Need advice / sharing my concerns with someone

[kortopates]

Yikes. That is outrageous.
I am beginning to see a trend in shared tastes. I wonder how many on the board married blondes…

Too high of an acquisition cost followed by excessive high maintenance!

Or so the stereotype goes …

Unless she’s a pilot or A&P, then she’s worth her weight in gold!
If she flies a Mooney, don’t ever let go!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[201Mooniac]

53 minutes ago, Shadrach said:

Yikes. That is outrageous.

I am beginning to see a trend in shared tastes. I wonder how many on the board married blondes…

Fly a Mooney, drive a Porsche, marries a brunette :-)

[Pinecone]

3 hours ago, Shadrach said:

Yikes. That is outrageous.

I am beginning to see a trend in shared tastes. I wonder how many on the board married blondes…

No blonds.

And a BMW M3 guy here.

 

[Shadrach]

9 minutes ago, Pinecone said:

No blonds.

And a BMW M3 guy here.

 

No M3s but many…many 3 series over the years. To include my current beater which is a quasi grey market 09 E91 sport wagon. As I recall, we do both have an affection for the Abarth. 

[EricJ]

12 minutes ago, Shadrach said:

No M3s but many…many 3 series over the years. To include my current beater which is a quasi grey market 09 E91 sport wagon. As I recall, we do both have an affection for the Abarth. 

The last track beater I had.   '98 328i.   Lots of suspension and brake tweaks, and was very competitive when it was a TTE car.   One of the better track cars I ever had and definitely the most reliable.  A subsequent rule change made it uncompetitive.   :'(

[Echo]

4 hours ago, Shadrach said:

Yikes. That is outrageous.

I am beginning to see a trend in shared tastes. I wonder how many on the board married blondes…

Yikes!  Oil changes on my GTS are so easy. No plates underneath to remove. Easy access to filter. Brakes are also straight forward. Service belt air fliters, plugs. I do this $&@“ myself. When I swapped seats was $150 at euro auto to code for euro airbags (turn idiot light out). Cars don’t require an annual by a certified tech thank God. And yeah she was blonde and they are real…and their spectacular (Seinfeld)

[Shadrach]

23 minutes ago, Echo said:

Yikes!  Oil changes on my GTS are so easy. No plates underneath to remove. Easy access to filter. Brakes are also straight forward. Service belt air fliters, plugs. I do this $&@“ myself. When I swapped seats was $150 at euro auto to code for euro airbags (turn idiot light out). Cars don’t require an annual by a certified tech thank God. And yeah she was blonde and they are real…and their spectacular (Seinfeld)

Yes, most Porsche brakes are easy. Less than an hour per axle to repair wear items.   

[DCarlton]

5 hours ago, 201Mooniac said:

Shop rate at my local Porsche dealer is now $450/hr.  I no longer use them for my maintenance.

Yikes.  I'm backing away from the dealer too for some maintenance.  I've got a windshield to put in now though and I'd rather have them do it.  Will likely go elsewhere for brakes or DIY; can easily save a grand.  

[DCarlton]

1 hour ago, Shadrach said:

No M3s but many…many 3 series over the years. To include my current beater which is a quasi grey market 09 E91 sport wagon. As I recall, we do both have an affection for the Abarth. 

I had a Fiat, does that garner an Abarth credit?  

[EricJ]

7 minutes ago, DCarlton said:

I had a Fiat, does that garner an Abarth credit?  

Was it an Abarth?   

[Shadrach]

3 minutes ago, DCarlton said:

I had a Fiat, does that garner an Abarth credit?  

Maybe half. I’ve driven standard 500s and the Abarth is in another league. In terms of smiles per gallon there is no bigger bang for the buck save for maybe a used Boxster S.

[DCarlton]

28 minutes ago, EricJ said:

Was it an Abarth?   

Think Carol Shelby but Italian.  Something like that.  

[EricJ]

Just now, DCarlton said:

Think Carol Shelby but Italian.  Something like that.  

That'd be a Pantera. 

[DCarlton]

2 minutes ago, EricJ said:

That'd be a Pantera. 

I've driven one.  Drove like a big block beast.  

[Shadrach]

26 minutes ago, DCarlton said:

Think Carol Shelby but Italian.  Something like that.  

He asked if your fiat was an Abarth. Im suer Eric knows all to well who Carlo Abarth was. Interesting trivia, Karl Abarth was Austrian and only became Carlo after becoming an Italian citizen.

[hubcap]

6 hours ago, Shadrach said:

I am beginning to see a trend in shared tastes. I wonder how many on the board married blondes…

I dated blondes, but I married a brunette. 

[DCarlton]

25 minutes ago, Shadrach said:

He asked if your fiat was an Abarth. Im suer Eric knows all to well who Carlo Abarth was. Interesting trivia, Karl Abarth was Austrian and only became Carlo after becoming an Italian citizen.

I guess he did.  It was a Spyder 2000.  My parts catalog had plenty of Abarth parts if I remember correctly.  

