UCF Homecoming Parade

The Mid-Florida Mustang Club was asked to participate in the homecoming parade at the University Of Central Florida yesterday. Quite a few of us turned out for the festivities, convertibles and coupes too.

The convertibles had various VIP's, I had Mr. and Mrs. UCF in my car. Mrs. Florida was there, and some Victoria's Secret models too. It was a pretty short parade route, but the spectators were in abundance. It was a good activity to do on my Birthday, incidentally it was also Mrs. UCF's birthday too...

Wekiva Homecoming Parade

A few members of my club and I assembled our convertibles on October 5 to chariot the members of Wekiva High School homecoming court in front of the school and around the football field. Their game was the following Friday, and the MFMC helped out with that as well...I had to work.

All Ford Powered Car & Truck Show-n-Shine

The Nature Coast Mustang Club held it's first car show on the 25th of September, and I've been procrastinating an update. I got up bright and early to go meet Vic for breakfast, as we were the only two from our club to go. I am sure that if Jim had not been at a previously arranged event, he to would have been in attendance as well. Personally, I thought it important that members of the MFMC show support for a neighbor club's first ever car show. Nature Coast Mustang Club did an amazing job with their first time out, it had all the stuff you'd expect at a car show. There were a good amount of Mustangs and other ford cars as well in attendance. It was a beautiful day, and a very enjoyable day for a car show...

Adventures in Car Kitchen Remodelling Enthusiasm

Summer months in Central Florida are pretty slow in the car show/cruise in world, seeing as how it's so hot around here. I have gone to a couple of cruise ins, but have reported on those same events in earlier months. Aside from taking a road trip in the wife's Flex up to Michigan, our time has been filled with tearing out and rebuilding our kitchen.

Our house was built in the middle of the last century, and had (as far as we could tell) the original kitchen. It was in serious need of repair, or better yet replaced. The oven was non-functioning, the stove only had 2 burners that worked on high, cupboards were falling apart, and the floor was half ripped up and gross. It was all started with talk of getting a dishwasher installed. why put a new dishwasher in old cabinets, why put new cabinets on a shitty floor? It was a domino effect that led to canceling plans for a month long road trip and deciding on a $10,000 budget for a brand new kitchen top to bottom. The wife and I are doing all the work ourselves, saving quite a bit of money, and causing a couple arguments along the way. We're not quite done, but it is a functioning kitchen again.

We started by tearing out the old cabinets:



The walls came down next:



Then we moved around and installed some power points:



Putting up the drywall was certainly our favorite step:



We arrived at the painting and installing new fixtures, and we could see the light at the end of the tunnel:



The floor going down made it look like a crisp new room:



The sink side of the kitchen cabinets were first so we could stop eating out:



We have a few things left on the to do list: Finish the floor, install and paint molding, stove side cabinets installed, and install the hood...

Photo Op August 12, 2010.

The other day when I took pictures of my car I neglected to do some with the top down, so today I thought I would seek out another spot suitable for snapping some shots. Also, I wanted some good shots to enter into a contest put on by American Muscle. I went back over to downtown Winter Park to drive around. Right by the country club over there I found this great old house on the edge of the golf course. I thought it was the perfect setting for some dusk photos. You be the judge...

4.10 Gears Installed August 12, 2010.

The wife told me if I wanted to get a little more done to my car I could if I wanted to. This morning I headed back over to Lamotta Performance to get some new gears, I decided to upgrade from the 3.55 up to 4.10.



Basically what this means is I get more low end torque. Or in even simpler terms, I get more throttle response when I press down on the gas pedal. Quite seriously after driving it home I can tell you all that, yes, indeed it does have more get up and go. I have to take it easy on the new gears for a couple of days so they can settle in with each other, so the manufacturer states. Patrick, the office manager, said that he tells everybody to take it easy but 4 of 5 still drive out of the parking lot sideways.

I arrived at about 10am and decided to stick around for the install, to see how they did it.




I learned a few things, mainly that I don't want to ever have to change the gears on a Mustang. The guys over at Lamotta did a great job and didn't mind me hovering and taking pictures.



I am going back on Monday for the dyno and tune to give the gears the time they need to settle. The dyno we did the other day was a bad day plus I had substandard petrol running my car. She put down 280HP but Jake thinks she should be around 290HP. I will be sure to post the results as soon as I get home on Monday from the shop.

Pictures Of Beatrix Re-Imagined! August 7, 2010.

