A look back

Man, it's hard to believe that it's been 4 1/2 years since I've gotten involved with these things. I'll never forget my first moments of ever seeing one. I was 17 at the time, a senior in high school, still trying to restore a 1972 Dodge Charger that I had bought when I was 14. It just wasn't happening. While waiting in the bus lane after school for my mother to pick me up, I heard a deep, oddly pleasuring rumble, turned to look and saw what to me was one of the most menacing looking cars I had ever laid my eyes upon. I'll never forget how I swore, watched the car intently as the sunlight danced off of it's curves, as it drove by, me spotting one word. STARION. Not 2 months later, my Charger had sold, and I was en-route to Detroit to pick up my first.

A 1989 Chrysler Conquest SHP, all for a cool $2000. It had braking problems, had some frame cancer, but hell, it was fast as anything to me at the time. I'll have to make an attempt at finding the modification list, but as far as I can remember the car had

52?mm throttle body

wrong sized injectors ( 850cc primary was supposed to have been a 540cc )

.040 Wiseco's

Schneider Racing Screaming Banshee Cam ( 272* 272* ) with mechanical lifters

Super16G turbo @ 20psi

Centerforce Dual Friction clutch

RR FPR ( with a Bosch signal sender )

2.5" straight exhaust, with a flex in the downpipe

Tokico Blues struts, with Eibach lowering springs, stedebani polyurethane mounts, along with aluminum cast camber plates and front and rear strut bars.

KDM 2" aluminum hard pipes

1G DSM crushed BOV

FIS short throw shifter

Sony Explode! Headunit with 4x6 speakers in the doors and rear cargo hatch, with an 8" sub in the trunk.

Narrowband A:F ratio gauge, Digital Fuel Pressure Gauge, Autometer boost gauge.

Not bad for $2000. It leaked oil, sucked at braking, but I loved it. Only, I didn't know just HOW much oil it leaked, till my first dyno day.

It was at this event, that not only did I meet the moderator of starquestclub JAinsworth, but I also discovered my car made less HP than what it did from the factory. Thanks 850cc primary! When we backed the car off the dyno, we all stopped to look at the floor. The car had puked enough oil that we had to stop teh dyno briefly to clean it up. At least 1/4qt had vomited out, and I didn't know why. The dyno meet was followed up pizza at a local guy's house, and while I went inside to get something, I came back out to find my hood open, valve cover off, and 3 people readjusting the valve lash on my mechanicals since the tapping sound we all heard was them being off. 30 minutes later the car was running better. Well, JAinsworth, for those within the community, have come to know him as a helpful kind of guy. So he invited me to bring the car down there to see what we could do about the oil leak, along with giving it a better tune up.

Now, my mom had never met him, and I had only met him briefly once at the dyno. We got lost getting to his place, and pulled into a nearby church parking lot to give him a call, where he told us to stay put and he'd come get us. So, while we were waiting, the pastor of the church came out and told us to leave. I'm a boyscout, through and through, and profusely apologized and tried to explain that we were lost and the gentleman we were meeting was coming to get us so we could follow. He wasn't having it, telling us that us being here will mean other people will think they can just park there, and to just go do that to the church across the street. O_O ooookaay... by this time, Jimmy ( JAinsworth ) had arrived, and could see the issue, and told me c'mon Justin, lets go! So, we got back into my mom's 4Runner ( we had trailered it ) when out of the blue I hear a G54B rev up to almost 4k, and I turn to look to see Jimmy busting a doughnut.

Right in front of the pastor. Three times, and then busting the hell out of there. All I could do was turn to my mother and yell " DRIVE! ". Guess you don't piss off southern folk one way or another.

While the car was down there, Jimmy discovered the oil leak was coming from a bad oil pan gasket, along with the wrong oil sending unit. Also, he had a spare 540cc primary, in which was put in the car, and a week later, I was driving the car back happy as could be. We ended up isolating the brake issue to the brake master cylinder too while it was down there. When I had gotten the car back , I went to a local shop, kind of shady truth be told, and had them replace the booster. Yeah, lesson to be learned? When dealing with a non-corporate car shop, mark the part discreetly. Why do you say? They claimed the replaced it and still had the same issue and could only adjust the pedal to have a minor soft spot. Cool, I believed them. Well, one month, a gravel road and a tree later....

While avoiding an object in a bend on a gravel road at night, which turned out to only of been a box, the car oversteered. I countersteered and braked, and the pedal just hit the floor, where at the floor, the brakes would lock. When I mean lock, I mean try driving at 35mph and smash the brake pedal to the floor, fully, and see what happens. Well, this was by a construction zone, my car went off the road, sideways, through a ditch that was just dug up, so all the soft dirt built up and the car just rolled onto it's roof and hit a tree. Luckily for me and my friend who was riding shotgun, we had the lap belts on. 20 years later, the seatbelt's did their job. Seriously, we were sitting ass planted firmly into our seats upside-down. Funny story to that, not 10 minutes previously when leaving a Wal-Mart, I told my friend to put on his lap belt ( due to auto shoulder belts. ) When he asked why, I said " I dunno, in case we flip or something." Talk about shoving your foot into your own mouth later on.

So, you wrecked a car that you grew to love, and grew to enjoy the community, which in the end, became a second family to you. What do you do?

... you buy another one of course!