Project Celica(s)

Wanted to get this up ASAP – commentary to follow!

Starting to put the car together for more serious driving…

w00t

I’m taking the hood, front bumper, and headlights from my daily driver for the race car.  The sacrifices you make…

Typical white boy name

See that over there? That’s mine.
My baby.
I ain’t cutting her loose tonight.
Why not?
I’m going legit, homey.

That’s right – the race car is Titled, Licensed, Registered, and Insured – w00t!

More in a few…. I Promise!

I wanted to take a minute outside of normal postings to tip my hat to the good people over at KYB.

The springs and shocks for the race car were delivered well before Christmas and many of the boxes were opened in the name of curiosity.  In the process of poking around the KYB gas inserts, the hardware kit (a little baggy with some very important nuts in it) was misplaced.  We, of course, discovered this bugaboo while attempting to assemble one of the front shocks for the car – d’Oh! Indeed Homer, d’Oh!

Here is where the magic happened.  I placed a call into KYB around 9:00 AM the next morning and was greeted by a recording that informed me that there was 1 person in line ahead of me and that I would be taken care of shortly.  Wierd…. no cavernous menu of ill suited options… <shrug>  I click over to a gentlemen (whose name unfortunately escapes me) who asks how he can help.  I explain honestly that the hardware for my gas cylinder has turned up missing and I am 90% certain I was the one responsible for the parts gone missing.  He begins to collect the usual information, part number (which he cross referenced to verify with me that we were talking about the same part), Name, Address,  and Phone Number. He then goes, and I paraphrase,

“Whelp – I have a new hardware kit going out for you. No Charge.  The Confirmation number for this order is XXXX. It will go out today, it should show up in 3 to 4 days.  If it does not show up, please call this number back, reference the confirmation number and we will track the package down for you.”

The first line on their customer service website states,

“Our goal is to provide World Class Customer Service”

KYB, you have provided the most amazing, simple, pain free, intelligent, customer service experience I have ever been a part of.  You should be recognized for that; you have demonstrated to me, “World Class Customer Service” and I will be translating that appreciation into future purchases of KYB’s products for my future automotive endeavors.

So please, visit KYB for your automotive shock and strut solutions

Progress, though forthcoming, is moving at an excruciatingly slow rate. Sadly, between Mike and I, we share approximately 3 hours of overlapping free time per month. That’s the bad news. The good news is with this month’s 3 hours we managed to make the engine run. (Go Team Us!)

That’s right; Two trips to the parts store for Oil, coolant, filters, plugs, wires, rotor, cap and a battery combined with connection of the fuel, electrical, coolant and throttle systems to the engine yielded an admittedly spotty yet consistent internal combustion system. “Drunken Jen,” though without brakes, seats or suspension is none the less ALIVE. And it only involved one incident of gaoline spraying about the engine compartment in both great quantity and velocity. That Mike… He loves to burn him down some cars.

Did I mention I think we should name the car Drunken Jen? Because I do. It’s in honor of Mike’s sweetie who has sacrificed a winter parking spot in her garage in exchange for only 3 less hours per month of not having to stave off Mike’s awkward advances. She deserves to have a car named after her.

Anyway, there’s pictures of the Eureka moment but Mike’s got his camera tied up creating content for his new website devoted to amateur cat pr0n. So i’ve included some pictures that represent what that moment looked like in my mind.

we were all like

and the car was like

and we won and were like

Cheers.