Also -

https://www.motorsportreg.com/events...es-solo-424905

When searching for road rallies the keyword is TSD (time speed distance)

 

Ah Heath. Flew too close to the sun with that role.

 

Winter is coming, so I started swapping out the Vossens for duckfeet & snow tires.

I do this every year, going on 12 years now. It's like I'm in a loop, measuring the passage of time by whether or not it's time to put on snow tires.

Anyway, I thought this picture was interesting in the shadows.

 

This time last year I was just getting started on my caliper project. I was all in on that, right through to Springtime.

This year, I got nothing. I'm going to have my rear wheels rebalanced. Yay for balanced wheels.

I wonder if I need a project for the car, and the only thing I keep coming back to are suspension mods. The dampers all the way around are original, OEM Tokico sport dampers. The front has Swift lowering springs, and the rear springs are from the Tein Basics kit, so it's a Tein spring with an adjustable mount. The car is lowered, but not drastically so. The entire rest of the front suspension is original OEM, same for the rear except for an aftermarket camber arm. There are Eibach swaybars front and rear, still on original bushings. Out back is a differential brace, while up front there's a lower engine cradle brace, and up top is a GT-Spec FSTB. The engine mounts and diff mounts are all polyurethane. I used to have a poly transmission mount, but I swapped that out.

The car is 14 years old, with 55k miles, and stored in a garage. Tires only last about 10k miles, but these days that doesn't matter anymore. I might auto-x it again, but doubtful. Mostly it's a garage queen I take on back road romps occasionally, or maybe one road trip a year.

All that taken in, if I were to make plans around everything that goes into a car's suspension, what would you do?

Anybody want to write an opinion on this?

 

Not much left to do at this point bro. It's just a completed build. Unless you want to add Z1's new headers that work with your RHFCs and get a retune, but I'm sure the power is already plenty, especially with the 4.083's.

 

Aw man

 

Well, there's a few ways to approach this.

There's mods for mod's sake, where you keep changing stuff just because. That's more a kid thing and I don't see you (or I) doing that again, if we ever did.

There's modding for a purpose. Seems like you've hit your purpose of a street rod (that's still driveable). IMHO the only thing left here, and there's plenty of cons, is forced induction. If you want to change it from street rod to track star, there's plenty you could do... but you'd need to be interested in tracking the car. Autocross is less intense but you'd see folks doing $10ks of mods to get .5 second faster runs, so there's diminishing returns there.

But... here's MY question. Is your hobby driving the car, or modding the car? If the former... dude, look for those weekend trip excuses. Check out a road rally like I linked before. Figure out the perfect picnic setup for the trunk so you and your frau can haul *** around the lakes and when you find that perfect spot, have a serene picnic like they sold us in all those car ads of the 80s.

If your hobby is modding... you need another project car. Since you end up paying others to do a fair amount of the work (not judging) that may or may not interest you.

Sadly... I listen to a podcast called Behind the Bastards. 'Caster is a guy named Robert Evans. He was comparing himself to Oprah in a recent episode (you get a car, you get a car, and YOU get a car! meme) but he only gave out Geo Metros. In my head, I thought 'make it a Geo Storm and we can talk...' (I like project cars).

 

Well thought out comments and advice, Mike.

FI isn't going to happen. And you're right, I'm done and need another project. A retirement project car maybe, after we finally move. The whole next-house search starts this Fall.

 

I think at a certain age we all want to tinker with a British sports car (Triumph, MG, etc)... which, unless you can fabricate whole assemblies from raw materials, is getting more and more challenging. The "it works" version of that is of course the Miata. You can just refresh and keep it stock, or build an Exocet from the components, or anything in between.

One of my favorite street and track cars was a buddy's NB that had good tires, 15" wheels, Konis and swaybars ONLY. It was a blast to drive at 9/10ths on the road and 12/10ths on the track (only got to slide it around VIR, but that was golden).

Assuming you can find an early one not molested by Spec Miata folks or Honda kids.

 

Although I think the RF is drop-dead gorgeous, and am absolutely sure it would be fun to drive, it's also a tight fit in a super low car. At my age I'm more interested in something with some heft to it. Some GT cruiser that can also handle tight corners. It brings me all the way back to my old dream car, the F-Type.

So yeah, maybe that after the next house. I'm planning on retiring at 65, and I suppose I could hang on to my G for as long as I want. That's not a bad thing.

 

I'm in the retire-at-67 age bracket, but I can only see myself doing THIS job until I'm 60 maybe. Then the plan is a nice magistrate robe until mandatory senility at 72 with full state benes, assuming any of that is still a thing in 2045 and that I'm not dead of (waves hands at everything).

I looked at/drove an RF before I bought my RX8 and while you could top-tether a baby seat in the ragtop, the RF window retracts into that spot so no kid ride-along. I was and am still 50% of her transport until she starts to drive so that was a nonstarter. Also $10k more than the ragtop - the ND is sharp in either version IMHO, especially that ruby red metallic.

Nah, I want and older one so if I need to fix it I'm not as sold on using proper parts and just shoehorn whatever works in there. Like the Fiero or Escort electric fans in RX7s...

The car I really wanted to like but couldn't fit into was the FRS/BRZ coupes. And I'm only 5'9".

 

You could always try to find a real E-type from the 60s to tinker with. Spiritual predecessor of the F type.

 

Same, and I'm only 5'10". And TBH, I preferred the looks of the first gen, although the drivetrain of the second gen is every way better.


30 years ago a buddy of mine was restoring an E-Type Vert 4MT with the inline-6. That car was scary. It was like navigating a row boat down a three lane highway.

Hard pass on really old cars.

 

You need a new hobby! I always got the impression you enjoyed the research and planning almost as much as the actual mod. Maybe there is something else you can find that grabs your attention for a few years.

This is the route I would go. It's not a bad thing, but it's not exciting either. I haven't done a mod in years, aside from swapping out my shift ****. I only drive ~3000 miles a year, and have a super hard time dropping money on mods for what would at most be a marginal upgrade. So yeah, hang on to it and enjoy.