Monday, April 18, 2011

Cars Are Taking a Backseat

Not that I get a lot of readers, but I do get a few hundred some days, a few dozen others.

But, I will not have much to report on cars for a couple of months as I am taking care of my wife who was diagnosed with a brain tumor and will have an operation this Wednesday.

Wish us well.

Hopefully I will be back racing and wrenching by August!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Front Bushing Refresh. Slight Differences. Slight Pain.



So, I went to get an alignment and the race shop said my bushings were compromised and I should replace them before wasting $150 on an alignment.

OK. Well then, those bushings only lasted about 7 race weekends. It was the front of the arm bushings that were particularly shot. The arm moves backwards and severely mangles them. There is no good aftermarket bushing for the front of the arm(Weltmeister discontinued their ineffective solution). The red Weltmeister bushings in the rear of the arm were in fine shape, but I figured why not spend the $17 and put in new ones of those as well.

Getting out the old front bushings is tedious. But installing them was a breeze using this threaded rod technique. Worked a charm.

It was when I replaced the driver side a-arm, I had an inkling it was bent a bit, that I noticed the new one was not the exact same shape as the old(original) arm. The Weltmeister sway mounts with hard plastic pieces that distribute the load and mark where to drill the arm. They fit the original arms perfectly. They did not fit the new arms perfectly, so I had dremel them down a bit to get them to sit in the same part of the a-arm. All new bushings should sharpen up that handling again and was what was probably responsible for the wheel wobble I was experiencing at the end of the season.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Cars & Coffee Boulder / Lafayette, CO 4/2/11












With near record high-temps of almost 75 degrees forecast, the turnout at the Boulder Cars & Coffee was of course going to be high.

I love these events because they are so casual. You pop in for an hour, check out some cars and leave. My favs this morning had to be the Aston 2/4 convertible. And the Citroen wagon.

If you're ever in Colorado on the first Saturday of the month, I am sure you will catch me here.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Worst Porsche Classified Picture. Ever.


You were expecting a 924 with flames. Or a 928 with a Chevy in it. Right? That would be too easy. Too expected.

Not for this guy. Ok. This seller is hawking a pretty desirable, or on the rise, collectible Porsche. A 1978 930. That is a 911 Turbo for the non-Porsche lunatics. I noticed this ad on the Porsche mecca pelicanparts.com.

Now what in the world would make you think, 'Hey, my shift knob is a little chaffed. I know, I'll just toss this Crown Royal bag over it and call it good."? You know what would make you think that? Having just drunk a bottle of Crown Royal with your most solid drinking buddy, probably after blasting up through 4th at a 140MPH. That sort of experience would give you the clarity to see how the faux velvet packaging of this mass-produced spirit would make a superlative shift knob. Momo? OEM Porsche? OMP? Pshhh. All bow to the power of a purple whiskey bag.

Besides the obvious drunk driving overtones, this reeks of over-moneyed, under-classed gad-a-bout.