24 cars blue sky

Monday, December 31, 2012

Name That Shifter, No. 109

Name That Shifter

Shifter No. 109 It's Monday, and that means it's time to present this week's shifter. You'll have until mid-day Wednesday to identify the make and model of the vehicle whence this shifter came. The first person to respond correctly in the Backfires section below will win a Save the Manuals button and sticker.* Good luck!

(* Offer open to U.S. and Canadian residents only.)

from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com


Put the internet to work for you.	via Personal Recipe 647533

Junkyard Find: 1968 Toyota Corona Sedan

Since my first car was a Corona and I've had quite a bumper crop of Corona Junkyard Finds this year (including this '79 LE sedan, this '70 sedan, and this '70 coupe, , the last of the 2012 Junkyard Find Series might as well be this '68 sedan.
This example of Toyota's first big seller in the United States (Crowns were always very rare and Corollas didn't get to be big US sellers until the 1970s), which I found at the site of our Auction-To-Crusher study, came with the transmission whose name I love most of all: Toyoglide!
The Toyoglide was a license-built version of GM's venerable two-speed Powerglide. Yes, even as Land Cruisers got a Toyota-ized Chevy six engine, Coronas got GM transmissions.
The 3R pushrod engine was noisy and not so powerful, but it did sport the reliability the R family is known for (unless entered in a 24 Hours of LeMons race).
My '69 Corona wasn't particularly reliable except for the engine, and overall it was just about as terrible as the Pintos and Colts driven by my high-school peers. It took the Corolla and Celica and some cockroach-like pickups, a few years later, to get Toyota its American reputation for build quality.
Still, the boxy little Corona was the first real toehold in the American market for Toyota.

from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com


Put the internet to work for you.	via Personal Recipe 680102

Piston Slap: An Accord Awakening?

Ronald writes:

Sajeev,

I've been lurking TTAC for a few years now and I really enjoy visiting the site every day. I think I've learned quite a bit about how to get the most out of my cars. Here's my most recent car issue: I recently inherited a 2004 Honda Accord EX-V6 with an automatic transmission. It was purchased new and only has about 44K miles on it.

The problem is this – it hasn't moved in 4 years. It was in good condition before and was being driven daily. However, when the owner passed away, it was transferred to someone who doesn't drive and that person left it sitting in a garage for 4 years until I got it.

Traditionally, I have not been very hands-on in my car care, but am starting to take baby steps into fixing things myself. My current ride is a 2004 Acura TSX 6-speed manual that I bought new and currently has about 150K miles on it. Aside from a few cosmetic issues, the car runs perfectly and has been reliable so far. I also love driving the TSX (especially due to the 6-speed), so until recently, I didn't have any plans on replacing it.

So my question to you is this:

Should I -

(1) Sell the Accord as-is?
(2) Get the Accord running again and sell it? If I take this option, how much do you think it would cost to get a non-running Accord in running condition?
(3) Get the Accord running again, use it as my daily driver, and sell the TSX? How reliable of a daily driver do you think the Accord would be after sitting for so long?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Sajeev answers:

Option #1 is a non-starter…literally! Get it? (snort)

Since you like the TSX, maybe cash from the Accord's sale is better for you. It's probably worth more to someone else! Invest the proceeds, save it for a rainy day, give it to charity, or burn it away in a Hunter S. Thompson-esque bender in Vegas…whatever man, it's all good.

So I recommend option #2, as it probably needs very little work to be a clean and awesome ride for craigslist, AutoTrader, Edmunds, local classifieds, etc. Here's the stuff I recommend to recondition a car like this to ensure buyer confidence and a fat profit for yourself. In no particular order:

Thoroughly detail inside and out, it might take a full day for a car sitting that long. Anyone can do this, and it's very rewarding if you like to get your hands dirty.
New tires: they might be flat spotted and are definitely not inspiring buyer confidence if they are original with that much age/mileage.
New Battery: don't forget to save the receipts!
New fuel filter, after you run the old gas thru the system. Or dump the old gas out, if it won't run on what's in the tank. You might need a mechanic for this, if you don't trust your skills.
Oil Change, coolant change too.
If it's an EX with leather (aren't they all?), marinate the hides in leather conditioner. Baby oil works in a pinch.
Drive for a week or so, see if anything else goes wrong. Definitely run the HVAC system and deodorize if needed.

Honestly, given the low mileage and late-model status of this Honda, I don't think it'll need anything else! If outdoor storage, rat infestation, etc are mitigating circumstances we aren't aware of, perhaps option #1 isn't a bad idea.

Send your queries to sajeev@thetruthaboutcars.com. Spare no details and ask for a speedy resolution if you're in a hurry.

from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com


Put the internet to work for you.	via Personal Recipe 680102

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Heaps In the Heart of Texas 24 Hours of LeMons: Winners!

The checkered flag has been put away, the busted connecting rods are being swept out of pools of oil on the concrete at Eagles Canyon Raceway, and the LeMons HQ crew— actually, just Chief Perp Lamm— is on its way back to not-quite-as-butt-freezing California. Earlier this evening, however, the winning teams were glorying in their accomplishments during the final race of the 2012 24 Hours of LeMons season.

The team that completed the most laps (winning Class A in the process) was Team Back To the Past, who drove their Nissan 300ZX to a clean, nearly black-flag-free victory. This is only the second 300ZX in history to take a LeMons win on laps (as we've mentioned before, the Nissan Z Car tends to be quite blowy-uppy in this series), and this out-of-nowhere win for Back To the Past is quite an accomplishment.

Class B went to the Blue Goose Audi 4000S. The Blue Geese have been racing in the LeMons Gulf Region since the very beginning, starting with an extremely terrible Honda CRX, then a somewhat less terrible VW Rabbit, and then to this what-were-they-thinking Audi, and they're way overdue for an overall win.

The Mustang II-equipped Macaroni Racing fended off the other Class C cars and took home the most coveted of the class trophies.

The Most Heroic Fix award was earned by LeMons Speed, who— unable to find parts on Sunday in rural Texas— were forced to fabricate a lifter tray for their V6 out of random junk they scavenged up in the pits.

You get the I Got Screwed award when your heroic fixing doesn't work, and Team -ing With Bad Ideas did just that. After hauling their Beetle 1,700 miles from California, they threw a connecting rod 200 yards after the green flag on Saturday.

So, they swapped in their spare engine (savvy air-cooled Volkswagen racers always bring a spare engine)… and promptly blew it up. Screwed!

The organizers always create a special event-specific trophy for each race, and this time that trophy was the Jay's Dream Car Award. Team Lost In the Dark grabbed that trophy by squeezing a Ford Modular 4.6 V8 into their '78 Ford Fairmont. This turned out to make the car faster than anyone expected, and the Chief Perp couldn't get over how ridiculous-yet-cool the swap was.

When your team shows up with a Hostess theme on Friday, then the team's "CEO" sells "the brand" to Wal-Mart on Saturday night and the car shows up on Sunday as Team Wal-Mart, you have a good shot at the Judges' Choice trophy. That's what happened with Team OK Speed.

Getting to the serious trophy hardware now, we've got the '12 Heaps In the Heart of Texas Organizer's Choice winner: NSF Racing. Why? Painfully stock Aries K wagon! In our vision of the ideal LeMons race, K Cars would replace all 3-series BMWs.

The top prize of LeMons racing, the Index of Effluency, was a very easy call: the Hell's Treehuggers Harley-Davidson-powered Toyota Prius. We'll have a special feature about this fine race car in the near future, of course. Congratulations, Spank, Anton, and the Hell's Treehuggers!