On order in SW Missouri

[mldavis2]

I'm probably the oldest Stinger buyer on this forum. But I've been a "car guy" for decades and the Stinger is a great next ride in a world of mundane, boring sedans. My order won't arrive until late Feb or early March. Waiting .....

My first car was a '70 Plymouth GTX, then a '75 Saab EMS (2.0L turbo), then several mundane family cars while the kids were growing, followed by an '89 Olds Calais International Quad-4 H.O., '93 Pontiac GrandAm Quad-4 H.O., '96 Pontiac TransAm, '00 Pontiac GrandPrix GTP (supercharged 3.8L), '05 Pontiac GTO and '08 Pontiac G8 GT.

Waaaay back in the late '60's I attended the Bondurant Driving School in Arizona and learned to throw the Superbirds and Daytonas around on the skidpads and track. I later worked part-time for the local sheriff's department and has some pursuit driving training. So performance is part of my sense of safety - agility and control, not buying some mega-ton SUV hoping that when I hit something, I'm bigger than it is.

I'm also a tech fan and although I don't "mod" my cars, I do want to know what makes them tick, so I'll be active on other sections of the forum.

 

[Waynerm002]

Welcome to the forum! Based on your previous cars, the Stinger GT is a good replacement vehicle, I'm sure you will love it.

 

[Kia Stinger]

I'm probably the oldest Stinger buyer on this forum. But I've been a "car guy" for decades and the Stinger is a great next ride in a world of mundane, boring sedans. My order won't arrive until late Feb or early March. Waiting .....

My first car was a '70 Plymouth GTX, then a '75 Saab EMS (2.0L turbo), then several mundane family cars while the kids were growing, followed by an '89 Olds Calais International Quad-4 H.O., '93 Pontiac GrandAm Quad-4 H.O., '96 Pontiac TransAm, '00 Pontiac GrandPrix GTP (supercharged 3.8L), '05 Pontiac GTO and '08 Pontiac G8 GT.

Waaaay back in the late '60's I attended the Bondurant Driving School in Arizona and learned to throw the Superbirds and Daytonas around on the skidpads and track. I later worked part-time for the local sheriff's department and has some pursuit driving training. So performance is part of my sense of safety - agility and control, not buying some mega-ton SUV hoping that when I hit something, I'm bigger than it is.

I'm also a tech fan and although I don't "mod" my cars, I do want to know what makes them tick, so I'll be active on other sections of the forum.

I already welcome'd you but this is a much better place to do it. So welcome aboard! Again... And thank you for signing up. I'm glad you found us! My first car was a 1970 Chevy Nova. Yours was a bit nicer. You've had some pretty impressive cars over the years. I was never too crazy about Saabs - but they had the turbo thing down way, way back. Your Oldsmobile wasn't the most exciting - but that Quad 4 was pretty impressive for what it was. Did they call that The Iron Duke? Or was that another engine... Hmm... Your Grand Am was a little sportier than the Olds (Cutlass?) but the Trans Am is where things really started picking up. The GTP was a very popular car back in the day. One of those cars I'd always wanted but never had. Of course, the GTO was impressive (though a bit plain in my opinion) - and the G8 GT made me wonder how Pontiac could go away...

Anyway, I think the Stinger is going to be your favorite car of all time. It'll be your fastest...

 

[mldavis2]

Thanks @Kia Stinger. Long story, but I was drafted in the Viet Nam war. My father told me that if I made it home safely, he'd buy me my first car, which was the '70 GTX. Loved that car - white vinyl top, electric blue, white vinyl interior. Back in the day, the fad was "sleepers." Kids (with more money than I had) would drop big V8's into little cars - like Pontiac did turning the Tempest into a GTO. On the GTX, I took the big chrome "GTX" emblems off the fender flares, replaced the honeycomb grille with the vertical bar Belvedere grille, put "318" emblems on the side, and removed the chrome tail pipe extensions. Except for the hood, the car looked like a stodgy old Plymouth. Had a lot of fun with it.

Sold it when premium unleaded was hard to find out on the road because they were shifting all the premium tanks over to unleaded regular. I got burned on a tank when the station didn't change the labels and I got a load of regular unleaded in my 440. I was coming home from St. Louis on I-70 and thought I'd tear the heads off with the engine knocking. When my father handed me the keys to the GTX, he said I had to begin immediately making "car payments" to the bank for the next one, which I've done all my life. Never made a car payment, always paid cash.

No the "iron duke" was a fairly boring 4-banger of minimal horsepower. The Quad-4 was a great engine - 4 valve, twin OHC but it had head gasket problems and GM canned it after a couple of years. The Quad-4 in my Olds Calais was much faster than the subsequent Pontiac GrandAm with (supposedly) the same engine. But either Pontiac didn't know how to set it up, or Olds dropped a special one in my Calais because my '89 Olds would run away and hide from that GrandAm. No idea why they were so different.

