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(Some links maybe broken due to site changes)

12/28/04

U.N. official slams U.S. as 'stingy' over aid

"But U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland suggested that the United States and other Western nations were being "stingy" with relief funds, saying there would be more available if taxes were raised."

So now we have some saphead from the UN suggesting that we raise taxes here so we can send more money overseas to nations that tell us to go screw ourselves at every chance? WHAT BALLS!

Toss the wankers and their damn building out of the United States I say till they start showing us a bit more respect, perhaps they should start looking in the bank accounts of those involved in the food for oil scandal first. 

Lots more then 15 million hiding there.

Ho-Ho-Ho.

Hope everyone had a safe holiday.

11/10/04

Time for a new page.. now that Skippy has made it's maiden voyage down the track!

Monday before last I finished installing the new big valve cylinder head & new turbo, Tuesday was spent fabricating a new exhaust system, Wednesday and Thursday were spent hammering on the calibration and Friday we all piled in the car for a 1900+ mile round trip journey to Southgate Kentucky! 

Last weekend was the Ohio Shelby Dodge chapters "Turbopaloza" event at Edgewater dragway. Car made the trip fine with the normal detours that happen with old cars sometimes. Made 5 passes with the car in full street trim on the tires we drove in on, 13.8 at 103 mph being the best with a 2.30 short time.

 Check out the cars first 13 second pass below (3.5 meg)- 

http://www.turbododge.com/turbopalooza2004/GaryD.mpg

Sunday was spent at the Dayton Air Force museum, very nice place if you get the chance to visit!

Parts for sale page updated, Daytona page updated and a surprise section added for you old time computer buffs.

This lady gets it.

11/04/04

Must... not... gloat....

<heh>

Michael Moore.... crushed.

BWAAAAAHAHAHA!

<snicker>

Sorry, just can't resist.

11/03/04

What world do this people live in?

"I think our media is for Bush and the right wing."

Like Dan Rather at CBS with his forged documents and that fool Michael Moore?

"I heard that the top issue cited by voters in exit polls was "moral issues", and those voters went 80-20 for Bush. Huh? It's moral to lie to your country and take it to war, resulting in thousands of needless deaths?"

If the shoe fits wear it- Like Clinton lying to a grand jury and bombing Bosnia? No screams of outrage of that was there? Like Kerry lying to Congress in 1971 slandering millions of US servicemen for decades? Like Edwards promising that people will walk again if elected? Kerry can't open open his mouth without some half truth or lie spewing forth and people can see this, except you and your ilk who blindly hate the Republican party.

"And can someone explain to me how a President with 48% approval ratings won more votes in the popular vote than any President in History? It does not add up."

Because your candidate and lawyer side kick is a waffling, lying, do-nothing looser and the majority of the population can see electing him for President of the United States is the worst thing that could happen to this nation.

Send me a Democratic candidate with a moral spine like Joe Lieberman and I will be more then happy to vote for him. As a NRA member I find his position on "gun control" disturbing, but I vote on the whole candidate not on his stand with one issue. You won't catch Joe sticking his finger in the air to see which way the polls are blowing before answering a question.

Howard Dean would have been a far better candidate then Kerry in my opinion.

Congratulations to the Republican party for running a pretty clean campaign in the face of the leftist media onslaught and persistent lying and outright fraud employed by the DNC  ... they have my respect and admiration.

On another note- The Spirit is up and running again with new head, turbo and exhaust system and I'll be heading to Ohio to attend Turbopaloza after doing some more work to the calibration.

11/02/04

Anything to get elected
Charles Krauthammer

WASHINGTON -- After the second presidential debate, in which John Kerry used the word ``plan" 24 times, I said on television that Kerry has a plan for everything except curing psoriasis. I should have known there is no parodying Kerry's pandering. It turned out days later that the Kerry campaign has a plan -- nay, a promise -- to cure paralysis. What is the plan? Vote for Kerry.

I'm not making this up. I couldn't. This is John Edwards on Monday at a rally in Newton, Iowa: ``If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk, get up out of that wheelchair and walk again.''

In my 25 years in Washington, I have never seen a more loathsome display of demagoguery. Hope is good. False hope is bad. Deliberately raising for personal gain false hope in the catastrophically afflicted is despicable.

Where does one begin to deconstruct this outrage?

First, the inability of the human spinal cord to regenerate is one of the great mysteries of biology. The answer is not remotely around the corner. It could take a generation to unravel. To imply, as Edwards did, that it is imminent if only you elect the right politicians is scandalous.

