VG30DE 510 returns!!
[June 24, 2000]

Believe it or not, I bought back my V-6 510! Here's the story...

My wife and I, since the purchase of the house in March of this year, have discussed the possibility of her getting a 510 for herself. She has been around me long enough, and apparently she has become infected with this 510 ailment. Also, several months ago, I was told my old 510 was for sale in California, as they had seen it on Auto Trader Online. Back then I found the ad and wrote down the phone number - "because ya never know".

In any case, Sara and I talked about whether we wanted to get my old one back or not, but nothing too serious about getting it, just stuff like "wouldn't it be cool if...".

Fast forward to Friday, June 23. I had the day off, and Sara sends me an e-mail out of the blue saying "there's a red 510 calling your name in California". I called her, and we decided then and there that if the 510 was still for sale, we'd buy it. At 10:00am Friday I called the number I had. As you can probably figure out, it was still for sale. By 10:30am the price was negotiated and Sara and I planned on driving down to San Leandro (near San Francisco) THE NEXT DAY.

Saturday AM, we loaded up our SHO and headed out on our 630mi (that's EACH WAY) trip. The SHO is entirely in its element in this type of cruising - fast and comfortable.

We got so San Leandro at about 9:00pm Saturday night, briefly checked out the car (seemed much like the way I sold it, except the paint was faded further), did the paperwork, and headed to Sacramento to rest before the drive home.

Did I mention the car is a ROACH! Oh man, the NASTY driver's side door hinge did a good coffin-squeak when you opened the door. The non-functioning rear shocks that were on it when I sold it (the neither compressed nor rebounded!), we STILL on the car. Two of the four Yokohama's AVS's were still on as well. The fuel pump is LOUD. The suspension was SQUEAKY and needed lube. The car wouldn't accept full throttle for more than a second, before it does an annoying surging routine. Yes, my first impression was ROACH, yet the car was functionally little different than when I sold it (save the surging thing).

We left Sacramento at around 7:00am, and we found the surging got worse the lower the fuel level, and by 1/3 tank, the car was nearly undrivable! We stopped about every 130-150mi, and still managed to get home by 4:15. Other than the fuel problem, the drive home was uneventful.

We get home Sunday, and pretty much rested for most of the night, with the exception of making a hit-list of what needs to be done in 10 days : Fuel delivery, rear shocks, door hinge, buff our the chalky paint, clean the aluminum ZX turbo wheels, swap various parts of my 510 wagon that are better than what the sedan has on it. The shifter mechanism also would occasionally "ting" off the driveline when in 5th, gotta fix that too! So we spent a week of late nights working on the car, as well as this weekend.

Another part of our Shasta plan was to let my 510 buddies think we would be taking our SHO to Shasta, but Mike Spreadbury has all-knowing sources when a 510 is concerned, so he blew our cover...

In any case, here we sit a week after getting the car, and the 510 is ready for Shasta with a couple days to spare. Check back on the 13th, though, because there's a good story of part of our preparations. The story will debut at Shasta, but it will certainly make it onto my "STORY" board :-)

Dave.