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*sniff* it saddens me after 11 years of driving a white Subaru legacy. However, my mind is set at ease when the tow truck guy loaded her up on Sat for her trip down to McLean . . . to sit patiently for vrg3 to return.



Have fun with the car!! I'll be waiting to see what more you have in store for her!!

I'm sorry. It's never easy to see a car you loved leave you.

Thanks Laurel. At least I know that I've given her away to good hands. I don't personally know anyone who has more love for these cars as vrg3.

It's with a heavy heart that I take on the custody of the car. Does the car have a name? Or should I continue to just call it "Jason's car?"

A GT-S! Pretty cooooool. What color? 6-speed, right? When are you buying the XS turbo kit?

is the gts the one with the silly body?

Yeah!

oh well, going from one goofy looking car to another i suppose.

have fun with the cops!

vrg3 wrote:It's with a heavy heart that I take on the custody of the car. Does the car have a name? Or should I continue to just call it "Jason's car?"

A GT-S! Pretty cooooool. What color? 6-speed, right? When are you buying the XS turbo kit?

vrg3. It's your car now. You can call it whatever you want!!

Yup, but make mine Spectra Blue.Yes, 6-speed. I'm still getting used to the close gating coupled with twice the shifting necessary to keep the engine in the powerband. I do have to say the car has a lot of driving qualities I couldn't hope to have in the legacy. The shifter throw/feel is much more precise than even the STi with a short shifter rod. The clutch throw is about 3/4 the distance. Initial turn in and control is pretty darn good for a stock car.

I'll be holding back on power mods and try to capitalize on the car's true trait . . . handling. A set of Hotchkis or JIC coilovers, camber/castor plates, camber bolts, front an rear strut bars, rear lower tie bar, and bigger sway bars should make for an interesting canyon carver.

Afterwards would be a tire upgrade utilizing the stock wheels. I'm thinkin a 45 series tire.

Then I probably would've figured out what I want to do with the engine. The turboxs kit is nice, and puts out an appreciable amount of power, but with an 11.5:1 compression ratio, coupled with some thin cylinder walls, I don't think a turbo setup is a very healthy investment for the engine.

Besides, I like driving a QUIET car.

LaureltheQueen wrote:is the gts the one with the silly body?

LOL! I guess. I like to think of it as eccentric

Yeah, I test drove one so I can see what you mean about the driving feel. I also know what you mean about the powerband -- I had a hard time keeping it up there, which felt weird, because you'd think that with so many gears it would be easy to do. But I just didn't know how to best take advantage of the engine and transmission.

It makes sense to improve handling before performance in any case, but ... you're a boost junkie! You can do a turbo kit at the same time as chassis tuning! And a turbo kit would actually make the car quieter under normal conditions if you left most of the stock exhaust on there. :)

But, yeah, the super-high compression ratio requires you to dump a lot of heat out the exhaust to avoid pinging to death.

I'm trying to think of a cool name for the white car but haven't come up with one yet.[/u]

rice? it IS japanese... To really name a car, i think it requires getting to know the car well, and seeing how it treats you

I could change his name to "vvtijunkie"

vrg3, I felt the same way about the car when I first drove it. But I've been seeing where the engine falls in the powerband at each gear. Makes downshifting a LOT easier than trying each lower gear in sequence. I do feel like a first-time manual driver. *downshifts* Nope, not that gear. *downshifts* Nope, not that gear. I just need a little practice with it.

I'll see if I can't come up with a name for your new car.

THat is awsome that you got the car vrg3. I'm glad it has stayed in the "family." I can't think of a better person to pick it up either. The car is kind of a role model for all of our cars, something to aspire towards. It's sads that it went in such a way. No car should go from a driver cutting it off.

Laurel - Yeah, I could wait until I drive it. I was just wondering if he already had a name for it. I don't usually name my cars though.

DLC - Hehehe... vvtijunkie... doesn't sound quite the same. Whenever I read "boostjunkie" I think in my head,"Boost junkie! That funky junkie!" :)

boostjunkie - Hehe... Yeah... Actually, at the time I test drove it I'd only been driving stick for a year and a half, so I was kind of a beginner anyway. But once you know an engine and gearbox you're set. My brother's friend's dad's been driving Z-cars since he was like 16, and now he uses the clutch only when launching them from a standstill.

georryan - Yeah, I'm glad I could save it. I agree it was a role model in many ways. It definitely was something to aspire to.

