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I think we are all used to, by now, passing by high schools and getting high fives.
The other day I decided to walk home from the bodyshop carrying my damaged 99 front bumper skin.
Passing through the park beside the elementary school behind my house, a crowd of kids ran up.
"Car! FD! FD! FD!"
How the heck?
I think I am going to have to go back to putting the car cover back on. These innocent kids strolling by my place on the way to school are observing more than I thought.
Someday they will be teenagers and I fear for my precious 99 parts!
I am pretty sure by the time i was in Grade 7, I could tell every car on the road by make and year and by shape of the smallest detail.
So I guess I should not have been surprised.
One of the first words my son spoke was "BMW".
Last edited by Redbul; Jun 11, 2021 at 12:12 PM.
Reason: added info.
Yeah. JimLab was a pain in the *** and was convinced he was smarter than everyone else. And, he was pretty smart. He was an early Microsoft product manager, I believe. I bought a set of his bushings back in the day and they broke several of my teeth. You had to drill holes in them and lubricate them often and they squealed like hell in ordinary driving.
Yeah. JimLab was a pain in the *** and was convinced he was smarter than everyone else. And, he was pretty smart. He was an early Microsoft product manager, I believe. I bought a set of his bushings back in the day and they broke several of my teeth. You had to drill holes in them and lubricate them often and they squealed like hell in ordinary driving.
Ooohhh.. now I remember.. wow! It's all coming back to me now.. The Unobtanium bushings, right?? lol
True, they did make the car move immediately!! But it also increased its harshness by a fair margin. Only after 2 months or so, the car sounded as if it was from the 20's or 30's. Squeaked like crazy! Eventually I caved and got myself some mazdaspeed bushings instead. I lost a bit of directness and instantaneous response, but the quiet ride and more give in inputs certainly made up for it.
I was actually stunned I was able to sell those things. Despite my severe warnings to the next person... I wonder if they're still running those things?? lol
The only ones that haven't caused me grief and has added a nice dose of gear whine is the differential bushings. Those are the only ones I still run on the car... practically forgot about them until now... lol
Search! there are some pretty epic old threads (i couldn't find) where Jimlab gets into it with people like BATMAN or there was this kid Joe something, or actually anyone. weird combo of abrasiveness and knowledge
he pulled his FD apart to do a 3 rotor (in like 1998! and ended up selling the engine to RETed) and then decided to go V8, with like an LT-1 (this was early 2000's), and then LS1 and then something else. it was quite clear he was just polishing stuff in the garage (which is 100% fine) although he kept up the "i'm going to be faster/better soon" stuff and then sold the car.
I feel like Most of La Breck's intimidation factor dissolved when we found out he worked on Windows Vista.
He is my archetypal example for not letting your project become (or escalate) so ambitious that it can't be finished. He couldn't ever make progress because some new technology or product would come out that rendered whatever he had less than the state of the art. Then it was rinse and repeat.
I feel like Most of La Breck's intimidation factor dissolved when we found out he worked on Windows Vista.
lmao! that was like having the Iphone for 7 years and deciding it was good because it was shiny....
He is my archetypal example for not letting your project become (or escalate) so ambitious that it can't be finished. He couldn't ever make progress because some new technology or product would come out that rendered whatever he had less than the state of the art. Then it was rinse and repeat..
i'm ok with having a thing in the garage you go tinker with, it was just that he kept insisting that someday he would drive it again, and it was just clearly not going to happen
I feel like Most of La Breck's intimidation factor dissolved when we found out he worked on Windows Vista.
He is my archetypal example for not letting your project become (or escalate) so ambitious that it can't be finished. He couldn't ever make progress because some new technology or product would come out that rendered whatever he had less than the state of the art. Then it was rinse and repeat.
They said he was pretty smart and knowledgeable.
