Minor Confession Thread

Trying to figure out if I can safely haul an E36 hood on an SN95 to Louisville so I don't have to make an extra trip north with the truck this week. Annoyingly the hood has good black paint and somebody wants to buy it.

I either need to de-power the steering in my Miata or go to the K-Miata electric power steering conversion, because my engine bay is getting way too berkeleying complicated these days.

In reply to NickD :

With your tire width I’d look at the electric PS or a manual rack. Depowered rack will build your upper body strength right quickly if you like going to the gym during your autocross runs. 

In reply to Duke :

Probably the electric conversion is the best bet, as I hear the manual rack has garbo ratios. But that's a $1200 kit, and it requires a column to send in for them to cut/weld/convert. This weekend, I turned upgrading the front sway bar into reengineering my power steering cooling system, because there is just way too much E36 M3 going on up front.

Just de-power the stock rack and use your muscles. ;) (Or buy the de-powered rack I have sitting in my storage...)

I guess I'll find out sooner or later how "anonymous" the "anonymous employee survey" with its personalised links really is.

Not that my feedback should be any surprise to anybody.

I've made 3 mortgage payments and already wish I had waited and bought a house with a bigger garage.

Oooops

Duke said:

In reply to NickD :

With your tire width I’d look at the electric PS or a manual rack. Depowered rack will build your upper body strength right quickly if you like going to the gym during your autocross runs. 

If you want fun, I now have a 2:1 quickener on a depowered FC rack in my ~2500lb RX-7.  It's roughly 1.3ish turns lock to lock.  (Not sure how that happened - the rack itself is 3 turns lock to lock)

It's actually kinda neat, it's like steering with a brake pedal.  In 99% of driving you steer with pressure, not hand motion.  Definitely need to brace your legs against the door/center console though.

Under heavier cornering loads it lightens right up, can still drive one handed.  (You can see where full lock is in a parking maneuver at 1:40)  This is probably because there's enough rear weight bias that the front end doesn't do much of the steering, it just follows where the rear wants the car to go.  (Which is why I wanted the quickener in the first place)  From what I can see, it also seems to corner on three wheels or close to it, which also helps.

Confession:  I am this close to getting fed up with it all, getting rid of the other RX-7, the RX-3, and the two VWs, and buying an E30.

Of course, being me, I'd want a built-ish K24A2 under the hood of the E30 (just whatever it takes to get 300ish horsepower naturally aspirated), and a solid axle swap, with a floater this time because semifloating axles suck if you do anything involving side loads.

If it sounds like I'd be trying to build a left-side-of-pond MkII Escort built to modern, Millington Diamond-engined spec, you are not wrong.  This is the vision I have for the RX-3, but it is dawning on me that my vision is more achievable with something more common like an E30.  And if said car also retained its air conditioning and interior accoutrements, I'd have no desire to have anything to with the '81 RX-7, either.  And I'd have my German-feel desire satiated, so no need for the VWs.

Berk it.  E30 is calling to me.   For some reason I have an image of an E30 hub with 3" thread-in studs stuck in my head.

Wouldn't it  just be easier to get an Escort without an engine?

MrChaos said:

um I dont hate this. If Keith is here I need specs.

That should have been in the "Herbie does NASCAR" movie except it would have spanked him...

RacetruckRon said:

I've made 3 mortgage payments and already wish I had waited and bought a house with a bigger garage.

Oooops

When we bought our house I was 28, we had a 1-year-old, and we were still making payments on our first-ever new car (a base SWB Dodge Caravan).

We were terrified.

If I had known then how it was going to come out, I would have added 10%-15% to the budget and bought a few blocks farther away from the cut-through street we live on, with a bigger driveway.

Appleseed said:

Wouldn't it  just be easier to get an Escort without an engine?

Not really.  You can apparently buy NEW shells for 7k UKP (lb?), but that's just the shell.  No running gear, glass, nothing.  I guess decent examples are going for 25k and actual rally cars are well north of 100k.

And that's all on that side of the pond.  Escorts were never officially imported to the US, although we did get the Capri which was a long wheelbase Escort. (Trivia:  All US market Capris came from Germany.  Escorts and Capris were made in Germany and England, and I guess the German ones were metric and the English ones were not.  Talk about a parts nightmare)

I heard that about ten years ago, people were buying show cars to turn into rally cars because that was the easiest/cheapest way to get one!

In reply to Knurled. :

Ok the Metric/English Escort/Capri issue sounds really fun when you think about the fact that it's probably not that crazy to think a few German cars have made it to England by now. (Though I guess LHD vs RHD is probably a hint...)

Holy crap. Had no idea S'corts were that much. 

In reply to BoxheadTim :

I worked at a place that had an anonymous suggestion box then put a camera over it. When ever someone had a suggestion we’d each grab a slip, line up and stuff them in the box so they couldn’t figure out who to blame.

Appleseed said:

Holy crap. Had no idea S'corts were that much. 

It's the '69 Camaro of the UK.

They even have all-Escort rally series.  Not just individual rallies, but championship series.

As long as crazy loons keep bending them in forests, people will continue to stamp out body parts for them.  

Mind you, I'd PREFER to have an Escort.  But, dang, critical failure in the parent choosing process if that was my only priority.

I'm still thinking about an electric swap on the ranger. I can't afford it, I don't know the first thing about safety during the job, but it would be perfect for me.  100-150 mile range would be fine, as long as it could handle carrying some weight for half the journey. 

I may have volunteered to stay late at work tonight so that I could avoid going to my middle sister's house for a family function because I really don't like her or her kids.

I still want to go try that sketchy looking gyro place I saw in Nashville. The one across the street from the Hub Cap Heaven. 

Sketchy gyros are best gyros. I love gyro cart food!

I own seven sewing machines. 

In reply to JamesMcD :

But...how many work?

In reply to JamesMcD :

And how many are at your house?