Snowball thread

[MikeT 745]

The only thing I wish my car had was an Alcantara steering wheel rim like the nightrun. Other than that, the stock suspension etc is all good for me! Why the nightrun didn't have seat heaters is a mystery. For $26K, it should have!

OK Mike and Sandy T have booked our flights and we are set for the Club to plan a Rendez-Vous in Toronto if you would give us the honour.

We are flying out of Nanaimo BC on Wednesday the 3rd of February very early and going straight to Québec City for a two night stay at the Chateau Frontenac. 2010 is our 25th anniversary, so this is our little present to ourselves: a stay in a nice hotel in a beautiful city that is frozen solid and in the middle of Carnival!

On Friday the 5th of February we catch an Air Canada flight to Toronto that arrives at Pearson at 11:03 AM. From there we will take a shuttle bus into the city and hope to get to Mercedes-Benz Midtown around 1 PM for the new-old car delivery process. We hope to be out of there by 4 or 5 and get into our hotel by 6 or so. Saturday we are staying in Toronto too - Sandy want to do some research at the library and I could either be with her there or drop her off there and hang out with smarties if anyone wants to waste time with an old boy while he's in Toronto

Anyway the bottom line is that Friday and Saturday evening we will be available for any kind of CsC Rendez-Vous that the Toronto area smart people would care to honour us with! I will leave it to you all to see if anything can be worked out. I sure hope so, we would be delighted to have a meeting in our country's biggest city and will be in unfamiliar territory!

On Sunday morning we'll probably head out to Niagara Falls to visit an old friend and either stay out there that night or make our way to Uncle Glenn's if he's available Sunday. If he's not then we'll aim for a Monday arrival for a reunion and a little trip preparatory work on the car (mainly, mudflaps and protectant being applied to the painted surfaces exposed to gravel etc).

Tuesday AM we would hit the long road home. Weather dependent, we will likely be taking the US route: I-90/I-94

Cheers

[Bobb Todd 1]

Weather dependent, we will likely be taking the US route: I-90/I-94.............................Another route to consider depending on weather and time is Highway 2 out of Duluth. It's pretty fast and mostly straight all the way out to Montana. Small towns every 50 miles or so but they barely slow you down. Probably a bit longer than the interstate but more interesting.Bobb

[yolanda 0]

gorgeous car, congratulations! It's a long drive but a cool one, if you have time to stop in chicago, the navy pier parking lot is a good deal to park all day and there's a tiffany stained glass window exhibit there that's utterly worth the time spent driving in. it's also a good spot to stretch your legs on the way west.

[MikeT 745]

Hmm I like Tiffany stuff .....we will see whether we need a break there or not. Thanks for the tip!Edit: bad punctuation (well, it was WORSE before the edit)

Edited January 21, 2010 by Mike T

[smartzuuk 167]

Just for the curious:

http://www.star-lounge.ca/index.php?topic=826.0

You need to be logged in to see pics, but I grabbed one. This is the coupe. Notice the Handicap hanger... and it also has black wheels

[smartzuuk 167]

And another link to the Euro versions of the car:

http://www.star-lounge.ca/index.php?topic=544.0

[MikeT 745]

Good work! Interestingly (for minutae buffs), the front mirror triangles on this one are not painted, unlike the painted ones on the two cars we're importing to BC. The unpainted triangles is like the edition red from Europe.No doubt about it, this is the real deal, I hope we can see it again soon and the owner is well. Glad I have a cabriolet instead though!

[FlyingTigerDevelopment 27]

Go for a drive and enjoy! Not the same ending though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpq1_AphUSY

Edited January 23, 2010 by FastEddy

[smartzuuk 167]

I love the movie, the original. I've even driven up and over a mountain range in Italy on the way to Siena from south of Pisa. Too bad not in a 450 pure gasser.

Edited January 23, 2010 by smartzuuk

[FlyingTigerDevelopment 27]

Drive the Sea to Sky in your new red convertible is almost the same

[MikeT 745]

Miura, she is so beautiful! And so temperamental! I helped a guy push one of those down Marine Drive 25 years ago......So the BRABUS dual exhausts for cdi are sold out eh? Too bad. Got any used ones, Eddy?

[smartzuuk 167]

Everyone had troubles with exhausts I think, structural problems. Or was the Brabus okay, but just discontinued? They were expensive of course. I note that the Brabus paddle steering wheel is under $1000, but wasn't there like a rare push button version than Dang has?

That Brabusized phat red passion in member classifieds is burning a hole in my left hand pocket.

Really though, it could be the bling wheels. Maybe I just need to pre-trade the wheels on the Canada1 for a different Brabus set... I really like the Monobloc A

http://shop.flyingtiger.ca/index.php?p=cat...h_str=&pg=4

I'd prefer those over the Monobloc VI for sure, which are currently more $$

http://shop.flyingtiger.ca/index.php?p=cat...h_str=&pg=1

Edited January 23, 2010 by smartzuuk

[bilgladstone 13]

Everyone had troubles with exhausts I think, structural problems. Or was the Brabus okay, but just discontinued? They were expensive of course.

