GARAGEKUNGEN´s PLAYGROUND |
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ENJOY SOME
SUMMER PICTURES... The idea of this side is to mix some, maybe fun, moments. Some sort of describing text might go with them as well...
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Well, the new millennium had a lot in it's hands
for us. My wife got a contract at a communication company in Silicon Valley, and boy was
this a change in the right direction. Now we're talking 40 weeks of car fun compared with
the 40 days of good summer weather we have in Sweden. Not to mention the gas price
differens, it's about 3 times as expensive in Sweden ( and they still moan about it here
in US...). Another big change for me was going from self employed in our own company to a " Capt husband " status, taking care of the kids and house hold... This really opened up the possibility of doing some hours of fun after doing my share of family work. Here is my wife's car, a Dodge Durango R/T. Its low gear ratio and all time four wheel drive makes it pretty fast from 0 - 30 mph. Or, why don't you ask the owner of a brand new Corvette who couldn't prevent him self from looking at the R/T:s tail lights, screaming his own tires...( he isn't alone - my wife likes there surprised faces, as much as I do, once in a while...)
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As being the capt husband, I do need something
practical, to drive the kids to school, and when I do the shopping. I looked around for a
while searching for a 1965 Impala SS, a car most suitable as home for some 500 hp engine
as well as having a large space inside for kids and stuff. Unfortunately all lowriders here seems to fall in love with just that model, so the prices on those cars were to high. Instead I bought a 1969 Mustang Mach 1, in pretty good shape, 83 000 miles with a 351W and FMX ( automatic ) gearbox. It has a black paint with a transparent purple on top of it, and I do my best to keep the car as a nice looking daily driver. This is the way I try to blend in as the new Mr. "mom" in the block...
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The numbers of cars here is just
huge, compare to Sweden. But the amount of Classic cars on the roads are not more than you
see on the roads in Sweden a nice summer day. With one big difference though, the daily driven ones here are just sun burned - here there is no such thing as salt on the roads in the winters, making the cars rust away from below... If you want to look at Classic cars there are several spontaneous meeting spots, except all car shows, around the Valley in the summer. One place I like to visit, at least once a month, is " HAPPY DAYZ DINER " ( on Union east side, 50 yards south of Bascom Ave ), situated in west San Jose. Every Thursday all spring, summer and fall ( when it's not raining ), car-people gathered at this parking lot. Usually there is about a 100 cars. Everything from stock year model 1928, to blown 1300 hp Pro Street are on the menu. Between 4 p.m. to sunset and beyond there is a disc-jokey playing all the greatest tunes from mid 50:s to mid 60:s in speakers outside. - Man, this is carheaven....
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I love driving around in my "
gas gussler ", in the warm California sun. This is light years from the short summers
in Sweden. But one of the exhaust valves was bad, so something had to be done to the gas
extermination unit of the car. To make sure that the sound ( and performance ) should go with the appearance, I decided to changed the heads, intake, carb and camshaft, instead of repairing the stock heads ( it turned out the seats where worn down, more or less, due to lack of lead in the fuel these days ). A new set of aluminum parts from Edelbrock are now, fighting the tall 2.75 rear axle gearing, from under the hood. The sound of it ( through the dual 2.5" exhausts w/ single Flows ) kind of make the boys with imports keep a sort of " low " profile at the red lights... - If they only knew my rear gearing kills the performance under 35 mph ( I easily do 70 mph in first gear ), and when finally the engine start to put out some torque - then the stock fuel pump doesn't make it...
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There is so much more to see here in California than in Sweden when you are in to cars.
The season starts in mid March and doesn't end until beginning of November, so it's just
to hold on tight...
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