Great Quick Truck: Chevy S10 Xtreme

I'm always looking for extremely cool cars and seeing if I can find them for an extremely good price and expertly, I found a 2000 Chevy S10 Xtreme on Craigslist that just needs a water pump. Even factoring in another $1000 to completely repair it, it would come out to $1800 as the truck itself is $800!

That's an xtremely nice truck.

We all love the S10 and Chevy had built one that was boosting, I believe, and this is the slower, more common version. This one has 195 hp with 235 lb-ft of torque which isn't bad for a small truck. The 0-60 is somewhere in the mid 5 seconds? Also, I know they made a very limited number of these, maybe a few thousand.

Now, these trucks are most commonly lowered and cruised in. This trim came lowered and if I am not mistaken, the turbocharged truck that it replaced comes with a warning that the truck is not really for off road use because it's too low. That one had something like 280 hp so if you can find one of 800 or so, you're so lucky. As to what that model is called, I couldn't tell you. Google replies with ridiculous amounts of information on turbocharging S10s. Who would've known?

In the 1990s, 195 hp was a lot so these trucks are quick as I like to say. Not fast but quick. However, you get a longbed or that plus an extended cab and forget it. You're honestly better off buying a Chevy Silverado around the same year if you go that route.

I know that sounds harsh but remember, this is a small truck. The Vortec in the Silverado is an iron block LS1. If you haven't caught on, I'm mainly talking about 2000 and up models.

These trucks came in a small cabin, short bed style and then later GM included the option of extended cab which was a three-door and even a crew cab with four doors. They also started making long-bed S10s. The older ones are all short.

This white one is what you want. The Xtreme is going to become a classic so even though any S10 is a good truck in my opinion, you may want to hold out for one of these. If I wasn't moving (again!) and I had $800 to play with, I would be all over that truck I mentioned.

You might want to keep it stock if you want to retain the value but ultimately, it's a nice, cheap truck that you can do a number of things with. These trucks can be work trucks, lowriders, or racecars. It's not often that you get that combination in a truck. I think Chevy nailed it with the S10, Xtreme or not.

- Rokas Kirvelis

Instagram: rokask1

Tutorial: Installing LED Floor Lights + Bonus

If you go back through all of my articles, you may find when I originally changed out my interior (and a couple exterior) bulbs to blue LEDs. Thanks to that awesome reader who actually purchased it for me, I became hooked on light effects.

* As far as the bonus, I decided posting an update on my car is better in a tutorial. I'll post some nice pictures at the end, too, and a little of what's next. That's the bonus. Hey, I can't give out money! 

Just focus on the nice color because I need to clean my car. Why if it's not done, right?!

Today I installed an awesome kit that, actually, Scotty Kilmer of YouTube fame even recommended over any other one on the market. I just bought it because it's cheap! It's $19.99 online somewhere and again, I wish I got paid for telling you about this product but I'm not (hint hint... If you're reading...). I'm going to edit this page as soon as I find the box! Promise!

The kit comes with the following items:

- One main unit with a sort of antenna that has four wires coming out, each one connected to a strip of LED diodes.

- The power source is a unit that goes in your cigarette lighter. At first, I didn't like that but I realized it's better. It plugs into the main unit which is an inch by inch and a half big.

- A remote control.

The remote control lets you change the settings and colors that come out of the LED strips. This is the best thing about it. It even responds to music so it can change colors to the beat.

For my setup, I purchased:

- A cigarette lighter extender that came with a USB port so you can charge your phone. Why? The original cigarette lighter power source is very short so you're probably going to need to extend it. 

All it does is plug into your cigarette lighter in your car, through an extension or not, and that is what provides the power. It's actually very handy because you just unplug it instead of having to disconnect it from your battery.

I'm going to give you a quick run-down of how to set these up and hide the wires. Personally, I didn't hide the main unit but I did tuck all of the other wires. You're going to want to hide the wires for these LED strips. I'll show you how.

First, just sit down for a few minutes or sleep on it before you decide where you're going to put the main box. Remember, this is the unit that provides all the power and also has an antenna. It's also where all four wires come from so it has to be close enough to each light's final location.