The G8 GT will be traded in when my GT1 arrives. I'm keeping the GTO which is the 6.0L 400HP 6-speed. Fun car to drive with a stick.

 

[Kia Stinger]

Thanks @Kia Stinger. Long story, but I was drafted in the Viet Nam war. My father told me that if I made it home safely, he'd buy me my first car, which was the '70 GTX. Loved that car - white vinyl top, electric blue, white vinyl interior. Back in the day, the fad was "sleepers." Kids (with more money than I had) would drop big V8's into little cars - like Pontiac did turning the Tempest into a GTO. On the GTX, I took the big chrome "GTX" emblems off the fender flares, replaced the honeycomb grille with the vertical bar Belvedere grille, put "318" emblems on the side, and removed the chrome tail pipe extensions. Except for the hood, the car looked like a stodgy old Plymouth. Had a lot of fun with it.

Sold it when premium unleaded was hard to find out on the road because they were shifting all the premium tanks over to unleaded regular. I got burned on a tank when the station didn't change the labels and I got a load of regular unleaded in my 440. I was coming home from St. Louis on I-70 and thought I'd tear the heads off with the engine knocking. When my father handed me the keys to the GTX, he said I had to begin immediately making "car payments" to the bank for the next one, which I've done all my life. Never made a car payment, always paid cash.

No the "iron duke" was a fairly boring 4-banger of minimal horsepower. The Quad-4 was a great engine - 4 valve, twin OHC but it had head gasket problems and GM canned it after a couple of years. The Quad-4 in my Olds Calais was much faster than the subsequent Pontiac GrandAm with (supposedly) the same engine. But either Pontiac didn't know how to set it up, or Olds dropped a special one in my Calais because my '89 Olds would run away and hide from that GrandAm. No idea why they were so different.

The G8 GT will be traded in when my GT1 arrives. I'm keeping the GTO which is the 6.0L 400HP 6-speed. Fun car to drive with a stick.

I do love a good sleeper! Always have. Got my first one in my mid 20s - a 1986 Camaro RS with the L98 5.7 from a Corvette and the transmission to match. Since then I've had several. I see nothing special about winning a race with a car that everybody knows is going to win. Interesting on that Quad-4 issue between the Olds and Pontiac. I wonder if the newer vehicle had more emissions restrictions. I remember racing a Grand Am GT in a Lincoln Mark VII LSC - the other kid wasn't happy with the ending. I imagine the Olds would have won that race...

I'm glad to hear you're keeping the GTO! I hardly see them anymore...

 

[mldavis2]

I imagine the Olds would have won that race...

I'm glad to hear you're keeping the GTO! I hardly see them anymore...

The really strange thing about the '89 Quad-4 in the Olds and the '93 Quad-4 in the GrandAm is that the Olds came in before the H.O. engine was available and I got (supposedly) the "D" engine which was regular gas 150HP. The GrandAm was premium gas 185HP. But there was something special about that '89 because it ran much stronger than 150HP (MUCH stronger) and would blow the '93 away. I don't know if Olds slipped a tuner in there because it was an "International" model or what. Both needed head gaskets before 100,000 miles.

Yes, the GTO is a sweetheart. Electric blue with blue leather. 6.0L LS2 400HP (chipped to who know what). Like new. I don't race it, although I do check periodically to make sure all the ponies are still there. 96,000 one owner miles. I'll probably have it when I die. Love the car.

 

[Kia Stinger]

The really strange thing about the '89 Quad-4 in the Olds and the '93 Quad-4 in the GrandAm is that the Olds came in before the H.O. engine was available and I got (supposedly) the "D" engine which was regular gas 150HP. The GrandAm was premium gas 185HP. But there was something special about that '89 because it ran much stronger than 150HP (MUCH stronger) and would blow the '93 away. I don't know if Olds slipped a tuner in there because it was an "International" model or what. Both needed head gaskets before 100,000 miles.

Yes, the GTO is a sweetheart. Electric blue with blue leather. 6.0L LS2 400HP (chipped to who know what). Like new. I don't race it, although I do check periodically to make sure all the ponies are still there. 96,000 one owner miles. I'll probably have it when I die. Love the car.

The "new" GTO didn't catch my interest until that 6.0 liter LS2 was introduced. That was a legitimately fast car for the time...

 

[Daniel @ K8 Stinger Store]

Welcome to the forums!

That's quite an extensive background you've got there!

Glad to have you on board and along for the ride! I'm interested to learn more about these cars, especially the 3.3TT