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From: Driving ten under in the passing lane, right turn signal on at all times.
Originally Posted by icy_comet
Stay a while and listen:
I bought my evo from Japan and had it shipped over to africa, they do not allow them to be driven on the roads in SA anymore without being registered so that meant getting it trucked up to Gabarone in Botswana.
So after what was already a bit of a trip seeing lions and stuff in the wilderness of some very off grid game park with no power or anything(but internet!) We have already driven 1800km or so, 1k of that the day before. Start off the day with the intention of driving back up the whole of Botswana in the first day, maybe 10 hours of driving. First speed bump: cannot locate the place we are supposed to find, the address given is basically the address to the whole western side of the city, the industrial area. Takes about 2 hours+ to find it by asking around. Find out the car is not on location but at a "warehouse" which takes more time to find due to more incredibly vague directions and then finally I see it!
Yep, front lip has been reattached with a shopping bag tied in a knot. Intercooler has also seen some kind of impact(found out later it was in fact not leaking at all). Also covered in oil because it was carried beneath a car leaking oil on the truck.Somewhat irritated because this was in fact the second evo I tried to get here with the first being crashed within 300km of it being picked up by a guy we hired to drive it here(against my recommendation because I knew it would happen). Finally drive off to a filling station and I get my first good pull in the car. Car had zero oil in it, nothing on the dipstick which dismays me a bit more because it has obviously been thrashed since it left japan.
After filling up an all that, checking everything I can and know how to some guy presents himself as some kind of ex traffic authority and tells us we need to get plates on the car otherwise it is illegal. So sure enough we set off to find the transit authority office spending yet more time. On it's new botswana fuel my car now misfires after hitting .5 bar and I am kind of pissed. Another hour and a half down the drain and we find he was full of **** and I can drive right the way back home with no plates on just the documents I have, just like we thought.
*Finally* heading out of the city, it was past midday at this point and we will not make the border. I notice in traffic the car is heating up. Shoot out of the city on their rather good roads down there at 160kph+ to make up time. Shortly after I need to stop for gas and my dad is amazed. I did warn him that we needed jerry cans and all this but no. I have used just over half a tank. Pulling out of the gas station it becomes very apparent the car is now bumping along. Long story short we spend another couple of hours with a mechanic figuring out that the Japanese tires do not like the 35c heat + 160kph and are in the process of having a blowout. Lucky to get new tires just before closing time(4pm) from a shop in town. Drive on into the sunset...
Pass through the next major town and it is pitch black. More gas! I don't think you can really describe driving down a busy highway without any markings at all and no street lighting. In any case we have to get closer to the border to make up time with all these holdups so we press on. People on the continent of africa are very confused as to what dip lights are for which is another issue. Eventually I am head on with a truck who will just not dip his lights, very hard to see into the well of blackness that is the road behind him and I am very close to the side of the road and BAM! I hit the only pothole on this otherwise very good road. Tire is flat and I have to stop, flashing my lights like crazy at my parents but good old window tints win again, so I am alone...in a place known to have elephants lions wandering around in pitch black. I won't leave the car without someone else around so I sit and wait for maybe 30 minutes for them to realise I have disappeared.
Turns out I have not only destroyed my brand new tires, but the rim also. Space saver it is. Get into town at maybe 9pm, everything is closed save for one place to get food which was awful at best. First day with my evo! Best car in the world
The next day I am driving to the border at 80kph because of space saver madness. Now Botswana is a country that is nearly completely flat and the roads are completely straight in places for 10+km at a time especially in the north. This is a remarkably strenuous way to drive trust me. On a the bright side I look to be getting 500km+ out of my tank of gas.
Not much more eventfulness from that trip. I managed to abate the misfire at first with better spark plugs(.7 bar instead of .5 before it misfired) and now spoolinup COP of which I am yet to find any limit, running 1.3 bar now and nothing. Turns out the radiator fan had MELTED. I am guessing this could be from a good thrashing + no oil? Turbo is still fine amazingly.
Small dealer in Denver has a white RS(at this point i have no idea about evos other than turbo, power, awd, and Japanese..hahaha.. Go for a test drive, beat my friends 2015 focus st, go back to dealer, drop off Focus and pick up friend. Go back out, drop the clutch many a time at about 6k and clutch pedal goes stiff..Throw out bearing... They towed it back and i never went back..
A month later..
After days upon days of Evo **** and Scanning every Evo related topic on the internet, i came across a Evo 9 in wyoming. Drive 30 miles to drive and after driving the car i fell in love with her and havent looked back!
The story is longer of course,however I cannot beat the African dude story...
My first day started with me going to an auto auction because one of my friends was a car dealer and agreed to let me go with him to pick out a car, with him only charging a thousand dollar fee. My mind was pretty set on getting either an 00-02 Trans Am, an 05 or 06 Pontiac GTO, or a Corvette. I browsed the list of hundreds of cars and saw the 2003 Evo in there. After looking at a few other cars I decided to check out the Evo, to which I saw some other guy sitting in it.
The car was in rough shape. It was missing one of the roof moldings, missing the radio, had early 90s civic seats in the front (still does but will be replaced soon), and a fiber glass body kit with holes in the rear bumper and not much better in the front. However, it was my color of choice (black). I told my friend I wanted to test the car and we tried to start it up only to have it sputter out. We looked under the hood and discovered the intercooler piping had blown off from where it connects to the throttle body, so he went and got a screw driver to tighten the clamp.
After getting it all connected again the car fired right back up and we took it down the test lane. Holy **** I had never felt anything like it! (previous car was an 02 V6 eclipse). I had a smile ear to ear and we took it down the test lane again and the intercooler pipe had blown off once again!
We decided to park it and I remember he grabbed the clamp to hold the piping on and hid it under the seat. I told him I wanted the evo, so we went to wait for it at the auction. He was friends with many of the other dealers and had told them he had a person who wanted to buy the car and many of them backed off, except for the guy who I saw sitting in it earlier. He was the only one bidding against us, but we ended up coming out on top.
When I finally got to pick the car up the intercooler clamp kept blowing off and I actually ended up driving it home (about 25 miles by taking streets) with the piping off (evo/turbo noob). The car kept stalling all the way home and blew out black smoke but it had made it. And that is the story of how my journey began.
when i bought my first one, i drove all over town for no reason. i visited all my friends, went to the store, recycled my cans, etc.
i think i did that for about a week.
i bought it used so i spent my non-driving time cleaning things, adjusting anything out of place, and just looking at it in the garage. it had some body damage, so i fixed that myself until i got it in to be done right.
i couldn't keep my hands off of it for about a month straight LOL.
i'm still pretty much the same way, even if i just pat it on the hood on my way back into the house LOL
