A 1st-gen DSM AWD would still be an interesting car if you could find one that wasn't a roach and wasn't priced so high due to nostalgia that it made other stuff make more sense. Evos are vastly better cars, though.
A 1st-gen DSM AWD would still be an interesting car if you could find one that wasn't a roach and wasn't priced so high due to nostalgia that it made other stuff make more sense. Evos are vastly better cars, though.
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The 01 to 06 Sebring is a weird car, because it's actually 2 completely different cars, depending on which model. the coupe is a rebadged mitsubishi eclipse, but the convertible and sedan are a wholly chrylser design; completely different chassis, drivetrain, electronics. chrysler's been sniffing cocaine since the late 80s, and it shows. although lately their prodigious long term use of nose candy has at least produced the Hellcat All The Things philosophy, so I can't complain too much.Now stuff one in the minivan already!
I would still want to own a 1G DSM turbo AWD, and I don't care how much the world may have passed it by. I had a 1990 Galant GSX which was the nonturbo but still AWD version of the Galant VR4, and it was a cool car even if underpowered. You could switch the instrument cluster from green to amber backlighting depending on your mood, stuff like that. It also took my 7k RPM clutch dumps without complaint - I'm assuming the VR4 wouldn't have been as forgiving of an abusive teenager. The 4G63 as a NA powerplant had 135 hp if I remember right. The car was good for maybe 110 mph? But was solid at that speed, which is more than I can say for the Fox 5.0 notchbacks I had following the Galant.
My very first car was a salvage titled '93 Eclipse 1.8L base model 5-spd, in Fiji blue. I loved that thing, and it was good for maybe 100mph tops but it was a perfect car for a teenager like me at the time. Later I had a '91 Laser RS-T AWD that got an Evo III 'big 16G' turbo and various supporting bolt ons (2G MAFS, Apex'i SAFC, etc) and that car was definitely in the mid 12's at around 110mph. I just couldn't keep the damn thing from leaking some kind of fluid to save my life.Originally Posted by Welder
Around the same time in the early/mid 2000's, my close friend who'd later become my best man had a '91 GVR4 in Nile Black (they were only white or black, IIRC) and that got a Frank-5 20G, HKS VPC, the usual supporting injectors and pump, and a very crude water/meth injection system that pumped from the old wiper fluid reservoir. We trolled a LOT of cars with it back in the day, on race gas when the HKS VPC was behaving just right that car definitely had an 11sec 1/4 pass in it. We also noticed it was surprisingly stable and composed at high speeds on a road trip to Denver years ago. When he sold the car, the buyer was very excited that it came with a spare set of brand new and long discontinued KYB AGX shocks for the GVR4.
Funny how it seemed totally normal as an early 20-something to soup up a ~10+ year old Mitsubishi until it ran 11's.... and then take it on a road trip! LOL
Ironically, we called that the "Mitsubishi Pontiac" due to the side strakes.
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I really don't understand @hufnagel's obsession with Mopars, but Mopar dudes gonna Mopar.
I finally got around to buying a heat gun, so I can work out some of the bumper dents on the FJ. I had to order a fresh battery for it too, turns out I shorted a cell in my old one when I was working on the tensioners. Frustrating to say the least. Optimas aren't exactly cheap and that cell shorted way too easy.
I finally got the dog to roam around the back of the FJ with the seats folded down. I can't decide if I want to remove them and build a flat floor all the way through the cargo compartment or just leave it as is, with the utility of the seats intact.
I really don't understand @hufnagel's obsession with Mopars, but Mopar dudes gonna Mopar.
I finally got around to buying a heat gun, so I can work out some of the bumper dents on the FJ. I had to order a fresh battery for it too, turns out I shorted a cell in my old one when I was working on the tensioners. Frustrating to say the least. Optimas aren't exactly cheap and that cell shorted way too easy.
I finally got the dog to roam around the back of the FJ with the seats folded down. I can't decide if I want to remove them and build a flat floor all the way through the cargo compartment or just leave it as is, with the utility of the seats intact.
Not even things like Hemi Chargers either, it's all the FWD Dodge stuff that's usually extinct from simply falling apart. My hat's off to him for keeping those cars alive. I'd genuinely love to see him own a 4Runner or Camry or Accord for awhile and hear his thoughts on how they compare. @hufnagel, have you ever owned a Toyota or Honda?
Current Optimas are not nearly as good as they used to be ~15 years ago. I gave up on them entirely. Back when I was doing hot rod shop stuff, it was bad enough that whenever a customer brought a car with an Optima I had to have them sign a waiver saying we weren't responsible for that battery going dead randomly while their car was with us getting a built engine or whatever. Leave them connected to anything for 2 weeks? Dead Optima. Disconnected? Still dead Optima. Put them on a battery tender intended just for Optimas - still a nonzero fatality rate.
Optima's warranty is pointless too unless the Vendor takes care of it directly. Once you have to call Optima themselves they make HK's worst customer service seem like a Chik-fil-A drive thru.
Meanwhile, all the shitbox hotrods with cheap Econocraft batteries that were 6+ years old were happy to sit disconnected with no issues. On a Mustang we built that took ~6 months due to parts backorders, it needed a jumper box to get going and we realized the battery was like 600CCA for a 5.4L V8 with 11.5:1 compression and thereby woefully undersized. Put an 800CCA Duralast Gold in it, zero problems. Except that those Comp Cams 'Muthathumpr' cams in that 3v 5.4L w/longtube headers made me want to just let that car idle all day long because it sounded so damn good. Absolutely abysmal bang:buck ratio vs a Chevy LS, but probably one of the best sounding cammed V8's I've ever heard.
Anyway, there's a million other AGM options now if you really need an AGM battery, and I've used Duralast Platinums for that purpose since Autozone is absolutely zero-BS about warranty coverage. I've also never had to warranty return a Duralast Platinum or Duralast Gold battery, either. For something like an FJ Cruiser I'd get a Duralast Gold and never look back. Virtually all lead-acid automotive batteries for CONUS are made in ~3 different factories these days anyway, so the brand name is really just who's providing warranty coverage.
On the folded-seat thing - I've found that any time I remove the back seats from any vehicle I own, I end up wishing I still had the back seats for some random reason within 6 months.
I've said for probably 20 years that cars choose enthusiast owners by their personality defects. At least @hufnagel has an old Chickoree, so I wouldn't dread hanging out with him.
I had to do a couple batteries awhile back. Research led me to Sam's Club Duracell. They're East Penn/Deka, which means Not Johnson Controls, and they're enough cheaper there to pay for the annual membership versus buying anyone else's private label East Penn/Deka.
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The heart wants, what the heart wants.
How can I judge? Instead of being sensible and buying a SV650 next, I'm almost certainly going to get a Ducati of some stripe. Because I'm an idiot man child who likes V-Twins turned on their side.
I ended up ordering another Optima. But looked around at other AGM options. I didn't really like what I found in terms of cranking amps and capacity from other locally available batteries.I had to do a couple batteries awhile back. Research led me to Sam's Club Duracell. They're East Penn/Deka, which means Not Johnson Controls, and they're enough cheaper there to pay for the annual membership versus buying anyone else's private label East Penn/Deka.
I'm hoping next time I need a battery the lithium cells have come down in price to be a reasonable alternative. If we were talking $350 instead of $200 - fine. But Lithium is running $800 and that's too rich right now.
For some reason, I needed to fact check myself on this and found it's a Liberty. That fits sooo much better with the Stratus and Neon. I must've just been assuming that something needing the work he's done to it was much older, but I don't live in salt. We can still talk about guns and LeMons if we ever hang out.
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