Jim was a bit like me and a few others except I don't think he really had a clear vision of what he wanted other than it be, like you said, state of the art and that, of course would always be changing. I got into a lot of arguments with Jim. Synthetic versus dino oil was a big topic back then. I can't remember if the argument about water injection was back then or on the forum, but everything we now take for granted as being gospel was not very clear in the 90's. Lotsd of arguments.
You'll clear $30k easy. The real question is will it clear $40k.
If it's really clean it should clear 40 easily. You need to assess condition realistically, but if you think it's exceptional I wouldn't set the reserve below 35 or 36. I have way more miles on mine (136K) than you and I wouldn't take less than that for mine, not that I'm selling
I'll be listing my Red/Black 94 base with 50k miles on BaT soon - Stock except R1 lip and oil coolers + downpipe. Hoping to get at least $30k.
Bittersweet feelings; life priority is changing, I suppose.
Originally Posted by TwinCharged RX7
You'll clear $30k easy. The real question is will it clear $40k.
Originally Posted by RX7gp
If it's really clean it should clear 40 easily. You need to assess condition realistically, but if you think it's exceptional I wouldn't set the reserve below 35 or 36. I have way more miles on mine (136K) than you and I wouldn't take less than that for mine, not that I'm selling
A stock, low miles, slick top, black interior, 94+ such as you mention ought to threaten $50,000 or more this summer. And, it's re-sale red.
You're gold, brougham.
Waxed it today in prep for photos; "what are you doing? you need to get this ball I got stuck under the car". Made me not want to sell it, listening to early 2000's pop punk while washing my teenaged dream.
I was 8 years old when I first saw an FD and I knew I had to have one. By 13-14, I was one of the most active on this forum while it was still in its infancy. I consumed as much content and knowledge available at the time. I was obsessed. By 16 in the early 2000s, after looking at as many as possible locally and seeing complete and utter POS after POS...the dream started to fade. I accepted the fact that an FD was just not a suitable or realistic car for a 16 year-old with no experience wrenching on cars, even though I was well resourced. I realized finding a clean FD, let alone an SSM R2 that I wanted, would require a national search, and that just wasn't in the cards at 16. I was devastated beyond a level I'm comfortable to admit. Then my arch nemesis jimlab paid to have me booted off here and the rest is history.
Fast forward to early 2018, and after a conversation with my brother who just had a baby who is unlikely to experience what "real sports cars" are like by the time he's driving age...it hit me. Hard. I have the money, time, and space for a garage queen, and it will be an FD. When I set out to search for the cleanest 94-95 SSM, VR, or CW FD available, I was expecting it to take months. It took 15 minutes and I wired the money that day. Two weeks later, some say there was a grown man bawling his eyes out watching his SSM R2 being unloaded off a truck.
I'm glad I didn't get one off Autotrader or Craigslist at 16. I'm glad so many FDs are junk. If it were any different, my experience would not be the same and it's unlikely I'd have one now.
I feel this so much. Rotoritis is a life long affliction, and the only way to solve it is to own one. My FB wasn't enough...it cemented the lust for the FD.
Back around 2007 I tried to trade a guy my Grand National for a silver FD. He said nope! Cash only, so I walked away. I had a toddler, it would have been my daily, and I was on more or less a shoe string budget. Phew.
I was careful to go the cheaper route in 2010, and bought a Miata that I supercharged. Around 2015 or so, I was bored with the Miata and Rotoritis was flaring again. I justified it as not worth the increase in cost, as the smiles per gallon wouldn't go up enough. I would have bought a 15-20k driver, and probably been happy but would have gotten tired of replacing things.
I'd "accidently" been spending time on BaT and watched one of the startup/drive videos...full blown Rotoritis. COVID happened, and I threw some money at the market to give me some cushion when I found one. Bought a 20,000km RHD model in September and have loved the thing. It's definitely not my daily, which makes it so much better. If I'd bought a less perfect example I'm sure I would have sold it by now (those previous attempts at purchase)
