Something really strange happens when you have a fleet of cars (8+) that for
some reason or another diminishes to a smaller number. Even though you have
a perfectly reasonably number of cars (7) you start looking for excuses and
reasons to find another. I know, this is happening to me. Let me explain:
This past May my 3000 MkII was just getting finished in the paint shop; mere
days from the moment I could pop over and drive the beauty around the Santa
Cruz mountians with a face splitting grin. But, luck hit me (good or bad I
haven't decided yet) and a man who was visiting the shop asked the shop
owner if the car was for sale. The owner called me, I talked to the man, he
gave me a check for about the average price of a 3000 in Hemmings, it
cleared, and I was down one car. (for those in the know this was the 3000 I
bought with the Cobra in a sort of package deal).
This past three weeks my claim with the Better Business Bureau finally
completed and GM repurchased my Geo Storm GSi under the California Lemon Law
(this says if a car can't be fixed after 4 or more times for the same
problem, then you get your money back or a replacement car). I choose the
money since '92 models were coming out in a few weeks thinking that perhaps
I'd get something like a vtec honda crx or whatever. Well to give me
something that was reasonably reliable and could be driven in the foul
weather the bay area has (a joke! that's was a joke Phil) I decided to dump
a couple of grand into my 1966 Porsche 911 rebuilding the transmission,
putting new chain tensioners, etc. This has taken me a lot longer to do
than I anticipated. It's been almost a month that the porsche has been off
the road waiting for parts/time to fix it. So I have been in the strange,
unenviable, ironic position, of having half a dozen cars that I can't even
drive (I don't think I could take my Bugeye to Sausalito twice a week and
have both the car and my back survive) on a daily basis.
Then I had the brilliant/stupid idea! Instead of getting a new car in '92
that is just going to lose 40% of its value the moment I drive it off the
lot (your numbers may vary). I'll get TWO cars of almost good reliabilty
that I can commute with and if one is down, I'll drive the other while
working on it. Great idea huh? So, this brings me to the reason of this
lengthy diatribe (if you are still here...) I found a possible candidate,
a Jensen Healey convertible with hardtop. Porblem is I'll have to do the
work to get it through smog this year. It comes with the original 907
engine, but that needs a rebuild, and has a 2.8l v6 right now. I'm familiar
with both engines in the basic sense, so I think I could fix it up. But I
need to find a new hood. The current one has been "Gas Station
Attendantized" and has a nasty bend in it.
Anyone out there have a hood for a '74 Jenson Healey?
Anyone out there want to send me some flame mail to convice me not to do
this?
Anyone out there have/know of an interesting car that is mechanically sound
(or almost so) in the Bay Area that would be rain proof (read should be a
coupe or have removable hard top)?
-"Hi, I'm Miq, and I'm an autoholic."
Miq Millman -- miq@sgi.com or {decwrl,pyramid,ucbvax}!sgi!miq 415 335 1041
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