Love the Beast

Recently, I watched Eric Bana's documentary, Love the Beast.  It chronicles his history with a 1974 Ford Falcon xB Coupe that he acquired as a teenager.  As he grew up, got married and became a movie star, he kept this beloved car with him.  He rebuilt it twice with his friends, and, after his film success, had a professional turn it into an unabashed race car.  Thousands of dollars and thousands of hours were spent in this complete transformation.

The highlight of this history is the Targa Tasmania Rally.  It's a 5 day event of flat-out racing across over a dozen stages.  In 1996, he ran the rally with the car before its transformation.  He finished third in his class, when his goal was to simply finish.  Ten years later, with a totally transformed car, he returned to the Targa Tasmania.  It now sported over 500 horsepower and was aptly called The Beast.  The first three days passed without incident.  Day four, however, turned out differently.  A sharp turn suddenly came up, and Eric and his codriver careened off the road.  Both were uninjured, but The Beast had quite a bit of damage.  The Targa was over for Eric and the Beast.

A month after the rally, Eric got the postmortem.  It was not good.  The Beast would have to be totally rebuilt to be drivable again.  There were so many custom parts that he would essentially be starting the restoration over from scratch again. Crushed by the news, Eric struggled with the decision of what to do with this car that he had possessed since he was a teenager.  He talked with Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear, Jay Leno, and even Dr. Phil about it.  They were unanimous.  That car has been with him longer than his wife.  Although other things matter far more, they realized that a car that he had kept for over twenty years and brought through three restorations was worth saving.  And they told him to build it again.

The documentary really struck a chord with me.  Five years ago, I saved money on the side for over a year and paid off debt early primarily to afford a 350Z.  On October 31, 2007, I drove away in my brand new 350Z in San Marino Blue.  I had worked for it.  I had dreamed about owning it.  I drive a 350Z in Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport.  When I moved to Michigan, I got a winter car, just to avoid getting it rusty.  It sits in my garage in the winter, and I wipe snow off a 13 year old car that sits in the cold.

Recently, I began one of my dreams in earnest.  I actually got to compete in my 350Z in real life.  My first five or six events, I was just happy to be pushing my car to its limits.  I was happy to be doing something that other people only dream of doing.  I was happy to learn how 10/10ths is different than 8/10ths.  I felt the butterflies of the rear end sliding, only to catch it gracefully.

By the end of the year, however, I faced a dilemma.  I kept hearing the phrase from experienced autocrossers: "The 350Z is not competitive in your class."  Thanks to an accident in early 2008, I no longer had the original wheels that came with the car.  So I was in the "Street Prepared" class.  And I was beaten regularly by three to four seconds on a 60 second course.  That is no trivial amount.  Better driving would only have reduced my times by a second at most.  The siren call kept whispering, "Sell the Z.  Get something competitive..."

I knew that the Z could do much better within the class, but it would be outshined, so long as it faced cars that weighed significantly less and had more horsepower and torque.  Unfortunately, the 370Z, weighing 200 fewer pounds and 30 more horsepower, stock, is classed exactly the same.  So, the odds are not in the 350Z's favor.  It also faces off against the Mitsubishi Evolution and Subaru STI wunderkids.  If I put race tires on it, it would suddenly be facing a certain Corvette that has repeatedly set the fastest times of the day at autocrosses.  This Corvette likely has 500 horsepower and certainly has gigantic race tires.  It is definitely a beast. Ideally, the Z would top out at 350HP in either class.

Yet, another question lingered in my mind.  "Should I even be contemplating spending $10,000 or more to make a fast car even faster? Shouldn't I be a good husband/Catholic/homeowner/financial planner and save money for things that matter?"  Now, I knew that money would be spent over the course of a number of years, but the expenses of home ownership and the prospects of a family may even make owning a 350Z prohibitively expensive.  I have to have a winter car, and as the sports car slowly transforms into race car, that winter car becomes the "daily driver."  Selling the Z is an even worse prospect, fiscally, unless the other car does double-duty.  Financially, I could sell the Z and the BMW, and get a new sub-compact that has room for babies, and have plenty left over to make it competitive for a stock class.  All 100 HP of it.  But, it would do well in its class.

Yet, I think in the end, Love the Beast provided the answer.  I'd been told "You'd regret selling the Z."  When I saw the pain of loss on Eric's face as he gazed over the wreckage of his beloved Beast, I knew that the Z was MY car.  It may or may not wind up being competitive, but I'll have a blast trying.

It. Is. Alive!

