Head Case Motorsports

[Dreadhead]

That really sucks about the ATS-V. Could have been a incredible car.

[Laowei]

1 hour ago, HemiSam said:

Sad to see this, Laowei.  

They are great cars that are very fast/quick right off the lot and can be made faster very easily with a pulley swap and a bit of tuning magic.  Slap a pair of stickies on the rear wheels and you can go 10's easily at the quarter mile.  Then there's all the support for GM products (only better/cheaper for modding domestically is Ford).  But if you can't get it to do what it's supposed to on basics, and considering it was your daily, why make yourself crazy?!?  Good move IMO.  Too bad...bad ass vehicle indeed.

Any thoughts on what might replace the Caddy?

HS

The twin turbo V6 LF4 in the ATS-V has only been out around 6 months and already the tuners have them running low 10's in the quarter. With only a tune and downpipe the HP get upped 140, and 170ft/pounds more torque. The motor should take it as it is a detuned race motor with titanium connecting rods and sodium filled valves. Crazy easy to mod. 

Have not decided what to get next. My old 2003 CTS has 218k miles and a head gasket was starting to weep. I'll probably go lot shopping to a buy a cheap daily driver for now, with no sky high payments. Maybe later a ZL1 Camaro......

Edited March 20, 2016 by Laowei

[HemiSam]

2 minutes ago, Laowei said:

The twin turbo V6 LF4 in the ATS-V has only been out around 6 months and already the tuners have them running low 10's in the quarter. With only a tune and downpipe the HP get upped 140, and 170ft/pounds more torque. The motor should take it as it is a detuned race motor with titanium connecting rods and sodium filled valves. Crazy easy to mod. 

Have not decided what to get next. My old 2003 CTS has 218k miles and a head gasket was starting to weep. I'll probably go lot shopping a buy a cheap daily driver for now, with no sky high payments. Maybe later a ZL1 Camaro......

 

That's right, they went turbo and V6 vs the prior supercharged LS cars (eaton positive displacement blower basically).  Forgot about that, amigo, and you even told me that.  Turbos are brutally efficient, but there's a fair amount of complexity.  Having an OEM figure out/engineer it is definitely a bonus vs the approach I've taken with the Challenger.  We'll see how much headroom those new V6's have in stock trim....the aftermarket will find the limit.  I'd be looking at the ring lands on the pistons and whether they're 2618 alloy or the like before I'd figure the rods or crank would go.  Interesting on the titanium rods.  I run 300M on mine.

Anyhoo, sorry to see this but you've got a nice number of cars in the price bracket depending on what dimensions / requirements you have.  Fewer if you're focused on domestic.  The Hellcat Chargers are interesting four-door domestics and make stupid power.  Quite a bit bigger, though.  I've got friends running them in the low 9's now at the quarter....crazy for a 2 ton+ grocery getter...

HS

[Laowei]

The new Gen 3 CTS-V has the supercharged V8. 650hp vs 464hp for the ATS-V. Does 0-60 in 3.7 seconds vs 3.8 in the auto ATS-V. Top speed >201mph vs 189. 

Thinking I'll  end up paying $20-30k cash now for something used to get by for a couple of years. Any opinions?

Edited March 20, 2016 by Laowei

[HemiSam]

The 2016 CTS-V looks interesting.  Look to be putting down about 540ish rwhp and 515ish rw torque.  That allows for a 15-20% driveline parasitic loss which isn't terrible for an auto with a torque converter.  Car weighs over 4100 lbs w/o driver...that's a heavy girl.  I really liked it when they made the V wagons with the manual transmissions...cool cars.

What sized vehicle you looking for, Laowei?  And do you have a disposition for rear wheel, four doors, etc...?

HS

[Laowei]

Thanks HemiSam. My question was really too broad to answer. I'll just go find a fun to drive used car. Driving a slow car fast can be more fun than driving a fast car slow.

[Dreadhead]

Mazda CX-5 in dark blue (stock photo):

Should be great for my wife.

[n_maher]

Well done!

[HemiSam]

Good color.

HS

[Laowei]

Sharp looker. 

[Dreadhead]

She's very excited and I'm excited for her. We went with pretty much option available so it's going to take the dealer a little while to get the parts in and everything installed but I will post some pics. The Mazda website doesn't do the dark blue justice at all, really beautiful in person. Reminds me that they should include a touch up kit...

Edit: Friday it appears and got a free touch up kit

[n_maher]

The GTI was sold this morning.  Truecar is working on the replacement, unless Jeff wants to unload the S4 for half what it's worth.

