Zero Gravity Performance Module

Does anyone have any experience with the new Zero Gravity Performance Module
?

Application would be for a 90 Spirit 2.5L TBI?

On Fri, 21 May 2004 23:47:42 -0400, Andrew Perlow wrote:

> Does anyone have any experience with the new Zero Gravity Performance
> Module ?
>
> Application would be for a 90 Spirit 2.5L TBI?

Okay, looking at tires, a performance computer.....

What *exactly* do you look to do with your car? Street driving and
whipping 5.0L Mustang ass? Putting it in a show? Impressing some cheap
broad who wouldn't know a carburetor from a tire jack? Amateur racing
with the daily driver? Professional racing with a no-longer-street-legal
ride? Empty a checking account for no other reason? ;-)

Seriously, though, whatcha gonna do with it?

CJ

On Fri, 21 May 2004 23:47:42 -0400, Andrew Perlow wrote:

> Does anyone have any experience with the new Zero Gravity Performance
> Module ?
>
> Application would be for a 90 Spirit 2.5L TBI?

Okay, looking at tires, a performance computer.....

What *exactly* do you look to do with your car? Street driving and
whipping 5.0L Mustang ass? Putting it in a show? Impressing some cheap
broad who wouldn't know a carburetor from a tire jack? Amateur racing
with the daily driver? Professional racing with a no-longer-street-legal
ride? Empty a checking account for no other reason? ;-)

Seriously, though, whatcha gonna do with it?

CJ

The car is my daily driver, as well as my hobby car.

I've replaced the head gasket myself, (no choice, and I didn't want to pay
Pep Boys the $800 they said it was gonna cost just to pull the head, and
then charge more for the actual repair), and had the head professionally
rebuilt. Since then I've replaced the coil with an ACCEL, platinum plugs,
7mm wires, new ignition parts, new vacuuj removed the coolant pipe that
heats up the intake manifold, removed the air pipe from the exhaust manifold
cover to the air box, removed restrictions from the inside of the airbox,
(removed the 'hot air' valve from the air box), ran two three inch pipes to
the air box as ram air from under the front fender, replaced the rubber hose
from the valve cover to the air box with a K&N filter to the air, (closed
the air box hole), removed the thermostat, (I live in South Florida, you
have to wait for a cold night in the middle of the winter for temperatures
to go below 60, the radiator is old and the engine ran hot with the
thermostat), added a 12V computer fan blowing on the ECU unit to keep it
cool,(air no longer is pulled from the ECU unit to the airbox), put in a K&N
air filter, lifted the TBI body 1/4 inch up from its normal position on the
intake manifold by using two stock gaskets instead of one, (my own carb
spacer, they don't make em for 2.5L engines), and put on kevlar brake pads.
The transmission has its own mini radiator mounted in front of the stock
radiator. The A/C has been converted to the new coolant.

Do I know for a fact that each change improved performance. No, I'm not an
engineer and I do this for fun.

However, ...

The car has come a long way since the head gasket failed. There was enough
radiator fluid in cylinder number one for a gold fish to live in and the car
was pretty much dead. Now the car runs as well as it did when it was new and
with the addition of the ram air, the gas mileage has radically improved, as
has its acceleration.

I drive 82 miles a day total to work - highway driving, so the better gas
mileage is important.

So the question is - what next? When the muffler goes, a less restrictive
exhaust system, when the rotors go, cross drilled rotors. I've got a new rug
waiting to be installed, and a paint job is neccessary. The radiator has
brown stains at the bottom, so an upgrade to it will soon be required, with
it I'll add a thermostat.

My intention is to keep the car 'forever' and have fun doing as many
upgrades as is reasonable. If my kids every start supporting themselves, I
like to get a driver Corvette, 68-71 vintage, (I'm old enough to have
rebuilt carburators and set dwell angles), so playing with the Spirit is
lilke a rehersal for the Vette. If I end up getting bored working on the
Spirit, why get a Vette?

