Hello! So I am going to attempt some double dipping in this year's challenge by still being a part of Wreck Racing but also bringing my newishly acquired financial mistake: a 1994 Lexus LS400 painted big baller gold (or grandpa beige if you are a philistine) with 132k miles for only $300.
So the story behind this car is that a gentlemen from Alabama was visiting family in Virginia when the car started giving him trouble on his way back in Tucker, GA, conveniently 20 minutes from where I live. After a mechanic shop couldn't diagnose the issue, he was forced to abandon it there and make his way back home. I saw it listed on facebook marketplace with a description listing off intermittent starting issues, hesitation, and a few check engine codes. The pictures weren't the best quality but I saw some potential so I did some investigating and saw that leaky capacitors inside the ECU is a common problem with these things and can cause all of the issues the seller listed. I contacted him to set up a time to see it but he was out of state and couldn't make it over to show me the car.
The next day I get a text from him saying his girlfriend was in the area for an hour to clean out the car with a title in hand and I could go see it now. However, I was at work so I couldn't just drop everything and go check it but he offered for me to cash app money for the car and have his girlfriend leave the title with the shop. So here's redflag number 1, buying a car sight unseen by sending someone money seemed like a pretty dumb idea, plus I didn't even have cashapp. But the car was so cheap I decided to call the girlfriend and we talked on the phone for a bit and after confirming their story with the shop the car was at I decided what the heck. I used venmo to send her $300 for the car but she 'accidentally' hit the long verification so it wouldn't go to her bank account for another few days. At this point I got a story of how her kid was with her and tired and she doesn't trust venmo and doesn't want to leave the title without knowing she has the money etc etc. Ultimately, she ended up leaving with the title and said she would ship it out when the money was verified. I was going to the shop tomorrow to pick up a car that I didn't legally own and wasn't really sure existed.
So here my dumbass is thinking I either just bought a stolen car or gave away $300. Redflag #2, that night I happened to stumble on the same car relisted by the girlfriend for $1000, time stamped after we had already had our exchange. I gave her a call again where she claimed that she had posted that before we talked, but I wasn't 100% on that one. But tomorrow comes by and we swing by the shop and there actually was a Lexus LS400 sitting there with the keys inside! It even fired right up and drove around pretty nice. Call AAA to come tow it back to my garage where it would wait until I got the title. I even ran a carfax on it and it wasn't stolen and it was accident free! So two weeks later they kept true to their word and I ended up getting the title and registering the car in my name. So thats my short novel on how I ignored every single rule of buying cars and ended up with a sweet 90's landyacht.
TL;DR bought car sight unseen via venmo, did lots of burnouts
It had seemingly zero issues at first: AC and heat worked perfect, stereo was amazing for the little aux-to-cassette thing it came with, and it was nice and quiet. But those engine codes the seller mentioned were there and eventually the car wouldn't start. I tore the ECU apart and sure enough, leaking capacitors. After ruining the stock ECU with my poor attempt at replacing the capacitors (which wasn't even the right ECU), I found a rebuilt ECU of the correct model for 90$. Popped it in and it started no problem. At this point I had just bought the car to flip so I decided I wanted to beat on it a little bit and have some fun, so I entered it in an upcoming rallycross for E36 M3s and giggles. However, this might have been my worst idea yet because it definitely caused me to fall in love with this thing. A friend and I were co-driving the car and the tires were in poor shape, to be generous (there was a different kind of tire on every corner, a summer tire, a winter tire, and two different all-seasons). I wasn't expecting much of the car, let alone for it to last the whole event. But not only did this thing stand up to 18 total runs of pure abuse (put it in L and held it wide open 80% of the time), it did so with zero issues and the AC on full blast the entire time. This thing was so damn comfy the whole time too, I've never been in a car you could chuck sideways on gravel and still feel like you are riding on a cloud. I felt extra smug watching the subarus have to make cool down laps after their runs or spray down their radiators with water while I sat in ice cold AC. I felt even more smug when I got the time sheet a little while later and found out I was faster than an STI in modified AWD, and two imprezas in prepared AWD (Proof!!!: http://www.atlantascca.org/Files/results/Rallycross/2019/points-05.html).
And so I had decided to keep it. The car wasn't without issues: a leaky sunroof, warped rotors, insane powersteering leaks (which ended up killing the alternator) and a stuck open thermostat caused the car to run pretty rich, which ended up clogging the cats, and the gauge cluster was plagued with the same leaky capacitor issue as the ECU. As the car currently sits, I have fixed all those issues and it is actually a pretty fun little daily driver. Which means its time to ruin it.
The current build plan: swap in a manual transmission from a z32, make it dirt nasty low, cool livery and drive it down and have a good time and then hopefully drive it back up. will update with pictures as I progress on with the build.
Bonus exhaust clip because the 1UZ sounds amazing:
