The Toys From Past and Present: Part II

By now if you have been following my writing, you are probably thinking that I'm a die hard Blue Oval fan who bleeds blue.  Well, I'm gonna throw you a loop here.  My first car was a 1984 Chevrolet Monte Carlo with a 305 with a 4bbl Q-jet.  We'll talk about that particular machine later.  This story is about another Chevrolet that had earned my ownership.

This goes back to when I was in high school again.  The year was 1998, I was a Junior with an 84 Monte Carlo.  Ever since I was in junior high, I had always tried to keep up with auto news pretty religiously, my mom can attest for that.  I had saw that the S10 was no longer going to offer an SS option.  Seeing that I thought, well there goes the Chevrolet sport truck industry.  Later on I saw what they were going to replace the SS with, the 1999 S10 Xtreme, I knew then that I had to have one.  Now barely working more than just odd jobs at the age of 16, mostly paying for insurance and gas, there was no way to even think about buying a brand new truck.  In September of 1999, I was a Senior in high school and working for Walmart in the small town of Cassville, MO.  Still wasn't able to afford the payments for an Xtreme, so I ended up in a decent little low mileage 1994 Ford Ranger.

The years passed on and I still looked at the Xtremes but could never afford them.  They were always more than I wanted to spend on a used, and well, probably abused truck.  I still had the dream of driving a sport tuned S10 with factory lowered suspension, ground effects, and thick sway bars.

In July of 2007, I started looking around Joplin for another vehicle, one prefferably with decent fuel mileage.  I found some very eye turning, and interesting cars that week.  I was heavily interested in a lowered 1987 S10 Blazer with shaved tail lights and a ZR1 roll pan.  That wasn't exactly what caught my eye.  It also had a custom orange metallic paint job with a cowl hood, the paint didn't really make a difference, I just had the curiosity of what might be hiding under the cowl.  Lurking under the cowl was a chromed, polished, and carbed 355, however the turn off was the TH350 behind it that would eventually break me at the pump.  As cool as it was I needed to move along.  On that same lot, there happened to be a 94 Mazda B2300 with a 283 Chevy.  Cool but also not practical with the TH350 auto.

I moved on down the road to another lot where I happened upon a 1998 4.0 4x4 extended cab Ranger with the 5-speed automatic.  On the test drive, I noticed that the check engine light was on the whole time.  The automatic was shifting a little hard too.  Seeing how the 5-speed auto was not exactly a cheap piece of equipment, I felt this would not be the best way to go.  When I returned to the dealership, I spotted 3 trucks I was really into, only one of them though was a price I could handle.

Sitting on the front row, I didn't know how I missed it, was a 2000 Chevrolet S10 Xtreme.  I was hooked.  Awesome shape, black, and the only downfall was the 2.2 Vortec backed with a 4L60E.  With 50,000 miles less than the 98 Ranger it was priced right.

On the test drive I noticed that it drove just like a car, ran smooth, tracked straight, and was just a comfortable ride.  I knew I wanted it.  Being 3pm on a Saturday, all I could do was fill out the loan application and cross my fingers.  Monday morning I recieved the call, I was approved!!  Tuesday morning I had my brother drive me to the dealership so I could get it.

That afternoon I drove it home, well actually to work.  At 2:30 that next morning I was getting off work and starting to head home.  About 6 miles from the house someone had hit a deer in a bad spot.  I was busy testing out the 225/55R16 Kuhmo's and tuned suspension when I popped over the hill and around the corner to see a deer laying in the middle of the road that I happened to be coming up to at about 65.  A quick jurk on the wheel allowed me to really test out the ZQ8 suspension package.  I escaped narrowly from destroying the front of my truck with a 65 mph smash into a deer.  I got it home, and with my heart still pounding I thought wow, the first day and it was almost totaled.

Two days of driving it I noticed an annoying problem that was getting worse, the electronic volume knob on the "factory" stereo was very fickle on what it wanted to do.  Usually it wanted to turn up the volume more than it wanted to turn it down.  Luckily my derelict 93 Escort had a decent Sony CD player in it that was doing nothing.

While installing that CD player in the truck, I realized, I don't want to have to do this again.  The CD player wasn't bad at all, it was relatively simple.  The hard part was putting in the intall kit.  With the steering wheel tilted all the way down, and the gear selector in 1st, the front of the dash had to come off.  After that I just had to unbolt the "factory" unit, right then I noticed it was from a Pontiac, and bolt in the new piece to hold a standard DIN chassis head unit.  Once that was bolted in I pulled the harness and the antenna cable through the front and put the dash back together.  I wired up the harness for the new head unit with the 2000 S10 adapter, plugged it into the back of the unit and slid it in.  Viola!  A stereo that still played CD's and the volume switch worked, and I was now very uptown, I had a remote.

