I am American, through and through, and that includes my choice of roadsters. No BMW Z4, or Miata MX5, or Honda S2000 for me. In fact, not only does my blood run red, white, and blue, but so does my Sol(stice). In my driveway, you'll find my red Solstice, my wife's blue Solstice, and my son's white Solstice. There's two Fords, a F250 Crew long bed and Freestyle CUV for Lowe's and Walmart.
If you're expecting this blog to be about changing the color of my car you'd be mistaken. We'll be keeping the red, white and blue ones around a bit longer. I didn't put paint on my car, I put the paint on canvas in the shape of my car...and I wasn't sure what would happen since I'd never tried this before. It started with this huge empty wall.
We had the Solstice Sky club over to celebrate getting the wheels off the new house, take a dip in the pool and tune some cars. I had this big empty family room and friends were discussing what could be done with it. My favorite idea was a pool table. Since I knew a guy who wanted my TR6, didn't want his pool table and we won't go into Lucas electrics, I got a pool table. Great trade! and here's where the wall comes into it.
I hung a print on the wall at the end of the room. It's what you do with walls, but this little picture was lost on this big wall. I discussed this with the family and we were in agreement that it just needed a bigger picture. They weren't in agreement when I said I would paint it. "Dad, have you ever painted a picture?" Being an optimist I replied " No. What's the worst I can do? I watched Bob Ross, it's easy. We'll find out." Now I just need a few things since my brushes tended to go with rollers.
Merry Christmas. We hosted the Solstice and Sky Christmas/Solstice party and as we played 8 ball on the "new" table we discussed the state of the wall. It now sported the Pink Floyd Back Catalogue poster and the guys appreciated the album covers painted on the naked ladies backs. The same couldn't be said for our ladies even after I pointed out the real album covers surrounding it elevated it to "Art". I said I was going to do a painting but just lacked brushes, paint and a canvas. Four days later I opened presents of brushes, paints and a cool piece of wood to put my thumb through. I was dumbstruck when they revealed a 5x6 canvas. That's 30 square feet of.....nothing. I had to find a picture to paint.
I went through pictures from the Nashville and Vegas meets, Regional events and lone drives...thousands of pictures. I found one I liked of the car but the background was "iffy". So what, I'm a painter, I'll fix it, I have a palette. How hard can it be. I drew a grid on the picture, layed the canvas on the pool table, grabbed a pencil and started.
After a couple of hours of measuring and drawing lines and sketching I remembered Bob didn't draw lines and I wanted to get to the good part. I mixed up some paint and started on the sky. At once I found painting a sky, upside down, with the canvas flat on the pool table wouldn't work. It looked like an ocean. I needed an easel. A couple of 2x4s and an old shelf bracket later I was again an artist. This time the sky was at the top...good start.
The morning light was perfect by the door out to the pool so I worked there. I had received three colors of paint and black and white. I remember Bob saying you start from the back and work to the front, so that's what I did. After a while the family stopped with the "Happy little clouds" and I kept painting. "This is so cool." I painted a few hours each day on the long weekend after Christmas and took a break to go back to work. I was leading the New Years Hangover Cure Ride and luncheon so we put the tops down and 20+ cars ran some great twisty roads. I found myself looking at the scenery with a different eye. How do those mountains get that shading? Can I add that cactus and shadow? I couldn't wait to paint the next day.
Three days later the painting was done. That was the hard part, deciding when it was done. You can keep working on one of these because you always see a new line or shading or.... Stop...Sign it. Hang it on the wall.
I'm an artist. Not by the quality of my work, not by my technique...or Bob's... but by the fact of painting, of putting brush to palette to canvas. My first painting is stuck on the big wall behind the pool table, it fits better than the print, and I see every little flaw and problem as I play. That seems to be what happens when you try something you've never tried before.
Tammy is a resident of New Jersey, but we found this beautiful SKY when it came to a Regional Event in Tombstone, Arizona. Tammy was sent to work in CA for 4 months and quickly decided to have her SKY shipped out to her location in California. She entered several car shows and won three of them. The first car show she had her car in was in Stockton, CA. The car did not have any modifications, and did not win. So, it was time to begin making modifications to her car. Tammy named her car Tarantula, and had vertical doors installed. (JT's Evo Doors (Rosemead, Ca)
http://www.jtautostyle.com/ - ask for Tony). Next came the designer paint job: AirBrush Design by
Steve: http://www.steve-fernandes.com/. Tammy really loves her "Tarantula" wind restrictor by Stephan at Wind Restrictor. This is a must see!! Tammy entered two more car shows in California and Won in both of them. Now she had the desire to continue upgrading and modifying her SKY.
The next mods done to Tarantula were: a Fujita -
CAI (Custom Air Intake), MagnaFlow CatBack w/ tips, DDM Works: Slotted
Rotors and Powdered Coated Engine Cover. Next came the wheels and tires:
20' XIX Wheels, and Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta Tires.
Some of the other modifications are a CURT HITCH, Stubby Antenna, Arc Audio Amps, Boston Acoustics
Speakers, Kenwood DNX8120-NAV/DVD/BT/IPOD
Temp Sensor and AutoStart Alarm
System.
