Category: Cars
Coolest Scooter Ever
Don’t tell my Chappy, but this fold-up Centaur from 1964 is just awesome.
mizumawari
In the past month I’ve had to replace the water pump and some skinny rubber hoses in my Crown as well as the radiator in the Cefiro. I had been refilling the water in the Crown every morning as it seemed to be losing 500cc or so per day. I could see where it was leaking from and figured it needed a new pump soon. The thing is, since I only drive it to work every day, I could afford to wait. Reversely, I couldn’t afford repairs right away so I just prayed for the old gal to soldier on until I could raise the scratch, and that she did. The shocker was what happened after the pump was changed out and the water replaced with proper coolant (it had been filled with water since I bought it, I think) – the running temp dropped damn near thirty degrees (celsius) on average. It went from 87 degrees at cruising speed to just below 60! Awesome.
Then, last week I noticed green coolant spatter in the engine room of the Cefiro and saw that the entire seam running around the top of the radiator was slightly leaking… Bad news! I always tell my wife to keep an eye on the temp gauge so that sweet-ass VQ30 under the hood doesn’t burn out… But really, this is a non-priority for non-gearheads who’ve never seriously overheated an engine. So that radiator had to get looked at, stat.
The Nissan dealer said it was very lucky we brought it in when we did because it was on the verge of catastrophic failure. Here’s the kicker: The stock Nissan radiator is made largely of plastic and costs 10,000 Baht ($300). An all-metal one made for my car by a third party supplier costs half that. It has the disadvantage of being heavier than the Nissan one. On the other hand, it can actually be fixed. So in this case at least, genuine parts were not the way to go (this is not always the case, though, as many of the cheapie parts here come from China marketed especially for the SE Asian market and are total crap).
$800 Pimpmobile for G-man
Cuz it’s all about O-REGON, yo:
“1989 Cadillac Sedan Deville Pimp mobile for sale. Perfect for the up and coming pimp who isn’t quite ready to step up into an Ex-calade. This fine example of Motor vehicle pimpery comes stock with no hubcaps, because as you know any real baller is just gonna drop dubs on it anyway. The stereo isn’t working, but then again, a real mac like you is going to drop some change to make this bitch rumble. The trunk is extra large in case you have a ho who steps out of line, you can put her in there. A good feature because if you spend enough time with hos, eventually you’re going to have to lock a bitch up. in case of drive-bys where you need to light up some suckers that have been perpetrating this car has a special window that comes off its tracks so you don’t have to wait for it to slide down. Just roll up on that fool, drop the window, and blast him with that burner.”
Via Craigslist@Bend
(via)
In Daddy’s Crown
Wouldn’t it be cool if Max learned to drive in my daily driver? Manual steering, manual gearbox, manual windows, hell it even has optional (as in factory option) non-retractable seatbelts!
No more hi-octane ethanol-free gas in Mahasarakham
This photo was taken back in March.
This was the last gas station in Maha Sarakham to sell 95 octane gasoline with no ethanol added. It greatly surprised me to find them selling it because all of the other stations had gradually phased it out by the end of the previous year – PTT and Petronas were the first to go, then Esso, then finally, what I thought was the last holdout, Caltex. But I stopped at this station (I even forget what company it was!) on the way back from the road to Borabu, a neighboring town, and got a full tank of the good stuff – unadulterated 95 oc (and it may very well have been the last tank my car will get, ever – it’s VQ30 is running fine on 95 gasohol, tho).
The problem is, this station is too far away and off the beaten path. When I went to the labor office (located on the road to Borabu) to renew my work permit a few days ago, I looked at the pumps when passing by and saw that they had finally switched to the ethanol crap like everywhere else.
Sad.
Note: The VQ30 in my A33 Cefiro is running on 95 gasohol. The RB20 in the S60 Crown is running on regular (non-eth) 91. They are both running fine, but I’d still prefer to run them on non-eth 95 because it runs smoother, gets better mileage, and isn’t robbing food from people’s mouths.
Pimp Ghost Riding (Sky on Fire)
The other day we went to nanny’s village to see the flooded rice fields. The Chi River has overflowed into the fields, and huge invading catfish are happy to feast on drowned field mice and other flood detritus. Unwilling to take Mr. Max out on a flimsy boat, we watched the villagers go spearfishing for dinner.
It sure is a good thing we took the trusty old Crown out on the muddy roads instead of our pretty car.
Motorex Skylines
The sordid history of Skyline importation into the US as told by 0-60 Mag: Access Denied
New Toy – 19xx Yamaha Chappy
This is an original ad for my new (old) toy, a Yamaha Chappy most probably made in the seventies, imported from Japan into Thailand. Actually, it has all the signs of having been stolen at some point, and it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s how it got to Thailand. I bought it off my boss who apparently bought it right after it was brought over. She let me have it for just about $100 US (3500 Baht). w00t!
Engine size: 50 cc
Top speed: 35 kph on installed speedometer, reading at over 40 on the much newer scooter riding along side during test run
This thing really puts a smile on everybody’s face – it’s fun to ride and fun to watch people’s faces light up when they see you.
Pictures of mine to follow.
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Note: I had to do some horse trading to eventually get a little scooter I liked. This all started soon after I came to Thailand, about eighteen months ago.
First I bought a JRD (Chinese brand) 125cc “Snow” which had a remote starter, talking alarm system, and Vespa-style rear footbrake for 20,000 Baht (about $600). Then I bought a Suzuki Crystal in very rough shape for about $30 and sold the JRD for 25,000 Baht (about $750).
Then I bought a metallic gold automatic 50cc job from the eighties airbrushed with a Finding Nemo theme (hence dubbed “Nemo”) on the cowling. This was also about 1000 Baht, or $30. This is the only bike I may have lost money on as we can’t find it – it was left at my brother-in-laws house as a spare ride, but just went missing quite recently.
Then I got word that somebody wanted to buy the Suzuki for $60-$90, although this hasn’t been confirmed yet.
The person I sold the JRD to went back home quite recently, and was at a loss about what to do with it, so I bought it back… And sold it the next day for no profit, since the only reason I bought it a second time was because I felt bad for the person trying to get rid of it.
Actually, this deal fell through and I had to look for another buyer because the first buyer couldn’t come up with the cash and started asking for a discount. I laughed and said I could sell it the next day for more than the price I had offered him, and that’s exactly what I did.
Two weeks after that, the Chappy came into the picture and I strongly believe this is because I’d created some powerful horse trading karma getting to that point. I must admit, it’s a lot of fun playing horse trader when you’re on a roll… Now, if I can only find some way to turn this Chappy into, say, a CBR…