Introducing, Shark Attack

"Shark-Attack" (shark-attack)
08/09/2015 at 00:48 • Filed to: None

Greetings Oppo! I’ve been lurking here and Jalopnik since about April 2014 and finally decided it was time to make some contributions myself! My name is Austin, living in the PNW (any Oregonian oppos out there?). I do a little bit of a lot of things I’m sure oppo can appreciate, backyard mechanic, welding (prefer to TIG), operating machinery. On the other side of the spectrum I do a bit of engineering/inventing, landscape designing and also aquascaping. Big time animal lover, my animal family consists of a black lab, Ebony, a fat orange cat named Pooter, a 40 and 90 gallon freshwater fishtank, a 125 gallon reef tank with 20 gallon sump (just recently aquired and set up, may do a short post on it later if there’s any interest) and 20 gallon saltwater aquarium.

Now for the good stuff. I’ve been into cars since I was but a wee youngin, starting out on granturismo 1 on the original Playstation. My dad also exposed me to cars quite a bit and through my childhood owned some pretty jalop vehicles including a 41 Willys, some sort of brown Willys pickup, 71 Maverick Grabber, 2 foxbody Saleen sc, a modified Model T dragster that ran high 8’s and a c6 z06. He’s currently building a 55 Chevy pickup with the engine from the dragster, which I come out to help with installation and fab work now and then (post on this coming soon as well).

As for my car history, I started out with a 2001 Mazda Tribute lxv6 that I half purchased, half inherited from my mother when she purchased a 2010 Toyota Venza and the dealership offered her only two grand. A little while after my 18th birthday I sold the mazda for much more than two grand and purchased a 1990 w124 Mercedes 300e, it was a very high mileage example, and a chunk of the head right behind the timing chain actually broke off and lunched the m103 engine. That said, the car was extremely well engineered and I would buy an example with lower miles in a heart beat.

Now, I consider myself a pretty business savvy guy, but the one large purchase I made that I regret was those knock off monoblocks. For what I paid I could have had real deals in the color I had originally wanted, silver. Lesson learned.

My current car and daily is a 1985 BMW 635csi. I’ve done alot of work to this car since purchase, there’s way too much to say about that car and is for another post, another time.

Here it is, next to my father’s z06.

That’s all I can think of for now, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask in the comments!

DISCUSSION (21)

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Shark-Attack
08/09/2015 at 04:29

Welcome! I don’t normally come in for these introductory posts but figure why not since nobody else is chiming in and because I live in the PNW also (there’s a few of us around here). Don’t take it too hard, you just happened to post at the absolute slowest time of day/night for Oppo. Crappy thing for us left coasters, we’re a few hours behind most other opponauts.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Shark-Attack
08/09/2015 at 05:44

I’d definitely be interested in a post on the aquarium stuff, I used to have a fairly nice (although small) marine set up. My dad still has a 5 footer.

Shark-Attack > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
08/09/2015 at 06:04

Thanks for the welcome. Yeah I actually wasn’t expecting much until I woke up tomorrow, good to know there’s some locals on here!

Shark-Attack > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
08/09/2015 at 06:06

Good to know, I’ll get something in the works then!

Hot Takes Salesman > Shark-Attack
08/09/2015 at 07:55

Yes, but can you do Keep Oppo Weird? Don't worry about that Nibby has us covered

105 HP of fury > Shark-Attack
08/09/2015 at 08:21

Welcome! I’m looking forward to the post about the 635, looks like it’s in great shape.

$kaycog > Shark-Attack
08/09/2015 at 08:52

Welcome to Oppo! Your family sounds lovely!

JR1 > Shark-Attack
08/09/2015 at 08:53

Your screen name makes perfect since. Beautiful BMW. If I am correct you can get those for a steal right? Nice purchuse! And welcome!

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Shark-Attack
08/09/2015 at 11:11

Cool. This is our tank at the moment (halfway through a water change hence the water level)

Kinja'd!!!

Shark-Attack > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
08/09/2015 at 17:13

Nice! Tank looks great. Neither of my marine tanks are near that level of fauna, as I just got into saltwater this year.

Shark-Attack > JR1
08/09/2015 at 17:14

Yep, it was definately a steal. Thanks!

Shark-Attack > 105 HP of fury
08/09/2015 at 17:16

Thanks! I’ll get it underway when I have the chance

Shark-Attack > Hot Takes Salesman
08/09/2015 at 17:17

Haha Ill do what I can!

JR1 > Shark-Attack
08/09/2015 at 17:33

Did those come with a manual?

Shark-Attack > JR1
08/09/2015 at 17:51

They came with a dogleg 5 speed, unfortunately I went with the first one I could find that was cheap and relatively rust free. When the auto 4 speed goes out Im going to be attempting the 5 speed swap.

JR1 > Shark-Attack
08/09/2015 at 19:36

I'm sure it is still fun even with an auto

Shark-Attack > JR1
08/09/2015 at 21:13

It is! Thank you for refraining from manual elitism! Lol

JR1 > Shark-Attack
08/09/2015 at 21:50

A manual doesn’t make or break a car!

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Shark-Attack
08/11/2015 at 04:24

Thanks, this tank has took years so far and contains most of the stock from my old 3 footer (had to shut it down to move away) they aren’t easy to build up haha.

wbizarre - OEM fetishist > Shark-Attack
08/30/2015 at 11:08

Welcome! Looking forward to E24 content. Love the French lights.

Shark-Attack > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
08/30/2015 at 17:52

Thank you! The post is all written up, I just need to take some time to take a couple pics so it’s coming soon.