New rear brakes for the Passat.

Well after 53,000 miles (see Post below) the Passat is ready for some new rear brakes. I checked prices for OEM (VW) parts, and the rotors were $162 and the bads were $65 for a parts total of $227. Well, out of curiosity (actually because I wanted better parts) I checked the aftermarket to see what was available for my car. I found some very interesting parts, as well as prices. Tirerack offers Brembo rotors for my car. They are OEM size so they are meant for the stock caliper. The official name is Brembo Sport Slotted rotors (see http://www.tirerack.com/brakes/brakes.jsp?make=Brembo&model=Sport+Slotted+Rotor for information). They are (obviously) slotted rotors. Although many aftermarket brake kits offer cross-drilled (and some manufacturers as well), I have heard that slotted cool nearly as well and last longer too. We'll see. I also found upgraded pads as well from Hawk. They are the Hawk HPS High Performance Street brake pads (see http://www.tirerack.com/brakes/brakes.jsp?make=Hawk&model=HPS+Street+brake+pads for more information). So, I added up the price and the total came to $231 and change (including 2 day shipping). So essentially I got superior performing parts for $4 more than the OEM components. The braking performance should be noticeably improved, and that will be accentuated when I need to replace the fronts and do so with the Brembo/Hawk combination there as well. I have been looking for, but unfortunately unable to find braided stainless steel brake lines, but I hope to do that as well. The brake lines added to the Brembo/Hawk combination I think should really improve on the performance of the stock brakes. I am getting them put on tomorrow and hope to be able to take some pictures of them installed before they put the wheels on. Hopefully more on this later...

Back (inside) side of Brembo rotor... 

Brembo Sport Slotted Rotor... 

New pads and rotors... 

Road trippin' summer...

So I put a lot of miles on my car this summer. If you'll recall, I bought it about four months ago and it had just under 40k miles on it. Well, it now has nearly 53k miles on it. Here is why: After picking it up in Ohio, had to drive back down to Winston via Asheville (long story); mileage = 518. I went to the beach with my friends after exams; mileage = 564. I drove down to see my brother; mileage = 129. From there I drove up with him and his wife to meet my family in Williamsburg, Virginia, went out to Norfolk, then back to Winston; mileage = 633. I drove out to California (from North Carolina) to visit my best friend in Redlands via Asheville, North Carolina; mileage = 2,413. From there I drove up the coast to see some friends at Pismo Beach and then continued on up to Portland, where I was spending the summer; mileage = 1,121. Commuting to work every day from Portland to Hillsboro for the whole summer; mileage (daily round trip) = 44. Trip to Salem from Portland for work; mileage = 102. One trip to Mount Rainier, plus driving around Mount Rainier National Park; mileage = 476. One trip to Walla Walla from Portland; mileage = 499. And the grandaddy of them all, Portland to Winston-Salem, via Ruffin, South Carolina (I had to pick up a puppy dog); mileage = 3,191. That's how the majority of the miles got piled on there. But the majority of them (~90% or more) are highway miles, so hopefully it wasn't too hard on her.

Here are some numbers for the latest (and greatest) trip I made. Portland, Oregon to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, via Ruffin, South Carolina: 3,191 miles; it took me 55 hours (including 8 1/2 hours of sleep and one hour spent picking up the puppy); 120.698 gallons of premium unleaded consumed; average fuel economy was 26.4 miles per gallon; average speed (including gas, sleep, and puppy stops) was 58.0 miles per hour. For the first 900 miles I averaged (including gas stops) 74.8 miles per hour, which if you do the math including the stops for fuel, is hauling ass. During one hour's period of time I averaged 85 miles per hour (including slowing down for traffic, etc., etc.). Those are some of the numbers from my trip. I hope next May is the last time I ever have to do it again. It will be a lot slower in May--moving truck and all, you know...

About five hours into the trip... 

Making pretty good time through southern Idaho...

50 hours in...I look it, don't I? 

My new baby...

I got a new car. This weekend I picked up a 2003 Volkswagen Passat 1.8T with a 5-speed manual. It is a great little car and I have enjoyed it very much even though it has only been a couple days. It has what Volkswagen calls a Blue Anthracite exterior and black leather interior. It has the Monsoon sound system (which kicks ass, by the way), and heated seats, etc., etc. It is pretty darn nice. The turbo comes on pretty strong around 3,000 rpms. As a small aside here, APR offers a (1 bar) chip that bumps the horsepower up to 214 (from 170) and the torque up to 247 (from 166), so that would turn it into a little monster. With the chip the power to weight ratio would be better than a TSX, IS300, SVT Focus, etc., etc. Not too bad from a little four banger four-door big German sedan. Anyway, the previous owner has a pretty dark tint on it. I am slightly worried about that because my last car had a tint on it (about half as dark as that on my Passat) and I got stopped twice because of it. But it seems like it is kind of a crap shoot, because I have seen lots of cars with dark tints on them. We'll see, and I'll keep my fingers crossed. I'll keep you posted as to how things go with it...

