A Horse With No Name

So I've been hit twice by the curse in two weeks.... My son has wrecked the Miata TWICE. First time, he ran off a dark road when he missed a curve...hit a concrete culvert and ripped the front suspension out from under the car as he entered a bean field, broke the motor mounts, and twisted the cradle. Called in a favor from a friend of mine who owns a body shop, had the front suspension replaced with a front suspension from a clean 66,000 mile donor car which we got for next to nothing...paid cash for the repair so my son's insurance wouldn't go up, he is going to pay me back. Sooo...got the car back from the body shop Saturday, got an alignment, car drives much better, freshened the car up underneath and had things 97 percent back together. Son takes the car on a date Saturday night, finds another sweet young redheaded female to cruise around with top down (the car, not the redhead, or at least I hope-I'm to young to be a grandfather....). So today before my son goes into work we had to drop back by the body shop for a minor trim piece to be installed...son got distracted by said above mentioned redheaded female (ironically named Ellen...wasn't there an Ellen or Elanor who was a famous Mustang that caused a fair amount of mayhem?) and didn't latch the convertible top properly. He came around a curve in the rain in heavy traffic on a divided highway, the top blew up, he lost control, and hit the car front and rear on a concrete dividing wall. Wrecked it fairly good, and blew the drivers air bag, passenger bag was switched off...thankfully... So...I am more worried about my son. He got his permit at 16 and drive for two full years on a permit, regularly, before he got his lic. I took the whole lic thing very seriously. He passed his test with a perfect score...and he is by far the best driver of all of his friends...even his friends parents say this. He's really discouraged about driving. My younger son was riding in the first accident, and I can trust him with my life. He said that they were only going about 35 miles an hour. Ironically, a member of the local Porsche owners group was behind my older son when he had his second accident, Porsche guy wrecked a 914 in similar fashion when he was at a similar age. My son is really broken up about this, and feels just godawful. We've had a LOT of fun father and son with this car, auto crossing it, cruising around listening to music, et al. He can't stand the thought of it being written off, but it may be a goner. Any advice on my son or my car would be helpful. My son is at work right now...and I worry about how depressed he may be really getting. I really am much more worried about him than the car...after this happened I just told him about how much I loved him and how much I respected him, but he's really, really down on himself right now. HELP! On the positive side, if the car is a write off, I can see a Cobalt SS TC, or a MCS taking its place in the driveway. But I don't want to think that way right now. I've had a blast racing this car...and it's been my fav. car owned to date. It would really hurt me to think of it being gone...

Glad to see GM workers back to work...

THIS! Plus one... Nice quality American product...

Happy Birthday, Cort!

This!

Glad you love the Volt!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ford-Other-Pickups-/130576216385?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item1e66f2f141 ...and you could even put Arkus in the left hand seat...my wife's uncle used to own a Subie that was RHD for mail delivery....going through the MacDonalds drive through with that thing and a dog in the left hand seat was funny....

My post was kind of tounge in cheek, but I always admire people who race different vehicles.

...I used to own a Chevelle of that vintage... 1967-1972 Chevrolet or GMC, prefer GMC, would b e on my short list of vehicles to own before I die. mmmm...tasty. favorite muscle car for sure. mfw: i search for 4th gen Camaros: To find: That 57 impersonation is godawful...there is the T-bird equal (T bird that looks like a 49 ford) that hangs out near where I work. Black Camaro is having way to much fiun and makes me wish I was racing this weekend.

Which is one cool things about old cars...much tougher than the cars sold today.

Some evo's are manual, some are autotrajic...hard to see how Mitsu, already loosing their a$$ financially in the US would spend the $ to federalize two versions of a very low volume car. VW is going to loose a fortune on every Golf type R they sell here. . as a result of federalization costs...just like they lost big bucks on both versions of the R32. Even BMW doesn't federalize two versions of the M version of the one series...