Second, if the cure for spinal cord injury comes, we have no idea where it will come from. There are many lines of inquiry. Stem cell research is just one of many possibilities, and a very speculative one at that. For 30 years I have heard promises of miracle cures for paralysis (including my own, suffered as a medical student). The last fad, fetal tissue transplants, was thought to be a sure thing. Nothing came of it.

As a doctor by training, I've known better than to believe the hype -- and have tried in my own counseling of the newly spinal-cord injured to place the possibility of cure in abeyance. I advise instead to concentrate on making a life (and a very good life it can be) with the hand one is dealt. The greatest enemy of this advice has been the snake-oil salesmen promising a miracle around the corner. I never expected a candidate for vice president to be one of them.

Third, the implication that Christopher Reeve was prevented from getting out of his wheelchair by the Bush stem cell policies is a travesty.

Bush is the first president to approve federal funding for stem cell research. There are 22 lines of stem cells now available, up from one just two years ago. As Dr. Leon Kass, head of the President's Council on Bioethics, has written, there are 3,500 shipments of stem cells waiting for anybody who wants them.

Edwards and Kerry constantly talk of a Bush ``ban'' on stem cell research. This is false. There is no ban. You want to study stem cells? You get them from the companies that have the cells and apply to the National Institutes of Health for the federal funding.

In his Aug. 7 radio address to the nation, John Kerry referred not once but four times to the ``ban'' on stem cell research instituted by Bush. At the time, Christopher Reeve was alive, so not available for posthumous exploitation. But Ronald Reagan was available, having recently died of Alzheimer's.

So what does Kerry do? He begins his radio address with the disgraceful claim that the stem cell ``ban'' is standing in the way of an Alzheimer's cure.

This is an outright lie. The President's Council on Bioethics, on which I sit, had one of the world's foremost experts on Alzheimer's, Dr. Dennis Selkoe from Harvard, give us a lecture on the newest and most promising approaches to solving the Alzheimer's mystery. Selkoe reported remarkable progress in biochemically clearing the ``plaque'' deposits in the brain that lead to Alzheimer's. He ended his presentation without the phrase ``stem cells'' having crossed his lips.

So much for the miracle cure. Ronald D.G. McKay, a stem cell researcher at NIH, has admitted publicly that stem cells as an Alzheimer's cure are a fiction, but that ``people need a fairy tale.'' Kerry and Edwards certainly do. They are shamelessly exploiting this fairy tale, having no doubt been told by their pollsters that stem cells play well politically for them.

Politicians have long promised a chicken in every pot. It is part of the game. It is one thing to promise ethanol subsidies here, dairy price controls there. But to exploit the desperate hopes of desperate people with the promise of Christ-like cures is beyond the pale.

There is no apologizing for Edwards' remark. It is too revealing. There is absolutely nothing the man will not say to get elected.

10/21/04

I want people to think for themselves for a minute, not what you feel, or what someone else stated but what you *think* when presented with a number of facts and come to a conclusion. I'm not telling you how to vote, I despise people (mostly celebrities like Matt Damon and Alec Baldwin whose profession is to stand in front of a camera and look good while reciting lines) who tell people or try to force people to vote a certain way.

This election year I have seen some pretty nasty & duplicitous things going on and it seems from my perspective to be pretty one sided for once which is pretty remarkable. Even more remarkable is the media seems to not be picking it up on a regular basis but giving "one side" a free pass. Dan Rather comes to mine as one example, if your going to have a report on bogus documents you could at least do a better job.

Just some highlights-

1) It's ok for Bill Clinton to get a flu shot but Dick Cheney is to be vilified?

2) It's ok to complain about Bush not doing his job but Kerry only shows up to vote on *two bills* in a year?

3) It's ok to bitch about "tax cuts for the wealthy" totally ignoring the fact that the mouthpiece spouting the dribble is worth far more money then Bush or Cheney but paid *less taxes*  The term "tax cuts for the wealthy" itself is offensive when you consider that as of 2001 the top 50% wage earners in the United States pay 96% of federal taxes! 

The top 5% pay 53% of ALL FEDERAL TAXES.

4) Kerry touts eight years on the Senate intelligence committee as a qualification of public office but neglects to tell you that he missed 77% of the public meetings?

