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SchizophrenicMC

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  1. SchizophrenicMC
    Of course the car audio standard is 4ohm, though some systems run at 2ohm. However, most factory-installed name-brand speakers, for whatever reason, run at 2.7ohm. Many amplifiers can run 4ohm or 2ohm speakers, and any 2ohm amp can run either as well, but 2.7ohm is a much more difficult thing, and you can't mix and match. It's a real pain.
  2. SchizophrenicMC
    I don't mind touch screens terribly, because all the buttons on a radio feel the same when you're not looking at them, so I still end up looking down to use them. At least on a touch screen, the buttons are rather large and give a large general area to hit, which is a lot easier to do blind. With that said, I hate HATE Ford's capacitative buttons. They offer no feedback, they're small, they're all over the front of the console, and they respond to proximity, even if you don't touch them with any force at all. You about have to use Sync to use the climate control while driving. And the map lights turn on and off the same way, meaning 100% of the time, if I'm putting a visor up or down, I turn the light on by way of my hand existing. The only dials we got in the Fusion were the volume and tune knobs, and then a few controls off of the console are handled by actual buttons, but all of the HVAC and radio controls are capacitative and it sucks. I very much prefer the dual-zone in the Subaru, with its knobs and buttons. (Though I do wish it had a button to synchronize left and right for the times I'm in the car alone)
  3. SchizophrenicMC
    Audio is one of those things I like to do because it feels like it's a mod, and it's easy and relatively cheap to do. For me, the joy in owning a car is largely in making it my own. To that end, $300 for a stereo isn't too bad. This time it just hurt more, because the money I could have spent on an amplifier ended up going into just the dash kit.
  4. SchizophrenicMC
    Bose: Better Off with Something Else People install Bose systems in things because they (or more aptly: their customers) recognize the brand and are willing to shell out mad cash for it, even though it's trash, which is the bit most people don't recognize, because in reality, most people don't give half a damn about audio fidelity. If they did, automakers would still adhere to the DIN standard because nobody would be willing to buy a car they couldn't change the factory junk out in favor of actual quality components. But people often think they give half a damn about audio quality- at least enough of one to pay for some fancy-sounding manufacturer name, like Harmon Kardon or Boston Audio. Augh the state of car audio in the industry frustrates me immensely. I just replaced the head unit in my Outback, which required the use of a $300 dash kit made by Subaru Japan because the USDM center console was never made to be replaced by anything but an OEM replacement, so they integrated the HVAC controls into the radio. And I'm from that lucky period where you can actually get a dash kit, even if it does fit a bit poorly because it was made for RHD. My buddy's Focus ST is going in for warranty soon because it had its Sync module die to death, and the whole dash has to be pulled out to replace it. There are no dash kits available for the Focus. And you better believe the car is going to squeak and rattle once the dash comes out and goes back in. But even more amazingly: it turns out none of my speakers are blown. They all sounded like it when I had the OEM stereo installed. Turns out it just doesn't have any kind of signal clarity at all. While I still intend to eventually install an amp and replace the speakers in this car, for now, the setup is totally usable, which is a nice change. (Thank you, Kenwood) I don't even consider myself an audiophile. But I do notice, and given the amount I drive, it does bug me enough to make this kind of spending justified.
  5. SchizophrenicMC
    Double post, disregard
  6. SchizophrenicMC
    The Subuyota Celica is functionally equivalent to the lower-end variants of the Nissan S-chassis of the early to mid 90s. It fills the same inflation-adjusted pricing niche, has the same kind of curb weight, similar torque-weight ratio, and the same focus on handling over capacity to generate actual speed. The major difference, in my opinion, is that Toyota doesn't want to put a turbocharger on the car, even though the same engine architecture responds very well to forced induction in other Subarus. (Whereas Nissan started out the S13 as turbo-only in RHD markets, and only later began adding NA options to pad out the lower end of the range; turbo variants were dropped for the US to keep development cost and insurance cost down and keep the car competitive with the Probe GT and Eclipse GS) It's the FR-SX that Nissan is too bloated and French to make anymore. Nobody has an answer to the Z at this point. 20 years later, and there's still no real follow-up to the 300ZX Twin Turbo.
