My car history

So the first post here is going to be a big one since it's been awhile since I bought the car and a lot has happened. But the first thing that people always ask is "what the hell is a Buick Grand National and why do you want one?". So first I'm going to explain some of my history behind my cars and what the future holds.

I've always loved cars and most specifically I've loved a few different types of cars. It all started with my dad and his Corvette. He had one of the first C4's made and I loved that car. I remember we'd go driving in it (back when I was 5 or 6 years old) and I would love how it sounded, I loved how it looked, the interior was crazy for it's time (completely digital dash) and even though it wasn't the fastest thing ever, it was the fastest thing that I had been in and my dad wasn't afraid to open it up.

By the time I was 16 I already had 2 cars. I had a 1992 Camaro, 25th Anniversary Edition, Black with Red stripes, T-Tops. Of course I couldn't drive it in the winter so I had a 1989 Buick Park Avenue to drive in bad weather. My brother had a 1987 Camaro and a 1988 Buick Estate Wagon, my dad has his Corvette and his truck, my mom had her Cadillac STS, and my oldest brother Brian had a Nissan Maxima. That's 8 cars for 5 people, but Brian was in college and we could fit both Camaros and the Corvette in one stall of my parents garage so it wasn't a big deal.

My first car...

For some reason or another, a lot of my friends started getting trucks so I had to follow the bandwagon and sold the Camaro and the Park Avenue to buy a truck. I ended up getting a 1993 Chevy Silverado, it was a step-side short bed, non-extended cab, with a 350. Exactly what I wanted. I was working at CSK Auto at the time so we put a small lift on it, 33" Mud Terrains and rebuilt the 350. It ran strong and served me well through my senior year and in college. I sold it to Greg (my current roommate) for next to nothing and we still beat the crap out of it to this day. It will sit for months on end, get woken up to haul something heavy as hell or when the weather gets really bad, then sit some more. I had put 3" exhaust straight piped out to dual 4" stainless tips but time took it's toll and Greg had to cut it off since it was all loose.

Here's a picture from 2001 (I think).

So once our business started growing I started looking for a new car again. I wanted something sporty but also wanted a sedan. I wanted an Acura TL, but I wanted the version that you could only get in Southern states. Up in Wisconsin, all of the Acura TLs you see now are lame. They're pretty much all automatics, with shitty brakes, shitty winter climate package, no ground effects, and now they're common as hell. I took a one-way flight down to Texas and bought a sweet TL. It was a 2004, Parchment leather on Black pearl metallic, 6-speed manual, Brembo brakes. I did a fair amount of mods and it was a badass car for a few years.

At this point I had the TL and my green truck but the green truck was on it's way out as far as a daily driver was concerned. The A/C stopped working and I went into work on a Saturday in June. It was the first really hot day of the year and then it started raining. So it was hot as hell but pouring rain. Needless to say I was either sweating my ass off from the heat or getting soaked driving with the windows open. This was the green truck's last straw. I really liked the new style Ford trucks so I went to the dealership and they had a 2004 F150 FX4 Super Crew cab there that was only a year old. It was owned by a lady that did crafts and she had a hideous topper on it and plastic that covered the back seats. I met her when I picked up the truck a few days later, she was taking delivery of the same truck, just a 2005. Apparently she gets a new truck every year. Of course I can't keep any vehicle stock so I put a mild lift on the truck, tint, and full audio system. Winter tires are 35's on the stock rims and the summer tires are 325-60-18 Nittos on black rims. I drive my truck the most out of any car and I just turned 100k on it.

So in 2007 a guy at work wanted to buy my TL and I really didn't drive it that much so I sold it to him and started looking for a Corvette to buy. I always have loved Corvette's and wanted a Z06 really bad. The C6's had only been out a short time and I didn't want to buy a new one so I ended up finding a 2006 Z06. It is C6 Corvette VIN #00000551, which makes it one of the first Z06's ever made. It's now Katech Street Attack serial #7. Katech Engines Street Attack Package. Scroll down a bit past Stage 1 and Clubsport if you want to see the package. It's a fun yet scary car. Here's a picture I took with my dad giving my mom a drive after dinner one night. She's not a big fan of the car. The cam lope at idle freaks her out I think.

Next came the really high gas prices of the Summer of 2008. My truck gets fairly poor gas milage, which is too be expected, but it was costing me about $100 a week in gas. I drive a lot and have a tendency not to baby the gas pedal... oh well. I was at Ballweg's in Middleton for a Corvette event and got talking to the sales guy that I liked. I had heard a lot of good things about the then new Cobalt SS's (the turbocharged ones). I put a deposit down and ordered one. I figured it would be a good gas saver but also fun to beat on. A month goes by of GM saying, it will be there tomorrow, it will be there next week, it will be there tomorrow, etc. The dealership was on my way home so I'd swing through when I saw a delivery truck, but my Cobalt was no where to be seen. We checked the order status and it had to go from factory to factory, back to the original factory, then got hailed on so it needed a new body, and basically looked like it would never show up. At the same time, one of the service techs was thinking of trading in his 2006 GTO that he just bought for a new truck. They had great deals on trucks, and 0% financing, because with gas at $4.70 a gallon, you'd be an idiot to buy a big truck. I've always liked his car so I cancelled the order on the Cobalt and we wrote up the sale for the GTO. It started off at 400hp stock, and I left it there for the summer. My standards on gas mileage are low so I was loving the 22MPG. Long trips I can squeeze 26 running in 6th gear at about 80MPH. The winter brought Kook's Signature long tube headers, X-pipe, full Borla stainless exhaust, a Volant intake, and most importantly an LS2-edit license and a few tunes from tuning god Jim Hall of Halltech Systems. Also has the standards, tint (excessive tint according to some state troopers...), Eclipse DVD Navigation deck, 2 JL amps powering a single W6 and Focal K2 Power front stage. It serves as my daily driver in the summer.

And now for the real purpose of this blog, the Grand National! I've always loved the G-Body cars. I think my first experience made me a fan. When my dad and I were looking for my first car we went and test drove a Monte Carlo SS. It had been slightly modified and was in great shape. It also had some transmission work done and I remember my dad stopping out on a country road to see what kind of power it had from a dig. I was only 15 and didn't even have my learners permit yet so I was in the passenger seat of course. He stomped on it and it spun a little but launched nicely. The shift into 2nd was hard. Really hard. The tires let a loud chirp out and did it again into 3rd. At this point I knew I wanted a G-Body. I don't exactly remember why we moved on from the Monte, it was either too expensive or the guy had another offer or something else. We bought the Camaro a few weeks later and I was happy, but every time we went to Spring/Fall Jefferson (big car show here) I would look at the Monte Carlos. I would also long for the Grand Nationals there but they were (and still are) ridiculously priced.

So that brings me to the beginning of this year....