Well, after several setbacks and issues, my silver SVX (”Alice”), finally has her STi 6-speed manual gearbox installed. I picked her up today with the help of a friend and all I can say is, HOLY CRAP. She’s actually kind of fast now.

I’d heard from people before that performing the swap will completely change the character of the car from that of a relaxed, high-speed GT, into a full-blown sportscar. I didn’t believe them. I thought, “how different could it be?” Well, now I know. They were right.

Carving a hole in the floor for the shifter linkage makes it a lot louder inside, for one thing. You get a lot more road noise, and I can hear the whine of the gears inside the transmission, as it’s sitting directly under the centre console. Not that things like that bother me, on the contrary; I love it all the more.

Things did not go entirely as planned, however. I’d planned to upgrade the springs & shocks while this was being done, but the parts for that aren’t finished yet. I wanted a US market 6MT for lower cruising RPM, but ended up with a Japanese spec version-8 unit instead. I thought I’d be getting an R180 rear differential, but my mechanic simply swapped the 3.90 ratio ring & pinion parts into my R160 casing. My DCCD controller isn’t finished yet either (not that I really care).

So highway cruising RPMs are a little high for my liking, but it’s probably for the best, as it will keep me out of trouble with the fuzz.

Mechanically, it performs flawessly, no stalling issues (yet), just pure go-power. The only thing that bugs me, is that there is a new squeak coming from somewhere (sounds like in the dash) that I’ll have to track down and silence.

I also seem to have found this problem where I can’t keep the gas pedal off the floor. Like it’s stuck there or something.

Man, my fuel mileage is going to suck for the next little while…

Posted by Ron as Fire-in-a-can at 1:24 AM EDT

No Comments »

Hard to believe it’s been more than a month since my last entry. It’s not like I’m even busy — on the contrary.

But that doesn’t mean that nothing is happening.

I still don’t have my car back, even though it’s been about a month and a half. A transmission swap is not an easy task, made even more difficult when performed on a vehicle never designed for the new one going in, but 6 weeks is a bit excessive. There have been all manner of setbacks; part supply problems, and more recently, the fellows at Planet Motorsport have been spending more time repairing their rally car, after it “blew up bigtime.” I’m not in a hurry, as I don’t need the car urgently, but I’m getting anxious. I was actually supposed to go fetch it today, but it still wasn’t ready. Next week for sure. Or something.

In other news, I’m going to be moving again. Back to Sault Ste Marie this time. It pretty much guarantees my unemployment for many months (or more), but Meghan has landed herself a spot on the Algoma District School Board supply teacher rotation, which is that foot-in-the-door she needs to get a full time post. She’s making decent enough money at it already, and getting called in fairly regularly. I’m still here, milking my current job for all I can before we actually leave town. I’m going to miss the guys, but I might even have another shot at an apprenticeship with my former mechanic in the Soo.

I liked living in London, just not in this building. I like the location, but It’s too small, there are too many immature kids living here on mommy and daddy’s dime, and rent / parking is going up, up, up!

There is also a strong chance that we’ll be bringing some of our Windsorite friends with us. Thinking about going in on renting a big house, trying to practise some form of communism on a modest scale, see how it goes. I know I’ve been warned, and seen the effects of living with friends can have on one’s life and on the friendship itself, but I don’t think we’ll have any of those problems. Nobody ever does, but I really don’t think we will. Dan and James are two of the most upstanding fellows I can think of. Assuming the house is big enough, I don’t think privacy will be that much of an issue either.

This has the lovely side effect of creating a potential RPG “dream team” as I like to call it. Dan and James are both avid roleplayers (in the truest sense of the word), and our friend Rob, who lives in the Soo, is still very much interested in gaming again. So with three of the best roleplayers I can think of, plus Meghan and I, how can we go wrong? I predict much D&D, Call of Cthulhu, and other such good times. Not to mention that every day can be a LAN party.

Anyway, that’s about it for now. I’ll try to update more often, I promise.

Posted by Ron as Fire-in-a-can, Games, Miscellaneous, Work at 8:00 PM EDT

3 Comments »