  7. SchizophrenicMC
    It's a successor to the Corolla Sports in name only. That family ran itself out after the E90 generation, without Toyota's management helping it die. And in any case, the Corolla Sports was based on the Corolla, if only at a very very basic level. The FR-S is on its own chassis and is a dedicated sport coupe. Like the Celica was from the 70s through 2005 when the tC supplanted it. (tC totally doesn't stand for toyotaCelica) There are more similarities between the Mk2 Celica and the FR-S than there are between the FR-S and the Corolla Sports/Sprinter/Levin/GT-S E80 family. I think that's a pedigree to be proud of. After all, Toyota's highly-acclaimed midsize sedan got its start as a sub-model of Celica, their most successful rally cars were Celicas, and the name holds a lot of power for the 30-50 crowd. A high school classmate of mine was given his father's tC, which was purchased because his dad longed for the Celica he had when he was in high school. The whole GT86 name is just a bunch of drift tax pandering to fans of Initial D and Keiichi Tsuchiya. The car itself is more akin to the Celica, and I think that's the role it's fit to play. The entry level Celica and its bigger, faster, angrier brother, the Supra. That's a winning combination. (And a set of actual NAMES. I'm so tired of cars that are just letters and numbers) Of course, asking Toyota to consider heritage and pedigree is almost as foolish as asking Nissan to. They just don't care anymore.
  8. SchizophrenicMC
    No, the FR-Whatever is definitely the modern Celica. If they made a big, heavy, stupid version with a high-powered engine, maaaaaybe Supra there. Only thing is, Toyota confirmed in an interview with MotorTrend that they would not rebadge the Scion products. iA becomes Toyota iA, iM becomes Toyota iM (even if it is Toyota Auris in other markets) and FR-S becomes Toyota FR-S. As stupid as that is. In other news, Honda has called for a sale stop on all 2016 Civics, in line with a recall of over 34,000 vehicles due to missing or improperly installed piston pin rings.
  9. SchizophrenicMC
    Somebody just hauled his last load.
  10. SchizophrenicMC
    And you are obviously in a sideways position, if your photos are anything to go by
  11. SchizophrenicMC
    I demand people turn rotation on or leave their phone landscaped when shooting pictures.
  12. SchizophrenicMC
    Pro-tip: Preview photos before uploading. If they are oriented incorrectly, right click and select "Rotate Clockwise/Counterclockwise" depending on which direction the photo is oriented. This can be done in batches using drag-select or ctrl+click.
  13. SchizophrenicMC
    I think the most striking thing is they slimmed down the torso and feet. Normally I don't like when they do that, but I think it really works here.
  14. SchizophrenicMC
    I think that Freedom will look pretty good next to my Strike Ver.RM whenever I get the Strike built. Between work and cars I really haven't had any gunpla time in months.
