Who Owns GM and Chrysler

There is a price to pay to have the government bail you out and it’s not just that you have to pay the money back with interest.  When this bailout of GM and Chrysler is all said and done the United Auto Workers will own 39% of General Motors and 55% of Chrysler.

When it comes time to discus union contracts it looks like the UAW will have to negotiate with itself.

Hyundai Genesis Coupe for 2010

Now why couldn’t an American car company figure this out?

This car is amazing.  Three hundred-six rear wheel drive horsepower, Brembo brakes,  track suspension, LSD, and more.  Check out the Hyundai web site for this powerful marketing video of Rhys Millen driving the snot out of this M3 beater at Road Atlanta.  MSRP is just shy of $30K.

Thanks to Bill for this tidbit.

Goodbye Pontiac

 It really looks like Pontiac will disappear from the American automotive landscape like so many other brands of cars.  Oldsmobile and Plymouth have gone and many brands that were around in my youth have also disappeared.

My first exposure to a Pontiac was as a very small boy.  My parents had a post-war Pontiac sedan that was dark in color (weren’t they all back then) and had multiple chrome stripes that ran down the center of the hood and trunk.  The hood ornament was the profile of an American Indian that represented the tribe for which the car was named.  It had a huge back seat that was smooth and broad.  Seat belts were not yet a fixture of automobile interiors.  As young children we could get lost in that seat and the edges of the door windows towered over our heads.  It was the car that I had my finger slammed in the door as my sisters and I were piling in.  The old doors had to be slammed well or they did not latch and I still had my hand in the door jamb as I was settling in to my seat when one of my sisters closed the door.  I wailed and cried and later lost a finger nail temporarily.  I’m sure it was as a traumatic moment for my mother as it was for me.

One summer it was the car that transported the family to Minnesota and back.  My sister Lauri was given to car sickness so she kept a metal coffee can in her lap to heave in.

I learned later that my grandfather had a Pontiac dealership in the village prior to World War II, hence my father’s bias toward the brand.

In 1964 he bought a Pontiac Tempest for my mother.  The next summer my mother, my sisters, and I used it to go back to Minnesota again.  Upon our return we crossed the canal bridge in Sagamore only to be greeted by a forest fire of gigantic proportions.  It straddled route 6, the Mid-Cape Highway, and had originated in Mashpee’s Otis Air Force Base.

The next year, 1966, my father traded in the Tempest for a GTO.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  I had seen the first GTO in 1964 and the young boys in the village talked about that for quite a while.  To have one in our own driveway was unbelievable.  Pontiac instructed the owners to put 500 miles on the car before you were to accelerate under full power so my father and I would go out nightly and drive toward Boston and back so that we could accumulate those miles all the quicker.  Soon we had turned enough of the odometer ahead and my father let the tiger roar.  The Rochester Quadrajet carburetor opened its huge secondary butterflies and it sounded like all the atmosphere in the vicinity was being consumed by the car’s engine.  Its vacuum roar competed with the pulses of the exhaust.  All while we were pinned to the seat backs.  It was marvelous. 

Today there is no GTO, or Firebird.  The brand now accounts for 9% of General Motor’s light vehicle sales.  It started out in 1926 as brand known for its six cylinder powered roadsters that evolved into V8 powered sporty sedans and coupes.  John DeLorean fathered the GTO which initiated the muscle car era.  Mustangs, Cameros, Baracudas, Chargers, and Pontiac’s own Firebird were icons of that era.  By the 1970’s two gasoline shortages big, thirsty V8 engines were no longer beneficiaries of fuel that sold for a quarter of a dollar.  The 80’s were when GM touted Pontiac Excitement.  Unfortunately all that excitement was left back in the sixties and the Firebird’s big V8 engines cranked out less and less horsepower.  A brief spurt of creativity and flawed excitement came with the Pontiac Fiero that was the product of corporate politics and was symptomatic of the disease that infected much of corporate America.  It used innovative technology in it space-frame mid-engine design, but was doomed to failure.  Pontiac produced some forgettable cars including the god-awful Aztec van.  The only bright spot of late has been the two-seater Solstice.  Powered by an anemic four cylinder, there was enough hue and cry prior to its release that a turbo charged version was added as a much needed option.  Due out this year is coupe version that looks beautiful even if it is too late to save the brand.

Some may ask why it takes the government to ask the hard questions of the GM corporate executives.  The fact is that corporations that get that large become organizations of kingdoms where the prime directive is to preserve the kingdom over the health of the corporation as a whole.  The CEO has no motivation to run it as a business since rarely are they rewarded for their business acumen. Their job becomes the challenge of maximizing their career and not the business.

So another automotive brand will fade from our memories – soon to be followed by a handful of others as GM is re-organized as it should have been twenty years ago.

Waiting for the Right Time

The replacement is a 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR SE.  Whew, what a mouthful!  It was delivered to me last Friday and had just 5000 miles on the odometer. 

I had a chance to get it up on a lift on Sunday and was fairly pleased with what it is.  The MR designation means that it has the six-speed transmission and the Bilstein suspension.  The SE designation means that it has a nice front lip, red stitching on the seats, a darker version of the BBS wheels, and a couple of other items.  The Evolution IX has a very different front bumper cover and Mitsubishi only produced it for one year.

It was fortunate that I was able to retrieve many key parts so that I could have a very good start at recreating the Evo VIII MR that took its last turn at VIR three weeks ago.

