Prices are getting a little kooky
This is Collector Car TL;DR: a weekly recap of what happened on Collector Car Feed, plus car auctions, listings, automotive news, and other things of interest to the average CCF Enjoyer.
The Videos
Today:
Stop Modifying Your Cars Into Motorcycles (Please)
This one is pretty directionless, but fun. That’s how Discord Picks go. Most of the cars featured here are extensively modified. We also watch some hamster videos.
Last week:
You can’t afford a Toyota Supra. Now what? [TPIW]
Somebody suggested I start tagging the game episodes [TPIW], [CAH], and so on. So I will. Good idea. This one is all Supras from *almost* every generation, and guess what, the good ones are crazy expensive and the cope ones are smoking rock thinking the name does some seriously heavy lifting.
This Car Got Shot and Lived (Previous Owner Didn’t)
Not hyperbole. It really got shot. He had to replace the driver seat because it was a biohazard. Solid ep of CarTaku. If you’re in the Discord one Thursday when we do it again, you can come on and ask a question. But we’re gonna start making you ask a question right off rip.
Buy the Gambler Car. Don’t Be a Coward.
This is another loosely-themed Discord Picks. We see a couple Gambler builds, and I believe this was meant to be part of “Bayou Bangers”, but there’s nary a Bayou Build to be seen. Or maybe I just don’t know the bayou.
The News
Bad Door Handles Are Trapping People in Cars. The Feds Are Finally Stepping in
Sort of. The NHTSA is “vowing” to write new rules mandating “robust and obvious” door egress on all vehicles. Basically these tech startup EV companies are hiding everything behind panels because they’re trying to appease the minimalist ghost of Steve Jobs, and it’s getting people killed.
2027 Nissan Z NISMO with New Six-Speed Manual Starts Under $69K
YIKES. For reference the C8 Corvette starts at $68,300. But you can still get the Z in stick: non-Nismo variants start at just under $46K.
Ford Maverick SV300T First Drive: The 300-HP Lobo!
And for $44K, here’s this. I bet SVT misses having cars.
Toyota’s New MR2 May Have Just Been Caught Testing For The First Time
And for probably more than any of that, here comes the new MR2. Reminder: the “2” stands for “2 seater”, not 2WD. The world is pretty well expecting this to wind up as a hybrid AWD with a midship engine powering the rear wheels. The test mule here is based on the Yaris and will likely not in any way resemble the 4th gen MR2. We’ve seen a prototype MR vehicle from Toyota in the past couple years that is pretty gnarly, however. This thing is going to cost a fortune.
Have I mentioned I’m restocking the CCF t-shirts? Joker shirts will be available Wednesday and I should have new black shirts in about two weeks.
The Cars
1997 Toyota Celica GT-Four
Goofball front bumper, goofball wing (the GT-Four stilts are iconic and not running them is an unbelievable misstep), goofball rear bumper, I think the sideskirts just look like that so that’s fine… Those wheels suck even though they’re Gram Lights, not sure how they pulled that off. I think it’s the rear fitment, or maybe the whole thing would look better without that fr*cked up body kit. Very period correct Blitz gauges all over the place inside but otherwise the interior is pretty clean. Bet this goes for about $17K even with the visual handicap.
2014 Ford Mustang GT Coupe
It’s the perfect S197: stick, Coyote 5.0, Gotta Have It Green. The wheels are wack but it’s a Mustang, you have like a thousand options and some are even good ones.
2003 Chevrolet Corvette Z06
It’s the perfect C5: 405HP Z06, T56, Arrest Me Red. Just under 75k miles. I bet this is the highest hammer price on the list so far, and that’s saying something because that’s a Coyote S197 back there. People get kind of stupid about those.
1991 Nissan Figaro
It’s the perfect le heckin epic Reddit-tier honkin chonker for being a fucking dork at a weekend AM family friendly car meet. Check it out, I drove here in THIS! Look how much it sucks! It’s like an old Italian roadster through the lens of 1990s Japan, isn’t that crazy? Here’s a cassette tape I made that’s all city pop, it’s all I listen to when I’m driving [FEMALE NAME OF STUPID CAR]. Check it out, it’s like, ALMOST a convertible! Isn’t that crazy? Look how small the engine is! Yeah it’s automatic but I’ve been looking into a build somebody’s doing and you can like, definitely throw a manual in these no problem! i’m fr*ckin JACKED man, i’m gonna SLAM this free coffee and pop open another one!!!
This thing’s at $14K with two days to go. Just a heads up if you see one cheap in your area. Flip it to some NPC.
2011 Lotus Evora
Just realizing these have been for sale for nearly two decades (first model year was 2009). Yikes! This is the 4th gen MR2 we should have gotten: the Evora is powered by the 2GR-FE making 276 horsepower. Pretty nasty, people do swap these into MR2s as well. This one is a 2+0 stick. Short of being supercharged it’s absolutely perfect.
The End
The FiST analysis continues (steering wheel vibration at highway speeds 70mph+). I rotated tires front to back and the vibration persists through the steering wheel, suggesting something on the front half of the suspension is messed up, not the wheels or tires. I’m also noticing a single “click” when I mash the throttle (and on engagement from a stop) coming from what sounds like the front driver side.
I was geared up yesterday to buy a driver side CV axle and seal and all the tools to do the job, because in my mind, I had noticed significant seepage from the driver side CV seal, and it would make sense to rule out an existing problem while chasing the vibration. I jacked the car up to double check, and I might be remembering the situation on the previous FiST, because both seals were *pretty much* dry, with nothing dripped down onto anything touching or around them. Pretty clean under there.
I can get a “click” out of the driver side by grabbing the mounted, elevated tire at 12 and 6 oclock and giving it a good shake. Nothing “feels” loose, but I can get a click by jostling it. It sounds like the click is coming from right around the CV axle seal.
So I’m pretty well suspecting that axle, but it could be about a million other things, I guess. I’m buying a dial indicator later this week and will be measuring runout on the wheels, rotors, and hubs. Pray to God one corner sticks out as a real problem.
What about /cars? Did you forget? No, but I’ve been busy and excuses excuses. I’m actually working on it right now, like right now, and it’s looking pretty sick. I need to iron out some nonsense with auction listing display and then it’s ready. That sounds like it’s nothing, but it isn’t, and it’s going to be a hot minute, but I have time this week to grind it out and hope to have more to say on it SOON.
If you subscribed to the newsletter, you’d get a chance to win a Scion mix CD or some other junk in my storage unit. But look at you, reading this on the website. Anyway,
See you Soon™.
-Feed