I ran out of gas in a hybrid

So there I was driving home from work on a Saturday night already about two hours behind, on the phone with my wife. Can see the gas light on, well I didn't think much of it. I usually push it pretty far, this time I went to far. Driving along like normal when the car makes this move. Now if you've ever felt this "feeling" before you know what it means. In my head I said oh fuck. To my my wife I said I'm going to need gas very soon. She said what do you mean in that worried wife tune. Then boom there it was, I mean to tell you when a Prius runs out of gas the car yells at you almost as if to say hey dumb ass somethings wrong. Told my amazing understanding wife I just ran out of gas gotta go. Now the first thing you get is a big I mean freaking giant red light that reads problem, then the check engine light, and then the traction control light has to put its two cents in. So as this all unfolds in front of me like I'm 16 again my mind goes blank, I have no idea what to do. As if by magic my 28 year old ASE certified brain kicks in and bitch smacks my 16 year old inner self, and I remember that its a damned hybrid, not just any hybrid its a Toyota Prius, not a Honda hybrid the Prius can run on battery power alone. Remembering that in a mile I can exit to a down hill and right into a shell gas station. Well the Prius is game for must of that plan, the mile i had to the exit was all uphill, so the Prius and I made to the exit barely, now the exit is down hill we coast to the bottom of the exit ramp and the Prius that I love dearly said no more. So I pushed her fat ass in the 20 or so feet right up to the one pump at this particular gas station that was out of order. I'm standing there in front of this pump that doesn't work panting and breathing hard when the lady looks at me and with the straightest face known to man says "did you drive here from Alaska on one take of gas" being in the state of mind I was in at this moment in time, our eyes met and I said just as straight faced as she asked the question "yep from Alaska to right here on one take of gas. We both laughed. When she was finally finished pumping her own gas I push the heavy ass Prius six more feet to a pump that worked gassed up and was on my way again.

New things in my life

My beautiful wife and I are expecting our first child. Its a boy, Leo Joesph. How bad ass is that, when the ultra sound lady said see that, its a boy I tried to high five her I even said HIGH FIVE and put my hand out there. Well the lady looked at me like I was crazy so my wife being the great woman she is high fived me back. I love her so much. Leo is due on 10/10/10, also very kick ass. I don't think I've ever been so happy about anything in my life. The first time I felt the baby kick, I tell you I've never felt such an emotion. I didn't know such a feeling was possible. Baby Leo is coming and I can't wait.

Another Jeep customer

This is a 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland, customer brought the truck to us trying to fix some of the Jeep quirks.
Some of the issues I've seen with jeeps are in the braking system, premature ware of the fiction material, brake fade in stop and go traffic and in northern Virginia its always stop and go traffic. So to fix these problems we installed a set of EBC green stuff brake pads with some cross drilled and slotted rotors.

Another of the Grand Cherokee's issues is the mushy suspension, jeeps feel like loose and mushy just driving down the highway, so to help add our customer with this problem. Bilstein all the way around.

I thought the 4.7 H.O felt, well it felt weak and sounded the same, weak. I thought K&N, Borla, and a cat delete pipe might help in this area.

Transcontinetal Racing

A racing from somewhere around New York city to a beach near Los Anegles. 2800 or so miles depending on the route taken. I've always been a little obsessed with this legendary event, the older I get the more obsessed I become. I've seen the movies that were created because of this race, The Gumball Rally, The Cannonball Run, and so on. I've Read Brock Yates book Cannonball! the worlds greatest outlaw road race about 7 times, and Alex Roys Book The Driver: My Dangerous Pursuit of Speed and Truth in the Outlaw Racing World a couple of times. I've been waiting for years now for 32 hours 7 minutes, the documentary about the 1982 U.S. Express in which the last record was set of 32 hours 7 minutes. Also featured in the documentary is Alex Roys 2006 record setting run of 31 hours 4 minutes.

I would like to take a run I can beat Alex Roy and 31 hours 4 minutes. I will do it without all of his money, and no spotter plane for me. Over the next year or maybe faster I will come up with a plan a car modified for this trip, and if all goes well I should make the journey in around 29 hours. Ive been thinking of doing this since I got my Driver License, as its been about 12 years that awesome day at the Culpeper office of the d.m.v I think its time.

02 Jeep

This Jeep is a 2002 Grand Cherokee Overland. The customer was referred to GC by another customer of our, after his local dealer "diagnosed" he had a blown engine. They charged him $400 and sent him on his way. He called us, we went and picked up the jeep from the dealerships back lot towed it to our shop which is about 60 or miles away. I asked the customer if he might remember anything the dealership mayhave told him, he said misfire #5 and metal in the oil. When we pulled the bad engine out which was locked up, this was in cylinder 5. That valve broke right at the retainer, dropped and was bent in a 90 from the top of the piston. This is a 4.7 HO or was a 4.7 HO

No engine, no hood.


I think somethings missing
So not only did we put in a new engine. We polished the aluminum valve covers, and threw in a throttle body spacer.

Here is the new engine installed and ready to go. We always pick the car up from the customer and return it to them fixed right the first time, washed and detailed.

GC Speed

This is a car from one of my customers. It's a 2002 Honda Accord, The car looks amazing I wish had some more pictures of it. The owner keeps the car so clean.

Love the black housing headlights against the bright white.


Ksport coilovers, and Toyo T1-R tires. We put the suspension, wheels and tires on about a month before this picture was taken. This car belongs a younger kid who so far has picked out all the parts himself and has done a pretty good job. Everything he's picked goes well with one another.