5) It's ok to to scare the public with talks about "the draft" when the only people who have talked about re-introducing the draft have been Democrats? Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel of New York & Democratic Sen. Ernest Holling.

6) Kerry and Edwards "have a plan" to fix everything- Where have these plans been while he was in office for 20 years and what are the details? I have a plan for everything too, it involves beer and chicks though ;-)

7) Kerry constantly shown in pictures with firearms and was recently shown in the news getting a hunting license when he is in fact one of the most rabid anti-firearms & anti-hunting members in Congress. His voting record speaks far louder then any photo-op picture.

8) DNC complains and threatens with legal action "527" groups who buy airtime to point out Kerry's shortcomings and inaccuracies but say nothing when other 527 groups show adds comparing Bush to Hitler?

Think before you vote, www.factcheck.org is a good place to start.

10/1/04

All things have an ending.

9/30/04

Dyno results from Ohio- 

James Reeves 2.5 8V Omni        407 hp 464 ft/lbs of torque
Joe O'Conner 2.2 8V Daytona   373 hp 400 ft/lbs of torque
Warren Hall CSX '87 Shadow   317 hp 380 ft/lbs of torque 

9/26/04

I'll update in the morning- Went to Kentucky/Ohio last weekend for a dyno tuning session and had some outstanding results.

The Spirit is still hanging in there, it made it's longest trip (1608 miles) yet with only three problems cropping up. I think were finally squashing the last of the bugs in the car and hope to take it racing before the end of the rear.

"Mean 88" in Ohio, that's a nice looking burgundy and silver Daytona ya' got there!

9/11/04

http://attacked911.tripod.com/

Remember the Twin Towers

Remember the Pentagon

Remember those in the NYFD and NYPD

Remember flight 93

http://attacked911.tripod.com/

Also remember those who celebrated the deaths caused on 9/11, their actions speak volumes as will ours

8/31/04

Dream cruise in Detroit was pretty cool! They stated on the news close to 2 million people were in town for the event.

Parts for sale page has been updated, the T3 head with 512 miles on it is gone. It was the last of the parts from the 16V drivetrain with 512 miles on it except for the transaxle which is still in my Daytona.

8/14/04

1) Parts added to parts for sale page, auto for sale page cleaned up (I don't have any cars for sale right now)

2) Doom3 rocks pretty hard, good game if your into that sort of thing. Worth the wait.

3) Finally got around to installing a set of GTC 16" rims and tires on the van- Oh man it was fun before with the dual aftermarket swaybars, now it positively screams on the back roads, really flattened the handling out. Still working on how to get a better intercooler in the van (It doesn't have one at all at the moment), something that I'll be working on this winter along with a few other projects.

4) As a few of you know I collect 3dfx cards as one of my hobbies..... check this mother out.

Your looking at the 3 members of the VSA-100 family- The cards at the bottom were released to the general public, the one at the top wasn't. On the lower left is a single chip Voodoo 4500 32 meg, on the lower right the dual chip Voodoo 5500 64 meg... and as you can guess the top card is a quad chip Voodoo 6000 unit packing 128 megs of ram... and this is on a 5 year old vided card! 3dfx was late getting it to market due to technical hurdles and canceled production....The question is... does it work?

Sure does with full hardware x8 anti-aliasing, hauls butt for 5 year old hardware.

A good history of 3dfx and testing of the V-6000 can be found here. 

5) Still cleaning up a bunch of projects and things promised... as soon as they are wrapped up and RP is shut down work on the Reliant begins. It won't be out this year, but I'm looking forward to springtime.

As you can see I have hit a new low (ouch)

8/02/04

Parts for sale has been consolidated down to one page.

7/25/04

Damn I have some good friends and they come up with some funny stuff.

"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ... "holy shit ... what a ride!"

7/21/04

I'm sure several of you are aware that during a concert in Las Vegas Linda Ronstadt made a political statement on stage and was ejected by the management of the hotel, I applaud the managements decision.

If I'm *paying to be entertained* the last thing I want is the performer *I'm paying* preaching to me their beliefs, political or otherwise. 

Now here is clear proof of liberal bias at the New York Times, quote from their webpage-

"This behavior assumes that Ms. Ronstadt had no right to express a political opinion from the stage. It implies - for some members of the audience at least - that there is a philosophical contract that says an artist must entertain an audience only in the ways that audience sees fit. It argues, in fact, that an artist like Ms. Ronstadt does not have the same rights as everyone else.

