Hey everyone, my name is Jeff. I've been living in LA since 2005 but I'm just now joining here because I finally got around to getting my DSM out of storage. I've been owning, racing, and working on DSMs since 1999 and I've pretty much done everything you can to these cars. I've owned 7 DSMs, 2 Evos, and a slew of other cars over the years. I was a moderator at 2gnt.com for around 8 years, and have been a DSMer since the Talon Digest was the only place online for people like us.
I saw a red 90-91 Eclipse GS Turbo with a LADSM sticker on the rear quarter window tonight on the 101 and decided it was high time that I finally joined a SoCal DSM forum.
A quick background on me..
I got a '99 Eclipse GS in 1999 new off the dealer lot. I wanted the GS-T, but having just graduated high school and being only 18 that was basically impossible. I ended up installing a HRC turbo kit in that car in 2000 which knocked two seconds off the ET and made it a pretty fun car. But soon I got tired of FWD and torque steer after a year, so I found a buyer for that car after owning it for almost 3 years, 1 of which was turbo running 9psi.
After selling that, I bought my current DSM, which is a 91 TSi AWD. I bought it for $4,300 in December 2001 with 82k miles in upstate New York. It surprisingly has no rust for spending 13 years in the rust belt. We've been through a whole lot together since, including 4 transmissions, 4 ACT 2600s, 1 small accident, a headgasket fiasco, 5 DSM Shootouts (I've been to 7 total), and so many little stupid problems that I could write a book. I moved to LA in '05 and had to leave the Talon behind at my mother's house. She ended up getting a job in San Francisco a year later and the Talon ended up getting shipped to her new place (paid for by her employer, which was nice). The problem though is I drove the Talon onto the car carrier myself in Baltmore, and when it was delivered in San Fran the engine was seized and the car was run into something because the front bumper was all scratched up and cracked, and the FMIC was dented and pushed back into the radiator. So it sat broken and sad from 2006 until two days ago.
I finally got myself in a situation where I could get the Talon down to LA and brought it back after Thanksgiving this week. So now it sits in my garage, still very broken and in need of some minor body work. Plans are to pull the engine and figure out what's wrong with it, then prep for a full rebuild. Then after that I want to get the bodywork fixed and get the car back on the road. The biggest problem I see is getting it to pass SMOG since emissions in Maryland are a joke and I ripped out all the emissions equipment, vacuum lines, cat, etc, and the wastegate dumps to the atmosphere. So I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I'm just glad my Talon is back with me again after 6 years.
Anyway, that was a really long intro, but at least now you know a little about me. Looking forward to meeting people in the SoCal DSM community.
Pics:
Right after I bought it, next to my other silver GSX which my friend now owns:
Late summer, 2001:
Launching at the DSM Shootout in 2002:
Loaded up for the drive to SoCal a few days ago:
Sitting in the garage here in LA:
