Help get my car back on the road

Help get a broke college student's car back on the road. There will be prizes!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Gran Turismo 5

So, I've been playing GT5 for a while now, and I think  I've finally played enough to have some worthwhile things to say about it. First and foremost, I've been waiting for this damn game for ages. I spent years playing GT2 and GT3 because I was too brokeass of a kid to buy GT4 until recently, when I borrowed it from a friend. Not long after, a friend of mine bought GT5 and we've been addicted to it ever since.

Simply put, this is the best feeling driving game I have ever played. The cars all have very different driving characteristics, even when figures may seem to be close and every car seems to actually have some element of personality to how you drive it. It's easy to lose touch with the "feel" of a car in a videogame, as you're relying on purely the visual and auditory experience to convey information about what you are doing in the game, but it manages pretty well. The dynamics as a whole are greatly improved and GASP you can actually slide a damn car without it going insane now.

Then theres the sheer amount of cars. Theres always something interesting in the used car lot and honestly, there are so many different choices in this game that if you can't find a car that makes you happy, you're a dirty stinking fool with no appreciation for anything videogame or automotive related. That being said  it is taking AGES for the Cobra R to reappear in the used car lot. Saw it once, didn't have the cash, and I've never seen it since.. sigh..

Someday... she will be mine...

When just driving gets boring, theres still tuning to look forward to. If the player so wishes, they can customize almost any detail about the suspension setup, transmission, aerodynamics and more. You could do a lot of this in the old game, but its much simpler and better in my opinion now. The ability to change everything from gear rations to camber and toe to spring rates and dampening... the list goes on and on. I love being able to fiddle and tune these cars that I am probably never going to own. And since tinkering often takes a backseat to the rest of the happenings in my life, this is a good way to enjoy most of the fun of racing, without having to spend the god knows how many millions I yearn to blow on fast cars.

This post doesn't even begin to really describe whats great about this game. I'm not saying its perfect; you'll find out in future posts all the things that are definitely far from. But it's still a fantastic game. With that, I'll leave you with some youtubian shenanigans



Also, the only flaw I'll mention today is very apparent in this video. V8's DONT SOUND LIKE THAT

but I digress.

THEY SOUND LIKE THIS

Thursday, April 14, 2011

alright i can't make you wait any longer

So this is it. This is that demon car I've been raving about for a while. It's also my first car, a 1976 Cobra II. Yeah yeah, a Mustang II, all the assholes that want to laugh can suck it. Throughout the years this car has been more fun than any vehicle I've ever owned. It's also been the number one cause  for my lack of money lol

In any case, I bought this car when I was 15. It was white and blue back then, with a 2.8L V6 and a 4 speed on the floor. it only had 105hp but i loved it.

Over the years there were plenty of mods. First the exhaust, then a  V8, suspension, transmissions, and countless sets of wheels and tires. I even did the bodywork and repainted the car myself:
Before:



During:




After:


Anyway, the V8 was doing well and all, but I was always looking for more. After dumping coolant all over the parking lot at an all mustang car show, I decided it was time to freshen her up. I figured while tinkering I'd also switch over to EFI (electronic fuel injection) for better power, driveability, reliability and general awesomeness. I mean thats kind of how I roll. I started buying EFI parts and tinkering away

That was two years ago. College, moves and life got in my way. I didn't have time to drive home to my parents to work on my old car anymore. I hated that.

Last winterI decided to get some help. Since I couldn't work on it while living 35 miles from home and going to school full time, I sent it to a very trusted shop. These guys had worked on the car in the past and even fixed it for free when the car broke down on the way to a car show that the owner was attending. The car has been at that shop for a few months now, and it's nearing completion!

In addition to a sweet as all sin  fuel injected  V8, they replaced the old 1986 motor (which had an inferior head design, and had pistons that didn't allow for much modification) with a 1992 5.0 with a scant 6,000 miles! In addition to this sweet as all sin powerplant, I've now got bigger brakes, front and rear, a 5 lug conversion, new wheels, tires, a working power steering system and more.  A stock 5.0 Mustang (from where the EFI is sourced from) made about 225hp and 300lb-ft of torque. Coupled with the suspension rebuild I did last summer, and the fact that this thing should be under 3,000lbs mean this baby is going to fly. And the best part? This motherfucker of a car is going to pass smog, so fuck off hippies!  Anywho, the car shouldn't be much longer, so enjoy these pics!