Perhaps her praise for Mr. Moore, even at the very end of her show, did ruin the performance for some people. They have a right to voice their disapproval - to express their opinion as Ms. Ronstadt expressed hers and to ask for a refund. But if their intemperate behavior began to worry the management, then they were the ones who should have been thrown out and told never to return, not Ms. Ronstadt, who threatened, after all, only to sing."

Your right about one thing- If I'm footing the bill for a concert the only thing I should be hearing is music or witty banter coming out of the performers mouth. Save the politics for free concerts or television interviews. The performer has NO RIGHT to be making statements like this on my dime and the New York Times can go to hell. 

What if you stopped by the garage and was paying my $75 to fix your car and I started expounding my political beliefs on you while the clock was ticking? I bet that would go over like a lead balloon

7/13/04

Sent to me by a good friend...

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar...and the beer.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full.

They agreed that it was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full.

They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full.

The students responded with a unanimous "yes"

The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand.

The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things--your family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions--things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. "The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else--the small stuff.

If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house, and fix the disposal. "Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented.

The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers."

7/09/04

Skippy the R/T in it's natural environment, on the jackstands. 

I swear I'm going to buy a KIA.

1) As you can imagine from the picture above the R/T didn't make it to SDAC-14. Less then 48 hours to go (with 29 miles on the clock) before leaving another nasty problem reared it's ugly head and I called it a day. After getting back from Chicago I tossed a stock head and turbo on so I could run through state inspection before the plates ran out. Went to fix the gas tank and it turned out to have something like 14 holes in it, I ran through two tubes of JB Weld and I still smell gas while driving down the road but at least it isn't leaving puddles of 93 octane in the driveway any longer. Yes I have a new tank in route, wont be here for 2 weeks though. Went to swap out the factory stereo for another with better reception. Surprise, surprise, some hacker has been in the dash and turned the stereo wiring to a twisted mass of crap and tape. Another 2 hours wasted in what should have been a 5 minute job fixing the wiring correctly and heatshrinking everything.  I swear this car is just asking for a sawzall party on it's ass. It is a nice driving and riding car when it works but I'm getting tired of it already.

2) SDAC-14- Made the 2500 mile round trip with Jon in his R/T which ran 14.6 on street tires, not bad for a bone stock car with cat back exhaust system. Spent most of the time resting & hanging out after working around the clock for 3 weeks on the R/T. Thanks to Warren Stramer for letting me make a few 11 second passes in his most excellent G-body! As always it was great see old friends

3) Been housing cleaning, I just have to much extra stuff, threw a bunch on Ebay.

4) Going to hang onto the Daytona for now since I have not had any reasonable offers. Even offered it to one guy for $3500 in 12 second trim, never call back. Heck the rebuilt 568 alone is worth $1200-$1300, you guys should have pooled your money and parted it out.

5) White Spirit R/T is back up for sale, buyer backed out. If it isn't sold by the end of the month it leaves in a dumpster. I'm cleaning house and even at $1500 I'm taking a loss since I had to assemble the car from scratch.

6) Closing Relentless Performance by the end of the month. 

Nothing dramatic, health is fine now, just the reasons I went into business are no longer valid. When I opened my doors Chrysler parts were somewhat expensive, limited in scope and I wanted to help others go fast. Prices are now lower, there is a wider range of parts available with more being made every day and there are lots of people going fast.... People conducting business currently & to a degree the past with RP will be taken care of and have support and the rest of the inventory will be sold off. There are a few items that are not available from any vendors and you will be able to pick them up from a page here on The Dodge Garage along with some other stuff I wish to keep enough volume going so I can keep my discounts ;-)

7) Look for the Reliant to return early next year. As soon as I'm done cleaning house so to speak its time to start getting some work done on the car. With nothing left to handle (aside from spending some time with my family for once) I'll make a little progress.

8) Yes the black Omni finally left, goes like the dickens too. If you wish to check the car out it will be at Carlsile this weekend. Dyno tuning in a few weeks after the motor is broken in.

9) Currently floating around 183 lbs... It's interesting to watch the fluctuation... it dips down a few pounds then comes back up then dips down a few more. My money is on it settling out around 180 long term based on the continuing rate of loss but time will tell. I have been experimenting with adding high but good carbs like bananas and noting the impact. Most natural items high in carbs don't seem to have much impact which reinforces my belief that refined foods (white flour, sugars, corn syrup, pastas) are the real problem.

