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Cars!!
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For most of my life I have liked cars. I learned to drive on a '50s Ford tractor when I was 8 years old. After that, I spent some time working for my father's company running heavy equipment. When I was old enough to let the cops know what I was doing, I got an '86 Toyota pickup truck.
The Toyota truck was a great vehicle. It was originally white, but was green when I got to it. I can remember many fun times with that truck. It was unbelievably reliable. Once I drove it for nearly a month running on only 3 cylinders. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures left of this great relic, which I hear is still on the road to this day (with prolly around 300k miles).
A Saab Story
My next vehicle was a 1983 Saab 900 turbo sedan. It was silver. Pictured below.
This car was very fun to drive because it had an upgraded turbo system which produced some extra horsepower. I had this car for all too short of a time (about 3 months). It died in a fiery wreck which many people will remember for a long time. I am not one of those people.
Once I was in college, I got my next car. It was a white 1988 Saab 900 turbo hatchback. Pictured below.
This car served me well for a few years, but was not quite as fast as my first car. Despite this, I had many fun times with this car and installed a kickin' stereo in it. The stereo consisted of a JVC KD-SH99 (pictured) CD/MP3 head unit hooked up to 3 power amps (A Pioneer 100Wx2, Sony 55Wx2, and JL 500/1). The Pioneer amp was hooked up to a pair of MTX 6.5" component speakers custom-mounted in the lower door panels, the Sony amp was hooked up to a pair of Pioneer 6x9" speakers in the rear deck, and the JL 500/1 was hooked up to a pair of Infinity 120.3se 12" subwoofers in a custom-built sealed enclosure.
This car, while a bundle of fun when it worked, was not all that reliable. It left me stranded in far-away places more than once. Due to this, and the fact that my family decided to upgrade on the car situation, I was left with yet another used Saab.
My next car was a black 1992 Saab 900. This car was quite comfortable and had 4 doors and a nice paint job. However, unlike the 2 previous Saabs I have owned, this car did not have a turbocharger, which made it a bit of a slug in the acceleration department. This seemed to lead to a better reliability rate, so I'm not too mad about it. Some pictures follow.
As you can see, I am kind of "stuck in a rut" when it comes to car choices. However, I'm not too angry with what I've been stuck with. Saabs, while a bit quirky (and lacking in cup holders!!), are actually quite pleasant to drive and fairly reliable, despite what people say. The key is to always leave something mundane broken, because when you manage to have everything fixed, something will inevitably break very quickly. And never buy an automatic transmission! (all my vehicles had 5-speeds)
The 92 was endowed with a rather kickin' stereo. I didn't take the time to install component speakers in the doors, though. I installed a JVC KD-SH9750 CD-MP3 reciever, which is a lot like the KD-SH99 in my last car. I moved the JL 500/1 amp and Infinity 12's to the new car, and hooked up all the other speakers through a Pyle (of sh*t) 100x2 amp. The result is something less spectacular than the last one, but something nonetheless.
After 6 years and more than 80,000 miles I sold the 92 900 at 270,000 miles to an interested buyer in May 2008. The car still had plenty of life left in it and I don't doubt it will make it to 300,000 miles and beyond. I just didn't have the patience to deal with all the small nagging issues, lack of comfort in hot weather and was just plain ready for something new. I more or less had my heart set on another Saab, and finance and preference led me to the later model 9000. I watched the want-ads for a few weeks, looking at average prices and types of 9000s available, until I found the one for me.
My latest Saab is a 1995 Saab 9000 CSE in green, bought in May 2008 at 160,000 miles. It has a B234L (2.3 Liter 4-cylinder) with a full-pressure Garett T25 turbo. The T25 is the smaller of the two turbos offered on the 9000 at the time. The transmission is the updated 5-speed offered from 1994 to 1998 in the 9000 CSE, Aero and possibly other models. The engine is fully computer-controlled by the Saab Trionic 5 engine management system. "Trionic" derives from the fact that the ECU is in control of the ignition, fuel and boost mapping.
Very soon after I bought the car I began reading into what could be done to the engine. After 2 months of driving the car I feel everything is quite solid internally, and it could handle some modification. I found out about t5Suite, an open-source tuning software suite for the Trionic 5. T5Suite not only makes DIY re-mapping and software tweaking possible for the average joe, it enables interested owners to learn a great deal about the internal workings of their engine. Kudos to the creator of this fine software.
I'm currently aiming for eventually hitting stage 3 power on the car. This will involve a larger exhaust, free-flow intake and a larger turbo (Most likely a Mitsu TD04-18t). With the larger turbo, stage 3 should yield close to 300hp. Hopefully I'll put together the money to do this by summer 2009. Prior to adding real power to the engine I need to have a professional look through the whole car carefully and thoroughly, for my own peace of mind.
~ James - 7.4.2008 ~