I will not try to duplicate the car, but I do want to achieve the same level of performance that it had.  If I can I would like to get a little more out of it.

I have an excellent exhaust solution where I will use the stainless steel TIG welded O2 sensor housing and the Tanabe downpipe after the turbo.  I still have the high flow cat and the Greddy titanium exhaust.  Turbos really like to breath and the exhaust I have saved does that well.  I am also considering a Tomei ARMS turbo upgrade.  We will see what the budget allows.

Cams made a real difference in the power band of my previous Evolution.  They were by GSC and were the Stage 1 cams that provided plenty of mid-range and substantial top end power.  Fortunately GSC makes a MIVEC compatible cam.  MIVEC is Mitsubishi’s variable valve timing that was something that set the Evo IX apart from its predecessors.

As you build pressure through turbo charging you also generate hot air and an up-rated intercooler is in order.  I found the Greddy M that I used previously fit with almost no modification and worked very well.  The Mitsumoto radiator enhanced the cooling system as the engine’s power increased so did the heat it generated.

The stock fuel pump will be replaced with a 255 lph model that will ensure that I don’t lean out and burn a hole in a piston.  The stock fuel injectors should be perfectly fine for my needs.

Jestr did a great job in providing me an ECU tune that paid off so I plan to use his services once more. 

For the suspension upgrades I will keep with the ones that did so well with the Evolution VIII.  The factory Bilstein shock work great with the Swift Spec R springs.  Road Race Engineering has a great rear anti-roll bar that will replace the stock one.  A Whiteline roll center correction kit and rear bump steer kit will be installed along with much bracing.  The Mitsubishi rear strut brace and trunk bar came out of my old car as well as an APR brace for between the lower front control arms.  I was also able to retrieve the fender braces that go under the front fenders.  Those braces really improved the front alignment specs.

I have a set of MR BBS wheels with a set of fresh Bridgestone Potenza RE01R tires that are new.  I can just swap out the wheels and tires and be ready to roll.  The rubber on the current wheels will be replaced by the new Potenza RE11R tires and will be ready for a future swap.

That covers the majority of the modifications.  I won’t be getting started on any of them for a few more weeks.  I have parts on order and the Evo is now in my garage for a while.

I’ll try to keep everyone posted as to the progress.

Coming Soon to Jim’s Garage

Well folks I have located a 2006 Evolution MR SE just over the border in South Carolina.  It has just under 5000 miles and looks to be in excellent condition. It is the same silver that the old one was.

The insurance company will allow me to remove any items off the old car that are not Mitsubishi as long as I replace them with factory items.  Luckily I saved a lot of my original stuff so I should be able to get the new car in much the same condition in no time.

I’ll do my best to keep everyone posted.

The End of the Evo VIII MR

Well folks, today I got the call from the insurance company.  The cost of trying to bring the Evo back to life was too much and they have officially totaled the car.

It looks like I’ll be searching for another one.  If you hear of an unmolested Evo 9 MR out there let me know.

Whoops!

 

I was having such a great weekend, too.  Saturday was a full day in the advanced group of drivers and a new instructor.  My instructor was a very enthusiastic guy who really enjoyed what the Evo could do.  We found the cross-over of the North Course at VIR was just made for my car as it climbed the hill like a cat clawing it way up drapes.

 

After the day and three sessions out on the 2.25 mile course I was beat, but I really enjoyed the growth in my driving.

Sunday morning the instructor came over and let me know that I had been signed off to be solo, or sans instructor for Sunday.  So off I went on the first session on my own.  Believe it or not, you can feel the difference with another person’s weight gone and I found being on my own allowed me to really focus my attention on the driving.  Not that instructors don’t have their benefits, but it does take attention to listen to their instructions as you make your way quickly and smoothly through the track.

 

After that session I met up with him and reviewed my run.  He suggested that we pair up again for my second session so he could see for himself how I was doing.  When it was time for that session he jumped in and we headed back on the track.

He was very pleased to see how smooth my driving had become after my solo session and was interested to see how I would do trying a little different line through a set of turns known as Hog Pen.  It was a little later entry to turn 16 than I had been taking and provided a chance to pick up more speed through the turns leading to the front straight.

 

I set the car up for 16 and then as I cleared 17 I could see I was going wide on the turn.  I kept hoping that I could pull it enough to stay on the pavement, but I slid off the left side of the track and knew it was all over.  The car started its inevitable spin and I headed to the opposite side of the track and the tire wall.  The car was facing backwards as I hit the tire wall with the left front corner of the car and I said “Shit!”.  Then the car careened back across the track and into the grassy area.  Everyone was OK and the instructor had me pull further off just in case another car might copy my move. 

We were very lucky that no traffic t-boned me as I came back across to the grass.

The corner workers and rescue folks were there very quickly and there was no fire to worry about.  I was pissed, but not damaged and the instructor was fine, too. 

After being checked out by the medical staff I sat in the driver’s seat as the car was towed back to the pits.  It could run and I parked it.  The hydraulics for the active center differential was busted and leaking and the driver’s side of the car was a mess of bumps on the sheet metal.

After I talked with the event staff I gave my auto insurance company a call and they dispatched a roll-back to pick up the car and get it to a body shop.  Life goes on.

The instructor and I talked about it quite a bit that afternoon.  I’m sure he was concerned that I was pissed at him.  No matter, I was the guy behind the wheel and ultimately responsible.

There will be other track days for me, but it will be a while as I get the Evo repaired.