Bill Brasky
Member
- :
- 2003 Laser Blue PR5
Get some popcorn, this may take a while. And it may be entertaining.
I've had my PR5 since July of 04. Absolutely a joy in every way. Can't beat the combination versitility and agility.
In the fall, I happened to have some extra cash, and so I starting thinking about mods. I found this forum, and a member here was selling off a Racing Beat cat-back for a great price. He'd installed it on his car, which had been destroyed by hail less than a thousand miles later. His tragedy became my lucky day, and I was soon the proud owner of a much better sounding exhaust system.
I should have known that the exhaust was cursed.
About three weeks after installing the cat back, I was driving out in Katy (west of Houston) around dusk with a friend who was home from college. I wanted to demonstrate to him the handling of my beautiful blue car, and asked him to direct me to a curvy road. He claimed to know of one, and we began to tear down the road at a pretty good rate (~70 mph). Wonder of wonders, the road takes a sudden, dimly-lit right hander. All the brake pedal pressure in the world couldn't have stopped me.
I hopped the curb and ended up wedged onto a four-foot mound of dirt. Our attempts to push the car off of the dirt were for naught, since the axle had snapped and the wheels were crammed into the wheelwells at an alarming angle.
Fast forward 45 days, to a Tuesday afternoon. The car is back in my possession after an extended stay at the body shop, during which time I had BFG g-Force Sport 205/50-16's installed. With all new front suspension, steering, and driveline in addition to the wider tires, the car handled even better than before. On Friday, I came hom from work and was walking to the house, when I got the pleasure of watching my brother back his Tahoe into my car.
Round two at the body shop ended on Saturday. I've had $10K of work done in the past two months. I'm worried that if anything happens in the next three months, I'll be investigated for insurance fraud. But the silver lining is...I still love my car. Wouldn't trade it for anything else right now. Except a Audi S4 or Eva Longoria.
If you read this whole thing, you've got more patience than me.
I've had my PR5 since July of 04. Absolutely a joy in every way. Can't beat the combination versitility and agility.
In the fall, I happened to have some extra cash, and so I starting thinking about mods. I found this forum, and a member here was selling off a Racing Beat cat-back for a great price. He'd installed it on his car, which had been destroyed by hail less than a thousand miles later. His tragedy became my lucky day, and I was soon the proud owner of a much better sounding exhaust system.
I should have known that the exhaust was cursed.
About three weeks after installing the cat back, I was driving out in Katy (west of Houston) around dusk with a friend who was home from college. I wanted to demonstrate to him the handling of my beautiful blue car, and asked him to direct me to a curvy road. He claimed to know of one, and we began to tear down the road at a pretty good rate (~70 mph). Wonder of wonders, the road takes a sudden, dimly-lit right hander. All the brake pedal pressure in the world couldn't have stopped me.
I hopped the curb and ended up wedged onto a four-foot mound of dirt. Our attempts to push the car off of the dirt were for naught, since the axle had snapped and the wheels were crammed into the wheelwells at an alarming angle.
Fast forward 45 days, to a Tuesday afternoon. The car is back in my possession after an extended stay at the body shop, during which time I had BFG g-Force Sport 205/50-16's installed. With all new front suspension, steering, and driveline in addition to the wider tires, the car handled even better than before. On Friday, I came hom from work and was walking to the house, when I got the pleasure of watching my brother back his Tahoe into my car.
Round two at the body shop ended on Saturday. I've had $10K of work done in the past two months. I'm worried that if anything happens in the next three months, I'll be investigated for insurance fraud. But the silver lining is...I still love my car. Wouldn't trade it for anything else right now. Except a Audi S4 or Eva Longoria.
If you read this whole thing, you've got more patience than me.
...
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