Project Car Blues: 1979 Porsche 924

I've been a fan of the transaxle equipped front-engine Porsches before someone gave me a derelict 928 for free...but that was a long time ago and you shouldn't consider that an example of where values for these cars are headed. The 924 was certainly a cheaper car when new compared to a 928, but today I have to think that a cheap project 924 is a better bet than a cheap project 928...mostly because the 924 will likely have a manual gearbox and it has half as many cylinders to chernobyl into a costly puddle of aluminum alloy in your driveway.  Find this 1979 Porsche 924 offered for $2400 in Westchester, CA via craigslist.

The Other Sport Wagon: 1975 Opel 1900 Sport Wagon

If you wandered into a Buick dealer in the early 1970s you would be surrounded by the kind of land barges you'd expect from Buick.  Big chrome, big bumpers, and big V8 is what you expected from GM's performo-luxury brand which was not as luxurious as Cadillac, but not as performancy as Pontiac...but certainly better appointed than Chevrolet.  Anyway, if you wandered off into the corner of that Buick dealer, you might be surprised to stumble over a little compact thing with European construction and an Opel badge...because you could buy a Buick Sport Wagon for hauling your wife and 9 kids or you could buy an Opel Sport Wagon for you, your wife, and few small Pomeranian puppies. Find this 1975 Opel 1900 Sports Wagon offered for $1500 in Nashville, TN via craigslist. Tip from Rock On!

Another Day, Another Project Car: Introducing The DT SportWagon

We've had a few project cars featured on DT over the years, including in no particular order, a sweet Volvo 242 that is way better off in the hands of its new owner, der Schmetterling, zee Draken, an E34 M5, a Roadmaster wagon that is passed around DT staff like a case of the clap at Woodstock, and a C36 AMG that has gotten more love/attention than any C36 in the history of AMG benzes. What is next?  Well..lemme tell ya. Another DT internal B2B (bro-to-bro) transaction was transacted the other day, when Hunsbloger passed this 1965 Buick SportWagon over to yours truly, DT Editor-in-Chief Vince for a small wad of cash.

Help Us Decide Which Cars To Blog About!

CFlo's State of the Fleet Address

Here at the DT offices double-wide in the sky, it seems everyone has some sort of cool project car, wacky daily driver, or cheap performance machine. I think I might be the most deranged though, because at any given moment I need more than two full hands of fingers to count all the different project cars and needy old machinery sucking my time and attention. And I haven't lost any fingers...yet. Unfortunately I don't have the resources to write about everything I work on. This is where you come in!

Ruminations on a Roadmaster

by CFlo

Let me start this with a disclaimer: I never thought I'd be a "V8 guy." My family history in cars is heavily biased towards small, fun to drive imports or practical utility vehicles with 4 or 6-cylinder engines. Dad had an Alfa Giulia, a Fiat 124 Spider, and now cruises in a Nissan XTerra. His dad drove an MGA coupe followed by a Cortina, a Dodge Colt, and a Triumph. Growing up, I got shuttled around in a FWD Mazda GLC sedan and various Toyota pickups. I read Hot Rod and Automobile magazines and lusted after big V8 domestic iron, but never had much firsthand experience with that type of vehicle.

DT Project Car: 1995 Mercedes C36 AMG

In the fall of last year, the decision was made to sell my long time project car after realizing it did not made sense to have a wagon as a weekend driver.  I had been following a listing for a 1995 Mercedes C36 AMG the better part of six months out on on the very east end of Long Island.  The asking price had dropped low enough to the point where I had to find a way to go see the car.  Armed with my wife and I's ATM cards, I made the hour and a half ride further east after doing some legitimate work out on the island.  The car was for sale at a gas station garage where the owner had clearly given up on the car.  A deal was made for made for $1000 clams and it was towed back to it's new home a week later.  Initially, the thought was to create a 3.6 swapped W124 coupe, but things took a different direction after digging into this car further.

The DTM5 is on the Market!

