Lewis Maudlin

My SR20DET280Z weighs 2480 lbs without me in the driver's seat. It is a 1978 280z without bumpers. I guess mine is hog compared to these others. I do have the heavier 280z with an R200 with LSD and Konig rewind wheels. Nothing is weight saving, I guess. Full 3" exhaust is probably heavy too. I am turning about 400whp though so the power/weight ration is better than 7 lb/hp even with me in it and it transfers the power to the ground nicely.

Why do so many of our Z people end up going to prison??? Is it that we have a huge population of members and only the pro-rata share goes? Is it that the exhaust fumes from Z's cause brain damage? I mean I have been here a while and have seen people go for everything from weapons violations to murder...

I believe people are innocent until proven guilty. However, in this case, thumper should not have been given bail since he was out on bail when he allegedly committed this crime. Apparently, thumper was on bail for theft at the time of the murder. BTW, the victim was bound with tape over her hands and eyes before being robbed and shot in the head. The tape had thumpers fingerprints on it. I am glad this crime occurred in Texas.

Wait, I am confused, are you talking about the .270 WSM or the .270. Last time I checked, they were different cartridges with different ballistics and different powders.

My suggestion to get a good rep is to do good work for free. Where is your shop?

Hey Z-Noob, check out my latest post about carfax. I found one car with a clean carfax that I was considering buying. It turns out the car was reported as having frame damage.

I have been looking for a used car. Some guy on here recently purchased unlimited carfax reports. I was using carfax. I just found out that carfax misses some damage. I was looking at a particular car which carfax shows as having no accidents and no damage. Autocheck shows it has or had frame damage!!! That is pretty serious. I looked it up online and carfax apparently does not receive reports from certain places. http://www.cbsatlanta.com/investigates/19086976/detail.html WOW!!

ROFL. I have a 4 banger in my Z. Wanna race? Modern 4 bangers put out tons of power. My little Z puts out 400whp and gets 30 mpg. You must be driving weak 4 cylinders. There are weak 6 cylinders and a 1970's V8 350sbc was only rated at 170 hp. The only lexus's and bmw's I can find in my area are either 2004 or older (6 years) or more than 50,000 miles or cost more than 20k.

The only Evo's I find have too many miles. Like I said $10-20k

Yeah, I guess I might be able to find a 7 year old bmw that would work. I should have put that in my criteria, I don't really want anything more than 5 years old.

Can you find a nice less than 50k mile bmw 3 series in under 20k? I don't think you can unless you find an old low mileage one.

WVWHV71K68W093743 It is a GTI I am considering

No, that is not what I said, please read. The car wash could have done the damage. So could a million other things. The point is that you have no idea what did it, so you are just going to try to get someone to pay for the damage. The car wash could. A person in a parking lot could. A shopping card with plastic protetors could. A drunk chihuahua could. But I guess the neighbor's dog probably doesn't have insurance. Since you don't know where the damage came from, I agree, just pick someone with insurance and accuse them. Seems like the fairest thing to do.

Now that, I have seen a lot. Even in my touchless, trim will come off. I can't imagine what the friction washes do to trim.

After doing a couple of hours of research online, I am leaning toward the VW GTI. All of the comparisons between it and the mazdaspeed 3 say the GTI is a better car but the mazda is faster overall. I think that can be cured with just a chip flash.

Your other option by the way is to turn in the damage to your insurance company. They will send an adjuster out to assess the damage. They will also likely send the adjuster to the car wash to determine whether or not to pursue the car wash company's insurance.

Naw, I just think it is silly when someone says: 1. I just noticed damage that is hard to see except at certain angles. 2. I have no idea how long the damage has been there. 3. I have no idea what happened. 4. I did go to a car wash a week or so ago so that must be what caused the damage.

The only reason I suggested a football is that one time I rented a buick skylard from enterprise. We were out in the yard playing football. One guy went for a catch and either he or the football bumped the car. It put a 2 foot long concave place in the car. It was actually a pretty good size dent since it was 3-4 inches deep and about 8 inches wide too. Fortunately, it was a rough winter. The car was white. Enterprise didn't even notice the huge dent when I returned it. That was nearly 20 years ago. Since they were located in a mall parking lot, they probably just chalked it up to a cart or person running into their car. Also, a deer hit the side of my car once while cruising down the highway. It made an 18 inch crease in my car. After washing the horn off my car, there were no scratch or scuffs, just an 18 inch crease. I went back to the ditch to check on the deer and other than being a little dazed and looking like a unicorn since he was down to one antler, he was fine too.

I am looking for a smaller compact. I am thinking 4 cyl. Was considering a GTI or mazdaspeed3.

A bird, a possum, a stick. You are just guessing. A dog, a deer running into the side of the car. Neighbor kids playing ball that smacks your car. A football would do it easily, so would an animal. Just kind of silly to start accusing people hoping to get paid. That is a warped sense of entitlement. My car was damaged, so I am going to pick someone who should pay for it. I mean it would be different if you weren't just guessing where the damage came from. But you said in your original post that you don't know.

OK, I need a new daily driver. This one has to fit the family for day trips. I am replacing my 4 door Chevy Colorado truck. Here are my needs: 4 doors 25 mpg combined Auto or stick Less than 50,000 miles $10,000-20,000 Any suggestions? Civic SI, mazdaspeed 3, GTI??? Thanks for your help

You would be amazed at how many people find damage on their cars and try to blame the car wash. If you aren't sure, don't accuse someone. Just my $.02. BTW, I own a car wash. I had one guy claim damage which included scratches in recessed areas of the body. My wash is touchless. Unless water can scratch his car, it couldn't happen at my wash. I even went to the body shop with him. The body shop guy couldn't explain either how my wash could have scratched his car.

Man, I was thinking about a roll cage, not bar. However, I have hit my head in crashes, even at low speed. Actually, have crashed enough different things that my neurologist says I don't have any more crashes to give before I will be eating through a straw. So with that in mind, I guess I just need good seats, good seatbelts and a roll bar for head protection.

I think it really depends on what kind of guy you are. Are you a vette guy or not. I could go from my Z to a 350Z, but I am not a vette guy. Maybe an RX-7 or even 8 but not a vette. I have friends that are vette guys and there is nothing wrong with it. I even have a friend with a Z-06 with 1300+ hp and torque. Same build as a ricer except with the fully built LS-2? and a real T-88. It is a daily driver and seems like a regular vette until it boosts.