Victim:
1998 Volkswagen Jetta Mk III
2.0L 8v ABA Engine - Stock 115HP

Because the Jetta had come in an unknown state and 150k on the odometer, some mechanical refreshing was in order. My first order of business when I got the car was taking care of the brakes. When simply changing the brake pads did not help, I entrusted it to a garage for speed and peace of mind.

The new subject of inquiry was the ignition system. Nothing had likely been changed for over fifty thousand miles, and it was quite probably on the same spark plugs from 1998. I picked up spark plugs, plug wires, a distributor cap and rotor. An adventure was about to ensue.

The VW 2.0 engine has a rather unusual trait: its intake and manifold snake out the front of the engine, over the top, and around the left side of the engine bay. In the process, it makes getting to the spark plugs and wires an interesting and somewhat difficult affair. Also, the distributor cap has little spacing between it and the engine block. It seems like a really cramped design for a relatively roomy engine bay.

I had to acquire two new tools just to get going: a spark plug puller and a wobble ratchet-shaft. The first thing I found was that the valleys that the spark plugs were stuffed into did not give enough room for the spark plug tool to fit around the wire boot. After shaving down the rubber grips, I was able to pull out the plug wire and get at the first spark plug. (Yay! 1.5 hours down!) The replacement spark plug went in fairly easily.

According to the Chilton's manual, I should not need to remove the intake manifold to get at the middle plugs. Don't buy that line for a second. At the very least, it has to be loosened to allow for maneuvering room. However, some creative maneuvering got the other three plugs replaced and the wires removed from the rat's nest that is in under the intake manifold. (Yay! 2.5 hours down!)

My one bit of excellent forethought was in keeping the plug wires attached to the distributor cap. I popped off the clips and pulled off the old cap. I replaced the rotor, no sweat. I thought to myself, "I'm pretty much home free!", but I was about to learn that I was mistaken. I was flat out WRONG!

I put the new distributor cap on, sans clips, and it jiggled around a bit. After fumbling with it to make sure it was aligned properly, I was ready to clip it back on. I pulled on the clip, but it was about 2 mm from cresting the ridge on the cap. I pushed on it. I pulled out pliers. I pulled out more tools. I tried bending the clips. After about an hour, I gave up for the night.

Sunday, I came back with renewed vigor. More pushing. More prying. I tried bending the clips again. No luck. I tried the old cap, but its ridge was in the same position. No luck. More Pushing. More prying. No luck. After a couple hours of wrestling with it, I gave in for the night. After all, the Super Bowl was coming on.

Monday evening, after posting pictures of my problem, I got a little piece of advice. Use a flathead screwdriver or two, and hook it under the clip, and put the tip on the ridge. Use the leverage to guide the clips onto the ledge. After 15 minutes, the distributor cap was in place! Hoorah! I spent some time getting the new plug wires in and got everything buttoned down.

After a prayer, I turned the key. And it fired right up. AMEN!

1998 VW Jetta Wolfsburg Edition

I'm now the proud owner of a 1998 Jetta Wolfsburg Edition. I got the title, keys, etc. this morning. I'm picking it up friday or saturday and get a little bit of practice before driving it on a daily basis.

It's my first manual transmission car. Now I just have to learn to drive it. Test driving was interesting. I stalled it my first 3 times trying to put it in gear. I finally figured out that my problem was too little gas rather than too much. After that, I happily puttered around the parking lot. It's going to require a little initial maintenance in the rear brakes, but hopefully it won't be anything I can't handle.

It'll be my "Winter Snow-Goat Beater" and daily driver. I might fix the exhaust with a cat-back, but I'll have to put that off until spring...

Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration

Don't fail us now!

Vote for "Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration" as the patron saint of the Archdiocese of Detroit now!

Finding a Patron Saint for the Archdiocese of Detroit

Men, change your oil!

Men, it's time that you stopped going to the quick oil place. The Art of Manliness has a great article on changing your own oil. It's not a matter of "thinking with your dipstick", but a way to be initiated into the realm of maintaining your own car. You might just break even, but you get to have the pride of a job well done. Who knows how many corners a quick-lube place will cut? Plus, it's an excellent time to go over your major fluids and mechanicals to make sure your car is in tip-top shape.

For those who care about performance, changing your own oil is a must. Many "synthetics" these days are simply highly-refined crude oils. Grassroots Motorsports found they had a few hp bump in changing over to Red Line lubricants over OEM-type lubricants.

How to Change Your Motor Oil (ArtOfManliness.com)