10) OY-VAY! 

http://www.drudgereport.com/kerryk.htm

Don't think I have seen 2 guys grabbing each other since the last time The Village People were on TV.

6/22/04

181 pounds.

The lies of Michael Moore.

The gods are telling me not to take this R/T to SDAC, I'm still not listening.

6/15/04

If or when the Daytona is parted out (which is looking to be the case since the best offer I have had so far is $1000) the following will NOT BE FOR SALE so stop asking. Further e-mails inquiring about them will be deleted.

Motor, 568 transaxle, shifter and cables
Computer, 3 bar map and injectors.
Intercooler and plumbing
Fuel pump
Exhaust system

Want these parts, buy the whole car.

6/14/04

My Daytona is up for sale, details here.

Busy getting ready for SDAC-14, be glad when this month is over!

Parts for sale pages updated.

Been working on my R/T around the clock, 9 days before I leave for Chicago and it isn't even close to running!

5/26/04

I nice fresh Windows install is a wonderful thing, if somewhat time consuming! The number of applications I use day to day is staggering and then everything has to be reconfigured to my taste. The data files for my e-mail alone is in excess of a gig!

Good page of handy tools-

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Downright_pages/downrights_a-z.htm

Now that the work computer is back in top form (with a few new additions for good measure) it's time to assemble that 2.8 P4 with a gig of ram, ATI 9800Pro and Raptor 10k hard drive =)

Half Life 2 and Doom3 this summer! 

5/24/04

11 second page has been updated, congratulations to Warren Stramer for bettering his previous best by 2 tenths and 2 mph!

Nice.... oil cooler ;-)

If all goes well Omni will be done by Friday of this week. I won't hold my breath though as there is some detail work that needs to be done but if all goes well... Need to get the van ready for SDAC.

5/21/04

Seems to be a week for wrapping things up...

1) Weight goal (revised) reached- 184.8 pounds this morning! Will be interesting to see where I level out in the next few months... I'll continue to work out and watch what I eat. When I get some spare time I'll do a small page with some details... I'm surprised at the number of people who have contacted me also trying to loose weight!

2) Omni almost complete! Fired it up last Sunday and if all goes well then it will be leaving next weekend. This weekend I have to detail some items and weld the new intercooler in place and after being here two years will be a relief to see the taillights recede out the driveway.

3) Some other assorted odd jobs promised here and there... Have a Shelby Dakota module I have been working on for a few months and a VNT module too... The VNT module is shipping out this morning and hope to have the truck module done soon too.

I have some work to do getting the van ready for SDAC... I'm going to try an experimental engine combo and it needs a new rack and then it's time to work on a K-car. Speaking of which the van has gotten phenomenal gas mileage since installing the 5 speed. It routinely gets 23 city and lately has been pulling down 25! 

5/15/04

What the heck it's May! Why have I had a chest cold for a week? Things like this are not suppose to happen in May! Arg.

The Omni is almost running!

All the parts for sale pages updated.

Turbo Advanced page updated in Turbo database section.

10/11/12 second cars page updated (you need to contact me if your car is in this section and requires updates)

186 pounds this week (1 more till my goal weight)

Pictures from Cliff Sebring's Cecil County get together last weekend-

Brian Slowe's Shadow picking on a Neon.

Justin's Daytona launching hard!

Mike Marra's Contraption taking a break in the pits.

Nick Alessi from Long Island making a pass.

Pat Culkin launching "Sherman" (as in the tank)

Jon's CSX-T and James Reeve's Omni in staging (two 11 second Mopars!)

4/23/04

It was with a great feeling of satisfaction that I cleaned the garage last Sunday, rolled the engine stand into the middle of the garage and started on the engine for the last car to leave.

190 lbs yesterday. (35 lbs total lost in about 4 months)

Going to try to make the Mopar Nationals with the Reliant in August, don't know if it will be ready in time but it's a good of a goal to shoot for as any other.

Note- Low carb "diets" will not cause you to drop dead, have kidney failure or give you bad breath. Low carb eating doesn't automatically mean "high fat" or "high protein" either.  If you start gaining weight after being on a "diet" then you have resorted to old (bad) eating habits! I'm convinced that sugar is so bad for you that I avoid it like the plague. Next time you are in the supermarket check out those labels, sweeteners in just about everything. I think food companies are out to kill us for a buck.

4/13/04

Just looking in today's spam folder- Almost 500 pieces of spam! Does anyone actually respond to this trash? 

