the only spot with one of these, but about a year ago a business opened here called Rent-a-Lift. $25/hr gets you a lift, tools, and fluid disposal. I don't have a garage, so this is actually pretty tempting for me for my rotor replacement on the Z06 coming up.

Anybody ever utilize a place with a similar business model?

So with what seems like the biggest graduating class for MM in the last 2 years (in my times at least) and a club that's growing even bigger we've been having lots of talks this year about jobs, major choices, career choices, graduation and generally everyone trying to figure out what to do with themselves.

With a club and forum as vast as ours in regards to careers I figure we should have a little place where we can share what we do, what we want to do and what opportunities are available that we know about worth sharing.

For alumni: share what you do, what your majors were and maybe where you'd like the future to take you. Share whatever you're comfortable with.

Students, recent grads, soon to be grads: can ask for advice, major choices, work opportunities, learn a thing or two, ask all the questions.

Essentially a place where we can all help each other grow our careers in a positive direction.

Myself: I was a geology major, useless​degree, currently​ an assistant GM at advance, going for GM and then grad school for something a little more applicable to my life and then see where the world takes me after that.

Well, after daily driving a bone stock 2009 Z51 Corvette for a few years, I started to shop as the car neared 70k miles. The car still ran great (some of you know the paint needed some love), but I was getting bored with it, to be frank. I knew i wanted to stay in a V8, RWD manual, and that I prefer GM products. This narrowed it down to CTS-V, ZL1 Camaro, C6Z, or C7.

I stumbled upon a 2008 Z06 with 17k miles and in great condition here in Virginia Beach. It had some more work done to it than I was looking for, but I made the mistake of going to look at it. Moral of the story is I bought this stupid 2008 Z06 (one year older than my last Vette, and the same color...) with the following mods:

-American Heritage heads -Stage 4, milled ~.040 (shooting for 11.8-12.0:1 CR) ferrea hollow exhaust, del west treated stock intake, . ported, BTR dual springs/ titanium retainers
-Cam by Carlos at Vette-Air 242/252 657/657 on a 112 +4
-Comp cams 7.75 pushrods
-Halltech Superbee 103 intake
-ARP head bolts
-OEM LS7 lifters / trays
-Kooks 1 7/8 headers ceramic coated, with catted x pipe
-Akrapovic stainless steel slip on
-FAST LSXR intake manifold ( BER ported )
-Holley billet fuel rails with torrent black/black fuel line kit
-65 LB Deatschwerks LS7 length injectors
-Nick Williams 102mm Throttle body
-C5R timing chain
-ATI stock size Super Damper
-Mike Norris catch can
-160* t-stat
-Katech billet belt tensioner
-brand new DRM bilsteins

Thoughts I have had:

"Wow, DDing this car is so dumb"
"This cam is way too big and is robbing HP"
"This car looks 90% the same as my last one"
"Holy shit this car sounds like Satan eating bricks"
"I am so glad this is my DD"

*edit* Dyno link below. Before you ask, I didn't want to pay the price of the car with the Forgestars and I really like the OEM 10 spoke chromes.

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Jake and I were scheming the other day - who's up for another Nova aluMMni meet, this time to see Fast 8 next week? Let's pick an evening, grab some food/drinks and head to a theater that would be central-ish to everyone (I'm thinking AMC Tysons could be doable?)

The only one I didn't see in theaters thus far is Tokyo Drift, after the crushing disappointment of F&F2. I strayed from the path and have been paying a penance ever since, and vow to never miss another again.

In short my family is looking for a new 4 door sedan that is awd with hp/tq similar to our Pontiac GT (260/280). The pontiac has held up well for a superchaged car making it to 220k miles but is deciding to break every other month at this point and the cost of repair is getting to be worth more than the car itself.

Here comes where I need your guys opinions, suggestions, and personal experience. My mom has picked out four possible contenders all of which are the AWD variants:

Lexus IS 350 - 2014 and newer comes in around 30-35k
Benz C300, 2014-15 w/ 25k miles comes in around 20-25k
Audi A4 - 2016 on the lot with 9k miles, 32k
BMW 328i - Havent looked into very much

Each car has been driven and shes learning towards the Audi and Benz. We,ve researched and know all the stats and comparable prices but I would like the opinions and arguments from some fellow car people. The only issue she has with any of the contenders is maintenance and cost of repairs along with the nearest Lexus dealer being about an hour away. In addition to that she dislikes the Lexus's hump like thing next to the drivers leg.

Thanks for any feedback

Ryan

Just posted - if anyone here in the CS field who is entering their Senior year next year is interested in a summer internship in Herndon VA, take a look here - <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://micropact.jobs.net/search">https://micropact.jobs.net/search</a><!-- m -->. Shoot me a PM for more details if any of the internships interest you.

So the camaro is gone, I've owned a few BMW's over the years but never an m car. This last weekend I flew down to Texas and picked up an 08 e90 m3 will post pictures later. Dual clutch, red interior, Jerez black