This site used to be about cars. Now it’s just whining and reminiscence. Details of car life don’t interest me the way they used to. For example, I bought another JCE10 this summer, spent a couple of hard days with it in the barn (RIP), drove it 10,000 km in less than 2 months, and never mentioned a thing here.
It was a simple project: Tein YAJ coilovers set near the top of their range, Torsen type LSD, era-specific wheels and lip, plus a discretely modified factory seat to fit my lanky ass.
All went well at first. As I racked up the miles and introduced the car to new rituals though, shit started breaking. Axle. Caliper. Radio. End link…
My friend the Big Fucking Hammer came to play…. and then I went plus size on the wheels. 18 9.5J +21 and 245mm of tire was no small feat under the stock sheet metal, but after having used baseball bats on $300,000 supercars, I wasn’t going to let a few dozen mm of offset hold me back on a 15-year-old boroi Toyota.
I felt young again. The car was pretty fun. Then winter hit.
We drove our last JCE10 for two winters. Rather… my wife drove our last JCE10 for two winters. She survived it. I was in love and went max attack with it every chance I got. It even managed to TKO boxers out on the lake.
This car however… was a nightmare. After one trip through central Alberta in the worst of weather, I was waking up in cold sweats. When the weather turned to shit, I was re-evaluating travel on foot.
You might blame stiff spring rates and negative camber. With TRD springs and max negative on our old car though, I don’t think it was so different. The sad explanation is that I’m an old man now. Getting blown sideways or hooked in ruts in highway traffic used to be an adventure… now I’d rather just drain the blue bottle in the cupboard.
The car is now in hibernation. I picked up a proper transportation appliance from my local Toyota store. I wonder how old I will be in the spring.