[Andy95W]

1 hour ago, hubcap said:

I dated blondes, but I married a brunette. 

I married a brunette A&P. 

Edited February 22, 2024 by Andy95W

[Pinecone]

10 hours ago, Shadrach said:

Maybe half. I’ve driven standard 500s and the Abarth is in another league. In terms of smiles per gallon there is no bigger bang for the buck save for maybe a used Boxster S.

The same in the BMW world.  The M3 is a HUGE step up from the non-M.  While we were waiting for our 2002 E46 M3, we test drove a 330.  Nice car.  When we did the Performance Center Delivery, we got into a M3 and after RIDING for about 100 yards, wife turns as says "this is a LOT better, I was worried about the price after driving the 330, but I am HAPPY now."

My first Fiat was an 850 Spider.  By the time I got done, it was pretty much an Abarth.  Abarth springs, cylinder head, cam, oil pan, exhaust.  Non-Abarth HC pistons, Bilstein Sport shocks, Addco sway bars.

[Pinecone]

10 hours ago, EricJ said:

That'd be a Pantera. 

Always wanted a Pantera.

[Shadrach]

36 minutes ago, Pinecone said:

The same in the BMW world.  The M3 is a HUGE step up from the non-M.  While we were waiting for our 2002 E46 M3, we test drove a 330.  Nice car.  When we did the Performance Center Delivery, we got into a M3 and after RIDING for about 100 yards, wife turns as says "this is a LOT better, I was worried about the price after driving the 330, but I am HAPPY now."

My first Fiat was an 850 Spider.  By the time I got done, it was pretty much an Abarth.  Abarth springs, cylinder head, cam, oil pan, exhaust.  Non-Abarth HC pistons, Bilstein Sport shocks, Addco sway bars.

True, but that sort of changed with the intro of the N52 engine.  Even today I occasionally run into 15 year old 335s that have supercar performance with little more than software mods.  A member of this forum (who I will not out) sent me a video of his mostly stock 335 doing a 70-140 pull in 11 seconds.  You can have supercar performance now for a pittance in the used market.

[EricJ]

3 hours ago, Pinecone said:

The same in the BMW world.  The M3 is a HUGE step up from the non-M.  While we were waiting for our 2002 E46 M3, we test drove a 330.  Nice car.  When we did the Performance Center Delivery, we got into a M3 and after RIDING for about 100 yards, wife turns as says "this is a LOT better, I was worried about the price after driving the 330, but I am HAPPY now."

My first Fiat was an 850 Spider.  By the time I got done, it was pretty much an Abarth.  Abarth springs, cylinder head, cam, oil pan, exhaust.  Non-Abarth HC pistons, Bilstein Sport shocks, Addco sway bars.

In most M3 iterations the main useful difference is the engine.   For E36s and E46s it doesn't take much modding to make a non-M better than an M, with the exception of output power.   My E36 chassis was modded way past stock-M performance (most competitive track cars are), but the stock non-M engine allowed me to stay in lower classes where the car was exceptionally competitive.   Dropping an M engine in can be done pretty easily, and then you're back to M power output or better and can mod from there to move up if you like.   E36 and E46 platforms have been very popular in amateur racing because they could be prepped to be competitive at nearly any classing level.   That's getting a bit harder these days at the higher power-to-weight classes with things like Corvettes that have brutal power and torque right out of the box.   

[MikeOH]

5 hours ago, Pinecone said:

Always wanted a Pantera.

Great car!  I owned one for almost two years...until a lady in a Hummer rear ended me at a stoplight 

Never had any issues; car ran strong and reliable (no overheating issues even with the stock radiator in stop-n-go traffic). I'm still looking for a replacement...prices have doubled in the meantime and none I've seen are in near as nice a condition.  Mine was bone stock which is nearly impossible to find.

 

[201Mooniac]

16 hours ago, DCarlton said:

Yikes.  I'm backing away from the dealer too for some maintenance.  I've got a windshield to put in now though and I'd rather have them do it.  Will likely go elsewhere for brakes or DIY; can easily save a grand.  

I need a windshield as well but the dealer was crazy expensive, I was thinking about checking with Safelite or someone like that, I can't really believe the dealer does them with in house people given the expertise.  I can do some of the work, but some is too much of a pain without a lift so I found a Porsche specialist who mostly does race tuning to do other work for me, like recently replaced the struts.

[FlyingDude]

On 2/21/2024 at 4:18 PM, Shadrach said:

I wonder how many on the board married blondes…

I did

But I don't have a Porsche. My buddy bought one and almost talked me into buying one myself. 35k seemed very affordable/financeable but my blonde wife reminded me that since I can't really drive the kids to daycare/school with that, and work from home pretty much destroyed my once hated commute, and going to customers/suppliers with that toy would beget inopportune jealousies, my Porsche driving time would eat into my Mooney flying time... 

At least I can pronounce Porsche with the proper German accent (fluent in German  )