Evo is ugly but fast...to me I enjoy other cars better. Of the cars in the test...I want the JCW MINI the most, even though it placed 5th in the test. One thing the test got right...modern 5.0 Mustang has zero Feedback at speed...guy had one to our last autocross...finding the limit in that car is like finding the logic in the posts over at Toyota Nation...about impossible...

Not a bad way at all... Today...Alfa GTV...Audi A8, Audi R8, BMW E-30 M3, Last night a sweet 1975 Monte Carlo in the parking lot at Easton movie theater...Brown with a tan top...nice, nice shape, not restored, just a clean survivor.

a customer had brought one in recently, like a 93 pristine, 230k plus miles. what did i see today? i went to the dealership to look, but couldn't quite get through the blacktop work but there were supposed to be 2012 impalas on the lot...... You mean mildly changed 2002 Impalas, right?In a parallell universe, people are lusting over the real 2012 Impala, which is probably actually as cool as the 1960's version.

Ninnymobile yes but...are you ready for this...a lot of the TRD (Toyota racing development) pieces designed for other toyota products bolt right up to the damned thing. People actually autocross these with sticky tires, and someone was talking about actually road racing one.... Personally I think the high center of gravity on that thing kind of rules out me wanting to race it but....someone is gonna try. It's already been raced at Bonneville...

...and one word applies...Camaro!

While I enjoy curves, I also enjoy the straight and narrow even though I am an autocrosser. However, I wish for you to find lots of coconuts in your travels...and enjoy your bodysurfing down south... Best thing about your car is the utter simplicity of the thing and the lack of the TDI or Prius complexity. Having done course work on race tracks and torn apart burning cars to extracate drivers, I would hate to think of what would happen to a battery pack in a serious accident...not something I would like to subject my family to. TDI still has high pressure fuel pump issues...basically, common rail diesel...fuel is at something like 30,000 PSI...if the fuel pump blows, it takes out everything downstream, and it's a 9 or 10 thousand dollar repari. Cain't see subjecting my family to that risk either. Cruze interior and exterior are much nicer than Jetta...so...methinks Cruze is on our short list for next car. Six speed only please...and I saw one in the blue you got that looks utterly lustworthy. Just hope that your coconuts don't turn that shade of blue waiting for the trip down south...more symbolism...

I love this car as well...FANTASTIC car, and GM got this thing just right.

Would be a neat little cars.....

That thing is pricey!

Not to be overly political, but given the Patriot act and how we reacted...yes...the end of the US as we know it. i would still like to become an ex-patriot, even though there are things I love about our country.

I know your lying here...a 2g E-Clipse would have to run long enough to actually race your Cobalt to get bested by it... I know...you took the E brakes off and let the cars coast down the driveway, and the chevy still won because a wheel bearing locked up on the E-Clipse....okay...if you want to call that racing... But isn't the motor supposed to be ON if you are actually "motor" racing? And I like the way you think here... Solstice stays...HELL YES! And Cruze is on our short list for next car (MINI, Fiesta, VWW TDI are others on the list...)

36 is still damn good....but... Most of the guys in the TDI club are getting from 39 to 46 average MPG.. so...there...

Actually, having actually experienced BOTH vehicles in anger...and personally outrun a modified current gen EVO in a dead stock 1995 Miata of my friend Sean....all I can say is... The article is correct, and one of the best written automotive articles I've read in awhile. The Evo does out handle the Miata, no questions asked... The current gen (NC) Miata needs spring and shock work to make it what it should be...so many older people are buying Miatas right now that Mazda had to dumb down the handling a bit to keep the car marketable. Now a Third gen Miata with the Fly'n Miata suspension bits...incredible. We've got a car in the club set up that way...it takes 15 MPH turns at 55 MPH without even sqeeling the tires.... Notice how many cars the MIata beat.... And that they do pan the Lancer for being built on a 15 K crappy compact in the article... Thanks for the ribbing Reg... And actually, I've kind of started to think the Aztec is a heck of a lot better looking than the Acura and BMW attempts at the same....

Sorry to hear of this Roger....thinking of you and your family!