June Car of the Month Winner

[Buford]

Congratulations Angel!

Originally Posted by TAILWAG

In July 2010, I sold my 2008 Viper and decided I would buy a brand new 2011 Nissan GT-R (my 89th vehicle) for my 36th birthday. Within 4 weeks, the car had spent several days, multiple times, at the dealership trying to get addressed a brake issue/rattle/vibration and after many failed attempts, it was decided mutually, that the dealership would return my money. While I was satisfied w/the outcome, I was also pretty heartbroken as I wanted to get something very different to my Z06 (the Viper was simply too similar). I had no other vehicle choices, or so I thought.

There was nothing at the time that really got my interest. I had looked at some 911 twin turbos, but the 997s were simply to mild and well-behaved for my taste. A few years before and during a visit to Summit Point racetrack in Virginia, I had a chance to drive a modified 997 turbo and was immediately sold. The car was plenty fast and, it handled amazingly and it had much more power than in stock form. I thought that I could buy one and do some of the modifications myself and got excited about the prospect…that is, until I began doing research on them and realized how expensive modifications were for these types of Porsches. I took these cars of my list and settled for the GT-R.

Two years ago when I was instructing during a track event in Topeka at Heartland Park, one of my students had bought a 997.1 Porsche twin turbo and brought it on course. Driving it with him brought memories back of how soft-hearted 911s were but also brought memories of the beast I had driven in Virginia. Afterwards and during dinner with a few friends, I shared with him what I thought he should do to the car in the future and how wicked the car I drove at Summit was. Jokingly, we had discussed and bench raced about how a modified EVT 700+ twin turbo car would fair up against my C6Z06. We both shared different opinions about the outcome. Little did I know that he would follow through and that he would actually have this build done to his car.

Fast Forward two years, and I ran into a fellow car-nut, track-rat, that was doing work on a 997 twin turbo and the list of modifications was quite extensive and extremely similar to the car I drove at Summit. There was no lack of capital in the build as over US$ 90,000 worth of work and parts was being thrown into interior, suspension, engine upgrades and other modifications. I was curious and followed the progress of this car but never had I thought that I would actually had a chance to own one. I kind of lost track of the build but several weeks later, I got a call from another friend claiming that this car would be soon up for sale as the current owner had just purchased a brand new GT3RS (bastard!) and could not keep both cars (bummer, huh?). I reached out to the current owner and reminded him that before he sold the car, we would have to put that theory we had fantasized about two years ago to the test (a comparo between a C6Z06 and a 911 Turbo with some extensive modifications). I thought the outcome would be extremely close – he however, still thought the C6Z06 would not stand a chance, especially since he claimed he had a few battles with ZR1s and that the outcomes favored the 997 car, at least from a roll. Knowing first hand what the Zmurf could do to a ZR-1, this gave me much hope.

After several runs and passes, it was decided both cars were evenly matched (keep in mind the Z06 I was driving was trapping 131mph and the Porsche was only on 91 octane) on top end runs. The fact that a mere, almost stock Z06 was able to keep up with this monster of a car was a price-bargaining strategy worth about US$ 30,000 (thank you Z06, aka zmurf). So that same day, after having dinner and discussing in detail prices, upgrades, etc., we agreed to a price and I bought the car that night and drove it to her new home just down the street - my house. I was extremely excited as in my mind, this was exactly what I was looking for, probably even better, but at a fraction of the cost.

Most of the upgrades were obviously already done to the car before I bought it but they were identical to what I would have done or envisioned should I have moved forward with buying a stock one and done everything I wanted to. I simply concentrated on thoroughly detailing the car – removing the old clear bra, taking all the interior off and cleaning it thoroughly (getting stuck behind the cage in the progress), refinishing the wheels, and adding a lot of personal touches to the car, mainly cosmetically. I adjusted the suspension settings to my liking (this took a while to do as the amount of settings are extremely extensive in different levels) and played extensively with the exhaust as it was simply too quiet for my taste. Out of the 90 cars I have owned, this is definitely on the top-5 all-time-favorites. I have put about 6,000 miles since owning it and have enjoyed every single one of them.

This is what the car used to look like when the owner bought it and was looking at some different choices of wheels


These are some of the things that went into the build of the car a few weeks before I bought it




















This is what the car looked like when I picked it up




The car looks exactly the way I want it to look today
























I haven’t found a car that I want to replace it with without blowing a good amount of my savings. I am sure I will find something eventually and all I can hope is that she goes to a good home and that she is driven the way she was meant to be driven. Until then, she will continue to make me giggle and will continue to give lots of white knuckles to passengers.











This is what she sounds like under normal driving…



Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoayjP74wDQ


This is her under load…



Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOiM5NK7_NQ


And this is the hiss I like…



Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Advc586azQ

[sleepysvt98]

So nice! Congrats!

[huskerpower02]

Couldn't be happier with the outcome. That car is amazing. Congrats.

[mild83]

I want to eff your car.



Seriously.

[stangkilr]

Very nice car! Was honored to get beat by this thing.

[fast895ohstang]

congrats angel, amazing car!

[Buford]

Originally Posted by stangkilr

Very nice car! Was honored to get beat by this thing.

Your poll had 20-30 more votes than the other polls... it was definitely fun to see how close it was.

I have an open door with ideas for COTM so if you guys want to see a particular category that we haven't seen, please PM me.

July - Trucks
August - Motorcycles, may do a sub-poll for bicycles
September - Grocery Getter
October - Open until I get some ideas

[TAILWAG]

Thanks to EVERYONE for their votes and for all the very nice and positive comments. All the cars in the contest very extremely nice and well built. Should I have not won, I think I would have still been pretty happy to be beaten by any of them - seriously.

Cheers!!

[Wallace]

At first I thought you were kidding about 90 cars, but then I remembered that this is Tailwag we are talking about. This car must be amazing to be ranked top 5 in your book! Amazing

[Mobbes]

Badass car man. I am super jealous and would love to see this IRL.

[early93viper]

Congrats Angel

[FOACAD]

Congrats!

Is that IA in the first pic?

[ItalionStallion888]

You are doing great things with COTM!

Need to keep this going with more momentum.

[JohnnyBravo]

Congrats, Angel. The car really is a work of art.

And Buford, your COTM polls rule, dude. You're doing a great job.

[87supraT]

Awesome car TAILWAG!

[Bustin Dailey]

Congrats, Angel!

Big thanks to Buford for everything he is doing. This is awesome!

[Buford]

bump

[YourWorstNightmare]

Congrats Angel! Your Porsche is absolute rolling sex on wheels.

Justin, great work with COTM man. This's awesome.

[DanenGraham]

Car is sick! Great month, lots of nice cars.

[pynikal]

Originally Posted by Buford

Your poll had 20-30 more votes than the other polls... it was definitely fun to see how close it was.

I have an open door with ideas for COTM so if you guys want to see a particular category that we haven't seen, please PM me.

July - Trucks
August - Motorcycles, may do a sub-poll for bicycles
September - Grocery Getter
October - Open until I get some ideas

October--how about off road rigs.

[KUweatherman]

Originally Posted by Buford

bump

[MFE]

And I'm too far away to get a ride in the damned thing. Congrats anyway!

[hatchbaby94]

Damn lucky rich ppl lol sexy car

[Buford]

Originally Posted by pynikal

October--how about off road rigs.

I have thought about it, just need entries.

[pynikal]

Originally Posted by Buford

I have thought about it, just need entries.

its not real aggressive yet but i guess i can submit the tacoma.