I plan to fix the only two things keeping it from being an ideal role model: the stock brakes and the stock engine management. :)

DLC, I'd probably stick with the same name. It has a nice ring to it . . . and preserves the memory of that car and all it's glory.

I even signed up to a couple of the celica boards (yuck! RICE!!) with the same name! Don't worry guys, I'll probably be coming to this board to solve any random issues with my new car. You all seem to be a lot more technically-versed than those 16-18 year olds on the celica boards.

Not too many of them DIY gurus over there. It's a cryin shame.

How wonderful it is that the car is staying in the family! That's great!

Jason, be absolutely sure you're actually engaging the gear you intend to engage on that Celica. We've had a bunch of morons come in with blown up engines in Celicas and Matrices with blown engines coz they chose 2nd instead of 4th.

Yep, it's a very peaky engine, most Toyota 4cyl's are. But they are great fun to drive.

You can turbo it, regardless of the 11.5:1 CR. SCC did it to their Matrix XRS and never had problems that I knew about.

vrg3 wrote:I plan to fix the only two things keeping it from being an ideal role model: the stock brakes and the stock engine management.

INJECTORS!! Believe me, the car would run much better with a larger set of injectors and modified fuel rails!!

subyluvr2212 wrote:How wonderful it is that the car is staying in the family! That's great!

Jason, be absolutely sure you're actually engaging the gear you intend to engage on that Celica. We've had a bunch of morons come in with blown up engines in Celicas and Matrices with blown engines coz they chose 2nd instead of 4th.

Yep, it's a very peaky engine, most Toyota 4cyl's are. But they are great fun to drive.

You can turbo it, regardless of the 11.5:1 CR. SCC did it to their Matrix XRS and never had problems that I knew about.

Believe me, I was quite relieved to have vrg3 take over the car's upkeep. Man I miss it!! I had a eye-opening first experience with fwd (wrong wheel drive) wheel spin leaving the dealership. No more fun in the snow when it snows (and for some reason I just know we'll have some crazy storms this year).

I've heard about all of those issues with blown engines in the 2zz engines. The issues arise from the close gating between the Hs, lack of experience driving manuals (like I said, seems most of the drivers tend to be 16-18yr olds) and not knowing where the engine falls in the rpm range for each gear. It takes a lot of confidence to be dropping the engine into 2nd at anything under 60mph, tho.

A completely different beast of a car, that's for sure. It has that more "track" style feel to it *watches out for bumps and depressions in the road*, whereas my/vrg3s legacy has that "throw whatever you got at me" feel to it. And GOOD LORD was that legacy faster!

The irony was when the dealer was puttin on my tags:
"So are you gonna put those neon lights and LEDs on this thing like everyone else?"

I frowned and thought: "gone from sleeper to cookie-cutter syndrome."

If I ever get another job, I'll be looking to add a Lotus Elise eventually so we'll have the same engine/transmission. From what I understand, though, 6-700 lbs less weight improves driveability a lot.

What is the clutch like in the Celica? I've driven older ones and I don't like them because they feel too weak - like they use rubber bands for resistance.

Se if you can get that clear adhesive mask for the front before stones and stuff take off the paint.

Steve

If I could, I would've gotten a new Elise, however, there's no way I'd be able to afford that car on my current salary. They did a little tweaking to the ecu in the Lotus which adds more advancement in timing in the midange. That change coupled with the lighter weight makes that car quite an impressive road car.

The clutch isn't that bad. It has a tighter feel (like the subarus) when compared to the hondas and vws I've driven. There's actually some resistance! The shorter throw in the clutch is what really appeals to me, tho. Easier for those quick shifts, considering I'm finding myself always shifting!

Damn Jason, I was sure you were going to get a Galant VR-4 . Glad you are happy with the new car though!

Damn, I should read the thread, lol.

The Boostjunkie Legacy is what made me decide to mod the 94. I've never been in a faster 91 sedan, and I've ridden in an E30 M3 and an E34 M5.

Boostjunkie,
Something you might explore with that GT-S is gettting an aftermarket VVT controller to move the cam switchover down a few hundred RPMs. One of the major complaints that I have read about with this car is that it is tuned so that if you hit redline in any of the first few gears, it drops back down to the emissions/fuel economy cam because of the tranny gearing. Changing that switch over point would do a lot for the performance and driveability of the car. Otherwise, I think your focus on handling is well founded...

I'm counting injectors as part of engine management, yes.

I like Matt's idea of a VVTi controller; from my very short experience with a GT-S, I'd say it could make it a lot easier to stay in the engine's power band. I wonder how hard it would be to roll your own VVT-i controller.