Note the 5-speed and the 160 mph speedo... 

It will have new license plates soon. 

My new baby. 

Crazy, crazy stuff...

The most recent AutoWeek magazine (see www.autoweek.com) has a news flash in it regarding the fastest road-registered car. The record for nearly seven years had been the almighty McLaren F1 at 240.1 mph. Most people didn't think it would be beaten, except possibly by the upcoming Bugatti Veyron (see http://www.bugatti-cars.com/bugatti/index.html). In fact, many in the industry did NOT expect the Veyron to beat that number, because although it should have the power to do so (987 hp and 938 lb-ft of torque from a quad (!!!) turbo, 64 valve, 8.0 liter W-16 engine), the company has been having aerodynamic difficulties in addition to problems finding a tire company to build a 250 mph tire. Therefore, the latest news was the company had dropped its target top speed from the 250 originally quoted to a 'more modest' 230 mph. In that case, obviously, the McLaren's record would be safe. However, the news in AutoWeek claims that a German Porsche tuner company, 9ff (see http://www.9ff.de/Englisch-htm/home-eng.htm), last December set a new record at the Nardo track in Italy. AutoWeek claims the new time is 241.1 mph, while the company's website claims 243 mph. Either way it is crazy, crazy fast, especially coming from the car it did. The car was...? You guessed it, my favorite car, the Porsche 911 GT2. Here are some numbers from the tuned GT2: 3.8 (up from stock 3.6) liter twin-turbo inline six; 828 horsepower (!!!) at 7200 rpm; 649 lb-ft of torque at 6450; 2860 pound curb weight. That translates to a 3.5 power-weight ratio, which would put it in a third place tie on my power-weight ratio chart (behind the F50GT (see Post below), the ME412 (see Post below), and tied with the McLaren F1 LM version. Good sweet gracious. The German company says they are planning on building up to 20 cars at $400,000 a pop. Pretty crazy. I'll take two please.

Possible cars to buy:

So, I have been looking at a couple different (used) cars that very well might be my next car purchase. I have found a handful that I like, some more likely than others. Here they are, in no particular order:

1994 Ford Taurus SHO:

four door sedan
front-wheel drive
3.0 V6
220 horsepower
5-speed manual
71k miles
$6k

1995 Lexus SC300:

two door coupe
rear-wheel drive
3.0 V6
215 horsepower (I think)--BUT, see earlier Post regarding dream-car SC/Supra swap
5-speed manual
87k miles (but remember the 2JZ-GTE swap)
$11,000



2003 Subaru Impreza WRX

four door sedan (or wagon)
all-wheel drive
2.0 turbocharged inline four
227 horsepower
5-speed manual
31-32k miles
$17,000


2001 Audi A4 Quattro

four door sedan (or wagon)
all-wheel drive
1.8 turbocharged inline four
170 horsepower (stock, but see earlier Post regarding the 1.8T in the Passat)
5-speed manual
33-37k miles
$17,000


Now a little explanation:

The SHO was my very first car, so that has a special place in my heart. It was first produced for MY 1989, and at the time was really quite a rocket. It had a Yamaha 3.0 V6 engine that produced 220 horsepower, and had a 7000 rpm redline. I went the fastest I have ever gone (top speed) in a 1993 model (146 mph (indicated)). I had a ton of fun in that car, and the handling was quite impressive. I had upgraded it with Eibach springs, Koni Sport struts, anti-roll bars, 18-inch wheels and 225/45 Michelin Pilot Sports. The thing stuck like glue. There is a corner out on a country road that has a 35 mph sign for it. One night I took the 35 mph corner at 90 mph and the car didn't lose traction or even squeal it's tires. My record for a 25 mph on-ramp to a freeway is 72 mph. The thing was pretty impressive. However, the thing was a nightmare in terms of maintenance, as I spent a small (not so small actually) fortune on repairing various things on it. Plus, the parts are astronomically expensive (think German car parts pricing on a Ford). So this is really more of a dream, than a really viable option. However, someday when I am making decent money, I would love to have a (relatively) low mileage 1993-95 Ford Taurus SHO with a 5-speed manual in my garage.

The Lexus we have talked about earlier. It is a great car right off the bat, with a nice inline-six cylinder and 5-speed manual transmission. It is rear wheel drive (as all proper sports cars should be), and comes with Toyota reliability. I have seen many cars advertised with between 150,000 and 200,000 miles on them. The thing, if taken care of, will run forever. Plus, (and this is the primary reason I am interested in it) you can swap the Supra drivetrain into it and it will bolt right up. That is 'bolting right up' 320 horsepower and a six-speed manual. Not to mention the Supra 2JZ-GTE is one of (if not THE) most tunable engine on the market. Again, I would recommend seeing an earlier Post for the some of the potential that this engine has. This is actually a relatively realistic car because it has relatively low miles (for a Toyota), and is a lot closer to a price range that I will hopefully be able to afford within the next couple of years.

