Vintage Speedsters: Two Stars

I'm not convinced that getting it "just right" is possible for some of us, me included.  I want elements in my car that I know are mutually exclusive, i.e., dead reliable for street driving but having huge power; trackable suspension but comfortable on the road, etc.  You get what I mean.  As our expectations rise, the rational part of our brain accepts the compromise position, that one car can't be all things.  But it's those extra little tweaks that keep me researching.

I compare it to finish painting on a house.  Even though you keep decreasing the brush and/or roller size from a 3" brush to an artist's size, there comes a time when you finally say: OK, I'm done.  It looks great now, and I'll look at touching it up again in xx years.  

I haven't had that occur with any of the performance cars I truly cared about.  It seems easier to admit that on a forum than to say it to a family member.

Wow. Are you my long-lost twin, Jim?

No electrical problems.....you had to replace a headlight on the way to Carlisle.  na na na na naaaaa na!  Just kidding.  Your car is super!  Looks great, rides and drives great and I've always admired it.  Having been behind the wheel and with several right seat rides to my credit, I know of that which I speak.  

You cracked me up with that one, John...

Any, may I say, both your car and Lane's car are among the best examples out there.

Just hold on there Lane. Don't you remember your cantankerous ignition switch a few years ago when we drove to Autozone and swapped it out in the lot? And then it started working again, of course.

I just keep tinkering and modifying mine, and seriously doubt I'll ever stop!

FWIW - I've been driving a VS for the past 18 years.

In 1996 I knew absolutely nothing about replicas when I started looking to buy one. After a weekly search through AutoTrader magazines for 7 months, I found & bought a nice 1995 VS...

This car was my daily driver for the next 17 years, traveled over most of the Western States (CA, OR, WA, NV, UT, CO) and logged 100,000 relatively trouble-free miles (160,934km on odometer) until some knucklehead caused a crash that totaled my VS in 2014. 

Luckily my wife & I were able to walk away from that accident (some bumps & bruises).

The insurance settlement from the errant driver paid for my replacement VS...

After 12 months as my daily driver, I've logged 13,500 miles relatively trouble-free (I did recently replace an alternator).

They both had/have an occasional rattle or squeak, neither will win any street races, and both leak like a sieve in the rain, but every single time I get in to drive, it's like the first time. 

I guess I've been lucky with these cars, and I love every single mile I've had them on the road! 

As the Exalted Leader of Stanistan says, Your mileage may vary!

Sometimes luck depends on attitude. Jimbo's got the right attitude. He's one of the reasons I got a Speedster. I'm not in the same bracket....but a "hard case" nonetheless, eh ?

"Just hold on there Lane. Don't you remember your cantankerous ignition switch a few years ago when we drove to Autozone and swapped it out in the lot? And then it started working again, of course."

True.  The replacement lasted less than a year, after which I got a Bosch switch.  Another issue of poor parts quality.  Ya gets what ya pays fer.

You can say that again. Jim always sees the glass as half-full, right before he heads over to the sink and fills it up the rest of the way.

I've made a living finding issues where nobody else can see them, then fixing them before they become a problem. The closer I can get to zero down-time, the better everybody likes it. It makes me a grumpy old fuddy-duddy, but my stuff doesn't generally leave me stranded or worse.

There seems to be no shortage of guys who's experience swings to one extreme or the other. "Half-full" guys like Jim Ignacio deserve all the good luck they get (make?)... but for the rest of us, getting a nice car ought not have anything to do with luck. It doesn't with some builders, and seems to with others.

It's a really, really funny industry.