"Refinance without perfect Credit!"

"Lose the wrinkles - Free Trial"

"Congratulations: $10,000 prize opportunity"

"Increase breast size naturally Guaranteed"

"Claim Money You Never knew You Had"

White R/T is under deposit, good as gone to my buddy Ben who is getting back into turbo Mopars after a 10 year hiatus.

191 lbs this morning.

4/08/04

1) Most of the parts for sale pages have been updated due to some brisk sales, both local & on Ebay.

2) Only one car left- I have a GLH I'm building a 300+hp drivetrain, installing the intercooler and plumbing and doing the install plus tuning. Were going to run the car (hopefully) down at the Spring Turbo Dodge Fun Day May 9th. After that I have some minor work to do to the van... and then I can finally work other long term projects (aka The Reliant)

3) 192 lbs this morning, 'nuff said. Between the car and I losing weight should be in the 9's with a Yugo motor.

4) The left eye isn't getting tuned up till after the GLH leaves my driveway.

3/31/04

Installed in testbed machine- 138F! I should use it as a foot warmer ;-)

194 lbs this morning, sweet! Trip to Maryland with parts is this weekend, I'll be down at 75/80 dragway.

3/28/04

Sweet! Scored a Quantum3d Obsidian2 for my 3Dfx collection tonight! Dual Voodoo II's with SLI action on a single board!

I can't wait to get this sucker loaded into a computer and see how it runs, I bet it generates enough heat to fry an egg on ;-)

Spent the weekend dispatching two cars to the great beyond. If you wanted any parts off the turbo mini your too late!

Two more cars to go and I'm off the hook- A free man! No extra cars! No obligations to anyone!

Time to work on my own toys.

About darn time.

196 lbs, whoop!

3/18/04

Now four days of snow in a row, this must be some kind of record.

Why owning an L-body can suck.

Anyone have any 3dfx based video cards they might wish to trade for or towards used parts? I have a minor collection of them and need one or two to fill in the missing pieces. Contact me here and let me know what ya have. I'd rather trade off some used parts and free up space then look on Ebay.

Question I have been pondering after seeing an anti-war activist at the town square with "War isn't the answer" sign- The USA have been criticized in the past for not entering W.W.II sooner and helping prevent the deaths of millions of Jews. 

Now we are being criticized for entering Iraq and toppling Saddam after he personally oversaw millions of his own people and Iranians killed.

I don't get it- On one hand it's good we entered a war and toppled a dictator who killed millions, on the other hand it's bad we entered into a war and toppled a dictator who killed millions. 

Activists are a funny lot eh? I think they suffer from selective amnesia.

3/17/04

You have to love New England- Two days of 60 degree temps followed up by three days of snow.

More off the checklist; Van passed emissions, Daytona passed emissions (I'm going to be doing a page on emissions this weekend) and renewed my drivers license for another 6 years. Now if I can get the new clutch in the R/T this weekend I'll be doing pretty good...

3/15/04

You see the oddest things while on the road, no this was not done in Photoshop!

My friend Jon and I went on a 1500+ mile trip this weekend in 30 hours! We tooled out of the driveway Friday evening at 8:00 heading to the Motor City to drop off a load of parts (set of Daytona seats, 4 tires, 4 rims, 6 turbochargers, 1 complete TIII engine, 1 TIII shortblock, 1 85 TI shortblock, a clutch, a rebuilt 413, a timing belt and a flange) and a minivan and pulled back in 2:00 AM Sunday morning. 

Just a little salt on the roads eh?

We ran into a 5 hour snowstorm in Pennsylvania, had a chuckle at a guy with a sign in his van stating "I'm doing the speed limit so should you" as we zipped by at 85 mph, dropped off van and parts, had coffee and lunch with friends and we fixed, tuned and recalibrated a nice Shelby Lancer. For the return trip we went via Canada (Port Huron bridge), sampled some Tim Horton coffee and enjoyed the smooth & fast Canadian highways in route to a Buffalo border crossing. 

At a New York rest area we witnessed a bizarre sight- A NY state trooper giving some poor shmuck a **PARKING TICKET** for cleaning his windows at the gas pump at 12:00 at night at a deserted rest stop! What a SOB! 

Jon and I beat feet outta there before the obviously deranged trooper turned his attention in our direction. 

Which leads to the next subject... cleaning house.

Some people have wrongly assumed since I have been selling off a bunch of stuff I must be getting out of Shelby Dodges or closing my business.... 

