Over the Rocky Mountains this time. In a Cessna 182. Landing in Spokane. Assessing the 89, and heading straight back to the border. If the car turns out to be a champ, this could be a very quick turnaround! Here is a link to my first, and my second in what has now become a habit of mine. I think I like to put myself in bad situations and see if I can find my way out of it.
And this time, we are off to pickup a sun baked 1989 pure z51 zf6 speed red on red (the non-fx3 Z51 version...the true stiff spring track version)
Is it a special car? Not really, But I guess it is cooool car if you are a c4 nut. Its certainly no ZR-1 or no LT4. Nor any of the "collector" models. But.....for those of us who love taking a street car to the track....an 89 zf6 true z51 car is a pretty cool car. I mean, the one year only you could get the zf with the retro LCD Digital dash....which i have to say....i really miss. Yeah Yeah, I know many of the track guys dislike it for on track use. I love it though. My very first c4 was an 87, then an 85, then an 86. I sold all of them and i am finding myself missing the 80's vintage interior.
Is it a fast car? Not really. I mean, if you are on a highly technical road course without huge straights it can do very well.
Is it a clean example? Definitely not. All I know for sure, is that it has badly sun baked paint, and has a badly worn driver seat. And has just over 120,000 miles. This is pretty standard for me and its sort of an old habit that is hard for me to kick. Years ago the only way I was able to get started buying the first Vette was for it to be cheap cheap cheap. Which means it was a roach. Now, I seem to be attracted to the bottom of the barrel price wise. The way that ZR-1 prices have gone its making me nervous to keep my 91!
This car was posted for sale 2.5 years ago on Craigslist. I responded but the price was too high. I was looking for a true z51 car to build a w2w racecar out of. At the time, I also found the 90 from my second trip posted up above. I bought that one for cheap, I mean, it was a total roach so it better be cheap, and so I didn't really need another one at a price higher than that. But the seller and I stayed in touch and I decided I did want to buy this 89 after I realized how much I enjoy the 80's LCD dash. His car never sold so we agreed upon a price and then Covid hit. I couldn't get down to pick the car up. I live in Calgary Canada. Well, I probably could have but it was really difficult. I managed to swoop down to Colorado in December of 2020 right before all the serious Canadian lockdowns happened.
2 years later, I'm going to get it 2morrow. Fly, and drive back, hopefully without issue.
So what are my plans for the car? To keep it a street legal track car. My city of Calgary is finally getting its own racetrack after a long hiatus that commenced when the last one was bulldozed for a city recycling facility! A true 89 zf1 is 90% of the way there already. I have a super ram here waiting to go on the car, some superpro bushings, some new continental extreme contacts sports....this won't need a set of banski heims and all the fancy competitive stuff. That is happening on the w2w racecar.
So, as in past fly'n'drive adventure threads, lets consider the pictures below and replay with what part we think is going to fail and leave me stranded!!! Even though I'm crossing our Canada/USA border, the entire trip, including the flight down, should be less than 12 hours. Unless I get hung up at the border like last time where they searched the car inside out.
So, given the pictures of the engine bay posted below, what do you guys think. What is going to give out first? I promise to update this thread as often as safely possible, with lots of photos of the Fly'n'Drive journey. Follow along and maybe if I stay lucky, I won't have any issues. Going three for three may be pushing it though.
This car has not been looked over by a mechanic. I could quite possible show up at the airport in Spokane and have to get this thing towed to a shop to have repairs done. Not too worried because I know these cars very good, but still.
I should be lifting off tomorrow (thursday 28 Apr) at noonish Spokane time.
Here is the journey on google maps: https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/spok...d3bb1b652b63a!2m2!1d-114.0718831!2d51.0447331
And here is a screenshot, looks like 8hrs pending any issues!!
Not too bad considering there is a CAD/USA border crossing involved. Shorter than my Grand Junction adventure.
Here are pics of the engine bay.....and I found where the car has been sitting SINCE 2017!! Using Google Maps I was able to go back in time and see when the car showed up in this field.
Take a good look at these pics....what do you see?
Thats the car. All sunburnt for sure. Been here since 2017!!
And finally the RPO showing the Z51 with no fx3. Based on discussions with @WVZR-1 unfortunately I do not believe the VIN is early enough in 89 to have received the last of the quick steering ratio. But hey....I can fix that. That is the only thing that will need to be swapped out.