I used zipties to hold mine onto an air-conditioning vent in the back. I decided to put my unit in the back but you can put it in the front. For me, I like the look of exposed wiring to a certain extent - which a lot of people have hated on but such is life - so I didn't hide the main unit. If you want to, a good spot is under one of the seats. If you run the wires right, you won't be able to see any at all.

You see, this allowed me to tuck most of the wires. See how they're sticking out all over the place?

By the way, it's very important to decide where you want this unit first so you know how to run the wires! I think I mentioned this. Anyway...

That's the end result. As you can see, that unit would actually be hidden if it was mounted on the side of the center console or under the seat. So that's up to you. Like I said, I dig the look, and you can see the wires run down under the console but that's it. 

At the top of that small black box (again, that's the main unit) is where the cigarette lighter power source plugs in.

We'll get to that but let me explain how to hide the wiring. You can see the wire poking out from under the whole center console. Well what you do is tuck the wire in under it all the way to the back. Just push it in there.

When you're getting close to being finished, you're going to have a length of extra wire to tuck. In this case, plan where you're going to mount the strip, roll up the slack of wire and strap the wires together using a ziptie. Now you have a bundle you can tuck into certain places.

In the photo above, I've completely tucked the wire for the front strip into the corner of the center console and I am showing you where I put the zip-tied bundle that belonged to the strip for the back.

Again, if you look at the finished product, the wire is tucked into a crevice. That's the best way to put it.

I wrote this guide this way so you know the idea behind setting these up and hiding the wires instead of me just showing you how to do it for one specific car. This way, you can do it in any car.

The main unit, by the way, will eventually be housed in something respectable. All of my lights will have the switches in one place but right now I have one running from the car's battery and another (this setup) from one cigarette lighter.

Eventually I will need to hook up maybe two more accessories so it's at that point that I will set up switches that are completely hidden. Not necessary right now. 

Above you can see how I have the plug-in unit plugged into the extender which is plugged into a cigarette lighter. Simple. Eventually there's gonna be a VIP table here so you can charge your phone and set it down. That will also give the dangling wire a place to hide besides the pocket on the back of the front seat.

I may create a VIP table myself so if I do, I will definitely post a tutorial. I didn't even think about it - that it was possible to make a nice VIP table. I stumbled on a video where a man did just that so you may see me do it in the future.

Also if you look, there's all the pieces in the above picture. You can see the main unit with everything coming out of it. If you didn't get a good idea yet, that should help you. This is honestly very simple.

And it's on! This is when I first installed it at the park and drove home. It looks nice even in the day. 

Just to give a little insight into the future of my car, the back will be dark in the daytime. Yes I am getting curtains. With my almost-illegal tints. At this point, all the VIP people are scratching their heads. Don't worry, it's just a party car.

I also have a few LED bulbs that I never successfully installed so I'm going to get on that! It's just the trunk and the little light for the vanity mirror on the passenger side. 

Now that you got this far, here's the bonus. I came to a conclusion about this car.

The conclusion is... This Lexus is not conforming to crap. Is that even supposed to be in a Lexus?

How awesome does that look? This is, for sure, my favorite light mod yet. By the way, look at the box that's connected right out in the open... You can't even see it at night.

Actually, it was exactly when I was deciding where I want the main unit that it hit me. I'm supposed to be having fun with this. I'm probably eventually gonna hide it like I said but those wires really don't bother me. The red light for the cigarette connector? Well you can just hide that in the pocket on the back of the driver's seat.

Now look closely. The next two pictures are with the doors shut. Even through the tint, the LEDs are bright and sharp.

Looking into back window on the passenger side.

And this is from the driver's side.

My plans for the car evolve as time goes on. I'm honestly having a lot of fun with it. It's good medicine for depression if nothing else. But really, I've gotten a basic understanding of relays, diodes, and the basics of electronics which I really had no idea before. At the same time, I wasn't sure what direction to go with the car.

I've always known that this is a chauffeur type car so I've always tried to think of something for the back and I think it's time I get some beige curtains. Beige? Being different again... Actually it looks nicer than black to me in a white on beige car.