Oil changes were a breeze.  The oil filter spun off the side of the block and the oil fell out into a drip tray that funnelled down to the oil pan plug, eliminating the need to move the pan around to try to get all the oil that came off the filter.  I was very good to the truck and used Valvoline SynPower 5-30 with a PF47 AC Delco filter.  It cost a little more but was better for the engine's life.  I didn't do the wasteful 3000 mile change, the oil was still clean.  Usually between 4500 and 5000 miles I changed it.  Running a full synthetic helped prevent viscosity breakdown that you get with conventional oils.

One annoying thing I found, and I'm sure anyone else who owns or has owned an Xtreme has experienced, is the truck being labeled Xtreme.  When you own one of these, and I'm sure the S10 SS guys have it the same way, every misinformed yahoo that sees you get out of it wants to ask you just how "Bad Ass" it is.  When I would tell them not very, and explain that it was just a 4-banger, they would say, "huh, I thought these were pretty bad trucks."  Pulling up to stoplights was just as bad.  I don't know how many people I told it was just a 4 cylinder.  It was a little worse than driving my SHO.  With the Xtreme everyone wanted to race me.  With my SHO, a lot of people want to race, but usually get blown away by the 4 door family car.

The gas mileage was decent, and so far, better than the SHO.  Of course if I take my foot out of it my mileage will increase greatly.  Multiple jolts to 6500 RPM's don't help my cause.  All in all the Xtreme was a fun truck to own.  Looking back though, I'd rather have a ZQ8 5-speed 4.3 Vortec truck.  I can tell you if you want a truck that handles like a car, can be used slightly as a truck, and can be a pleasure to drive, buy one, or at least a ZQ8 truck.

The Toys From Past and Present: Part I

If I were to tell you that I was really into cars, well you'd probably have no problem believing me.  This is my latest A to B machine, my 1992 Ford Taurus SHO.  This car is so fun to drive, well until the CPS says "Screw you Dude!", then it's a major pain in the butt.  I've wanted one of these ever since my days of being young and stupid, back to the Monte Carlo days of High School, hell, even before that.  I've never been able to find a 5 speed car that wasn't completely almost destroyed, various fender benders, rods knocking, you know, the run hard put away wet kind of car. 

This one I wasn't certain about it.  The Ad that had come out in the used car publication had a picture of it and said it was supercharged.  Now of course that intrigued me.  I took my 1995 F150, which we'll have a story on later, up to the dealership to look like I had something to trade for it, as all I really wanted to do was test drive the "boosted" car.  As I pull up I start looking in the windows, and at the stickers on the windows to see that they say Turbo.  So now I'm confused, and really kind of itchy about this thing, to tell the truth the whole night before I was not really wanting this car, I just wanted to test drive it.  I walk up to the dealer, who I found out was a complete fountain of misinformation.  The want for the car started after he started talking.

He explained that he didn't really know much about the car and that a day previous a guy had let him know that the car was not charged either way and that it was infact naturally aspirated, which was really reassuring to me, as I needed a reliable driver and not some chop job from a local hotrodder.  He was extremely surprised to know that Yamaha had built the 220HP 24V DOHC V6 that rested between the strut towers.  He then proceeded to tell me of the "rare" nature of the 5 speed, I then proceeded to tell him from 89-92 there was not an automatic option on the car in the first place.  He then handed me the keys and told me to start it up and check it over really well.  I did the normal "car guy" used car look over and then asked to take it for a test drive.

The test drive was fun.  I pulled out of the lot onto 7th street, like a normal law abiding citizen, headed east and the let it rip.  I cruised all the way almost to the 249 bridge and turned around at my old workplace.  Carefully watching and waiting for an open opportunity to pull out and really give a good ripping, I finally got a good position and pulled out really slow and carried the 15mph cruise out for about 100yds.  The ripping was set to go.  Still in first gear around 15mph, I slammed my foot down like I was trying to touch the transmission with my right foot.  As the RPM's shot up I felt myself pulling back into the seat.  As I reached the 4300 mark the front end started to torque steer a little bit, my smile grew larger.  As I approached the 7000 RPM redline, my grin grew even more and I knew at that moment I was in love.

I turned back into the law abiding citizen as I pulled back into the Joplin city limits, tried to fade the smile, and drove normal back to the dealership.  The normal haggling began and lasted for about 45 minutes, then I was signing the papers.  This was infact an awesome day, and at the age of 27, I felt 16 again.  One of my teenage dreams had certainly come true, and I was holding the keys to the funnest car I had ever owned.  The downside was going to the racetrack the next night and everyone was wanting me to race it, I resisted the urge, it grew harder to resist though when the 09 V6 Mustang and 07 Hyundai Tiburon GT lined up to run down the 1320, but I stayed strong, sat in the bleachers and watched the two fairly new mid 16 second cars run their race.  It was a good night.

Tulsa Raceway Trip

Tulsa Raceway Park Midnight Drags

Last night I had the opportunity to join a few friends and go on a road trip to Tulsa, OK, which started around 8pm and ended at 5:30am when we pulled into the apartment parking lot. All four of us piled into Johnny's extended cab Chevy pickup and set off to go see the Midnight Drags at Tulsa Raceway. Now only having been to the local strips to spectate and occasionally compete in drag racing, this was a new experience for me.