In Tombstone, AZ
Tarantula won the Brazenest Hussey award. Tammy just "LOL" at that
one. While in Tombstone, she had her car tuned with the GM tune. Now
her car gets more horsepower and torque. Nick from the California club took it on a romp and agreed it was a blast to drive.
As Tammy was finishing her assignment in CA, she
heard about the 3rd Annual Event on www.skyroadster.com. So, Tammy
entered the event and posted on the site that she would be driving
across country. The first day Wed (11/19/08) Tammy drove to Beverly
Hills and stayed until Fri. (11/21/08) then Tammy and 7 additional
roadsters met in LA and drove to Tombstone, AZ. Tammy and Tarantula
left Tombstone on Sun (11/23/08) and arrived in San Antonio, TX on
11/24/08. Next she went to New Orleans, arriving on 11/25/08 and then
to Chattanoga, TN by 11/26/08. Soon she was on her way to Baltimore
and completed the trip to NJ on Thanksgiving Day.
So my red one cruised through 50,000 miles on the Telluride Regional Meet. If you read the Telluride article you may have seen the reference to my header collector. I guess I didn't get the studs tight enough for the twistier sections of road. I got the header in the mail Wed and installed it Thursday in the morning. I replaced the studs on the HF Cat to collector and installed the new gasket. Per instructions I drove the car and then retighted the nuts. We drove all the way from Phoenix to Silverton without a problem, running in the back most of the way...then I lined up #3 for the downhill run down to Durango. I enjoyed a brisk level of driving once we got past the school buses and I think that did it. One stud gone, two loose and a comment, " I wondered what that was that came out from under your car". AutoZone to the rescue with two new studs. (I'm so glad I keep a full tool kit behind my seat.) And in no time I had those two 1/2" plates bolted together, with out a gasket. Held up until the twisties at Mingus mountain...lost another one. Grabbed a backup from behind the seat and installed it...on a hot header. Ouch.
So 50,000 miles are past. She's been to Nashville, a Vegas Regional, National and Sema, a couple of San Diego trips, Cloudcroft NM and countless local trips, dinners and activities. At 250 miles I put on the GM CAI and CAT back exhaust, followed shortly by a pinion seal. I painted the rear facia, tuned it, replaced the tires with Toyo Proxes, put on OZ Ultra Legerras, tuned it, got Tony's stripes, replaced the lighter, replaced the inner door, put on a header, high flow cat and center exhaust poking through Norm's fiberglass facia, then replaced the worn off Toyos with new Proxes 4s. I've tracked it on the big 12 turn 1.6 mile road couse and had the pleasure of running away from a Boxter. The paint's pretty chipped as well as the windshield, the cloth's holding up OK but I've worn the shifter knob down to the plastic. She gets performance shocks, springs and sway bars next week...track day's coming up in a month.
All in all the first 50,000 miles have been great. The best part is the people. Having the first one at my dealership ($3K over) meant I got to meet a lot of people. As we got more of the cars the informal meets turned into a club. I've had the privilage of being on the Board and an Officer in Sky-Sols for two years.
The blue one is catching up fast. Debbie drove it to Salt Lake City for two weeks and rode with the Salt Lake Roadster club. She'll be getting her 50,000 mile award before the new year (and her car is 8 months younger). I wonder if she'll replace hers with a SKY. Check back later.
So I had to get out there. Corvettes, Cobras, Mustangs, BMWs, Audis, Hondas, even a Ferrari F430 once, and I had the first Solstice on the Track. This isn't racing, no trophys or places, but High Performance Driving School. Learn the limits of your suspension, tires and skills in a safe environment with runoff room not guardrails and ditches.
The first car show she had her car in was in Stockton, CA. The car did not have any modifications, and did not win. So, it was time to begin making modifications to her car. Tammy named her car Tarantula, and had vertical doors installed. (JT's Evo Doors (Rosemead, Ca)
http://www.jtautostyle.com/ - ask for Tony). Next came the designer paint job: AirBrush Design by
Steve: http://www.steve-fernandes.com/. Tammy really loves her "Tarantula" wind restrictor by Stephan at Wind Restrictor. This is a must see!! Tammy entered two more car shows in California and Won in both of them. Now she had the desire to continue upgrading and modifying her SKY.
The next mods done to Tarantula were: a Fujita -
CAI (Custom Air Intake), MagnaFlow CatBack w/ tips, DDM Works: Slotted
Rotors and Powdered Coated Engine Cover. Next came the wheels and tires:
20' XIX Wheels, and Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta Tires.
Some of the other modifications are a CURT HITCH, Stubby Antenna, Arc Audio Amps, Boston Acoustics
Speakers, Kenwood DNX8120-NAV/DVD/BT/IPOD
posted on the site that she would be driving
across country. The first day Wed (11/19/08) Tammy drove to Beverly
Hills and stayed until Fri. (11/21/08) then Tammy and 7 additional
roadsters met in LA and drove to Tombstone, AZ. Tammy and Tarantula
left Tombstone on Sun (11/23/08) and arrived in San Antonio, TX on
11/24/08. Next she went to New Orleans, arriving on 11/25/08 and then
to Chattanoga, TN by 11/26/08. Soon she was on her way to Baltimore
and completed the trip to NJ on Thanksgiving Day.