No racing, no speeding, if I can get a 2.5L Spirit to whip a 5.0L Mustang,
I'm in the wrong line of work. No shows, I'm too old to impress broads and
as far as the checking account goes, unless the MSD allows the car to go
airborne, its just about at the cutoff point interms of unneccessary
expense.

Any reactions to my work or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

"Circuit Breaker" > wrote in message
news
> On Fri, 21 May 2004 23:47:42 -0400, Andrew Perlow wrote:
>
> > Does anyone have any experience with the new Zero Gravity Performance
> > Module ?
> >
> > Application would be for a 90 Spirit 2.5L TBI?
>
> Okay, looking at tires, a performance computer.....
>
> What *exactly* do you look to do with your car? Street driving and
> whipping 5.0L Mustang ass? Putting it in a show? Impressing some cheap
> broad who wouldn't know a carburetor from a tire jack? Amateur racing
> with the daily driver? Professional racing with a no-longer-street-legal
> ride? Empty a checking account for no other reason? ;-)
>
> Seriously, though, whatcha gonna do with it?
>
> CJ

The car is my daily driver, as well as my hobby car.

I've replaced the head gasket myself, (no choice, and I didn't want to pay
Pep Boys the $800 they said it was gonna cost just to pull the head, and
then charge more for the actual repair), and had the head professionally
rebuilt. Since then I've replaced the coil with an ACCEL, platinum plugs,
7mm wires, new ignition parts, new vacuuj removed the coolant pipe that
heats up the intake manifold, removed the air pipe from the exhaust manifold
cover to the air box, removed restrictions from the inside of the airbox,
(removed the 'hot air' valve from the air box), ran two three inch pipes to
the air box as ram air from under the front fender, replaced the rubber hose
from the valve cover to the air box with a K&N filter to the air, (closed
the air box hole), removed the thermostat, (I live in South Florida, you
have to wait for a cold night in the middle of the winter for temperatures
to go below 60, the radiator is old and the engine ran hot with the
thermostat), added a 12V computer fan blowing on the ECU unit to keep it
cool,(air no longer is pulled from the ECU unit to the airbox), put in a K&N
air filter, lifted the TBI body 1/4 inch up from its normal position on the
intake manifold by using two stock gaskets instead of one, (my own carb
spacer, they don't make em for 2.5L engines), and put on kevlar brake pads.
The transmission has its own mini radiator mounted in front of the stock
radiator. The A/C has been converted to the new coolant.

Do I know for a fact that each change improved performance. No, I'm not an
engineer and I do this for fun.

However, ...

The car has come a long way since the head gasket failed. There was enough
radiator fluid in cylinder number one for a gold fish to live in and the car
was pretty much dead. Now the car runs as well as it did when it was new and
with the addition of the ram air, the gas mileage has radically improved, as
has its acceleration.

I drive 82 miles a day total to work - highway driving, so the better gas
mileage is important.

So the question is - what next? When the muffler goes, a less restrictive
exhaust system, when the rotors go, cross drilled rotors. I've got a new rug
waiting to be installed, and a paint job is neccessary. The radiator has
brown stains at the bottom, so an upgrade to it will soon be required, with
it I'll add a thermostat.

My intention is to keep the car 'forever' and have fun doing as many
upgrades as is reasonable. If my kids every start supporting themselves, I
like to get a driver Corvette, 68-71 vintage, (I'm old enough to have
rebuilt carburators and set dwell angles), so playing with the Spirit is
lilke a rehersal for the Vette. If I end up getting bored working on the
Spirit, why get a Vette?

No racing, no speeding, if I can get a 2.5L Spirit to whip a 5.0L Mustang,
I'm in the wrong line of work. No shows, I'm too old to impress broads and
as far as the checking account goes, unless the MSD allows the car to go
airborne, its just about at the cutoff point interms of unneccessary
expense.

