i think its the godfather's birfday today, so happy bday g

So here's the story of how I spent the last 6 weeks.

1 January 2006: Z is "sold" to Mike. I get a check from him, he takes the car home.

5 January 2006: Mike's check clears my bank, I pay off the Z, and sit back to wait for the title. DMV says it should take 7-10 business days to get it mailed to my home address.

20 January 2006: After 10 business days and no title, I call the DMV to find out what the hold up is. They say the bank hasn't sent the "electronic lien release". I call USAA, they say "Yeah, we sent that electronic thing back on the 6th. But we'll send you a paper copy too, and we'll resend the electronic release".

25 January 2006: I discover that the VIN number the DMV has and the VIN number the bank has were different. Turns out the DMV screwed up when I submitted my original paperwork, and entered the wrong number in their system. Therefore, the original lien release from USAA didn't do anything, because it didn't match the DMV records. Danielle from the DMV helped straighten this out.

1 February 2006: DMV finishes getting the VIN number changed in their systems. I call USAA to get them to resubmit the electronic lien release. They promise to make it happen.

5 February 2006: USAA sends me another damn letter (instead of the electronic lien release). DMV says they won't take it, but...

8 February 2006: I get the chance to go spend 2 hours at the DMV. They tell me to take my letter and pound sand. On the plus side, I did get the title to the truck :? I call USAA and tell them to resend the electronic lien release.

10 February 2006: Still nothing from the DMV. USAA admits that the last electronic lien release was rejected because the date was wrong. They claim to have fixed it, and will resubmit it.

15 February 2006: Still nothing from the DMV. The USAA rep tells me that they haven't resent the latest lien release. After some long overdue harsh words, I begin the process of closing my accounts with USAA (bank/credit/insurance/investment/etc...) Of course, the manager of the lien department calls the VA DMV, they get their shit together, and claim to be able to get me a title by the morning - this is communicated back to me *very* quickly. I'm surprised, because I didn't expect to be taken seriously (even though I do tens of thousands of dollars worth of business with USAA every year).

16 February 2006 (today): Wow. Lien release is through, DMV tells me I can pick up the title at the C-ville office.

I go to the C-ville office, the bitch at the info desk (where they disposition everyone) tells me they can't give me the title without a fax from Richmond. I verbally assault her, the DMV in general, and all manners of electronic buggeryboo, and curse my way out of the building... I think some mexican lady called me "El Diablo" and made the sign of the cross.

I called the DMV office in Richmond, and by pure chance, get the same rep who helped straighten all the VIN stuff out. Her name is Danielle. She gets her manager on the phone with the Charlottesville office. Ruth (the info desk lady) gets bitched out. Ruth's manager also gets bitched out. I go back to the DMV office, am treated to many "We're sorry sir" and "Let me help you with that form, sir", and walk out an hour later with a clear title in my hand.

It only took 6 weeks.

A side note - the only truly helpful person in all of this was Danielle at the DMV office. She's just a Tier 1 customer rep, but she held my hand through all the VIN stuff (which involved microfiche research and 2 different departments), and then remembered my situation when I called back today. She went the extra mile to get her manager to bitch out the folks at the C-ville office, and sent me back armed with the exact form numbers and regulations to make sure I got it taken care of. I called back, spoke to Danielle's manager, and as a reward for her service, she gets an award and gets to have lunch with the commissioner (which isn't what I would have picked as a reward, but oh well).

Everyone else I dealt with can go to hell.

Morals of the story? Check the VIN number on your registration to be sure it matches the VIN on the vehicle. Don't assume the DMV or your bank will do anything right, and certainly don't assume they'll let you know if something went wrong. As a result of this little debacle, I have a nice list of direct phone numbers for folks at USAA and the DMV. That will come in handy in the future, I'm sure. And if at all possible, sell your cars to patient folks like Mike Dumler. He never blamed me for any of this, and waited for it all to shake out. I hope he enjoys the Z

many of you know my old roommate Sameer. he caught some gravel around a turn last night and was thrown off his brand new CBR 600RR. hes ok, but both ankles are sprained and he thinks his wrist is broken... the bike didn't fare well either. just thought I'd share and wish him the best recovery. stay safe out there!

won this at the car show last year.. have no use for em cause i wont let anyone touch my car. figured someone could use this more than i could. oil changes, stupid labor work or something???

yours for 45 BUCKS or best offer

As the subject says, I hate to give away surprises, but does anyone have an extra 3-inch silicone coupler with 2 t-bolt or even regular clamps, I just need to borrow it for hopefully only a week or two.

