by "sony1492" (sony1492)
Published 08/08/2017 at 23:20
by "sony1492" (sony1492)
Published 08/08/2017 at 23:20
Tags: stories
STARS: 6
A tale of suffering, struggle, and achievement.(heavy sarcasm)
It started with a very generous relative (who live 200 miles away in the bay area) asking what needed to be repaired on my blue SC. I replied with a scroll of parts that would daunt seasoned mechanics, and cost much more than the car was worth. Needless to say a few days later shes telling me that she’ll just buy me a,”parts car” which to her means not $5000. So I travel down and start combing craigslist, eventually stumbling upon a 6 speed swapped sc400 for $2800 that had been on craigslist for at least a month.
I got in contact with my brother (who also lives in the bay) and we device a plan to get both my cars home and him back to the Bay. It involved about 800 miles of driving in a car that had a monumental rear main seal leak and a driveshaft that could fall off at any given moment (The driveshaft bushings were quite cracked).
I would drive down to my relatives house, find a car. He’d drive me to the car and we’d drive the cars back to said relatives place. From there we’d take the new car and the sc 200 miles north, drop one of them off and drive back to the bay to get my brother home. Then all id have to do is drive north again. It was clearly a great plan.
Fast forward a couple days, somewhere around Oakland; I’m sitting in a car that’s slammed within an inch from the road, theres no shiftknob, it hits the center console going into most gears, the car feels like it’s sat, and there’s the stock rims in the rear seats. After looking it over and noting the ps line nearly touching the ground and significant body damage, i reluctantly take it for a spin. The owner has to get the car onto the street for me(-throwing my pride out the window-) I stalling it a couple times and then drive it around the block, whilst struggling with the clutch. I’m telling the owner that the cars too rough, and I cant buy it, when my brother takes it for a spin and comes back telling me,” YOU NEED THIS IN YOU’RE LIFE.” I buy it on the condition that he lends me his foresters shift knob, we set off $2300 lighter.
At this point I’m about 260 miles from home, 17, and driving a manual, I’ve only driven manuals on dirt roads with no traffic, hell when I’m home the nearest stop light is literally 50 miles away so my city driving experience is limited. Stopping at AutoZone and getting out of oakland was all well and good until my brother and I got stuck in rush hour traffic/gridlock on the highway, normally this isn’t so bad but i have no idea where I am so I’m trying to follow my brothers Forester, but hes used to the city and drives agressively switches lanes all the time and jockeying for positions. At this point traffics doing 5-20mph. The learning curve was a little steep with a clutch rated for 600hp in stop and go trying not to stall and or fry the clutch. Eventually Its dark, and traffics pace has gone up considerably, at one point there was a VIP ls400, another sc, and I all driving along at the same time. But that quickly ended and eventually my brother and I come to a toll section, as we’re rolling into a line he switches to a booth with a smaller line. By the time im out of the toll hes gone(i was folling him for directions) I try in vain to find him in the traffic up ahead, but its dark and foresters dont stand out. After about 10 minutes I give up.
At this point Ive done enough driving and the traffics thinned to start having fun. Until that point highway driving was never fun in the auto SC, but the close ratio 6 speed and slammed-ness made highway driving feel much faster. I decide ill drive until i recognize an area or see a place that might be decent to pull over into, this ends up be 30 miles or so. Along the way I see an R34 gtr for the first time, followed by ripping past it.(naturally) The city starts to clear up and I pull over to a Starbucks using the internet to finding the way back to the relatives house.(at the time my phone service wasnt active)
Somewhere around 10:30 we leave in both SC’s (I forget the reason for not taking the forester but it must’ve been good). We end up being next to each other on a straight away with a few stop lights, that goes predictably. We decide to take some wine country back roads to bypass Santa Rosa and quickly realize that the new car is eating it’s tires around corners. The tire is touching the frame on any sort of bump or turn, which leads to the pace being severly cut down on the twisty road. It had also been on off raining and the car had been sliding around for no real reason so the reduced speed was welcome. We come into a small town amd begin asking random peaple if they have a jack we can borrow, a very generous person helps out. A little rain, and two stock rims are sitting on the front, all rubbing issues were fixed. We also meet this guy with a 350z and he talk about cars for a little while.
