The Story Continues...2005

In July 2003 the Red 2 wasn't seeing much action - no club meets, no track time, didn't even really get out of the garage much. At 151k miles and running good, it seemed a time to sell. Got $12.5k out of the first looker - not bad. I figured to purchase a 97+ NSX sometime soon, so away went the 2.

Nearly 2 years later and still no NSX. I told myself that the only way that I would go back to a 2 is if I located a hanger queen. Come March 2005 I was driving through the local coffee's shops parking lot when a Ferrari passed. Decided that I needed to find a car. cars.com didn't have any really cheap NSXs, but, amazingly, there was a 94T with 25k miles in Irvine, CA.

Call the owner, end up spending a 30 minutes on the phone with him and couldn't get a ticket to fly down that day. He had someone else coming to look, but wanted me to have the car. He would do his best to put off the looker. I considered that for about 30 minutes, called the owner and told him that he should consider the car sold - sight unseen.

I collected the car the next day and learned that the looker had check in hand for the minimum acceptable to the owner - $19k. Yep, that's a lot for an 11 year old car, but there aren't that many 94s to be had and this one is in beautiful condition. Not only that, but it drives like a dream.

Already been to Buttonwillow and Steets of Willows in the last 8 weeks, going to autox class tomorrow in Marina. Nice to have a 2 again....

The Story Begins...

94T has new home!!!! My trip report.... 

All, 

After years of lusting and months of searching, I finally am the proud owner of a Super Red 94T! This is in no small part due to many of you who answered my questions, and Matt Gawlowski, who made it his personal jihad to ensure that I found a great car. Thanks to you all, and especially Matt! 

Found via the Internet at classified2000, I met with the owner, Steve F., at my house in Santa Cruz as he just happened to be visiting the Bay Area the week after I called. Pictures were exchanged and a date for me to get the car was set. 

The "World's Longest Test Drive" began Wednesday night, Oct 9, 1996, at 11pm as I boarded a redeye from San Jose, CA to Boston, MA. I arrived in Boston Thursday morning and, having completed the purchase transaction, started the Longest Test Drive for home at 2:30 PM eastern time. 

That first day I drove about 12 hours through the gorgeous eastern US (leaves are all changing), finally coming to rest just outside of Cleveland, OH. Along the way I saw a car run into a toll booth office (what a mess!) and a pre-94 red MR2 just before reaching the hotel. We exchanged greetings just as he peeled off onto an offramp. 

Second day started at about 9:30am and proceeded the remainder of Ohio, then Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, the southwest corner of Wyoming, and finally came to rest in Loveland, CO (my parent's home). The second day covered about 5 states and took a mind-bending 22 hours. Along the way I experience *too* many trucks (semi), 2 shooting stars, and a deer which nearly became an 80 MPH hood ornament (thought I'd better miss him or I'd be picking fur from my teeth for months ;-) . I also saw quite a few dead racoons and figured that Kelly's racoon magnet of an MkI had probably preceeded me!! 

After about 4 hours of sleep and time taken out to have the car washed, I was off again. I returned to Wyoming and finished it and half of Utah coming to rest in Salt Lake City on an abreviated driving day of about 7 hours. A red pre-94 MR2 awaited mine in the hotel parking lot when I arrived about midnight. Earlier that evening a coyote came to observe my passing, but unlike the deer, kept his distance. 

The third day finished my trek as I drove from SLC to Santa Cruz, CA in about 12 hours. MA law requires that the seller of a car remove the license plates, so, without the plates, I was compelled to do just slightly better than the speed limit for the entire trip, however, after passing a truck on the Salt Lake flats, I decided that I would push it a bit to see how it went. I had just started decreasing my 120MPH speed when the sign for the Bonneville Speedway came into sight. Very appropos. 

Also, on the 40 MILE downhill from the Sierra Nevada's into California, I decided to pass a car that had been doing about 60MPH for several miles (holding up quite a bit of traffic). I dropped the hammer and the pokey auto went from 60MPH to standing still in the space of about 1.5 seconds. I hardly had time to switch lanes before plowing into the back of her (iiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!) 

So, entire elapsed time of my rally was almost exactly 84 hours and cleared nearly 3200 miles, all (mostly) without speeding. Car ran as solid as a rock and the turbo was incredible fun. My thanks to all of you that advised waiting for a turbo to become available. 

Just 10 hours after arriving the car was already at the detail shop and a cover is on order. The paint had suffered quite a bit after being ungaraged for 2+ years back east. Fortunately, there is no rust on the car. The detail did wonders and the car looks great! 

The Story Continues...

About a year later, Steve F. indicated that he missed his car so much that he was looking for another MR2. He indicated that selling his original may have been the single most idiotic thing he had done :-) He tried for two of months and drove a couple cars, but had not found a suitable replacement. He did, however, find a suitable car, in of all places, San Francisco! I was in Japan at the time so Marcus, local IMOC member extradinare, went to have a look and made report to Steve.

Upon my return from Japan, I too drove the car and took it home after Steve finished the negotiations. I had my trusty detailer work his magic and I changed the oil and filter. The Green 94T and my Red 94T were in the garage together for about 2 weeks before Steve collected it just after Christmas (boy did it look like Christmas in my garage).

Steve's old and new 94T together

Steve is now on the autocross circuit and is taking racing classes. I know he really appreciates MR2s and will not make the same mistake twice. ;->

Steve's new race car (in addition to the Green 94T)