I think the Brabus was least likely to crack at the neck because of its relatively light weight but not made of high grade or very thick stainless, so would rust out prematurely in adverse climates. Expensive, but mostly trouble-free, with a nice tone.I've designed a few custom mild-steel exhausts for my CDi that will last much longer. Next and "final" iteration (if I ever get around to it) will have a mini-cat' and 2-1/4" scavenging spiral baffle silencer. Krazy!B

[smartzuuk 167]

S-Mann also had a popular exhaust, how did they hold up?You realize all thse discussions center around the Canada1 lacking:exhausta remapwheels (or proper tires at minimum)wide star package (optional I guess)suspensionBrabus steering wheelNot to detract from the car, but there were/are so many other little pieces one could add:)

[MikeT 745]

That's a good lad, get the other BRABUS wheels and let the shiny HOT WHEELS car go to someone else! Those wheels would look just so wrong on a Canada 1 car....if you want to trade those unwanted black wheels to me for your old sportlines with or without winter rubber plus a tad of cash from me, I am open to offers....Good comments Bil, luckily our climate is generally kind to cars (especially if they're not driven the 10-15 days/year there's some salt on the road). I gather Gent has the BRABUS exhaust now, he would be a good source for comments. I figure a car painted and upholstered by BRABUS should be kept to the BRABUS parts if it's to be modified at all. Eh Keith?

Edited January 23, 2010 by Mike T

[FlyingTigerDevelopment 27]

Miura, she is so beautiful! And so temperamental! I helped a guy push one of those down Marine Drive 25 years ago......So the BRABUS dual exhausts for cdi are sold out eh? Too bad. Got any used ones, Eddy?

I know Ian will sell his only with the car.

[FlyingTigerDevelopment 27]

Everyone had troubles with exhausts I think, structural problems. Or was the Brabus okay, but just discontinued? They were expensive of course. I note that the Brabus paddle steering wheel is under $1000, but wasn't there like a rare push button version than Dang has?That Brabusized phat red passion in member classifieds is burning a hole in my left hand pocket.Really though, it could be the bling wheels. Maybe I just need to pre-trade the wheels on the Canada1 for a different Brabus set... I really like the Monobloc Ahttp://shop.flyingtiger.ca/index.php?p=cat...h_str=&pg=4I'd prefer those over the Monobloc VI for sure, which are currently more $$http://shop.flyingtiger.ca/index.php?p=cat...h_str=&pg=1

I think all brand of exhaust have similar problem with the rattling cdi.Tempt me on a trade with wheels

[Francesco 71]

Mike, I don't know what the paint code is for the Canada 1 red, but you can get a paint supplier in your area to make up a code shaker-can to match, and use that to spray the housings on the Michalak Hella fogs. The lenses on the Michalaks are considerably smaller than the OE fogs, and the housing that surrounds them protrudes from the grille. Around here, the local CarQuest is the main paint supplier to all the local body shops and he can do any colour in any paint type and format. A shaker-can of tridion silver -- a close enough match to the pulse (and RS Parts) silver grille -- cost me about $22 IIRC. It's a fairly trivial process to mask the glass, prime with plastic primer and then shoot the colour coats.

[smartzuuk 167]

Just as a side note, there's reasons why the following items were NOT included on the car as supplied by MB:

[*]Proper tires - due to emissions, the car with the 145/175 mm just made it

[*]Remap - same reason

[*]Wide fenders - rear side marker lights - MB could have perhaps tried extra extra hard to incorporate them somehow, but it was probably too much bother for 'up to' 10 cars

[*]Fog lights - because of the turn signal, headlamp spacing issue

[*]Suspension - probably could have been supplied by MB on the car, but on that I'm not even certain - that may have required a new crash test? Mike T? nightruns were stock suspension?

I drove Jerdiss car today, very tight, no issues with that car. Counting pennies now.

[MikeT 745]

Yeah I don't know what the code is for the "White" paint my car's going to have but I'll leave the Michalaks as they came....they will be functional, look OK enough and that's all that really matters to me. I hate the OE fogs with a passion!Keith is right on the emissions, the EU-3 cdi _just_ squeaked through emissions testing on skinnies, reportedly with a Ministerial exemption.....

[briand 0]

Sorry I'm late to the congratulations party, but CONGRATULATIONS!! What a nice find!

[MikeT 745]

Thanks!

[smartzuuk 167]

Mike took delivery of his today, and saw mine!! Actually, that was 'yesterday'... 2 am... ugh.BTW - I am expecting my other new to me cdi to arive from Calgary later today. Canadianturbo is bringing it down. Which means I likely can;t make it to NOrth Van to meet up with the Inuvik cars, but I will watch for them if I hear they are at Hope or something.... or who knowsAlso note - PAS-LTD sold his cabrio with the nice upgrades... I just couldn't make that one work in the end... too bad... nice exterior mods.Mike's Brbaus wheels will ride out on the choo choo in the back of my car.... and then we have some wheel and tire swapping to do.

Edited February 6, 2010 by smartzuuk

[MikeT 745]

Yeah, they are nice little cars, the seats seem to be more comfortable than the regular cloth seats (so says Sandy T and I) and holy smokes is this thing TIGHT! The engine is really strong considering it's only got 400 km under the wheels. The turbine whistles like the one in my green car always has. Too bad it doesn't cut any bonus style points in the grey steelies.....

[MikeT 745]

I forgot to mention, the black wheels have a satin finish and so don't throw a lot of reflected light off, but they look edible in person. Very nice.