What happened to all the old

What happened to all the old cars? In recent junk yard crawl brought some disappointment. There were no old cars. We'll really old cars. Instead they were replaced by Scions, Mini Coopers and Smart cars. There were even a few first Gen Prius. What are us guys that own pre 90's automobiles to do?

After a disappointing showing at Daytona we have the right gearing for super speedways and our test session at Homestead was very promising. Next stop Sebring Raceway.

Im back.

Sorry its been awhile since the last blog but I certainly haven't been asleep at the wheel. Just lost my blogger login info and had all but hire a seal team to find it and get it back. I promise to update this blog and get you guys up to speed. Thanks for hanging around.

Super Yugo

Another project joins the team. One of my most favorite cars from Europe is Renault's R5 Turbo 2. It was the original pocket rocket. A small lightweight car with an awesome power to weight ratio made this car dominate many racing venues. Renault took a simple and very economical front wheel drive car with just over 45 horsepower the LeCar and gave it a musclecar makeover. They took their 4 cyl 32valve engine from their racing division and had them install it in the LeCar only they put it in the hatch and made the car rear wheel drive.

Sure it wasn't as easy as that but what they ended up with was a compact car putting out 235 - 300 horsepower to the rear wheels that would dominate its racing catergory. We are going to recreate a similar car only using a car with a very tainted past - the Yugo GV. The formula is the same, a small underpowered FWD car only we plan on building a tube chassis. Yes we could just bolt a FWD engine and tranny in a cradle and mount the whole thing in the trunk but I really want this thing to handle and the only way is a fully adjustable suspension.

As for the powerplant, that's still up in the air. We can go with a newer Civic Si unit that would give us 200 hp and a six speed. Maybe a GM Ecotec four with a supercharger or how about a 2.4 SRT4 turbo motor? Ultimately weight will be the deciding factor with reliability a close second. But one thing is for sure, this baby should go like gangbusters and make the R5, for which it is based proud.

Rats!!!

Rats, rodents or some sort of marsupial is what I have in my garage. I saw what appeared to be signs of rodents gnawing at some bags I have in the garage. So for the past couple of days I have been scattering poison and they have taken the bait. Now this weekend I hope to be cleaning up before I tear down the Goldwing and I hope I have got rid of them for good.

I have finally received the side cover and some back problems sidelined everything but it looks like
everything is a go for this weekend.

Victory is mine!

For days I have been trying to score a used battery side cover for the GL1200 ( Goldwing) on Ebay only to have those cursed Ebay ninjas strike with 13 seconds left and steal it out from under me. But victory is mine at last! I am a proud owner of a black ( the color isn't really important) battery side cover complete with emblems that is being shipped to me from Tennessee.
For those that do not know, Honda has discontinued many parts for the 1983 - 1986 Honda Goldwing, with these side covers being one of them. The problem is that as the rubber grommets that hold the cover in place get older they tend to dry out and no longer have a grip on the covers. That means while your tooling around on the freeway you can have one of your side covers fly off and usually get run over by the car behind you. The trick is a neat little teather made out of fishing wire to keep you from losing them. I will go into detail in a future post as this project gets under way. Finally.

Coming Soon

Here is a glimpse of future posts and projects (yeah, it didn't look right to me either when I typed it).
A 1984 Volvo 245DL wagon (the brick). I got it for a song ($300) and with over 265K miles it still runs like a top. Only now running is not the problem, stopping is. It has developed a problem in the power brake booster and it loses the power assist randomly ( you'll want to remember to bring a change of underwear when you drive this one). We are looking to do an engine swap with this one, possible even go with a rotary and a 5 speed tranny (we'll see or should I say you'll see).
A 1983 Mustang GT convertible ( the widow maker). As seen in the background in one of the previous posts. This car is an original GT but has a transplanted long block from a '91 along with the T5 and and 8 3/4 rear diff. I have replaced the fuel injection with a Holley 750 double pumper and Edelbrock intake. Future mods to this car will include a roll cage, fuel cell and lots of bodywork. I would like to take this car to SCCA and Autocross events in the future.
A 1985 Honda Goldwing Aspencade (the new scoot). I picked this one up after I sold my wife's Ninja 250R. She wanted another bike and I know she still wants a crotch rocket but this is one we can both ride on for long trips. It has 102K miles on it so I will have to do some mechanical maintenance, but the motor runs very well. Unfortunately, the bike has seen a lot of weather over the years and it shows. So new chrome, a seat and some bodywork have to happen before I can lay some paint on it.