(Bruce Willis voice) WRONG ANSWER.

I have been cleaning house because I have a PHENOMENAL amount of Turbo Dodge related stuff collected over the past 20 years and can't walk 10 feet without tripping over something. Rest assured I still have enough parts to build a small fleet of cars if need be. By selling off the excess I now have-

A) More room.
B) Less mental clutter (If it's not there I don't have to think about it)  
C) More cash to do things.

I took a hard look about what I wish to do in the next few years and pared things down to just that list. A lot of stuff I was going to get around too.... someday... got tossed out a window. Someday showed up and it was pretty easy to make up my mind what was to stay and what was to go. Once I get all the stuff and small projects out of the way it will be time to play with a Reliant again.. So hurry up and buy some parts ;-)

(All the parts for sale pages have been updated, and there is a new car listed for sale) Looks like I'm planning a trip to Maryland to pickup parts for my red R/T next month and I'm willing to bring bulky stuff down if there is any interested buyers.) Only have three more cars to get rid of! 

And then I'm down to just a GTX, a Reliant, a Minivan, a Spirit and a Daytona! Sweet! (And a motorcycle but it doesn't count)  ;-) 

Which leads to the next subject... Taking a hard look at things...

If you asked me a year or two ago if a person could have a different... perspective or way of thinking... about life or people in general after they aged a certain number of years I would would have disagreed. I use to think that once you reached a certain age that there were certain ways of thinking that become set... Not that you could not learn new things of course, just that you might set set ways of seeing and doing things.

It was much to my great surprise at the age of 37 my perspective on a great many things changed. 

Some things that were important to me for years became not important at all, other things that were not even on my mental radar became VERY important and I perceive a great deal of things now that I have never even noticed before... Other things that have aggravated me have been cast off without a moment of regret, life is just to short.

Life can be strange and interesting at times... I really can't or won't say what brought this change on... I can tell you it was a number of of different things piling up...

Which leads to the next subject... what's up with the bags of sugar?

Well I always told to myself that someday I'd stop eating fast food and start working out again like I use to years ago.. and someday showed up. Long story short- If your looking to get healthy, eat healthy, stay healthy and loose weight pick up Dr. Atkins book and read it. Without a doubt low carb/sugar is the way to go! There are a number of books on the subject of low carb ways of eating, Atkins explains it in a clear and concise manner. I use to eat a huge amount of bad carbs and high sugar items. The amount of sugar they process into some food is staggering! It's no wonder people are getting so fat since the GOVERNMENT advised eating low fat/high carb foods since the mid 80's and obesity rates have skyrocketed since! 

Want proof low carb works? My older brother Neil has been an Atkins fan for over 20 years, is in perfect health and weighs 180 pounds. 

Want more proof? Remember those 5 bag of sugar? That's how much in pounds I have lost in **60 DAYS**

After my left eye gets operated on next month I might be in better shape then I have been in the last 10 years, WOOT! I'm much less fatigued, think more clearly, need less sleep and feel ten times better then I did 3 months ago. Like Atkins suggests, just try it for 14 days and see the results. Once you start ignoring the "fat is bad for you, eat plenty of carbs" dogma that has been pushed down our throat for the last 20 years I think you will be surprised by the results. I'd also point out the there have been studies for well over 100 years about eating low carb that show not only are people who eat low carb slimmer the people who eat medium to high carb but their cholesterol levels and blood pressure are much better too.

A lot of people are surprised I lost 25 pounds, the question I always get is from where??!! Since I'm a fairly stocky guy I carried it fairly well but the scale and waistline doesn't lie... and both have been creeping up for the last 10 years.

Few more tidbits-

Did you know Dr. Atkins was a cardiologist? Did you know that the first reported cases of coronary heart disease occurred in the US in 1912, 20 years after Coke & Pepsi were introduced? That between 1910 and 1970 refined carbohydrate intake escalated 60% in America? 200 hundred years ago average consumption of sweeteners was less then 10 pounds a year, by 1920 it was up to 120 pounds and by 1999 up to 160 pounds per year. Atkins books is full of case studies, facts, reports and figures, he doesn't leave you in the dark but lays it all out. 

Other low carb books you could look at are The Zone and Sugarbusters. I have not read them myself but they have been mentioned and might be worth a look.

3/11/04

All parts for sales pages updated.

