11/30/07

I've got nothing. Is there some “wear a pink shirt Friday” thing going on or something? I noticed several, well at least three, people wearing pink shirts today. It might be that I have that color on my mind due to (tee hee, I said doo-doo!) the fact that I'm thinking about it for George, but it does seem like an inordinate amount of pink shirtitude is going on today. I don’t know. Wait, I also don’t care now that I think about it. Ok, so now what? Seriously, I've got nothing. Here’s something, every time I see a Lotus Elise, either in person or in pictures, I think, “I really want one of those.” Then I’ll see a Toyota MR2 and think, “Hey, an affordable Lotus Elise!” The Elise would probably handle a bit better, being a Lotus and all, but the MR2 could be just as fun I'd think. I mean they are basically the same car under the skin, sort of. The cachet of the Lotus just isn't there with the Toyota though. What am I doing? I need to be thinking about the cars I already have, not new pipe dreams. No, if an Elise comes my way and I can afford to do it, I'll buy an Elise. Well, I'd buy an Elise or an Exige if the opportunity presented itself. The point is I'm not in the market for a mid-engine sports car either from Toyota or Lotus. I really do want an Elise or an Exige though. But I also want, in no particular order, a Plum Crazy pistol-grip four-speed Hemi ‘Cuda (a replica would suffice), a Ferrari (“Magnum PI” 308 or Testostarossa or Dino or one of each), a Mini (note the use of lower case letters), an overhead cam 427 Ford in just about any chassis, a “Mad Max” Australian Ford (I think it is an XB Falcon but I could be wrong), something with a V10 that isn't a Viper (like a Crown Vic with a V10 and five, six, or seven-speed manual, a Magnum with a Viper engine and six-speed, or even just an E-350 panel van), and so on. Of course, of the cars on that list, the Mini is probably the only realistically attainable one. Abrupt subject change: I need to see if a Mazda RX7 five-speed will mate up to a Ford Zetec engine. I have that Zetec which came with the Locost frame from Houston and would have a couple RX7 five-speeds, along with two RX7s but only one rotary engine, if I bought it back. I'm sure I will buy that back and do something with it. But that is not the point. If one of those “spare” transmissions will bolt to the Zetec, I could resurrect the Anglia idea! I know, I just said I need to concentrate on cars I already have. Shut up, it’s my blog. I suppose I could “finish out” the Locost with the Zetec and an RX7 five-speed. Of course a rotary Seven would be fun too. No, if I do anything with Gregg’s RX7s it will be see if the transmission will fit the Zetec and buy one of them for a future project. Gregg needs to sell the two cars and the Locost frame as a “kit” for someone else to build a rotary Seven. Then again… Damn, but a rotary Seven is appealing. I suppose I could be convinced to build it to sell. I need to pick a nest and roost. I'm a Datsun 1200 guy. I need to “finish” my three, four if I decide to keep Herman and make a “slowster,” and stop going off on wacky tangents. Hmm, a Zetec powered slowster 1200? Yeah, there’s a good idea! By the way, sarcasm is really hard to pull off in print. Did I ever mention that Pat wants to buy Barbara? Well, he does. Or at least he did last weekend. I think I may have agreed to trade him some 3” Flowmaster exhaust systems from a Panoz racecar for it. I sure hope I didn’t because I have absolutely no use for those! I've been away from the desk for a little bit and have been thinking. I'm thinking that the Zetec needs to go with the Locost and RX7s for the next guy to worry about. Having it sitting around will just tempt me to try and use it in something. I may regret that decision down the road when the Burkett shop is set up and running, but for now reduction, consolidation, and simplification are what I need to concentrate on. It’s funny, I have already written off Barbecue Bob and Barbara in my mind so they don’t even occur to me as projects I already have. I could, in fact, keep Barbecue Bob in the fleet with just the tiniest bit of shuffling in the parking layout at the Burkett shop. I mean I do have space for it if I want to keep it in the herd. But like I said just a moment ago, I'm a Datsun Sunny guy, not a Datsun Bluebird guy. Well, I didn’t actually say that but that is the case. Of course that line of thinking leads me to keeping Barbara. A Small Block Chevy in a B-210 would be pretty bad ass. I wonder if it would fit. I wouldn’t have a problem cutting a hole in the hood for the dual side draft carburetors to poke out either. No, I'd go with a huge “Bug Shovel” over them. Hmm, interesting. Ok, Pat needs to take delivery of that car before I really start to think this is a good idea. I'm pretty sure he reads this so he’ll know what I'm thinking. It could send him either way though. He might “change his mind” about wanting Barbara just to tempt me into putting a V8 in it. He’s crafty that way. Crafty or evil, I'm not really sure which. Well, I'm just about talked out for the day. I think I'm done with y'all for the day, the week, and the month. Toodles.