  15. SchizophrenicMC
    Going Coyote is a neat idea. It's not super unique, but nothing really is- it's at least not as egregious as stuffing a small block chevy under the hood of every car that's ever been. (Even the Honda CRX has been converted) Plus you get to play with some really interesting stuff- twin variable cams, some neat induction schemes, and a noise that doesn't make me want to break out the shotgun. It's even more fun because the truck block is cheaper than the Mustang block, but they're both aluminum mills, so it's not like taking the enormous weight penalty of going LM/LQ because you couldn't afford LS. (Seriously: an LS1 is in the 400lb range, an LM7 is in the 650lb range) Actually I'd like to see some more Ecoboost 3.5 swaps. Apparently the truck drivetrains are pretty cheap if you can get your hands on a whole totaled F-150 and part the rest of the truck out, but the engine management hasn't been fully tightened down for swaps. All in all, my thing is, I don't like seeing the same easy way out taken over and over again. Power is easy enough, no matter how you pursue it. I want to see the ingenuity, I want to see the creativity. I want it to be apparent that the person who put the car together put his mind into the project, put a bit of his soul into it. What's special about a car that was built with the pocketbook alone? It just doesn't stir my fancy to see all these LS swapped everythings. Just heard about the new FlyinMiata ND, whereby an LS3 is swapped into a new ND Miata for $50,000, on top of the purchase price for the car. What's the point of that? I mean forget about the horsepower, I just can't understand blowing $50,000 to have a shop put a $5,000 V8 into your car for you. Cool, you've got cash, more power to you. But do you have passion? Or just deep pockets? Makes me leery of people who do LS swaps.
  16. SchizophrenicMC
    The LS architecture isn't limited by its stock exhaust system, it's limited by its pathetic intake system, underwhelming cam profiles, and mediocre fuel injection system. Lots of noise, not a lot of go. Not stock. The LS1 is the worst of the aluminum bunch. (Not quite as bad as the iron LM7 though. Man, what a piece of junk that block is) If I recommended one thing to you, it would be to replace the stock camshaft with something a bit more aggressive, and have a new tune flashed onto it. At the very least the GM OBD2 ECUs are pretty good about taking tune. Or, if you have some cash to spend, find an LS2 from a wrecked Monaro. The extra .3l makes a healthy difference, as do the changes to the head and cam. Best part: it's very nearly a bolt-in proposition. Or, if you're like me: worst part: It's very nearly a bolt-in proposition. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for the power levels a GM small block can generate, but it's all too easy. I live in Texas, home of the thundering V8. Driving the Subie to a bar yesterday, I was passed by no fewer than 5 lifted Chevies with straight pipes emanating a lot more noise than power. (LM7!) Everything you can do to this engine architecture has been done a million times here, so I find it positively boring. Any time you can ask two people what they've done to their engine and get the same answer, you're working with something I can't care about. Small block Chevy, SR20, RB, 2JZ, it's all the same boring nonsense on repeat. I've got this little puppy in my garage right now: Won't make nearly the kind of power any of these LSxs are brewing, but it sure does look pretty, and it'll make enough.
  17. SchizophrenicMC
    And now my signature is relevant.
  18. SchizophrenicMC
    Here I've been a bit engrossed with the MD-80 lately. The RotateSim MD-80 for X-Plane 10 recently came out and all the YouTube simmers are losing it over the thing.
  19. SchizophrenicMC
    Oh hey it's this thread again. On a somewhat related note, I stumbled into a stupidly long post about DC-9s on another website by our very own David Hingtgen last night. I considered sharing it here until I saw the signature at the bottom.
  20. SchizophrenicMC
    Looks rad. It's too bad more of the inner frame isn't exposed on the Nu Ver.Ka. They really put a lot of effort into the detailing. After my dry-fit, I decided I'd just go with flat grey for the whole inner frame, because I didn't want to turn it into a diorama and there would be no way to show off any niftier paint work. I really like the stacked layers concept you've used, with gold on top of silver on top of gold. Nice touch. Have you considered using copper tones anywhere?
  21. SchizophrenicMC
    It looks incredible, Anubis. Nice job skirting in under the year-end line too.
  22. SchizophrenicMC
    The S13's new engine arrived today. The excitement is growing.
  23. SchizophrenicMC
    I believe Vegas and Premiere can do it. But I somehow get the feeling you don't want to spend enterprise video editing money.
  24. SchizophrenicMC
    Believe me, I am. I've lusted after this thing for roundabouts 2 years now. It's so shiny. It might even steal the spotlight from Nu Ver.Ka, just as an out of box build.
  25. SchizophrenicMC
    So check out what I got for Christmas
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