I was trying to think of a good place to go take pictures of my car so you my readers could see the end result of the current round of modifications. I thought about going to the beach, however, I already have pretty good beach shots. I may still go to New Smyrna to get updated pictures though. A combination of not really wanting to drive that far and the fact I wanted some place different I decided to locate an alternate location, but where? My service rep over at Don Reid Ford wanted to see the car once it was lowered so I headed over that way, he wasn't there. Leaving the dealership it hit me, the brick road in Winter Park would be perfect, but where was there no traffic? Over by the college I found a parking area that was an extension of the brick road that looked perfect for snapping a few shots. The only thing that would have made it even better is if there wasn't a busy street so close, but I think the pictures turned out just fine...





Possibly in the next few days I will take a trip out to the beach on a nice sunny day, and share those pictures too...

Lowered and Louder With Short Throw Shift! August 6, 2010.

Car went into the shop bright and early this morning to have a few parts installed. I got the work done over at Lamotta Performance in Longwood, a shop that a few of my Mustang Club buddies have used and trust. After the work was done I can tell you that I would recommend them as well, very professional and high level of attention to detail. I felt like my car was their only priority, even with many other Mustangs around the shop getting worked on. There was more to the install than they had originally thought, I didn't communicate the fact that the lowering was the entire handling pack rather than just springs, also, the exhaust was x-pipes AND axle back mufflers. As a result the dyno run planned for after the install was postponed until Monday, I will post the results when I get them. I am very pleased with my decision to go to Lamotta to have the work done rather than the other option I was considering.

The modifications done today was the perfect amount to make me a very happy Mustang owner. My car was lowered by an inch (1.5" rear, 1" front) with a Ford Racing handling pack, than included springs, dampers, sway bars, and strut tower brace (though I kept the stock brace in). The lower stance makes me feel more in control of all those horses when I press down on that pedal, and cornering is more consistent and controlled. A Steeda tri-ax shifter that I was, with good reason, not confident to put in myself was installed as well. The short throw all billet aluminum shifter is an impressive improvement over the stock shifter, It's so much easier to shift. Last but not least, the exhaust was upgraded with a Magnaflow true x-pipe with high flow cats, and a Magnaflow axle back muffler. This really is the favorite modification I have made to my car, the deep and aggressive exhaust tone that I am getting now is really music to my ears. It's not very loud when cruising, but cranking down on the accelerator really makes a nice loud sound.

New Rims And Wheels, July 28, 2010.

I finally was able to get new rims and tires put on my car, I got them on Wednesday. I decided on a set 20" Lorenzo rims that are all black with chrome rivets, and Nitto high performance tires. I had been looking at black cars with all black rims, black rims with a machined lip, and neither option was very appealing to me. That is until I found the Lorenzo rims, they looked hot, and Tire Kingdom has a "visualizer" on their site so I could see approximately what they would look like on my car. I ended up going to Wheel Unik on 17/92 over in Casselberry to purchase them and have them installed. Once they were on my car I was instantly impressed with the new look...

DIY Steeda Cold Air Intake and CDC Light Bar, July 26th, 2010.

After buying a few things today I decided that 2 of them I had the confidence to do the install by myself. I have a mechanic that lives right across the street so if I hit a road block I had him to talk with, but did not need to consult him. I called Vic first then Jim to talk about the SCT tuner, but will have to talk directly with SCT tomorrow.

First up on the DIY was a brand new Steeda cold air intake, that requires a tune to work properly. At least I got the sucker in to the car, which I found to be incredibly easy.

Stock:


Process:


Installed!!!:


However, until it's tuned it will sit in the garage, thanks to this little warning at the bottom of the instructions. It's a good thing we have more than one car...

For the second DYI project of the day, I installed a new Classic Design Concepts light bar. I have been looking at these for months, on other cars and in pictures, going back and forth on if I wanted one or not. I came in under budget on the other parts I purchased, so I decided to get the light bar after all. I am very pleased with my decision, I really like how Beatrix looks with it installed.





The other parts will be discussed in a future installment of the Accidental Car Enthusiast. Perhaps when they get installed...

EDIT:
Tune uploaded to car, and it works too. Noticeable horsepower and torque gains, and she growls a little more from the engine. I am very pleased! I will get her on a dyno after the other power addition is installed...

The Fiat Is Coming Back

Watching the news earlier and this story caught my attention, apparently the Fiat is set to return to the US market later this year. The Fiat "500" will have a regular version and an electric version. Chrysler acquired the company from the government when it went belly up, and dealers in 150 markets will be able to apply for Fiat sales. They are choosing markets that have a lot of small car sales, and could support the sales of the Fiat.

Chrysler dealers will have to set up a separate area for the Fiat, including showroom and sales staff. They expect to have about 200 dealerships in 41 states, cities being the likely spots where small car registration is higher.

Looks like a fun little car, an electric version would be nice for city drivers...