The transmission is back in the car with a new 3000 stall B&M torque converter and it seems to be working great. No more power braking at every stop; the converter has the perfect amount of "slip" now at idle. The shifts are nice and crisp and the shift points are good. You can control these things quite a bit by the position of the TV cable. It’s better to have the cable too taunt (more pressure) than too loose (less pressure). Just a tip.

I’ve made an appointment with Joey to have the car re-tuned now that the IAC is mounted in the injector hat and there's a different stall converter.

When it fired up, the idle was way too low. I tried to change it with the laptop but ended up just adjusting the butterfly stops to let a little air slip by when they are "closed" or at rest. Of course, this was after trying to charge the battery only to have it get incredibly hot and stink up the garage like rotten eggs. The Optima battery had one bad cell and would only make 7-volts, but fortunately it was under warranty and there’s a now a brand new one in its place.

For it’s maiden voyage (with the new converter) I drove it "hoodless" to pick up our 16 year old daughter from high school. The car has a completely different look with the hood off. You can see the engine without obstruction and all A/C and alternator components are hidden from view. With it’s lope, free flowing exhaust and blower whine, the thing sounds pretty evil and can back up it’s claim with the flick of the throttle.

Now back in my day, if you pulled up at the local high school in a chopped, blown and fuel injected `33 coupe, jaws would drop, crowds would gather and conversations would start up. Heck, the Marine recruiter at that time drove a hopped up `68 Cougar that had the back of the hood raised slightly so you could see the engine. It was guy-bait. I even heard stories of races with the looser joining the Marines. Cars were a big thing in most guy’s lives thirty years ago.

Today it’s a different story. I don’t think the majority of young guys nowadays are into cars like we were. When we were their age, we were either saving for a car or were buying performance goodies with every paycheck. It was pretty interesting if not educational to listen to the comments as kids passed by. There were about two or three that said something like; “dude, check out the car” and a couple yelled "nice car" (nice kids) but the vast majority just walked by as if it were a Hyundai Elantra. No one stopped or even slowed down to check out the engine. A couple girls said “I want that car!” as they walked by but never took a second look and one kid shouted "purple is for gays!" just before I beat him senseless - just kidding (did I just say that in my outside voice?) No really, I didn’t flog the mouthy little punk :)

As I was sitting there being generally ignored, I was trying to imagine what type of vehicle it would take to cause a scene. A Lamborghini might work because everyone has seen one on MTV or an episode of Cribs and we all know they are expensive. I think today’s society (i.e. youth) places a higher value on goods that have a higher price tag. Is a Lamborghini actually made that much better or is it more technologically sophisticated than your average Mercedes sedan? I think not - at least not price-proportionately.

A Lambo is a hand built, limited quantity, EXTREMELY expensive exotic car that screams, "Look how much money I spent on a car!" I think it’s the dollar value that perks the younger generation’s interest first, not the style and performance - of course a Lambo IS style and performance and if not for that, I’d check one out just because they’re so damn expensive - so I guess that shoots my theory all to heck. Maybe kids just aren't into hot rods these days. The results probably would have been completely different had I parked it in front of WyoTech ;)

I should add that our daughter was kind of upset that I picked her up in the street rod because she doesn't like to be noticed. I have news for her... no one noticed. Good thing for her we don't own a Lamborghini! :)