Any reactions to my work or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

"Circuit Breaker" > wrote in message
news
> On Fri, 21 May 2004 23:47:42 -0400, Andrew Perlow wrote:
>
> > Does anyone have any experience with the new Zero Gravity Performance
> > Module ?
> >
> > Application would be for a 90 Spirit 2.5L TBI?
>
> Okay, looking at tires, a performance computer.....
>
> What *exactly* do you look to do with your car? Street driving and
> whipping 5.0L Mustang ass? Putting it in a show? Impressing some cheap
> broad who wouldn't know a carburetor from a tire jack? Amateur racing
> with the daily driver? Professional racing with a no-longer-street-legal
> ride? Empty a checking account for no other reason? ;-)
>
> Seriously, though, whatcha gonna do with it?
>
> CJ

On Sun, 23 May 2004 12:50:00 -0400, Andrew Perlow wrote:


> Any reactions to my work or recommendations would be greatly
> appreciated.

......

> The car is my daily driver, as well as my hobby car.

My 'Tona's a daily, if I had the money, it'd be the hobby car too. but
not until my '73 Beetle gets street legal and insured. That'll be a
while, yet.

> I've replaced the head gasket myself, (no choice, and I didn't want to
> pay Pep Boys the $800 they said it was gonna cost just to pull the head,
> and then charge more for the actual repair), and had the head

I think anyone who goes to a dealer for non warranty repair needs a good
wallet raping.

Anyone who goes to a national chain for repairs runs a close second ;-)
I can understand some repair, like if the whole damned engine needs an
overhaul, but even that isn't necessarily out of reach -- my 3.0L and the
accompanying a604 auto tranny both got rebuilt on a table in my dad's
hangar... 16,000+ miles since, and still doing fine with very minor
issues (discovered a coolant leak, very, very small, not worth taking the
water pump out /again/ to fix; had to replace a few parts I couldn't
afford to before, etc.). Considering it was my first rebuild, not too
shabby if I *do* say so myself.

> professionally rebuilt. Since then I've replaced the coil with an ACCEL,
> platinum plugs, 7mm wires, new ignition parts, new vacuuj removed the

Okay... I've read several times that the best spark plugs for our cars
are what came with them. Apparently, it turns out that spark is still
spark, and regardless of how hot the spark is, it will still ignite a
gas-air mixture under 8 times the atmospheric pressure, so, I tend to
agree. I'm running autolites in mine. Nobody ever sees them, so I could
just tell them I'm running aircraft plugs and most people would probably
believe me.

Too bad the plugs for my dad's Cessna won't fit :-(

I have also read that the rest of the ignition system for our cars is
already just fine. Wires, coil, distributor... I've never used anything
other than stock in this respect, though, so I can't give input, but I
tend to agree that all you need is a live spark in the chamber to ignite
the fuel. But those colored wires /do/ look nice, granted ;-)

> coolant pipe that heats up the intake manifold, removed the air pipe
> from the exhaust manifold cover to the air box, removed restrictions
> from the inside of the airbox, (removed the 'hot air' valve from the air

Lots of stuff I don't remember having on my 2.5 before the wreck... You
have a N/A car, right? The 100 HP model?

OOOh, that reminds me... I have a Daytona club, and one of the members
owned what he claimed to be a 200+HP 2.5L N/A engine in his Tona...

His web page used to be http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ahuczek/ , but he
apparently has removed the data. Google returns the same page. Dunno
what happened to it -- maybe it'll be back up sometime.

> box), ran two three inch pipes to the air box as ram air from under the
> front fender, replaced the rubber hose from the valve cover to the air
> box with a K&N filter to the air, (closed the air box hole), removed the
> thermostat, (I live in South Florida, you have to wait for a cold night
> in the middle of the winter for temperatures to go below 60, the
> radiator is old and the engine ran hot with the thermostat), added a 12V

I feel sorry for you. I'm just south of Jacksonville, myself, and we
regularly freeze by December, with I'd say about 40% of nights in the low
40s/upper 30s. For the past 5 years, I think we've had an average of
three hard freezes each year.

Damn it, I want SNOW!

Except people can't drive on DRY roads, much less iced roads...

