Well, uhhhh, that was an interesting weekend. My previous post seems like it may have been somewhat prophetic. “It seems like at this age a lot of men choose some THING to deovote an extremely large portion of time to that has minimal returns.. others work and pour money into their cars.” I wanted to get a racecar basically. Something to just do that’s not classes and fun. There’s a track near me and drifting seems fun once you have a roll bar. Watched the fast and the furious not too long ago. Saw a what I thought was a good car in georgia, it $1600, put down a $600 deposit and booked a greyhound to get it. Now something all readers who have bought a cheap car is that there is no such thing as a cheap car. Immediately the wheels were old and very unsafe, $700 more right there. Wheels are your most important safety item so I was like ok, this is worth it. Turns out like most car deals where there’s a lot at stake, the seller misrepresented it. not 180k miles 230k, and a check engine light “I dont know the real milage probobly not the original engine” was the response I got when I questioned him about it. Oh my god. Also no power steering and the battery wouldnt start the car unless jumped. If you stalled the car after jumping it I was SOL. And the exhaust was cut off below the firewall. Some of these things I knew. Should I have walked away? Yeah, yeah I shouldve. Went to autoparts store, got a new battery, start the drive. Man for some reason I always forget that I absolutely hate and have a large amount of anxiety around driving especially highway speeds. Especially a manual. Well I start driving and since I had extra spare wheels crammed into the passenger seat and top area I had the top up. It was about this time that I started getting carbon monoxide poisoning from the exhaust. Hands started tingling like not good, and I was siverly sleep deprived from the redeye bus from the night before. Pulled off and called the EMTs. By the time they get there I had been outside long enough to be ok. Man I hate this car with a passion now and this is going to be nightmareish because It’s going to rain tomorrow, and I have to be in for class monday morning, and driving a manual RWD car with no roll bar is not a good idea. And, And, no driver door lock. Its wild the things you miss when looking at a car to buy. I stop into a gas station and was basically do any of yall want to buy this car? The long and short of it is basically I’m like, well we gotta both drive it to the nearest greyhound station and you can drive it back. He was game. While he claimed to be able to drive a manual, this man, oh my god, he couldnt drive a manual for shit. That drive was really fun. Maybe a friend is a nessesity for these endeavors. I started first and then we switched. No headlights, oh my god this car was such a POS. All in all, the largest realized financial loss I’ve ever taken. I’m ok, I’ll be ok, but it stings. I’m alive though, no price on life.

What did I learn?

  • Autos > manuals

Hate me, but in driving I want as much attention to deticate to not ending up on the pavement.

  • I will never make money buying and selling cars. Mopeds for some reason are much better for me.

Riding mopeds and motorcycles also just feels more safe, Yeah, its not true at all.

Dear reader, you may not know, but I got into a faily bad car crash over the summer, lucky to have walked unharmed.

Someone pointed out that it is likely that this is the reason I have such a fear of driving.

There was some good in the trip. People showed me much kindness.

I dont think I’m going to drop out of college. It’s pretty fun, and the other option of just working a repetative job that doenst pay well and being poor forever seems quite helish. I’m lucky to have this opportunity.

Electrical engineering doesnt feel as much like engineering as Mechanical, but it does seem more fun. When I look at the Mech E classes they do not seem all that fun

Like would I rather take modern physics and learn how microcomputers and electronics works on a deeper level or do like, statics, and fluid flow, and thermo.

IDK, Mech E drawings on paper are very fun and satisfying, but like, I can use fusion-360 and can learn how to make anything I want.

Can I design an engine right now? Probobly not, but I could read a book on it. From working on the VW and mopeds I know how engines work which is useful in life.

Intake, compression, power, exhaust baby.

Pison to connecting rod, to crank shaft to camshaft to pushrod, to valves, to cylinder. Crank to flywheel to clutch to transmission to diff to wheels. :)