From der Deutschland with love

[amotion578]

Sup ratsun. Been meaning to make a post and get involved in this community, I know a few ratsun members IRL and met a lot of members during the Canby show this year. You'll know who I am if you recognize this picture:

(FTR: drained my battery playing music the 2nd night for too long, my NotBrokeswagen is still 100% reliable thank you very much!)

So anyway, this introduction thread. I have owned two cars in my lifetime so far- the first being this tank:

 

(yeah that's 17 year old me posing for senior pictures like a baws, it's okay to be jealous)

It was a 1987 Mercedes-Benz 300D with the OM603 3.0L 6-cylinder turbodiesel (similar in design but not the infamous "rod-bender" motor, that was found in the 300SD's). It caught fire one summer due to shoddy wiring, rear windows didn't work for 5 years, got vandalized in high school, and most recently was backed into the driver side front fender which broke the radiator somehow. Yet somehow this beast keeps chugging along. My little sister owns it now. Has 140k on a motor swap, 250k+ on the body IIRC (odometer was reset with motor swap), and it's now rattle canned a darker blue than the OEM paint in the picture (and it looks damn good for rattle can).

In April 2008, I passed down the ol' Mercilless in order to pick up my current mistress, Wendy. She's been my daily whip ever since then, never stranded me except during Canby (which was admittedly my fault too), and 65k miles later has only thrown two CELs in her life (one for bad cat, under extended warranty recall, the second for a random intermittent misfire on cyl#1,2,3 that hasn't shown up again). Say what you want about VW's being unreliable, electrical issue prone, whatever, I still love her and she hasn't yet begun to give me typical Mk4 problems (probably because I'm not like your average Mk4 owner who goes 10,000 miles before changing the oil or opening the hood).

 

Lowered on Raceland Ultimos, Audi TT wheels, .260° Techtonics camshaft, GIAC Stage 1+ tune, Magnaflow 2-1/4" catback, Neuspeed short ram intake, and a bunch of OEM+ goodies like the GLI instrument cluster (trip computer), GLX option sunshade, front and rear fog lights, custom headliner, etc.

Build/progress thread for Wendy is here: http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5591128-A-new-year-a-new-direction.-(PG-content)

 

And lastly, my soon-to-be daily driver (as I will soon have space to park Wendy in a garage for the winter): a 1976 Mercedes-Benz 240D with a 4-spd.

 

 

Since it's a '76 it comes with the über ugly 5mph bumpers and those ridged taillights, neither of which I really enjoy looking at. Which is why I also learned about this 1971 220D:

 

Which I can score for a 1/4 of the price of the '76 for a parts car/rebuild racekor/driftcar/hoonmobile/whatever. Oh yeah, and the Grease cast member toolbag you see drive this crappy ass truck:

 

So yeah. Benz, VW, Benz. If I was any more German, they'd execute me for war crimes (and I did have a distant relative in WWII fighting for ze Germans as a Panzer driver). Although a neighbor up the street from my parents has a red 1971 Datsun 240Z with a 280Z 5-spd swapped into it, stock otherwise... who might sell it to me one of these days...

Stay classy, Ratsun.

Oh and PS: I represent!

 

and PPS, shout outs to George and Erich!

 

[bonvo]

i would rock that vw not so sure about the benz though the diesel benzes were such slugs 

[amotion578]

i would rock that vw not so sure about the benz though the diesel benzes were such slugs

 

My Jetta came from the factory making 115hp at the crank, so the 2.4L OM616 in the 240D making 65hp/101ft-lbs doesn't truly bother me considering I want it to commute to work about 10 mins away down 35-45mph roads. Will probably get much better fuel economy than my Jetta too!