8/13/08

I'm not sure what I had in mind to say today. I think I had something at some point but now I have forgotten it. Oh, I see up above, down below for y'all online, that I was going to look at stuff for the Yaris on e-Bay. I found out that an exhaust header for one is anywhere from $29.00 up to a maximum of $69.00 plus shipping. No, I didn’t put the decimal in the wrong spot, there was a header for a 2006-2008 Yaris for twenty nine bucks on e-Bay. What I did not find was a supercharger or turbo kit for it. There were lots of cold air intake systems, lowering springs, strut bars, “Altezza” taillights, “Angel Eye” headlights, and various chrome doo-dads as well. Basically, everything I've found for the Versa, including the chrome doo-dads which will never adorn one of my cars, is also available for the Yaris. It’s kind of moo though since I doubt I'll be getting one anytime soon. Did I tell y'all about the decals I bought for George? I got two large-ish Hello Kitties and two more Hello Kitty Stormtrooper decals. They are pink. I think I'd better plan to crank up the boost on that turbo so this thing will have the balls to support that kind of brash statement. Now I'm about to say something which should in no way be taken as a serious suggestion. Ready? “Of course I could always pull that engine and put the two liter from the Chickenhawk in there. I know it had balls enough to spare.” See, there’s no way I'm going to take that many steps backward. No, George will keep the turbo A-series and Johnny will get the two liter. I think almost doubling the stock horsepower will be sufficient in a pink and black, Hello Kitty themed 1200, don’t you? Ok, so I did the math and I'm not doubling the horsepower. I'm “only” adding about 60% more with 10 psi. Still, that’s not too shabby. While it doesn’t put it up there in Chickenhawk (9.1 lbs/Hp) or Shi-Chi (10.5 lbs/Hp) power to weight ratio territory, 12.3 lbs/Hp ain’t bad! Sure beats the hell out of the stock ratio of 20.6 lbs/Hp which, shockingly, is actually better than the Versa at 22.1 lbs/Hp! I knew George was fun to drive even with a stock engine! Ha, in your face Flanders! Let me just see what 8 psi will yield, using my totally spurious calculation methods. 13.3 lbs/Hp is still nothing to sneeze at. So I guess this thing might just have sufficient balls to sport a pink and black Hello Kitty paint scheme after all. I was going to do it anyway, but it is nice to know it won’t be a total embarrassment. Yeah, I know it will be an embarrassment to some of my friends, but they can just go soak their individual heads as far as I'm concerned. Sure, I probably should get a “girl-fiend” to drive it to shows and such. I don’t know, we’ll see. Maybe I should rename that car Georgia. No, I like the fact that calling a pink and black Hello Kitty themed car George is going to tweak the ever living hell out of the grumpy old fart named George! Well, it is now 1245 h and I haven’t heard from the desktop support guys about lunch. I think I'm going to give up on them and go eat. Of course I'm not really all that hungry, and I could stand to miss a meal from time to time, perhaps I will just hang out here instead. No, I'm going to go eat something. Have a day. Oops, I just came back from lunch and started playing with a spreadsheet. Turns out my calculations up above were a tad off. 10 psi will not yield a 60% horsepower addition; it will be more like a 68% horsepower addition. Also, if I make the stock weight of a Datsun 1200 1,500 lbs instead of the 1,400 lbs I was using before, the power to weight is virtually identical to the Versa at about 22.1 lbs/Hp. Versa=22.07 lbs/Hp, 1200=22.06 lbs/Hp. So, I hope that clears things up some. Thanks for your time.