FWIW, I still have the thermostat in my 3.0. As long as I don't run the
A/C, the temp stays fine. In fact, today is the first day since fixing
my previous overheat problem (read: original radiator cap with a leaky
seal) that it got more than 30% up the guage. Of course, this was a
90-degree day today, as is expected the rest of the week, and the A/C
didn't help any. Nor did the very minor coolant leak that I have (that I
haven't checked in about two months :-/). No doubt, my baby's thirsty.

I figure, once the thermo opens, you have full flow. Having no thermo
delays warm-up, but I don't see how it will make it /cooler/. Thermo
removed, or thermo full open, you still have full flow. Okay,
admittedly, the thermo is a slight obstruction in and of itself, but I
don't see it being that much of a factor.

I'd remove mine, if not for having such a friggin mess each time I drain
the coolant. I finally got my draincock replaced with a factory stock
one (special part, the one off the shelf will not cut it, have to ask the
guy at the counter to look it up and ship it). Frankly, I hate its
design. I'd prefer one of those brass universal ones, if they'd fit. Oh
well. Then, I usually wind up tearing up the gasket during removal, and
can't be bothered to drive the 15 minutes each way to the parts store
when I have a sheet of gasket paper (or whatever it is) right here. Just
a pita cutting it out.

Okay, enough of my rambling. Seems the further past midnight it gets,
and the more I want to get in bed, the more I yack on.

> computer fan blowing on the ECU unit to keep it cool,(air no longer is

I've read it doesn't actually need it, but considering the low cost of a
standard computer power supply fan....

> pulled from the ECU unit to the airbox), put in a K&N air filter, lifted
> the TBI body 1/4 inch up from its normal position on the intake manifold
> by using two stock gaskets instead of one, (my own carb spacer, they

Wow. The gaskets are an eighth of an inch thick? That's some thick
stuff. Cork?

I wonder... If you were to go to the local home improvement store and
pick up some plexiglass, if you could use it as a spacer? Or, if you had
the tools, a small brick of 2x4... I'd think you could fit the plexi
between the two gaskets, and you can get some thick plexi (I'm thinking
quarter inch, not sure if they go larger at the local Home Depot...).
Certainly they have something you could use, and it's not expensive at
all.

> don't make em for 2.5L engines), and put on kevlar brake pads. The
> transmission has its own mini radiator mounted in front of the stock
> radiator. The A/C has been converted to the new coolant.
>
> Do I know for a fact that each change improved performance. No, I'm not
> an engineer and I do this for fun.

So you did notice a change then? Have you timed any zero-to-sixties or
the like? I'd be interested in the numbers, as I'd like to start playing
with my own car...

> However, ...
>
> The car has come a long way since the head gasket failed. There was
> enough radiator fluid in cylinder number one for a gold fish to live in
> and the car was pretty much dead. Now the car runs as well as it did
> when it was new and with the addition of the ram air, the gas mileage
> has radically improved, as has its acceleration.
>
> I drive 82 miles a day total to work - highway driving, so the better
> gas mileage is important.

Got me beat. I was getting 70~ish round trip to college. Fortunately, I
can still pull 24 and a half, upward of 25 MPG out of it when I want to.
Still, doesn't help when the gas here just shot up to $2.059/g

> So the question is - what next? When the muffler goes, a less
> restrictive exhaust system, when the rotors go, cross drilled rotors.
> I've got a new rug waiting to be installed, and a paint job is
> neccessary. The radiator has brown stains at the bottom, so an upgrade
> to it will soon be required, with it I'll add a thermostat.

Why bother? If having no thermostat doesn't hurt the engine in winter,
and you notice an improvement without it...... As for the "rug", where
can you get those? I would like to replace my carpeting, but I don't
want some upholstery shop to handle it. I want something I know was made
or my car. I would also like to find where I can get the "Daytona"
block-letter floormats. I had them with my 1989 Daytona, and transferred
them to the 90. It's been over 6 years now, and they're getting a little
worse for wear. I have found some online, but only /scripted/ "Daytona",
whereas mine are block letters (like the rump badge and dash panel).

> My intention is to keep the car 'forever' and have fun doing as many

Ditto.