And no, I have no plans to "flip" the car. I'm going all this way because I actually want an 89 Z51 6spd car! They are not exactly plentiful up here in the great white north.
Sub and follow along!
And this time, we are off to pickup a sun baked 1989 pure z51 zf6 speed red on red (the non-fx3 Z51 version...the true stiff spring track version)
Is it a special car? Not really, But I guess it is cooool car if you are a c4 nut. Its certainly no ZR-1 or no LT4. Nor any of the "collector" models. But.....for those of us who love taking a street car to the track....an 89 zf6 true z51 car is a pretty cool car. I mean, the one year only you could get the zf with the retro LCD Digital dash....which i have to say....i really miss. Yeah Yeah, I know many of the track guys dislike it for on track use. I love it though. My very first c4 was an 87, then an 85, then an 86. I sold all of them and i am finding myself missing the 80's vintage interior.
Is it a fast car? Not really. I mean, if you are on a highly technical road course without huge straights it can do very well.
Is it a clean example? Definitely not. All I know for sure, is that it has badly sun baked paint, and has a badly worn driver seat. And has just over 120,000 miles. This is pretty standard for me and its sort of an old habit that is hard for me to kick. Years ago the only way I was able to get started buying the first Vette was for it to be cheap cheap cheap. Which means it was a roach. Now, I seem to be attracted to the bottom of the barrel price wise. The way that ZR-1 prices have gone its making me nervous to keep my 91!
This car was posted for sale 2.5 years ago on Craigslist. I responded but the price was too high. I was looking for a true z51 car to build a w2w racecar out of. At the time, I also found the 90 from my second trip posted up above. I bought that one for cheap, I mean, it was a total roach so it better be cheap, and so I didn't really need another one at a price higher than that. But the seller and I stayed in touch and I decided I did want to buy this 89 after I realized how much I enjoy the 80's LCD dash. His car never sold so we agreed upon a price and then Covid hit. I couldn't get down to pick the car up. I live in Calgary Canada. Well, I probably could have but it was really difficult. I managed to swoop down to Colorado in December of 2020 right before all the serious Canadian lockdowns happened.
2 years later, I'm going to get it 2morrow. Fly, and drive back, hopefully without issue.
So what are my plans for the car? To keep it a street legal track car. My city of Calgary is finally getting its own racetrack after a long hiatus that commenced when the last one was bulldozed for a city recycling facility! A true 89 zf1 is 90% of the way there already. I have a super ram here waiting to go on the car, some superpro bushings, some new continental extreme contacts sports....this won't need a set of banski heims and all the fancy competitive stuff. That is happening on the w2w racecar.
So, as in past fly'n'drive adventure threads, lets consider the pictures below and replay with what part we think is going to fail and leave me stranded!!! Even though I'm crossing our Canada/USA border, the entire trip, including the flight down, should be less than 12 hours. Unless I get hung up at the border like last time where they searched the car inside out.
So, given the pictures of the engine bay posted below, what do you guys think. What is going to give out first? I promise to update this thread as often as safely possible, with lots of photos of the Fly'n'Drive journey. Follow along and maybe if I stay lucky, I won't have any issues. Going three for three may be pushing it though.
This car has not been looked over by a mechanic. I could quite possible show up at the airport in Spokane and have to get this thing towed to a shop to have repairs done. Not too worried because I know these cars very good, but still.
I should be lifting off tomorrow (thursday 28 Apr) at noonish Spokane time.
Here is the journey on google maps: https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/spok...d3bb1b652b63a!2m2!1d-114.0718831!2d51.0447331
And here is a screenshot, looks like 8hrs pending any issues!!
Not too bad considering there is a CAD/USA border crossing involved. Shorter than my Grand Junction adventure.
Here are pics of the engine bay.....and I found where the car has been sitting SINCE 2017!! Using Google Maps I was able to go back in time and see when the car showed up in this field.
Take a good look at these pics....what do you see?
Thats the car. All sunburnt for sure. Been here since 2017!!
And finally the RPO showing the Z51 with no fx3. Based on discussions with @WVZR-1 unfortunately I do not believe the VIN is early enough in 89 to have received the last of the quick steering ratio. But hey....I can fix that. That is the only thing that will need to be swapped out.
And no, I have no plans to "flip" the car. I'm going all this way because I actually want an 89 Z51 6spd car! They are not exactly plentiful up here in the great white north.
Sub and follow along!