Tuesday, April 12, 2011

lets talk bimmers

I know I promised you guys juicy news last time, but it’s not quite ready to be delivered from the mad scientists I have working on it, so it will wait. One of my classes required me to review a piece of artwork in my field of study. As an Industrial Design major who hopes to move into auto design, I chose to review an old friend, the BMW 3 series.

Specifically, I’d like to discuss the slightly older BMW 3 series. I haven’t been exactly taken aback by BMW’s current styling department, and while they do seem to be fantastic cars on paper, I’m not totally convinced.  My mother owns a BMW a few years newer than my father, but hers has all kinds of nitpicky things that bug me. Things like the paint/coatings chipping off interior pieces and the awkward GPS navigation make you wonder why you paid so much extra for that blue and white badge. And many other current models are just too flashy to really be taken seriously in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, my mother’s black on black X3 is, most of the time, a pretty good car. It accomplishes what we ask of it without too much complaint. Even the newest BMWs are toning down their ridiculous styling. But what I really want to talk about is my dad’s 323i.



At first glance the 2000 323i seems to be pretty standard in terms of 11 year old German automobiles. It’s simple, big enough for a small family, economical and rather comfortable inside. All of the things one might expect on a thirty thousand dollar luxury sedan are present: power accessories, a marvelous stereo system and buttons galore to control all the toys within. But that’s not what makes this car great.
One might expect a typical, business-like sedan to be rather neutral to own. Yes it’s reasonably stylish, but it’s not causing all the 8 year olds in the vicinity to stare either. The lines are simple and clean. The whole car looks very solid, very planted. The overall stature of the car is unassuming. It isn’t abundantly flashy, though the fenders flare out just enough to give a hint at what this car is capable.  All this visual neutrality belies the real excitement of this car. Because while on the outside the Bavarian machinery is dressed in a very normal looking suit, underneath it’s quite the athlete.

The real beauty of this car is that you can use it every day, commuting to work or school, hauling your family around, and no one ever raises an eyebrow. But the moment you take a detour through the mountains, you start to forget about all that practicality you told yourself you wanted.

As someone who routinely romps around in an American V8 torquemobile, the lower figures of the BMW are at first difficult to get used to. The inline six, while very smooth and refined, doesn’t have quite the same kick as something larger. Despite only having 172 horsepower and 181 lb-ft of torque, the car still manages to move around briskly. The gearing of the transmission is very well set up to take full advantage of the cars available power. You won’t be breaking any speed records, but you also won’t be bringing up the rear, either. When you do find yourself cruising at higher speeds, the autobahn inspired chassis stays smooth and comfortable, with hardly a twitch when lesser cars might be shaking about. Lack of torque aside, the motor loves to rev and use the entire range. The result is a very positive experience driving around, either at commute speeds or those that are decidedly quicker. While a manual transmission would be preferable, the automatic does a good job of figuring out what you want to do based on throttle position and response. It also offers a tiptronic/sequential style shift mode, where the driver can manually select the gear, but it’s rather sluggish and not worth switching out of automatic. This point is heightened by the fact that it will not hold gear indefinitely; it will shift out of any given gear if the car things the transmission or engine will be damaged.
The steering is solid and confident, and it doesn’t wobble around just because there’s a bump or two. Turn in is quick and crisp and the car has a stability that isn’t just found in any car. This is for good reason, as this era of 3 series had a near 50-50 weight distribution which contributed greatly to the overall balance of the car. It’s true that there is some body roll, but it is, after all, a family sedan, not the sportier and more aggressive M3. In the event that an owner would want to tighten it up, performance accessories are just a click away. The amount of grip the car has is pretty nice as well; you can accelerate out of turns with confidence that you won’t suddenly break loose and slide. This sort of stability pushes the driver to go just that little bit harder, to see just how much he can accomplish.

At the end of the day, it’s not an amazing car. It doesn’t reign supreme in any given venue. What it does provide though, is fun in anonymous business attire. If you’re the sort of person who likes to keep things discreet but still enjoys the occasional blast through a windy road, this is a marvelous example of what to look for. And today these cars have depreciated significantly. A decent conditioned model will run you anywhere from $5-8,000. Not too bad a deal for an economic, comfortable commuter with a wild side no one ever needs to know about.


And just to be fair, here's a sneak peak at whats to come: