My splendid weekend

Well, this past weekend I had finally set up the time to look at a car I wanted to buy. A 1990 Eagle Talon Tsi AWD. For those of you that don't know me, let's just say that all I talk about is cars. DSM's are my number 1 favorite. DSM's consist of the Mitsubishi Galant, Eclipse, Eagle Talon, and Plymouth Laser. I already own a Talon, but I want a 5 speed because owning an auto is like sacrilege. Now just cause my Talon is an auto it doesn't mean that it's slow. This new Talon though was a lot more fun.

I found this Talon on craigslist about a week ago. It looked good from the pics online so I decided to go and check it out. One problem though, it's located in Eagle River (coincidence) and that's 4 hours from lovely SheVegas. After a lot of talking and convincing I got my Dad to agree to the long drive. So off we were to a small town my Dad hadn't been to in over 30 years, with only a vague sense of how to get there.

On the drive to Eagle River my Dad and I saw 6 accidents due to the slippery roads. All but one were cars in ditches. The one that wasn't was a F-150, flipped onto it's roof, in a ditch (laughing maniacally). Well I thought, good thing we're in a van with bald tires. Making it to Eagle River in one piece was the easy part, now I had to find out how to get to the car. The seller wasn't making this easy either. With no name, or address it made it very difficult to locate the car. You may call me stupid for dealing with a seller who can't even spell Jack right on craigslist, or give me an address to go to, but you can't say nothing until you've tried to deal with people on craigslist for yourself.

After finally finding the car I could see for myself what I couldn't make out in the pictures. It was caked in crap from the local dirt roads but the rust stood out, and the paint fade. Never the less the engine was in tip top form cranking out an owner claimed 260whp. I called shenanigans though after asking a few simple questions and finding out that the guy knew jack diddly about this or any other car on the road for that matter. Example:
Me: Is this a real or knockoff blowoff valve?
Seller: That's a Greddy I think.
Me: I'm reading HKS, plus I know for a fact that this is an SSQV.
Seller: (dumbfounded look) Oh I don't know then, that must be the other one that I have.

Now I've never driven stick before unfortunately but I really wanted to test drive this beast so I could at least see what it could do. My Dad decided he could drive it so off we went. I tell you, this car was fast! It could probably blow the doors off of some corvettes! Not to mention that it would also eat Honda's in 100 calorie packs! Now I see why God created turbolag, to give V8s a chance! Anyways, back on topic. This car had a 3.5 inch turboback exhaust and the blow off valve was vented to the atmosphere which meant that it was loud. Loud was what I wanted, and thank God it's what I was riding in. Pshhhh! goes the blow of valve with a little fluttering which makes it sound like tweety bird's under the hood. This car was exactly what I had wanted engine/performance wise, but the interior was held in by only a few screws at best and the exterior was fancied up with zip ties and 21 year old paint. It was nothing that I couldn't handle but for one thing, the brakes were to unsafe to drive with for 4 hours, and the car wasn't worth 2 gran.

With a good farewell my Dad and I had a good experience and a long not so fun drive home. To sum up the drive home and wrap this blog up, it was a fun experience, but a boring drive there (for the most part) and back (the whole way). I figure I can find something a little more...together if I keep looking. Until then, DSM's for the win.