Drew Dowdell

The V4 -> V5 upgrade has been complete. I'll be spending the next week or two cleaning up some things. If you notice a bug, you can report it here - Cheers and Gears Support

Because why would you want to take a multi port fuel injected car and turn it into a carbed car? Also, it's a ton of work (if you even can make the thing fit under the hood) for not a lot of gain, and you're still having to run it through the 4-speed 4T80-E. There are other Northstar mods out there that will get better bang for the buck.

@crvette_guy - I just thought of one if you really wanted a northstar and a larger sedan. You could get the final generation of Cadilac STS. The first gen CTS-V would work also, but they're harder to find cheap while also being in good shape. Still, the first-gen CTS-V is just a standard GM 5.7 or 6.0 liter and dead reliable. You can get it with a manual also. It might be worth spending a little more to go this route instead of going with a cheaper Northstar powered car in the long run.

There's not a lot of choices for RWD in the big family sedan space. Charger, 300C, Town Car, Crown Vic, or if you go a lot older, Impala, Roadmaster, Fleetwood. Crown Vics and Town Cars really don't have the performance to be doing sideways stuff. Charger/300 with a Hemi is your best bet for that. I wouldn't want to see you doing that with the Roadmaster / Fleetwood. They have the ability, but they're classics now and should be preserved. Outside of that you're looking at Germans (too expensive to maintain) or Lexus / Infiniti.

I'm probably going to be traveling more often for work again. I've done it in Teslas before, so I know that 250kw would be okay. The Silverado EV does still have CarPlay... if you get the W/T trim. I'm not a W/T kinda gal. RST or Trail Boss (or High Country if they made one) for me and they don't get CarPlay. The only Silverado EVs that look any good to me are the RSTs in Blue or Black. The Red Trail Boss is... okay. In white, they look like an electric company fleet vehicle. All of the Denali EVs seem to be in Military Gray Metalic that looks blah. I really don't know where I want to go. I am going to try and hang onto my Avalanche regardless. I think I'll end up regretting it if I sold it. Part of me also thinks just get something like an Ioniq 6 or GV60 for myself to put business miles on and put the Avalanche into storage. The Lyriq has really grown on me (it still has CarPlay). It might be an option once we replace the 300C. We just passed 100k miles there. His job situation is still in limbo. It could go to where he is 100% public transit or 75% travel requiring a vehicle.... so still waiting on that. We find out by July.

Nothing front wheel drive is going sideways when you floor it.

Right on both counts. The Lightning would be perfectly fine for my needs though I do wish it had faster than 150kw max charge speed. If it could have been 250kw like most of the Teslas are, that would be been a significant improvement. That's really my only complaint about it. They ride great, drive great, have amazing torque. The only "truck" stuff I ever do is haul motorcycles and that has zero noticeable impact on my Avalanche MPGs. TBH, I still don't know where I'll go next. I could end up in a Lightning, or a Scout, or a Silverado EV, or a Rivian R1T. Because of some potential coming shifts in my driving habits, I'm leaning Silverado EV for now even if I have to grit my teeth about the CarPlay issue. Range and charge speed will take priority.

The Super would have the Northstar V8 and while the engine was mostly sorted out by then they are higher maintenance and are a Premium Fuel recommended car, so you have to be willing to be spending $5+ per gallon. The 3900 V6 isn’t as exciting but it’s dependable and reasonably fuel efficient for such a large car

I mean, you'll probably pull from the grid since the EVs charge at night, but your NET will be adding to the grid daily rather than taking.

just by going up lol. I use to be able to get a solar/wind contract for 8c/kWh as recently as 2 years ago. I get the rates e-mailed to me once a week and they range from 12.5c - 14c. That's really close to my house. I can often hear them.

In many states you can sign 1 or 2 year rate contracts. That only covers the cost of the generation and not the delivery, but even delivery is set by the state and is usually once a year rate change at most. I've had green energy contracts for my house for years. It's nice to know my rate is fixed.

$4.65/g here in Pittsburgh. Trump accidentally promoting EVs again. Even if prices go back down, it is the instability that is the problem.

Darn. if it was 5/18/2026, I might have actually been in town. no firm plans yet but...