So this thread has come full circle now.

The V is in an undrivable state right now. In the middle of January, I left my neighborhood and made it maybe a mile down the road and started heading a terrible noise. It is really only over 1700-2000rpm that you can hear it. It sounds like a card in some bicycle spokes. I took it back home. A few weeks later a guy I had met through the local V group came over and looked at the car. We checked the valve train out and it all looked good from under the valve covers. I then had it towed to his house for a larger deep dive. He checked for exhaust leaks, replaced the valve springs and plus. I way paste life on the valve springs for these engines. Unfortunately, we didn't find anything definitive. Sadly, the shop that built the engine had closed up shop about 3 years after they did my car. No one wanted to buy the shop and the guy just wanted to retire and spend time with his family instead of building cars. It was towed back to my house where it now sits waiting for the best LS shop in the area to have time to look at it. ETA I have from them is sometime late May to late June timeframe to get to it. They are hoping to have space sooner than that though so I can get it out of my driveway and also so if they have parts hold-ups on other projects they might be able to at least start tearing into it. It's a weird situation cause although it makes a noise that sounds terrible I didn't notice any loss of power when it happened and the oil pressure still reads 100% right.

About 2 weeks after the problem showed up my buddy that I sold the Lexus ISF to called me up and he was ready to move on to something new. When I sold it to him I asked him if he decided to sell to call me and let me have the first right of refusal. I have known him forever and he is like family and he kept his word. This car has been a car I have really missed since I sold it. Just the combination of power, handling, and comfort is great. So many newer cars these days keep getting heavier all the time. The exhaust note it has to me is just magical as well. We discussed a price over the coming days. Came to a deal and had some other things that needed worked out as well before I could go pick it up. The wheels he had on it were painted when he bought them so chose to refinish them. It also needed new rotors, pads, and tires. Had those shipped up and put on so I could fly up and drive it home. All of that took a little time. A little over a month and a half to get it all figured out maybe two.

So I have gone full @rockstar143 now. Yesterday I flew up to Pittsburgh first thing in the morning to pick it up.

I have always done crazy color wheels on my TSX over the years. Everything I own right now is bland. White, dark gunmetal, and black. I wanted something crazy again so I figured why not on these. They look so different all the time with the changing light which is awesome. At dusk and at night from more than like 10ft away they even look black.



Time to get on the road. Don't mind all the lights. It needs TPMS replaced.








It needs plenty of TLC on little cosmetic things and some rubber suspension bits. However, for being 14 years old and 147k miles it is in great condition as a drivers car. It's certainly not in collector car condition but I don't want that. I'm going to keep driving the shit out of the same as I did before I sold it. It's barely was driven more than a weekend car by my buddy. He put just under 9k miles on it 6.5 years.

I will give it a good refresh over the coming years but it will be fully taking over daily duties while the V is down and then they will split daily duties. I have some other plans besides just a refresh for it as well but those will have to wait a little bit.