> upgrades as is reasonable. If my kids every start supporting themselves,

Kids? Glad I'm not there yet, but no doubt will be just as glad when I
am. I expected to be married at 19, kids at 21 (I was going to go
through the electrical apprenticeship, but I decided if I did, I'd never
get to go to college), and here I am now at 25 this June, single, livin'
at home, struggling to get credits toward a university transfer A.A.
degree. Funny how plans change...

> I like to get a driver Corvette, 68-71 vintage, (I'm old enough to have
> rebuilt carburators and set dwell angles), so playing with the Spirit is
> lilke a rehersal for the Vette. If I end up getting bored working on the
> Spirit, why get a Vette?

Spirit, Vette. Spirit, Vette. Hmmm... Vette!

Of course, insurance is probably lower on the four-seater, and the Vette
is pretty hefty investment, but still... Those were nice lookin' cars.

> No racing, no speeding, if I can get a 2.5L Spirit to whip a 5.0L
> Mustang, I'm in the wrong line of work. No shows, I'm too old to impress

I know it was far fetched. There are people swearing they beat the
stangs. I say the stang wasn't racing, but that's me. I raced a Camaro
in my V6 Daytona one day at a stoplight, and I was surprised at how both
our cars performed *exactly* the *same*. Same acceleration, same shift
points, everything. Of course, he probably had a higher top speed, but
it was nice to see my 14-year-old, smoking, worn out, stocker 3-liter
perform right up with a nicely taken-care-of Camaro (the Cam was about
the same model year as my Tona, but not sure exactly what year it was).
Not sure if the twin tailpipes were a Y-split or dual exhaust, but you
could tell from the outside that his car was taken care of on the inside.

Of course, he did have his girl with him - might have weighed him down
;-)

> broads and as far as the checking account goes, unless the MSD allows
> the car to go airborne, its just about at the cutoff point interms of
> unneccessary expense.

MSD?

As far as expense, at least you have some play dough. I'm about $5000 in
debt between student loans and credit cards used to pay for things I
don't have the cash for (got enough in the bank to make minimum payments
until I get another job, which I do have options). Still, it's not
really all that bad. My dad, on the other hand... oh, it's nearly one
o'clock, so I'm gonna shut up now. ;-)


Keep us up on how the car's doin and take care...

CJ

On Sun, 23 May 2004 12:50:00 -0400, Andrew Perlow wrote:


> Any reactions to my work or recommendations would be greatly
> appreciated.

......

> The car is my daily driver, as well as my hobby car.

My 'Tona's a daily, if I had the money, it'd be the hobby car too. but
not until my '73 Beetle gets street legal and insured. That'll be a
while, yet.

> I've replaced the head gasket myself, (no choice, and I didn't want to
> pay Pep Boys the $800 they said it was gonna cost just to pull the head,
> and then charge more for the actual repair), and had the head

I think anyone who goes to a dealer for non warranty repair needs a good
wallet raping.

Anyone who goes to a national chain for repairs runs a close second ;-)
I can understand some repair, like if the whole damned engine needs an
overhaul, but even that isn't necessarily out of reach -- my 3.0L and the
accompanying a604 auto tranny both got rebuilt on a table in my dad's
hangar... 16,000+ miles since, and still doing fine with very minor
issues (discovered a coolant leak, very, very small, not worth taking the
water pump out /again/ to fix; had to replace a few parts I couldn't
afford to before, etc.). Considering it was my first rebuild, not too
shabby if I *do* say so myself.

> professionally rebuilt. Since then I've replaced the coil with an ACCEL,
> platinum plugs, 7mm wires, new ignition parts, new vacuuj removed the

Okay... I've read several times that the best spark plugs for our cars
are what came with them. Apparently, it turns out that spark is still
spark, and regardless of how hot the spark is, it will still ignite a
gas-air mixture under 8 times the atmospheric pressure, so, I tend to
agree. I'm running autolites in mine. Nobody ever sees them, so I could
just tell them I'm running aircraft plugs and most people would probably
believe me.