We arrived about a ½ mile from the track around 10:15pm where we sat for 15-20 minutes waiting for the cars to start moving. By 10:45 we had paid our $10 admissions and were inside the gates and getting ready for a fun a night. One local Joplin racer brought his car down for the festivities, so we parked by them and carried on conversations with everyone while we waited for the 12am magic hour and for the intoxicating smell of exhausted race fuel and burnt black rubber.

While the wait for the magic hour we cruised the pit area looking at all the different hot rods. The most amazing rod on the grounds was an old rust bucket late 60's Chevrolet truck with a camper shell. This nitrous injected work of big block Chevrolet art would surprise any unsuspecting victims on the street. They left the clock turned off when he flew down the 1320 so there was no evidence what this truck would run, but some had said this old farm truck has turned in some 10.20 and 10.30 ¼ mile times.

As soon as the racing started, we realized the announcer was extremely annoying. They were selling raffle tickets to help out the regular announcer who had recently been in a hospital stay without insurance. So keep the prayers running for that family. The Tulsa Streetracing Hotties were there selling $1 raffle tickets for a ride in a wheelstanding '34 Ford Coupe and later for a 50/50 raffle. We had no problem paying the dollar just so they would come over and we could get a good look at them. The Vixen Girls were there and turning heads, barely dressed, and ready to take pictures with you, your car, bike, or whatever for a charge of $10. Ten minutes into the event the announcer stated the 1/8 mile 10.5 Single plate/bar nitrous track record was 5.27. 15 minutes into the night that record was broken by a Fox body Mustang with a big block Chevy running a 5.17, later a 5.16 and later, before we left, a 5.14 @ 150mph.

All in all it was a fun event. It was unseasonably cool for the night, August in Tulsa we should have been sweating, and being 25 feet in the air on aluminum bleachers didn't help, but being race fans it didn't matter to us. Armed with hoodies and the want to see the racing we toughed it out. Around 3:30am we decided to pack up and head back to Joplin. 5:30 we were home and ready to hit the hay. I know I am ready for another return for some TRP 1320 action.

2010 Ford Taurus SHO

The Domestic Sedan King Returns

Many enthusiasts have been awaiting the much anticipated return of the Ford Taurus SHO. The first run of the SHO was in 1989 and ran until 1992 with the 220HP 200lb-ft torque Yamaha 3.0L 24V V6 and Mazda 5 speed manual transmission, with the only differences being the updated sheet metal and interior in 1992. In 1993 the SHO returned to Ford's lineup still offering the 3.0L V6 and 5 speed manual transmission but added a 3.2L V6 with the same 220HP but a 15lb-ft torque increase to mate it to a 4 speed automatic. 1996 brought new styling to the Taurus line and new drive trains. For the SHO Ford teamed up with Yamaha once again to build the 3.4L 32V V8 which only came available with a 4 speed automatic transmission and only had 235HP, only 15 more than the 3.0L and 3.2L V6's in the 2 previous generations and raised the torque to 230lb-ft. 1999 was the last run of the SHO and as a result SHO fans were extremely disappointed for 2000, which brought about enthusiast groups who started Bring Back the SHO forums across the US. 10 years later in Chicago, Ford showed that they had heard the enthusiasts need for a new SHO and unveiled the 2010 SHO, a car that America had been waiting for.

The King came back in a triumphant return for 2010. The Ecoboost 3.5L 24V Twin Turbo V6 produces a whopping 365HP, 130 HP more than the previous 99 V8 SHO model. Coupled to a 6 Speed Automatic Transmission and All Wheel Drive, it has won many awards, including Esquire Car of the Year, before it was even released.

The car is shod with an amazing slew of standard features. A few features are unique to the SHO Package and actually set it apart from the standard Taurus. Some Standard Features include:

• Dual Zone Electronic Automatic Temperature Control
• Ambient Lighting (Seven Varied Colors)
• Message Center with Trip Computer and Compass
• Rear Seat Heating Ducts
• Premium AM/FM with 6-disc in Dash CD changer
• Sirius 6 month Paid Subscription
• 2 Memory Settings on Driver Seat

If all those features weren't enough, the 19" Nickel Luster aluminum wheels are upgradeable to 20" Nickel Luster aluminum wheels to really make this car a real stunner. You can also upgrade to the SHO Performance package which includes the 20" wheels along with a 3.16 Final Drive ratio and Goodyear Eagle F1 245/45YR20 tires. Other optional amenities include Rain sensing wipers, BLIS Blind Spot Information System, Auto High-Beam Headlamps, and a Voice-Activated Navigation System with Sirius Travel Link. Ford seems is yet taking on Audi, Lexus, BMW, and Mercedes car that is more affordable yet still luxurious.

With the SHO's much anticipated return, despite it's $37,000 starting MSRP, should be a major hit here in the US.