thanks for the greeting, i was surprized to see i got a post back, i am still new at all this so bare with me. I would actually love to be incommunicado with people around my area, i am new here and have made zero friends yet! haha plus i just turned 20, and soon will be entering Pierce college. yeah i am def in paradise! if u ever been to maine its sweet, but only for the summer... nothing to do there at all...
but speaking of galpins, i only heard about there SVTOA owners association or something through svtperfornamce.com, under chapters , i think. it looked cool cuz it was close to me, and the membership fee seemed minimal, i honestly dont remember how much it costs. but i had heard absolutly nothing about the place till i went to see vandeveer ( i think thats his sirname) over at their aston martin showroom across the street. he actually informed me that galpins sells more fords then anywhere else in the country, interesting. long story short my dad wants a lotus elise, except there is no place to by them in socal! how crazy is that. he is on multiple lists all over the place and a few places he is number one, but hes been waitting for over a year, i think its so rediculous. galpins was going to be a lotus franchize, they were even taking deposits (mind u they had like 70 people in line with only word of mouth advertizing). anywho, the deal feel through with galpin and distrobuter in atlanta as usual, but we spent some time in the aston martin area talking with the guy, who is very nice. he even took us on a took of the new show room, when it opens u must see it, its hysterical. while we were chit-chatting i told him i had a contour svt and was thinking about bringing it across the street, and he said not only did he like my car, but he said that the ford place was perfect for it, not just because he is in the galpin family. they also had a $250,000 zagatto when i was there, one of 55 or something, what a machine, convertable only with no top made for it, i think he said it was steal body, but it was all hand shaped, simply stunning.
i bought the shift know from spmotorsports.com, and i really dont know what i am getting to be honest, because they wrote it retains the reverse-lock, what the heck does that mean? and when i printed my recipt, it clearly said "w/reverse-lock out", maybe it comes with a seperate mechanisum? i have not a clue. just hope i can fit it on myself, i dont know how the original one comes off, cant be too dificult.
and oh my goodness, picking a exhaust is more dificult then i thought. by the way, my brother owns a silver 00' svt, so its nice we can communicate a bit between coasts. we both agree a fart cannon, what i call those things dangling from every civic and accord, will never do, alomost ruin the car. i would prefer a higher pitched note if at all possible, but still at lower revs having a flowmaster type of snarl. and at highway speeds i dont want something loud, like what a 4" magnaflow will do. i am also concerned with the look(i woudl rather not look at a resonator and a 4" outlet, just looks tacky, somehting clean like the system already on there), but most important to me is the backpressure and the sound. my brother says he had a friend with a 2nd gen SHO, and he got a after-market exhaust that was so terrible, he ended up selling the car. i mean if it sounds bad, i dont want to drive it. i have looked at the bosal , also at spmotorsports, but i have never seen a contour with it, let alone any other car, that worries me. the bassani i have heard from here it has a drone note, and is raspy when cold, i get that from my stock system now, which i think sounds pretty good. then i have looked at borla, which seems reasonable. but i would like to call each of the places once my system falls off the car, and ask people what they think... magnaflow and flowmaster are still on the table, full cat-back flowmaster sounds interesting.
as for the paint, does anyone think ford could have spent another 40 cents on the clear cloat? i mean to me it was microthin.. maybe it was desinged for socal weather in mind. i bought touch up paint, but the flaking beihind all the wheels is just so exstencive i dedided i didn;t want to tackle that, i mean what if it looked silly and terribly noticable concidering how red fades so poorly. plus in everyones opinion but mine, people say the paint looks very good. maybe its not worth a repaint, not yet at least. ( i was at a body shop in maine that does classic cars (ie: they had a lotus super-seven being resprayed when i got a estimate, so it looked like a ligit place), and not even getting half way around the car he said "we are up to over a thousand, shall we continue?" so i naturally declined)
additions will be comming along at some point, i just love the idea that my car is so limited, so i woudl like to modify it with that in mind, so not to follow the pack. message me anytime, or whatever, still learing all this as i go...
future conciderations would include:
possible praxis in-car adjustable suspension
front sturt tower brace
rear strut tower brace
17" FSVT wheels
Wilwood 6-piston 13" brake system
...sparco seats are tempting with 4-point harness