1993 BMW M5

The DTM5 - Daily Turismo Project Car

DTM5 Update: Hydraulic Losses

Some astute readers may remember that we do occasionally write about our own project cars around here! We started with a neglected refrigerator-white Volvo 242 in 2012, did some refurbishment, and sold to our friend Alex who went Full Swede on the car - it now sports a Volvo inline six swap, custom made wheels, luxed-out interior, mondo brakes, and has been detailed to the hilt. Vince and I went our separate ways into various other projects; the E-i-C chose to devote his spare 15 minutes every Saturday afternoon to a Saab 99 and then a Buick Roadmaster, while yours truly has delved into other Volvos and NA Miatae and BMWs more extensively, including a 1973 2002 and this black-on-black 1993 E34 M5. You haven't heard much about the M5 lately (since my trackday writeup) but rest assured it is still rumbling around the mean streets of the South Bay Los Angeles area. For a while it was also barfing hydraulic fluid all over those same streets, forcing me to face grim reality and address some necessary repairs in the power steering / self-leveling suspension system.

Fueling Faster & Less Often! Oh Yeah...Safer Too

Installing an ATL Super Cell into the Black Iron Racing Bavarian Brougham (BMW E36 V8) Endurance Racer

by CFlo

In the constant quest to keep a terrible beater of a vehicle from falling apart during the undue stress of endless hours of endurance racing, the spectre of speed always looms. Sure, the name of the game is reliability when you're trying to rack up laps in a field of 150 to 180 cars. Simply finishing the race without any major failures, accidents, or penalties will likely lead to a respectable result. But if you want to contend for the lead, you have to do all of those things, plus be really quite fast both on and off the track. For the Black Iron Racing Brougham d'Bavaria we handled the on-track speed with our 5.3L V8 swap, but off-track speed - i.e. pit stop time - was pretty terrible during the first race. The stock E36 fuel tank with its restrictive filler neck (which made filling an exercise in gasoline spill remediation) meant we had to rethink our entire fueling situation for the 2nd effort. Enter ATL Racing Fuel Cells and one of their high-tech but affordable solutions to let us fill quicker and stay on track longer.

The Grand Velour - '82 AMC Concord Procurement/Road Trip

After giving away my first car - a '74 Javelin - last year, an American Motors sized hole has existed in the fabric of my being. In a separate but to-be-related path, I had also purchased a TKO-500 transmission for an Aussie XE Falcon ute project a couple of months ago from a buddy in Indiana. The problem was that the trans was 800 miles away without a great way to get it home. The idea was this: since it's going to be substantial monies to palletize and ship the trans, why not find a beater to buy, drive home, and sell immediately for a net-zero? Enter random craigslist AMC Concord as transmission transportation and return travel from a business trip for myself, two buddies, and zero tools.

The Black Iron Racing Bavarian Brougham v2.0

or How to Build a Crappy Race Car out of a $200 BMW and an LM7

by CFlo

With all of the V8 swapped oddballs we like to feature here on DT, we had to eventually start practicing what we preach. This build was over 3 years in the making, and we finally ran it this October in its maiden 24 Hours of Lemons endurance race at Buttonwillow Raceway Park in California's dusty Central Valley. Time to share!

The story started in 2012 with the first incarnation of our newest build for the 24 Hours of Lemons. It was a 1993 BMW 325i (E36) 4-door that old friend Dan (Listener Dan of DT Radio fame) had bought back in Michigan about 10 years earlier. Needless to say, there was rust. At the time, there weren’t any other E36s in Lemons that we knew of, so we figured the rust would help our cause in convincing the judges this was a $500 car. In California you’d be hard pressed to find someone to pay $250 for this thing except as a parts car.

Project Miata: Installing a Blackbird Fabworx GT3 Roll Bar into "Miss Miagi" - and some Laguna Seca Track Time

Back in January I picked up a replacement to El Cheapacabra, the $600 musty Miata project car that was totaled when an E46 cut me off at an unprotected left. Using craigslist-fu and the insurance payout I was able to upgrade to this lower mile, non-smelly, smooth running '93 while monetarily breaking even on the whole deal. This of course left some room in the budget for upgrades! First on the list were wheels and tires (donated by the wrecked 1990 car) and after replacing all of the coolant hoses and brake pads/rotors/fluid, it was time to install a rollbar and hit the track.

Daily Turismo Fleet Update

It's been about a year since the last update on the goings on with the cars that make up the DT fleet.   There has been some additions, sales, crashes and a couple of new guys have staff  joined the staff since the last update in July, 2015.

Not the DT fleet, but there have been a few Volvos and Miatas and even a 911 in the fleet.

So, here's what's been going on with the cars in the DT fleet. 

