oh yah... forgot to mention another flaw i found on da GK dis am just to add to the headache. the factory wheel's clearcoat is deteriorating already!. wtf.. i only use these wheels in the warmer months too (like minimal salt exposure) and yet already starting to deteriorate?! waaat?

 

I hate clear coated wheels. Every single car I have had them on the clear coat had failed in a couple of years. Give me a nice painted wheel please.

 

yah this sucks. makes my GK look even crappier. flaking paint, clear coat failing wheels. unbelievable.

 

Just ran into my friend with the '09 Sport Fit today. Clear coat is flaking off of his drivers side fender.

I thought auto manufacture's solved that kind of stuff decades ago? I've mostly owned domestics, but the last time I had paint issues was a 1998 Olds Aurora. It lost paint in large chunks.

Well, the paint on our Golf has lots of issues as well, but nothing falling off....yet.

 

VIR is why. 100 more hp, tons of torque, etc .

 

gafit- i can understand a 10yr old car with clearcoat failure, but not a barely 3 yr old car.. ie GK.

 

Paint on both of my Hondas is swirled by looks fine.

I was bored so I test drove an STI .

It drove nicely, but man that clutch was like four times heavier than the clutch in my AP1 .

 

VIR is closer to real world than a tight track. I live in the mountains and get to go WOT in everything I've owned including my current 532whp Mustang. I have no use for low powered cars, but that's coming from a guy that uses every bit of power from a modded sport bike.

Guess I'm a power junky?

I can promise you that I'd use every ounce of power from the 1997 F350 Dually I test drove today. Forgot how slow they are, but it was a fun trip down memory lane. Shopping for trucks is interesting for me. Mostly looking for something inexpensive, but holy cow the truck market has exploded. My idea of a $5.000 truck now seems to be a $15,000 truck.

 

The 1993 Civic we traded in on our 2008 Fit was still OK'ish. It was just the underbody rust from being an OH car it's whole life that killed that one. I don't blame the car for that.

That STI clutch was heavy because it has to hold back real power...aka torque. The AP1 clutch only has to hold the torque of a small garden tractor. (Insert appropriate LOL jab at a friend face here)

 

 

 

MIke I think on a track like Mid-Ohio the results C&D got might be more in the Meotters favor. Miatas are low hp cars, but they are balanced so well, slicing through the corners is so much fun. I will admit on some uphill climbs I'd have liked an extra 50 pony's. ;-0

GAFIT Yes you are a power junkie. ;-p Nothing wrong with that at all.

Ken Be careful your left leg may grow much larger than your right from pushing a heavy clutch. ;-)

 

Yep. I generally don't feel like the Fit is slow, I prefer a nice smooth manual & be small to all other things.

Oh I totally get why the clutch is much heavier.

I will say though, I got back in the AP1 and blasted up an on-ramp....yeah, if the S2000 is slow I don't want to be fast.

I think there are a lot of tracks a Miata would come up well.

 

Agree...the slower the track, the better it is for a Miata. Look at how they dominate in grocery store parking lot racing. Nothing is much better or more balance for lower speed stuff.

Trying Boostane in the Lincoln. Initial results are pretty impressive. I'm getting about 1 degree more timing safely and zero retardation with just 2 oz added to a tank. It now consistently turns the tires over on the 1-2 shift. Pretty impressive for a AWD land yacht. Not sure how much longer the transmission will take the abuse though.

 

gahahahaha! its really not THAT heavy. i think mike is just being a wimp.

motored the STI, had a blast yet again. luv da car. honestly to me this car isnt all that fast, so it's fun to drive it fast. i meant it'll definitely get one in trouble if not careful, but i can still wring it out within speed limit. QD'ed afterwards.

GAFIT- is dat like octane booster? if so, have u considered toulene? u can buy at sherwin williams.

 

It is more like concentrated race gas. It stays suspended in the fuel and works quite well.

I've heard of using toluene, but have never tried it myself. Up until now, I just ran 93 on the street and then bought race gas at the track. Not for the Lincoln of course. It just gets 93.

These days I don't get to the track much and just want an every tank solution. I may have to research the toluene idea more and see if it's catalytic converter friendly and stays suspended in the fuel. Many of the "octane booster" don't even stay suspended. That's what makes Boostane unique.

 

k, so will see how a muffler delete sounds like on the WRX. i suppose the top 2 fun-factor differences between the STI and WRX is the throttle response and exhaust note (da lack of on the WRX). i mean there's plenty of other factors but those are the 2 most obvious ones, shifter i already fixed. throttle response will need to wait until AP... but exhaust note is an easy swap so decided to give it a shot. should be in my hands later in da week.

i mean even if i hate it, at least ive tried it, right? i mean im a guy dat speaks from experience so why not. if i like it, i might get the HKS catback later on.

 

oh i see. interesting indeed.

 

looking forward to getting the ceramic tint on the WRX done this week kinda nnnnnn.. cause this is a new place im trying, new film too by global.. as u guy know im a llumar user, nothing but pinnacle on my cars. but since shinjari mentioned hes had much success with global on his cars, will give it a shot.

 

Oh geez. I leave for a few days and Kenchan is listening to my opinion...and he updated his avatar to show his R? Say what!?

I run the Global in the Elantra and Civic and have run it on a ton of other cars. Its what my Tint guy uses. The ONLY issues I've had with it are on the Elantra. We got the tint back in 2008? 2009? At this point the windows are good...just a little faded. The back window this last month got a bubble or two. I need to see if she has the receipt somewhere as it is 'lifetime' against fading/bubbling. I don't think they expected someone to have a car 9+ years with the tint haha. I'd imagine their formula has improved since then as well.

Granted with how fast Kenchan recycles cars....this shouldn't be a concern hahaha.

As for me, I sold the Miata this weekend. Sad but glad its gone.

The elantra decided to throw a CEL yesterday. P0743. Torque Convert Clutch Solenoid circuit. Basically the wire harness is probably shorting and needs replacing. Not something I want to deal with....but also dont want to take to dealer to have them work on. Harness and AT fluid will set me back ~$200 and a day...they'd probably charge $1800. Gonna get some quotes today for research sake. Not sure I wanna spend $1800 on a car thats worth <$3k lol. Granted it'd probably run another 50k miles easily.

Anyways Happy Tuesday!