Well I love my J-body
it's the second car I've ever owned, My previous car was a 1984 Nissan 200SX. I really did like that car too, it was fun to drive in frozen parking lots and well I kept it so well maintained that it didn't have any problems till about 200k miles. Then the clutch started going out.
After my car died in a tragic head on collision (damn pizza girl) I went about 8 months deciding on what car to buy. I saw this Teggy Type R and I wanted it, but it was scooped up before I could get the money together, I tried for a few weeks to find one but they were going for about 12k and that kind of money I didn't have.
Then At this dealership back home called EZ Auto finders, I saw this cavalier, but it wasn't an ordinary cavalier... I remember it sitting there it was near the end of december and everything was cold as a bastard... And I said to myself. "Is that a cavalier? it looks... not like a cavalier" and Low and behold it was the z-24 model. At first I really didn't want to buy it, simply because it was a cavalier, how long would it possibly last me? it had 25k miles on it and was serviced regularly. At this point I pretty much was fairly new to the car scene and figured a cavalier wouldn't do anything speed wise, but I liked how it looked so I got it anyways, Well a few weeks passed and I went to the Automotive forums where people like CRJ would quote from this place called J-body.org so I started coming here, I started out using up my 100 posts almost all in one day.
The car had an injen short ram intake on it when I got it., then shortly after I learned that the plenums of the 2.3 and 2.4 were somewhat interchangeable. So I swapped the manifold. It took a while too because I got screwed over by Exploited Racing and well, to this day I haven't seen the gasket I ordered nor the money I sent, Damn them straight to hell. Eventually Chris Fontana had a GP for the adapter plates for the manifold swap. I jumped right on that and got it. of course I dove into my cavy head first and took me about 4 hours of work to get the old intake plenum off and put the new one on.
I started my car up expecting the worst, thinking that "oh @!#$... I hope this works." Because people constantly say how the HO manifold swap sometimes @!#$ up and doesn't work right, But it started up... idled high...... and went down! to about 800 RPM's so I literally jumped out of my pants at the fact that it actually worked without a hitch (well not entirely. I need to swap out the TPS because it doesn't like when I mash down hard on the gas.. the car bogs down, but eh, easily fixed with a new sensor) I thoroughly enjoyed how the engine sounded at this point and I thought to myself "why stop there"
I got some Used enkei rims for a pretty good deal and etc etc. and Being as though I'm poor for most of the time. I figured I'd go find the Secret cams.....
And I did, They're paper weights right now. but as the days go by I grow more and more bold to try and swap them out myself. the only thing I'm afraid of right now is setting timing, I never did learn how to set it right, my dad could do it in his sleep. but he was always so busy and I was packing to move down to San Diego, and we never got a chance to put the cams in.....
Maybe if I could convince my friend Chad to help me out, I already have a good idea what I have to do to get those cams in.
Going through the racing forums I see people like Karo running 13's on a N/A engine and I think to myself "@!#$house" I wanna do that too, granted it may take me a while but I can do it, in fact. I actually wanna try a turbocharger setup someday. I'm very good at keeping up regular maintenence and I've fixed cars with my dad on several occasions and have had no problem. I mean we put together an 87? AMC Eagle, brand new crate engine and everything, and I was what.. .11? 12? So I figure if I just got bold enough to have the car sidewalked for about 3-5 days, I could get some of the things I wanted to get done, done.
But yes, I hope to someday build a fun car. I don't want to be the fastest car in the world. I don't wanna have to strip my interior or rip out anything in my car. It's my daily driver, but who says your daily driver can't be taken to the track? And who says that a cavalier can't be a fun car to drive?
Of course, people have done some pretty mean @!#$ to my car, on the last day of high school, someone knifed the side of my car.... and of course. I don't have the money to repaint it. but someday I will after I graduate from college and get a decent paying job, that'll be the first thing I do. Get a nice fresh coat of paint put on it, maybe a turquoise color, being that's my favorite color, or hell, even keep it the factory color, Silver is very neutral anyways and goes great with any other color.
For those of you who have made it down this far I'm glad, I love you, with mouth, Alright not really but It means a lot to me. There's just a bit more. hang tough.
But all in all. I love my J-body. I'm glad I bought it, I'm happy for every dime I've ever spent on my car. I just love my car in general. And god forbid someone hits me because if they do, I'm gonna rip out their jugulars, but if it's a really hot girl. I might just hit her over the head with whatever broken pieces I find on the ground.
I love my j-body. I don't care if it's not an Eco. I don't care that the Quad 4 style engine is old technology. I don't care that a lot of people prefer the eco over the LD9. I have what I have and I work with what I got. I have no reason not to.
Maybe someday when I have the skills and knowhow, I'll steal my mom's car, it has a 3800 SC motor in it, and I'll put it in my cavalier. But eh. It's only a dream. who knows. The car barely has 34k miles on it and I plan on keeping it for a while. With low resale value, screw it. I may as well keep it until it becomes a vintage classic. I can see it now. the year is 2050
*** And here's Rodney figueroa with his 2001 Chevy cavalier. Wow it's sure great to see one of these things nowadays. It's hard to believe cars used wheels back then instead of the new hovering system we have now.. but it sure is nice to see***
I'm dreaming....
Oh well. I think it's about time to say it.....
End Rant.
Forever a work in Progress
First off I cant actually BELIEVE I read that whole thing.
i was going to ask you what u were smoking at the time.