The Subaru is a great little car. I have seen stock 0-60mph times of 5.5 seconds, with a top end of around 150mph. This engine (EJ20) is also incredibly tunable. I have seen a cat-back system alone improve horsepower (at the wheels) to a dyno-proven increase of 15 horsepower (nearly 20 horsepower at the crank). A further indication of its potential is the myriad of tuners that have coaxed more than 300 horsepower from this car, with no internal modifications, and only a handful of external ones. On a side note, I recently looked at a website that boasts both a 580 and a 600 horsepower WRX (see www.airpowersystems.com for more information). Some modifications I would like to do to a WRX if I were to get one include: turbo-back exhaust (probably a Greddy, but possibly a HKS or B&B (see www.bbtriflo.com)); lightened flywheel; Exedy clutch; blow off valve; AEM (see www.aempower.com form more information) EMS engine management; turbo timer and APS front mount intercooler to start. This is a somewhat realistic car as you can get one with pretty low miles (less than 40k) for less than $17k. Some drawbacks of it are its 'boy-racer' looks, only average interior quality, and a less than stellar shifter.

The Audi would probably be the most realistic alternative. This would be a great car. It would be practical (wagon body style), sporty (turbocharged inline four), and the interior quality of Audi vehicles has been claimed by many automobile magazines to be the best in the business. I have also previously Posted about the 1.8T engine. This is a great platform to build off of. Although it only comes stock with 170 horsepower, it has a great deal more potential (even if not as much as the WRX or SC). I would first put a front mount intercooler on it (probably either an ABD Racing (see www.abdracing.com) or APR (see www.goapr.com)); turbo back exhaust; at least an APR or GIAC (see www.giacusa.com) chip, but possibly a full APR kit (APR's Stage III kit puts out 280 horsepower). I would prefer a wagon, however, Shelle doesn't particularly like how the wagon looks, so it might have to be a sedan. The definite plus of a sedan is it comes with 110 pounds LESS curb weight than the wagon, which would help with the power-weight ratio tremendously. You can find a 2000-2002 A4 with the 1.8T and a manual and Quattro (all-wheel drive) with less then 40,000 miles for less than $17,000. This very well might be the next car in the Kuzma garage (assuming there is ANY new car in the garage).

Well, those are what I am looking at right now. All would be good choices, but the Audi is probably at the top of the list at the moment.

Nathan's and my trip to the Porsche dealer.

Sorry it has been a while since I posted anything. A couple of my friends were giving me grief about not having posted for a while, so here it goes... I figure the middle of my International Law class, the last week of classes, is the perfect time to work on my blog.

My friend, Nathan who I believe I have mentioned on this blog before, came to visit for Thanksgiving. I got up to pick him up from the airport at 6am, and we decided that there was no better time to go see a Fayence Yellow Carrera GT than then...plus it was only an hour drive out of our way. So off we went to Paramount Porsche in Hickory, North Carolina. Pictures from our journey are posted below.

The car was absolutely gorgeous: sleek, low, short, wide, and very sexy. The single hub wheels were very trick (see picture below), and the "negligee" (as Porsche calls it) over the engine compartment was very cool as well. The shifter was on the dash (much like the current-generation Honda Civic Si). It was very cool to see a $480,000 (asking price) car up close and in person.

Another car we found there was a customer car that apparently was there for service or some other reason. It was a 911 Turbo. However, the owner had inexplicably put a badge on the back that says "Turbo GT". Now, you know how I feel about misnomer automobile badges (see earlier Post). I think it is almost unforgivable on a Porsche. In my opinion, a Porsche has two options: (1) the badge that comes on the car from the factory, or (2) the "model designation delete" option from the factory (no badge). The owner had done some interesting things to the car, however: first, he had a GT2 rear wing on it; second, he had a roll bar inside it--interestingly, he had a camera mount on the rollbar, so he can take movies with his camcorder on track days...I'd love to see those; he had some sort of aftermarket front end; he had a Recaro seat (driver's side only); and lastly he had the PCCB (Porsche's carbon-metallic brakes). This was a pretty cool car. I'd be interested to know if he had done anything to the engine. Nathan and I actually had a little trouble figuring out if it was a Turbo or a GT2. We tried to look under the car's front end to see if the front wheels were being driven (thus making it a Turbo), but the car was too low to see. Finally, I noticed that there were "back seats", conclusively showing it was a Turbo and not a GT2. But it was really difficult to know with the GT2 rear spoiler and the PCCB.

Well there you have it. Our trip this last November 21 to Paramount Porsche. Quite an enjoyable experience. Don't forget to look at the pictures below.

Here is a customer car we saw at the dealer. Although it looks like a GT2, it was actually a Turbo. The owner apparently thought it would be cool to put a GT badge on the car. You know how I feel about badges that don't belong on cars... 

It has an aftermarket front end.

Here is the view most cars will ever see of this Porsche. 

As you can see, the car has single lug wheels. I know of only three other cars that did this...the Enzo, the F1, and the 959. 

Here I am with a Fayence Yellow Porsche Carrera GT. The car is absolutely gorgeous in person.