[grawk]

11 minutes ago, n_maher said:

The GTI was sold this morning.  Truecar is working on the replacement, unless Jeff wants to unload the S4 for half what it's worth.

Why'd you sell the GTI?

[Dreadhead]

2 hours ago, n_maher said:

The GTI was sold this morning.  Truecar is working on the replacement, unless Jeff wants to unload the S4 for half what it's worth. [emoji4]

 

Congrats on the sale! What are you getting?

Edited March 22, 2016 by Dreadhead

[Hopstretch]

Is this the end of VAG Case? 

[TMoney]

Given how deep this emissions-cheating/corruption scandal seems to go either there has never been a better time to get away from the VW brand or it is a good time to buy low. Hard to know which is correct.

[grawk]

I'd say it's the worst time to get away from the VW brand, since you'd be selling at a loss over traditional values.  Now is definitely "buy" or "hold" time.  

[tyrion]

Damn, my son is looking for a late model used GTI. Although, something closer to Fort Bragg would be better.

[n_maher]

5 hours ago, grawk said:

Why'd you sell the GTI?

I found it to not be all that comfortable for a 6-1 guy and his two kids and all their crap.  I was constantly getting kicked in the back and feeling like the car was stuffed to the gills just getting people back and forth to school.  It had also started to irritate and old hip injury.  The side bolsters on the bottom of the seat were, at times, painful.  Otherdays it felt like sitting in a perfect fitting glove.  It was frustrating.

5 hours ago, Dreadhead said:

Congrats on the sale! What are you getting?

Thanks and not entirely sure.  Likely candidate, 2016 4Runner Trail Premium.

4 hours ago, Hopstretch said:

Is this the end of VAG Case? 

Hardly.

3 hours ago, TMoney said:

Given how deep this emissions-cheating/corruption scandal seems to go either there has never been a better time to get away from the VW brand or it is a good time to buy low. Hard to know which is correct.

While values were down I still did ok as a private sale.  I'd have taken a huge bath trading it in though with dealers offering 15% below published KBB/NADA values at best.  And those numbers have gone down a lot in the past 6 months for sure.  Basically when I got a cash offer at 95% of my asking price I took the money and ran.  I suspect I could have got another $500 or so (full asking) if I did 3000 better than trading it in which was good enough for me. I made a conscious decision not putting any $ down on it so to sell it this early in the game (19 months and 30k miles in) and do better than break even vs. payoff seemed like a huge win. I fully expected to basically pay a retroactive downpayment to get out of it.

2 hours ago, tyrion said:

Damn, my son is looking for a late model used GTI. Although, something closer to Fort Bragg would be better.

Can't say I'd recommend a GTI to him given that he's not exactly a small fellow (from what I remember from pics).  Encourage him to drive one first for as long a test drive as they'll allow.  

[tyrion]

Thanks Nate.  He is 5'10".  He test drove one is says he is pretty comfortable in it.  We will be in D.C. this weekend and will probably shop for a used one in the area on Friday while my daughter works.  

[Dreadhead]

I would recommend that he at least try the Focus ST

[VPI]

On 3/16/2016 at 9:50 AM, Dreadhead said:

Learned a lesson on the importance of shopping around with your own auto insurance company: Forgot to register the car with insurance until today (was covered anyway due to rules) but I was about to add it to my policy and the price came back insane (increase of well over $500). So I went to their website and got a quote as if buying a new policy just for the car and it was much lower at around $290. I pointed this out and they looked into it. In the end I moved all of our vehicles to the new quote and the net increase to the insurance was $43. I would have accepted an increase of $300 and said "oh ok" and that would have been it. Crazy.

I am shopping insurance now for the new place.  I am getting a price from my current vendor of almost $1,000 every six months for the cars while Geico comes in at $542 for the same coverage.  Is Geico really terrible coverage or is State Farm just a rip off?

[grawk]

I think state farm is counting on you just accepting it.  Tell them geico is offering it for $542

[swt61]

5 hours ago, VPI said:

I am shopping insurance now for the new place.  I am getting a price from my current vendor of almost $1,000 every six months for the cars while Geico comes in at $542 for the same coverage.  Is Geico really terrible coverage or is State Farm just a rip off?

I moved from State Farm to Geico a few decades back, simply because State Farm had gotten ridiculous. I've found Geico to be at least as good as State Farm, for a lot less money.

Edited March 25, 2016 by swt61

[Dreadhead]

I love Progressive we have had 2 claims that were handled great.

And yes State Farm is nuts