Too bad the plugs for my dad's Cessna won't fit :-(

I have also read that the rest of the ignition system for our cars is
already just fine. Wires, coil, distributor... I've never used anything
other than stock in this respect, though, so I can't give input, but I
tend to agree that all you need is a live spark in the chamber to ignite
the fuel. But those colored wires /do/ look nice, granted ;-)

> coolant pipe that heats up the intake manifold, removed the air pipe
> from the exhaust manifold cover to the air box, removed restrictions
> from the inside of the airbox, (removed the 'hot air' valve from the air

Lots of stuff I don't remember having on my 2.5 before the wreck... You
have a N/A car, right? The 100 HP model?

OOOh, that reminds me... I have a Daytona club, and one of the members
owned what he claimed to be a 200+HP 2.5L N/A engine in his Tona...

His web page used to be http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ahuczek/ , but he
apparently has removed the data. Google returns the same page. Dunno
what happened to it -- maybe it'll be back up sometime.

> box), ran two three inch pipes to the air box as ram air from under the
> front fender, replaced the rubber hose from the valve cover to the air
> box with a K&N filter to the air, (closed the air box hole), removed the
> thermostat, (I live in South Florida, you have to wait for a cold night
> in the middle of the winter for temperatures to go below 60, the
> radiator is old and the engine ran hot with the thermostat), added a 12V

I feel sorry for you. I'm just south of Jacksonville, myself, and we
regularly freeze by December, with I'd say about 40% of nights in the low
40s/upper 30s. For the past 5 years, I think we've had an average of
three hard freezes each year.

Damn it, I want SNOW!

Except people can't drive on DRY roads, much less iced roads...

FWIW, I still have the thermostat in my 3.0. As long as I don't run the
A/C, the temp stays fine. In fact, today is the first day since fixing
my previous overheat problem (read: original radiator cap with a leaky
seal) that it got more than 30% up the guage. Of course, this was a
90-degree day today, as is expected the rest of the week, and the A/C
didn't help any. Nor did the very minor coolant leak that I have (that I
haven't checked in about two months :-/). No doubt, my baby's thirsty.

I figure, once the thermo opens, you have full flow. Having no thermo
delays warm-up, but I don't see how it will make it /cooler/. Thermo
removed, or thermo full open, you still have full flow. Okay,
admittedly, the thermo is a slight obstruction in and of itself, but I
don't see it being that much of a factor.

I'd remove mine, if not for having such a friggin mess each time I drain
the coolant. I finally got my draincock replaced with a factory stock
one (special part, the one off the shelf will not cut it, have to ask the
guy at the counter to look it up and ship it). Frankly, I hate its
design. I'd prefer one of those brass universal ones, if they'd fit. Oh
well. Then, I usually wind up tearing up the gasket during removal, and
can't be bothered to drive the 15 minutes each way to the parts store
when I have a sheet of gasket paper (or whatever it is) right here. Just
a pita cutting it out.

Okay, enough of my rambling. Seems the further past midnight it gets,
and the more I want to get in bed, the more I yack on.

> computer fan blowing on the ECU unit to keep it cool,(air no longer is

I've read it doesn't actually need it, but considering the low cost of a
standard computer power supply fan....

> pulled from the ECU unit to the airbox), put in a K&N air filter, lifted
> the TBI body 1/4 inch up from its normal position on the intake manifold
> by using two stock gaskets instead of one, (my own carb spacer, they

Wow. The gaskets are an eighth of an inch thick? That's some thick
stuff. Cork?

I wonder... If you were to go to the local home improvement store and
pick up some plexiglass, if you could use it as a spacer? Or, if you had
the tools, a small brick of 2x4... I'd think you could fit the plexi
between the two gaskets, and you can get some thick plexi (I'm thinking
quarter inch, not sure if they go larger at the local Home Depot...).
Certainly they have something you could use, and it's not expensive at
all.

> don't make em for 2.5L engines), and put on kevlar brake pads. The
> transmission has its own mini radiator mounted in front of the stock
> radiator. The A/C has been converted to the new coolant.
>
> Do I know for a fact that each change improved performance. No, I'm not
> an engineer and I do this for fun.