45 minutes later A cop starts trailing us for a few miles my brother and I pull over he then turns on his lights and pulls over too. After talking to my brother and I he eventually says,”Aftermarket exhausts are illegal you know” aswell as telling me that my third brake lights out, and leaves. The whole time neither car had insurance and one of the cars had an exhaust that straight fell off before the mufflers.
From there everything goes well and we get (almost) to my house. With the new car being slammed their was a section the dirt road that it physically couldnt climb.
With the sun coming up and no sleep we leave to go back to south to the bay. That goes uneventful besides the exhaust leak and midnight food poisoning from Jack in the Box. I spent most of the 4 hours being sick in the passenger seat while my brother drove. Now At this point I’ve got that 200 mile drive home again, some important facts about the car; the pcv was vented into the air and the rear main leaked so much that it got on the exhaust and smoked, coupled with the exhaust ending at the rear axle it was a recipe for headaches and bad times. But the drive home wasn’t all that bad besides being sick and immensely tired.
About 40 miles from home I take a dirt road that bypasses the highway just in case I, A.) Vomit while driving or B.) Fall asleep at the wheel(which I’d been battling since that morning). This plan works well and I end up puking violently on the side of the road, and proceed home.
Totally worth it
Also this is a repost from a year ago, the story has since progressed
Updated: 1/24/18
"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch)
04/21/2016 at 22:20, STARS: 1
6 speed sc400?
"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
04/21/2016 at 22:22, STARS: 0
Wow. The telling was just as great as the story.
"Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap" (ddadragon)
04/21/2016 at 22:23, STARS: 0
That sounds like quite the story.
"Blondude" (Blondude)
04/21/2016 at 22:24, STARS: 1
You’re nuts.
I need this in my life.
Also this.
That is all.
"CCC (formerly CyclistCarCoexist)" (ccpbb)
04/21/2016 at 22:26, STARS: 2
It’s a V8 Supra with a six speed. It’s pretty awesome. Manual might be hard but once you get the engagement points into muscle memory, you’re good.
"sony1492" (sony1492)
04/21/2016 at 22:30, STARS: 0
http://collinsadapters.com/index.php/1uzf…
"Blondude" (Blondude)
04/21/2016 at 22:30, STARS: 0
His last post says it’s a 350Z transmission.
"sony1492" (sony1492)
04/21/2016 at 22:34, STARS: 0
The problem I later learned was the racing clutch.
"CCC (formerly CyclistCarCoexist)" (ccpbb)
04/22/2016 at 01:36, STARS: 0
Racing clutches suck to the contrary of anyone who wants one and hasn’t anything with a racing clutch...
The trick is to learn to rev match, heel toe on every downshift (saves the clutch), and once the clutch engages, makes sure to quickly get off the clutch and on the go pedal.
"MonkeePuzzle" (monkeypuzzle)
04/22/2016 at 11:38, STARS: 0
well I want a 6speed sc400 now :D
good read. And... have you now swapped all the parts from the parts car to make one epic ride?
"sony1492" (sony1492)
04/22/2016 at 13:22, STARS: 2
The old one became the parts car and I’m currently improving the new one with battle version inner tie rods and a spray paint job.....more on that next week..
"promoted by the color red" (whenindoubtflatout)
05/08/2016 at 18:53, STARS: 0
Is this the one with the 350Z gearbox swap? I'm fairly sure I saw it for sale on the Bay Area CL.
"sony1492" (sony1492)
05/08/2016 at 18:56, STARS: 0
Yeah, it was probly this one that you saw.