You know, sometimes I just forget how great this car is
because I drive it every single day except when I am away. I was on one of those 270 degree onramps this morning and about two thirds of the way around asked everything she had, punching the gas pedal to the floor, winding it up past lift engagement (pretty smooth transition) almost to a stratospheric rev limit then shifting smoothly and quickly into 4th as it straightened out before the merge. Pulling massive gees with just a tad of lean -- TRD racing springs, Koni inserts, and TRD swaybars -- the S-03's hanging in there, not complaining yet. Looking in the near lane: nobody there, so I just let the horses run some more... 5th and then 6th. Ah yes, a 6th gear she didn't have before. How sweet this breathed on Yamayota engine sings.
Slowing down a few miles later for my exit, I glanced down at the white shift knob with encased Australian redback spider. So cool. Feels good in the hand. I just love shifting gears. Up, down, doesn't matter.
I remembered all the mods I did, not just the 2ZZ/flywheel/6 speed/P&P that LR did for me. The ones I installed. Corky's breastplate... one of the first ones made in fact. What a difference that made. Front strut tower brace, too. All the work I did on the audio system. Shaved a half inch off the bottom of the seat cushion. All the intake projects, culminating in the latest one, which is dmanô near perfect. Team Moon exhaust... a tone so fine that I've never seen fit to replace it... first mod after painting the brake calipers. The trip up to Atlanta to meet Charlie Shatzen and have it installed. Getting my car (and myself) in Grassroots Motorsports magazine through sheer luck. All the Power FC software work, tuning and auto tuning, virtual gauges, replaying, G meter, GPS, all that jazz. I've been immersed in the techie stuff too much. That's probably what did it, just going for a drive and not testing something or trying to make something better for once. Just driving the dmanô thing, letting her run.
gas clutch shift gas lean brake downshift turn brake gas... yeah baby
This is a really fun car, even with the top up... and super reliable, too. Toyota did it. I did it. Corky and LR and a bunch of others did it. We made one heck of a car. I'd rather have this than almost anything out there. You will pry it from my cold dead fingers. Oh, there will someday be another car, but this one is mine to keep, even if I end up only driving it on weekends someday.
Oh yeah, one more thing. Hardly any of this would have happened without other twisted and obsessed evil-doers to their warranties like me... on Spyderchat.