So you did notice a change then? Have you timed any zero-to-sixties or
the like? I'd be interested in the numbers, as I'd like to start playing
with my own car...

> However, ...
>
> The car has come a long way since the head gasket failed. There was
> enough radiator fluid in cylinder number one for a gold fish to live in
> and the car was pretty much dead. Now the car runs as well as it did
> when it was new and with the addition of the ram air, the gas mileage
> has radically improved, as has its acceleration.
>
> I drive 82 miles a day total to work - highway driving, so the better
> gas mileage is important.

Got me beat. I was getting 70~ish round trip to college. Fortunately, I
can still pull 24 and a half, upward of 25 MPG out of it when I want to.
Still, doesn't help when the gas here just shot up to $2.059/g

> So the question is - what next? When the muffler goes, a less
> restrictive exhaust system, when the rotors go, cross drilled rotors.
> I've got a new rug waiting to be installed, and a paint job is
> neccessary. The radiator has brown stains at the bottom, so an upgrade
> to it will soon be required, with it I'll add a thermostat.

Why bother? If having no thermostat doesn't hurt the engine in winter,
and you notice an improvement without it...... As for the "rug", where
can you get those? I would like to replace my carpeting, but I don't
want some upholstery shop to handle it. I want something I know was made
or my car. I would also like to find where I can get the "Daytona"
block-letter floormats. I had them with my 1989 Daytona, and transferred
them to the 90. It's been over 6 years now, and they're getting a little
worse for wear. I have found some online, but only /scripted/ "Daytona",
whereas mine are block letters (like the rump badge and dash panel).

> My intention is to keep the car 'forever' and have fun doing as many

Ditto.

> upgrades as is reasonable. If my kids every start supporting themselves,

Kids? Glad I'm not there yet, but no doubt will be just as glad when I
am. I expected to be married at 19, kids at 21 (I was going to go
through the electrical apprenticeship, but I decided if I did, I'd never
get to go to college), and here I am now at 25 this June, single, livin'
at home, struggling to get credits toward a university transfer A.A.
degree. Funny how plans change...

> I like to get a driver Corvette, 68-71 vintage, (I'm old enough to have
> rebuilt carburators and set dwell angles), so playing with the Spirit is
> lilke a rehersal for the Vette. If I end up getting bored working on the
> Spirit, why get a Vette?

Spirit, Vette. Spirit, Vette. Hmmm... Vette!

Of course, insurance is probably lower on the four-seater, and the Vette
is pretty hefty investment, but still... Those were nice lookin' cars.

> No racing, no speeding, if I can get a 2.5L Spirit to whip a 5.0L
> Mustang, I'm in the wrong line of work. No shows, I'm too old to impress

I know it was far fetched. There are people swearing they beat the
stangs. I say the stang wasn't racing, but that's me. I raced a Camaro
in my V6 Daytona one day at a stoplight, and I was surprised at how both
our cars performed *exactly* the *same*. Same acceleration, same shift
points, everything. Of course, he probably had a higher top speed, but
it was nice to see my 14-year-old, smoking, worn out, stocker 3-liter
perform right up with a nicely taken-care-of Camaro (the Cam was about
the same model year as my Tona, but not sure exactly what year it was).
Not sure if the twin tailpipes were a Y-split or dual exhaust, but you
could tell from the outside that his car was taken care of on the inside.

Of course, he did have his girl with him - might have weighed him down
;-)

> broads and as far as the checking account goes, unless the MSD allows
> the car to go airborne, its just about at the cutoff point interms of
> unneccessary expense.

MSD?

As far as expense, at least you have some play dough. I'm about $5000 in
debt between student loans and credit cards used to pay for things I
don't have the cash for (got enough in the bank to make minimum payments
until I get another job, which I do have options). Still, it's not
really all that bad. My dad, on the other hand... oh, it's nearly one
o'clock, so I'm gonna shut up now. ;-)


Keep us up on how the car's doin and take care...

CJ