DTVideo: Mazda Friends & Family Weekend at Laguna Seca

Continuing our theme of videos on Sunday, check out the first "officially official" DT video! Last weekend, I (CFlo) and my wife had the opportunity to join in the Mazda Friends & Family trackday weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. I took some helmet cam video with my genuine SJCAM SJ4000 (accept no substitutes!) and put together a highlight reel of sorts. The car is our 1993 Mazda Miata project car, and the full writeup of the trackday prep and roll bar install will follow shortly.

NA Miata, Take 2: Black & Tan

A few weeks back, my scruffy little 1990 NA Miata project trackday car, El Cheapacabra, met an untimely demise. I posted a quick sob story describing the incident, and got some great leads from readers - thank you guys for the input! However, I couldn't help myself from setting up a craigslist alert with a few key criteria: model = Miata, year = up to 1993, transmission = manual, price =< $3500. With a barrage of daily autobot emails there were bound to be some good ones, and today I pulled the trigger on El Cheapo's replacement, using insurance payout cash to buy this 1993 "C package" car in black & tan. Hooray! Back to jinba ittai for me.

El Cheapacabra is Dead. Long Live El Cheapacabra!

If you've been following our sporadic Project Car posts, you'll perhaps remember (through a foggy haze of regret and clove smoke, no doubt) that the DT stable is full of various cheap fun vehicles, but the cheapest of all was El Cheapacabra, my $600 ugly red 1990 Mazda Miata. Well I have some sour news for you, Jack. El Cheapo was killed before his time last week, slaughtered by an inattentive E46 driver traveling the opposite direction who turned left in front of me, with the ensuing 35 mph wreck enough to tweak it beyond repair. I had about 1 second to react, which meant all I could do was lock up the brakes and swerve slightly to the right to lessen the impact severity and turn it into more of a glancing 45-degree blow. But the Miata is toast. What now?

Crushed Can: CR-V Wreck Repair for Less Than a G, with CFLOMOTO

A few months ago my own car projects were put on sudden hold when I got the news that my mother-in-law had just crashed her beloved 1997 Honda CR-V into the back of a Civic during a sudden traffic jam on a Northern California interstate. She was devastated, not only because her own mother had passed away that same day and her foot was injured in the crash, but because the car she bought new and enjoyed for the past 18 years had just seemingly been totaled. Fear not, I told her after seeing some initial photos of the wreck - we can fix that! Follow along as we introduce CFLOMOTO, a new corner of Daily Turismo, a place to share tips, tech, tricks, and tales of mechanical cunning. In this first feature, we share how some simple tools, a lucky junkyard find, and a little ingenuity got this Honda back on the road for less than $1000.

El Cheapacabra Update: Zero-Staging

Reviving a neglected or abused car is kind of fun, in my sick and twisted mind. I convince myself that I'm saving money (sure), but I know for a fact that it's satisfying to make such a sad little pile of parts into a respectable car again. It's only been a few weeks with El Cheapacabra, but the joys of NA Miata ownership have got a firm hold on me already. Especially considering the bargain basement $600 purchase price. For my stack of $20 bills (seriously), I got a mystery car with a clean title that had obviously been sitting under a tree for a few years. The front end was crunched at some point in the past, but nothing major stood out as being mechanically wrong. OK, so the tires were 10 years old and basically square, but that's an easy fix.

Der Schmetterling becomes a Horrorod

Astute readers may remember the little Golf yellow '73 BMW 2002 we like to call der Schmetterling, which my wife picked up for a song last year. We haven't had any project car updates on it because, well...it's not really a project, yet. We've been driving it, enjoying it, and doing a minimum of tweaking and maintenance where needed. For Hallowe'en however, I thought it needed to get in on the party, and besides, DT needs its own Horrorod after all the posts we've shared over the years featuring other people's terrible creations.

Introducing El Cheapacabra: the $600 NA Miata

Oh no, what have I done now? As if my own driveway and the collective DT Project Car stable wasn't yet large enough, I've gone and adopted this forlorn looking Miata. Armed with a penchant for checking craigslist every 10 minutes and a thirst for cheap trackday fun after driving a simple 1.6L NA at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca a few weeks back, I've been on the hunt for an el-cheapo Miata to convert into a low stress trackday car for my wife and I to drive. And with all of the Miata talk lately on the DT Radio Show, I thought it necessary to put (a very small amount of) my money where my mouth has been flapping. The creature presented itself this Tuesday. Here she is, my first NA.