01-03-2006, 12:12 AM
I wasn't necessarily into cars. During HS, my mom gave me her POS Mitsu. Mirage. It couldn't break 60 mph and if I wanted to turn the semi functional AC on, the car couldn't break 40mph. So I first became interested in cars only so that I could have some respectability and driving without a functioning AC during the hot ass summer became unacceptable.
I bought a Haynes Manual and learned how to do brakes, belts and such on my own. Needless to say, doing front brakes for the first time was nerve racking and the changing the shoes took me the better part of a weekend.
I next bought a Maxima w/ Leather, Bose Audio, Climate control. All the nice stuff minus the handling, power etc etc. That car was great but as my friends got more into drag racing, I hated going to watch them with my Gold Maxima w/ what they called the Old Man Package. What was more upsetting though was that I fixed most of their cars. In my mind, I was the only real car guy in the group and I didn't have a real car.
So I bought a Prelude w/ a blown engine. That car was a nightmare. The previous owner was a complete ricer with indiglo badges, TypeR stickers, and left me a bee hive of wiring under the dash. The shop I paid to swap my built engine into screwed over big time. They didn't torque down bolts, so motor mounts were loose, my flywheel bolts vibrated free and destroyed my aluminium flywheel and clutch. There were so many other issues. Long story short, because of the year I spent fixing all the problems with that car, I grew infinitely more knowledgable of cars as well as grew terribly fustrated with the car scene in general.
I was actually at Ray Carr getting the Prelude inspected and that's when I met Jack. He was really affable and he convinced me to come check out MMSports. I wasn't really sold until I went to my first Auto-X. I was completely out of control but I had such a blast. A little time later, I resolved to sell the Prelude, and later bought my MR2. After having sunk ~10k into the Prelude w/ minimal benefits and maximum fustration, I went the complete opposite route with the MR2. I did all the maintenance, and decided to go the least expensive route inorder to participate at Auto-X and track events. That's where the "Dave Allen Suspension Package" comes in. If that's one thing I can pass on to newbies, it's that dyno hp's aren't worth it. Spend all the your money on suspension mods, and seat time. There's no sense in having a car that puts down 250 whps when you can only control 50 percent of it.
I plan to participate in ~7-10 events this year contingent upon work and about as many auto-x's as the engine will take.
I bought a Haynes Manual and learned how to do brakes, belts and such on my own. Needless to say, doing front brakes for the first time was nerve racking and the changing the shoes took me the better part of a weekend.
I next bought a Maxima w/ Leather, Bose Audio, Climate control. All the nice stuff minus the handling, power etc etc. That car was great but as my friends got more into drag racing, I hated going to watch them with my Gold Maxima w/ what they called the Old Man Package. What was more upsetting though was that I fixed most of their cars. In my mind, I was the only real car guy in the group and I didn't have a real car.
So I bought a Prelude w/ a blown engine. That car was a nightmare. The previous owner was a complete ricer with indiglo badges, TypeR stickers, and left me a bee hive of wiring under the dash. The shop I paid to swap my built engine into screwed over big time. They didn't torque down bolts, so motor mounts were loose, my flywheel bolts vibrated free and destroyed my aluminium flywheel and clutch. There were so many other issues. Long story short, because of the year I spent fixing all the problems with that car, I grew infinitely more knowledgable of cars as well as grew terribly fustrated with the car scene in general.
I was actually at Ray Carr getting the Prelude inspected and that's when I met Jack. He was really affable and he convinced me to come check out MMSports. I wasn't really sold until I went to my first Auto-X. I was completely out of control but I had such a blast. A little time later, I resolved to sell the Prelude, and later bought my MR2. After having sunk ~10k into the Prelude w/ minimal benefits and maximum fustration, I went the complete opposite route with the MR2. I did all the maintenance, and decided to go the least expensive route inorder to participate at Auto-X and track events. That's where the "Dave Allen Suspension Package" comes in. If that's one thing I can pass on to newbies, it's that dyno hp's aren't worth it. Spend all the your money on suspension mods, and seat time. There's no sense in having a car that puts down 250 whps when you can only control 50 percent of it.
I plan to participate in ~7-10 events this year contingent upon work and about as many auto-x's as the engine will take.
Two feet.