Pictures will come as soon as I find two double a batteries....

I know some of you have the idea of getting an FD, so I thought I'd share this view of perfection..what every RX7 should aspire to be

To quote the owner....

"The car is a low mileage, original paint silver 95 (one of 500 in that final year of production) with a build date of 12/95 and I have attempted to accumulate OEM parts off a 2002 RX-7, which were only sold in the Japanese market . The wheels are OEM Mazda custom forged by BBS (they are almost like the BBS RG-R model but with a custom offset and finish), and the seats are made of a carbon-kevlar weave and made for Mazda by Recaro. Both the seats and wheels only came on Spirit-R 'Type-A' RX-7s which represented the final run of FDs in the summer of 2002."

FROM TURBODODGE.COM



DODGE: 1985 Omni GLH Turbo. Own a piece of turbo Dodge history. The Omni From Hell is for sale. I have owned this car since 1996. It was the development car for the Mopar Performance Super 60 Turbo pkg. Chrysler engineers built this car to compete in the One Lap of America and was sponsored by Hooters in the 1995 event, hence it is sometimes referred to as the Hooters Omni. History includes 1st Place in class and 2nd place overall in the One Lap plus 5 regional autocross championships. Custom fully adjustable coil-over suspension, stainless steel equal length tubular header with 3 inch stainless exhaust. Has factory gas tank and a fuel cell for race gas, dial-a-boost , A568 transmission with a Shelby posi unit. 300 HP at the wheels with 18 lbs. of boost. Best 1/4 mile time is 12.40 @ 115.86 mph. Too many other features to list. Was featured in Car and Driver, Mopar Action, Grassroots Motorsports magazines and was seen on ESPN-2. $10,500 obo

Contact: Barry Miles 301/297-5005, MD
I'm computer-challenged, so it is best to contact me by phone.

Ok bimmer guys, I've got stuff for you.

First up is the cat-back exhaust off of my M3. It's in good condition (it was working perfectly fine when I took it off) and has about 70-75k miles on it. It will easily replace the cat-back from any 6-cyl e36 I believe and there are lots of write ups about how to do it. I've heard that it gets rid of a the raspy sound from non-Ms, but I can't confirm that. In any case the polished, staggered tips will look pretty sweet.
Looking to get $140, but I'm open to offers.

Next is the factory 6-disc cd changer with bracket. This too should work with any e36 bmw, and may work with other models but you'd have to do some checking to find out. I'm pretty sure it's the Alpine model and it worked perfectly when I took it out. The mounting bracket is included and - get this - I'll even throw in the stock c33 headunit for free, with the security code! Not only will it control the changer but it's got a built in TAPE PLAYER!!
Anyway, I'm asking $100 for everything, which normally runs over $400 from the stealership just for the changer. All I ask is that I can have my cds back that I accidentally left in it when I disconnected it from my car.

I've got some bmw floor mats if anyone wants them. They aren't the M3 ones, but they do say BMW on them. They're in decent shape, but definately used. $15?

Edit: The chip is sold.

So, that's it for now... anyone interested?

Caught this over on the Something Awful forums, but here is a link to the original thread: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://socalsportbikes.info/xmb/viewthread.php?tid=34948&page=1">http://socalsportbikes.info/xmb/viewthr ... 948&page=1</a><!-- m -->

And heres the video: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://media.putfile.com/Accident96">http://media.putfile.com/Accident96</a><!-- m -->

Basically, some idiot in a civic (the hispanic guy in the video) managed to lock up all four wheels (on a bright, sunny day) and swerve into another lane forcing a motorcyclist to hit him. I've seen some dumb driving by cagers but this may take the cake. Fuck him.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://media.skoopy.com/vids/vid_01022.wmv">http://media.skoopy.com/vids/vid_01022.wmv</a><!-- m -->