FAO: flyboy

[Verbal]

Remember way back to the days where you weren't sleeping on the couch and something might come to you.

Searching memory....

Nope. Nothing.

[Not_Karl]

A Fiat Palio woke up with three of its wheels missing at the front of my house. My Audi was left untouched. Having an imaginary car has its advantages .

[OldSowBreath]

How many times has your imaginary Audi been in the shop?

[Not_Karl]

How many times has your imaginary Audi been in the shop?

Depends. What kind of shop are we talking about?

[Gabriel]

How many times has your imaginary Audi been in the shop?

Depends. What kind of shop are we talking about?

Given your avatar, let's start with the butcher's.

[flyboy2548m]

Time for an update on the Camaro. Not long after I got it it suffered a fuel pump failure. For those not familiar, fuel pump replacement on these cars is a bear of a job. Among other things, GM did not believe in access panels, so the only way to get to the pump is to drop the fuel tank, which requires dropping the rear axle as well as the exhaust. Since I don't have a lift, I had the car towed home, pushed it into the garage and moved on with my life, figuring I'd get to it someday since it wasn't a daily driver anyway. That was in early January 2011.

Towards the end of last year I decided to get back to my forgotten project and get the beast running again. Having done much reading on the internets, I decided to cut my own access panel with a Dremel tool, and go from there, since the metal back there is fairly thin. However, as is often the case with these things, it didn't quite turn out that way.

Enter Faisal Al-Baghdadi, Daytona's only Arab redneck and the only Saudi I've ever known who is not filthy rich. Faisal owns a shop called Powertune Motors (https://www.facebook.com/PowerTuneAutom ... ndSalesLlc, yes, it's a shameless plug). It seems he has four hobbies: buying unbroken horses (one of which threw him nearly to death), drinking Bud Light, smoking godawful cheap cigarettes and racing Camaros. When he heard of my plans to go hacking away at the trunk floor panel of mine, he nearly cried. "No, my friend, don't do this, this nice car(sic), be worth money later, bring it to my shop, I'll do it proper." He then said he'd give me a good deal if I let him do it in between other jobs. I figured why the heck not, the car sat three years already, what's a little longer? So, off the Camaro went to Faisal's shop, and I got on the old laptop and started ordering parts. In the end Faisal replaced the fuel pump and filter, rear shocks, front brakes, exhaust from the cats back, the troublesome Optispark distributor, spark plugs and wires (HT leads to you Brits), as well as much of the underdash wiring which was a mess due to the previous owner half-assed installation of a remote start system. A set of Firehawk tires was also put on to replace the dry-rotted Falkens the car came with. So, as of a week ago, the Camaro is back on the road. Still not quite done, needs some body and interior work, but at least it's not stuck in the garage anymore.

[Not_Karl]

Great!

[flyboy2548m]

Another update.

I sold the Camaro last week. At over 5-and-a-half years, it was the longest I've owned ANY car.

Bought a new house back in December, kinda needed money for some projects for it, so I threw it on ebay, and, sure enough, a guy from Tampa bought it for himself and his son to turn into a drag racer.

I was kind of sad to see it go, I've had it as long as I've been in Florida.

This is me helping to load it on a trailer and saying good-bye to it.

[3WE]

It looked like you were pushing the limits on normal category attitudes and ramp approach angles.

Of course, the best part was that this precision approach was probably done totally on manual control!

[Not_Karl]

I sold the Camaro last week.

No!

a guy from Tampa bought it (...) to turn into a drag racer

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

It looked like you were pushing the limits on normal category attitudes and ramp approach angles.

Pretty sure I'm seeing a nosestrike in one of the pictures...

[Ancient Mariner]

So what are your transportation means now, Ike? An Eco-friendly Prius (Odin forbid) or maybe a muscle powered bike?
Per

[flyboy2548m]

So what are your transportation means now, Ike? An Eco-friendly Prius (Odin forbid) or maybe a muscle powered bike?
Per

We're back down to two vehicles. I still have my 2012 Focus while Flygirl drives a 2015 Ram 1500 which we picked up last August.

[Ancient Mariner]

Now you made me miss my Navara, not because it compares to the Ram, but because they both are pickup trucks. Would have been handy while working on the house.
Per

[flyboy2548m]

a guy from Tampa bought it (...) to turn into a drag racer

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

It's just as well. I didn't have the money or the time to restore it properly, so it mostly just sat around. At least these guys will spend some quality time together building it. They have an 81 Camaro that they also race, so now they'll have a "team".