I love these Buddy Club P1 wheels. The kid even got the Buddy Club lug nuts, and JDM wheel locks. Some of the other goodies on this car include an AEM v2 intake, Megan Racing header, and Megan Racing cat back exhaust. We are planning a five speed swap in the near future.

Pictures

This last February we got pounded with snow. The most snow every recorded in this area, I don't remember how much there was but these awesome pictures are from the first of two back to back snow storms, that ended with us not having power for a week and my wife and I staying in a hotel till the power came back on.

This is our Neon. Our first company project car, more on that one later.

My Father in law's truck up close and personal.

My Beautiful wife's new truck, which I got stuck later that day in a snow bank that was up past the windows, had to get tractor to get it out.

I am the stig

One of the gifts my awesome wife got me for Christmas was this bad ass sticker for my car. Why does nobody I know, know who the Stig is? People asking me who the Stig is got me thinking about American car culture. We SUCK, not as individuals, there is some pretty bad ass people like Eric Hsu, Alex Roy, and Brock Yates just to name a couple, but as a community. We do get some pretty cool movies, that do have some awesome chase scenes or movies that involve whats in at the time Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift for one. Which is purely for entertainment, where in Japan they have comic series like Initial D that have been going on for over 10 years. Initial D is both entertaining and educational, the books as well as the TV show have technical information, and driving tips.
Our version of street racing is just as bland as NASCAR. They have wangan, which a form of street racing that starts from a 60-70 mph roll and goes balls out until somewhere around 200mph. Which by the way also has its own comic and cartoon series called Wangan Midnight, like Initial D its about young and old people, cars, and racing. The closest thing we get to that here is Max Power a two page comic strip that ran in Import Tuner magazine for awhile. We have I-95 traffic and they have the Autobahn, and the Nurburgring, all public roads which one would I rather to take to work in the morning not I-95 that's for sure. They get TV shows like Top Gear which also has a magazine, and every time I find a show here that's nice and not fake or hokey, Dream Car Garage, and Sports Car Revolution they disappear on me, I guess not enough people watched those show. We do get the Speed channel, what a joke that is, might as well rename that NASCAR TV seems that's all they show any more. I remember when I could watch a whole day of racing F-1, WRC, and something SCCA. I don't even try to see whats on Speed any more, I can't even tell you what channel it is.
I'm moving to Japan or Europe.

A Little about me

I'm a car guy, not the fake kind of car guy like most people think. Since I was little the things I like have always been cars, Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Micro Machines. When I got a little older it got worse I found models and started to build my own cars, following directions is ok but making them how you want them is way more fun. Somewhere around middle school I discovered car magazines, Going up in southern Arizona I was around a lot of Latin influence so Lowrider was my favorite magazine, later in life I would switched to the now defunct Sport Compact Car, and Superstreet from time to time, and more recently Modified and 0-60. I still remember the feature car that really changed this hobby into a obsession. It was titled hypnotized 2 it was 1959 Chevy impala convertible, the way the rear fins frame those tear drop tail lights and the amazing paint work on this car. I'd still have that magazine if my English teacher hadn't confiscated it. Then in High school my car guy status was set in stone when my friend bought a 1977 Pontiac Trans am. It was amazing to me I had never driven a muscle car before, the car was brown with that bad ass chicken on the hood whose wings surrounded the shaker scoop almost as a warning for the awesomeness that was to come. Somewhere in between all that I got my first car, it was a 1983 Dodge d-150 Ram pick up. It was a horrible looking thing, my dad bought it from the VDOT auction it was orange with black doors no power anything, with a 225 slant six. When we got it it had about 200,000 miles on it, I drove till about 433,000 miles before I blew up what was supposed to be an unstoppable engine. I've also owned a 1989 Pontiac 6000 safari station wagon, that was a beast, i only say it was beast because no matter what kind of abuse i threw at this poor car it just begged for more. Another car i had in the misadventures of my youth was a 89 Ford Bronco this was first four wheel drive and my first V8. I got my first speeding ticket in that truck 69 in a 55, I loved that truck, but it had a ton of problems way to many to get into, so I sold that for $400 to someone who claim to be known as Dr. bass it was going to be his next show car. He gave me the money and i said good luck. Then I bought my first from the dealership car, it was a 1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse it was only a GS but it was nice leather 5 speed. in my opinion the second generation of that car is by far the best, I love the sweeping lines and power hump on the hood the whole car was just great. This is the car that started to learn what modification were and what they really did for you, and where I learned that I really love nitrous. I had my first of many stoplight races in this car, I figured out that drag racing is no fun, but that back roads can make you feel really good about life and yourself. I also met the beautiful girl who would be my wife in this car. Well I met her at work by some twist of fate she took a job at Pepboys, where I was working at the time. Taylor is her name and she is the best person I know always kind, she smart, she has the best sense of humor, and she truly is absolutely beautiful. That brings me to right now we have been happily married for over two years. We have a 99 Dodge neon that was her car and is now my project, I will over the course of this year turn it into a race car, and she has a 1990 Ford Bronco four wheel drive with a 351 and 33's. Everything I do is car related the magazines, and books I read are for the most part all car, all my favorite movies are about cars, even my job. I am a true car guy.

The First

This will only take a second. Just like all the other firsts in my adult life. It's my first attempt at a blog, it's January 1st 2010. It'll be better next time, that sounds familiar too.