3/10/04

This was so funny I had to share-

"My buddy Don is still wet in the pants.   I am serious... I think he was really crying when he showed up.  Eyes all watery... shaking, etc... hehe!  The boost has adapted some since tonight and it still spins in 2nd just by nailing the gas, but not as easy as 1st."

I did a cal for a friend of a friend, I think he likes it.

3/9/04

I find this damn amusing- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3545679.stm

The Turbo III parts page has been updated with a fresh batch of parts.

Link of the day- Just how much fun can you have with beer, a junk car, a garage and a used Reliant helmet?

http://24.167.201.35/xpsi040306/Meeting040306.html

3/8/04

Only in New England- Rain on Saturday, 55 degrees and sunny on Sunday and snowing like heck today.

Still thinking about what to say about sugar, I can tell you it all came about due a change in perception ;-) 

3/6/04

Nope, no sugar in anyone's gas tank. 

3/5/04

My internet is functional again!

A note- If you are in the Detroit area Jon Genesky and I are doing a parts run out there March 13th-14th. Now would be a good time to contact me if you are interested in purchasing anything large or heavy and need it delivered there. On the bulky stuff I'll offer a further discount just to get it out from underfoot.

Check this out- Why it's important later.

2/29/04

My Internet Service Provider has gone south for the winter and I have limited net access for the next few days. I'll be back on as soon as SBC gets off their butt and assigns me a login and password. Till then I maybe difficult to reach.

Gary

2/21/04

Not something you see everyday, a red mini towing a red mini.

Two turbo Voyagers for sale, one whole and the other for parts on this page.

2/16/04

The turbo database page has been updated with three new pages including a page on how to convert a minivan over to manual transmission.

2/13/04

Pictures added to Turbo III parts page.

2/10/04

Need any 1991-1993 Turbo III Lotus parts? Here is a whole page of them.

No I'm not getting out of Mopars, just being realistic and will be focusing on the projects I most likely will be doing in the next year or two. Having all the parts around is fun but can be a large distraction in the long run. 

If things go well in the next few months the GTX will be going to the body shop for a major spiffing up, the van will be sporting a 5 speed and a fresh RP head (who knows maybe I'll have an intercooler wedged in there somewhere too) The Daytona will be going into storage for my daughter and I'll start picking on the Reliant once a customers long term project gets out the door. My new daily driver (aside from the van) will be the *red* Spirit R/T shown on the index page. 

For those wondering about my eye injury that scarred my left cornea I have been getting checked out by some specialists. They not only claim it's repairable but the vision will be vastly better then it was before. Most people don't know but I'm nearsighted in just one eye, the left one! It perceives more detail then the right and I tend to use it while on the computer with my glasses on of course. A common PRK procedure will remove the damaged scar tissue and reshape the cornea to correct the vision. Best case scenario (65-75%) will be that I will have perfect 20/20 vision without glasses and no scar tissue distorting anything, Worst case (aside from rare medical complications of course) should be 20/40 vision with no scar tissue which will still be considerably better then what I had before the eye was scarred. The doc states the procedure is painless as they mill away about 10 mm of the upper area cornea, but the recovery period can be painful as the eye regenerates the upper layer of cells. A small price to pay for fixing an injury and a life long handicap in one shot! 

You can read more information about PRK here. 

Other long term medical issues are being addressed, I hope to do some racing later this year.

One note about Relentless Performance- I was going to close down the business as of last month due to various issues with my health being primary. However a large number of my regular customers persuaded me to stay open and I have done so with some changes to the business model to reduce my workload.

Thanks to all for your support!

Gary Donovan

1/30/04

All four parts page are updated daily with new stuff being added to the page below as I'm cleaning the garage.

1/21/04

So much fun added a second page of parts The other pages have been updated too.

1/20/04

Garage sale- Cleaning house!

1/08/04

Happy Birthday Jon!

http://veepers01.budlight.com/service/RetrieveCard?id=CC90F61C-424B-11D8-ADAA-E3635E514682

1/03/04

The blue '89 Shelby Daytona I had for sale has been parted out due to extensive rust-

http://www.thedodgegarage.com/parts_sale.html

Updated-

http://www.thedodgegarage.com/glh_parts_for_sale.html

http://www.thedodgegarage.com/auto_sale.html

RIP John Lingenfelter- He was one of the best.

http://www.lingenfelter.com/jlstat2.asp

Sorry I have not been around, my health has been pretty uneven of late.

Gary Donovan