[flyboy2548m]

Now you made me miss my Navara, not because it compares to the Ram, but because they both are pickup trucks. Would have been handy while working on the house.
Per

Indeed. Flygirl does all sorts of gardening and grows stuff and whatnot, so she's always bringing soil and such. We didn't even know we'd be getting a new house when we got the truck, but it proved invaluable during the move.

Quite economical, too, with that 8-speed automatic. Gets nearly 30mpg highway.

[3WE]

Quite economical, too, with that 8-speed automatic. Gets nearly 30mpg highway.

My Ram only does 20, and the Tacoma 6-speed manual only does 18. I don't drive as a religious hyper miler, but really do make an effort to coast a bit sooner and brake a bit later.

I guess the crew cabs screw up the aerodynamics.

[flyboy2548m]

Quite economical, too, with that 8-speed automatic. Gets nearly 30mpg highway.

My Ram only does 20, and the Tacoma 6-speed manual only does 18. I don't drive as a religious hyper miler, but really do make an effort to coast a bit sooner and brake a bit later.

I guess the crew cabs screw up the aerodynamics.

Your crew cab is a Hemi and probably a 4WD to boot. That's a lot of extra weight, power, and driveline drag, so 20mpg for that is actually is pretty respectable.

I'm surprised about the Tacoma though.

[3WE]

I'm surprised about the Tacoma though.

Yeah, 4WD is involved in both of my cases- I'd think we could get the power straight through a transfer case (with 4WD disengaged) and haul a few extra drive shafts and u-joints and gear cases without burning 33% of your MPGs...Then again, we're still wanting single autopilot go-arounds...

'Everything' involves some trade offs.

I do give the Ram autoengineers credit for the design of the gear-selection autopilot and gear changing systems...it's less noticeable than all sorts of 3, 4 and 5 speed automatic's I've driven.

[flyboy2548m]

I do give the Ram autoengineers credit for the design of the gear-selection autopilot and gear changing systems...it's less noticeable than all sorts of 3, 4 and 5 speed automatic's I've driven.

The 8-speed is nice overall, can't beat 1,800 rpm at 80mph, hence the gas mileage. On the other hand, it shifts downright rough 1st through 4th when the truck is cold. After about 5 minutes the roughness disappears and all is like buttah. It was enough for me to take it back to the dealer to get it looked at. They told me "some rough shifting with these transmissions is normal". Still, they reflashed the TCU which helped to the extent that the roughness is now SOMETIMES present when the truck is cold.

I'm also not real sold on the rotary selector on the dash vs the more natural lever on the steering column, but alas...

[3WE]

...I'm also not real sold on the rotary selector on the dash vs the more natural lever on the steering column, but alas...

LOL!

That damn thing drives me nuts...and then, after gaining 'competence', I go grabbing for it when driving other vehicles where the shifter's where it's supposed to be.

I dunno, just like your working vehicle and it's side stick instead of a big ole yoke.

[flyboy2548m]

LOL!

That damn thing drives me nuts...and then, after gaining 'competence', I go grabbing for it when driving other vehicles where the shifter's where it's supposed to be.

I dunno, just like your working vehicle and it's side stick instead of a big ole yoke.

In fact, I had to get flygirl in the habit of setting the parking brake since the selector is just a switch, much like the sidestick.

[PurduePilot]

18 months ago I got meself a 2015 jeep Cherokee trailhawk v6 9 speed auto. Overall mostly happy and nice on the forest roads. Haven't tried any real off roading with it. Decent highway gas mileage, considering (upper 20s mpg). The rotary knob for 4wd is a little less thrilling than that "clunk kachunk" of the manual transfer cases of old, but it's still got a locking transfer case, low range, and locking rear diff...

Electronic parking brake switch is... Yeah...

[flyboy2548m]

18 months ago I got meself a 2015 jeep Cherokee trailhawk v6 9 speed auto...

Living large, I see...

[Not_Karl]

Real men drive manuals.

[flyboy2548m]

Real men drive manuals.

Indeed. Which is why the truck in question was bought for a woman.

Ram nowadays only offers manual transmissions in heavier models (2500 and up), and even then only with a diesel.