People... Thank you for reading. Hope it inspires you to work on your own stuff.

- Rokas Kirvelis

Blacked-Out German Cars in Lithuania in the 90s

I spent a good eight years of my childhood in Lithuania where I was born. I've recounted some stories of the car scene there in other articles but they were just snippets. I thought I would tell you a little more.

I'll start from the top - there's not much. Middle class civilians drove older Audis, Peugeots, Alfa Romeos, Opels, Volkswagens, and Fords actually. Kinda stands out a little, huh? Poorer people had dirt cheap ($200 at the time) Ladas. I forget the model but it's the simplest four door car that came out of the 80s and possibly 70s... That design didn't change for years.

These things were NOT reliable at all. It was common to see someone push-starting their car routinely. I mean, to go to work. I should mention that 90% of cars were manual and there was a stigma against automatics. People wrongly thought they were less reliable but correctly knew that manual cars got slightly better mileage.

That was and still is important because in Europe, gas can be €6 per liter. There's almost 3 liters in a gallon...

So who drove the new German luxury cars? Well, it was the people that had more money and by that I mean the mafia. Here's a fun story.

I was being driven by my grandpa in a 90s Audi - the big four door - as we drove up to a scene. There was three cars, all black. I don't know how many of each but it was a mixture of BMWs and Mercedes.

There was no garages like that...*

I'm thinking "Cool!" while my grandpa is thinking "Oh sh$&!" because lo and behold, they all stop haphazardly on the road as a bunch of dudes with chains and other blunt weapons got out to... Well, I never found out because my grandpa went over the curb and floored it but I can tell you there was a big blood stain there later! Fun!

Some of my readers have never had the experience of seeing, say, a Ferrari for the first time and being blown away. I didn't see my first one until I was maybe 13 and it was a blacked out Testarossa. But I did see what us kids thought was basically a supercar when I was in Lithuania. A Honda CRX.

Remember, cars were rarely imported and if they were, it was from America. Some of us had seen a few American cars but a Honda? It was the talk of the neighborhood. I fondly remember it having a Firebird logo on the hood just like a Pontiac Firebird from back in the day. Of course I didn't know where it came from at the time - it just looked awesome!

My little friend's sister's boyfriend had a red E30, that bastard, and as a 7 year old kid, I bugged him for probably six months to just take me for a ride in it! I knew BMW was good but it wasn't that. I just loved the car.

Cars are in my blood. My grandpa on my father's side was a professional rally racer way back in the day. My pops imported cars from France when I was younger and we did rallycross here in America.

I thought some of you may enjoy learning about what the car scene in certain countries is like. I'll probably be doing more personal stories when it comes to cars. Now, however, I'm gonna go relax.

Last night - yes, at night because I have no patience - I painted the one fender on my car that was actually already re-painted but badly. The shade of the white I'm using is completely different from the original paint which kinda sucks for now but I can tell it's going to look so much better.

I did a decent job at night so I'm going to focus on doing a good job during the daytime one of these days. I find I've gotten pretty good at spraying. I'm really picking up the technique quick.

Thank you guys for following and have a good one.

* Typically your garage would be five miles or so from your house along with a couple hundred other people's garages. That's a leftover from the communist days. That made it much easier to find like minded people to work on cars with. 

- Rokas K.

I Need to Finish This Build!

I've always been a bit of a procrastinator. Couple that with the fact that, for now, my build is almost done except a couple things, and I felt like I needed a break. Especially since, thankfully, I fixed the mechanical issues. Just not the oil leak... But that's fine for now.

I know I have something special here. I've been having a lot of haters coming out of the woodwork and if I know anything, it's that haters are really lovers in denial. They just don't understand! No but really, this is a drama-free website, but I have to say; in the LS400 community, there's these purists that will take a dump on you for doing something different.

Which motivates me to finish the car. To me especially, the car looks like s&#$ on the exterior because of the paint so that's the first thing I'm going to finish of what's left.

The rims are gonna be painted as well. I also need to clean up the interior. There are places, like on the doors especially, where there's permanent stains. I plan to remedy this by either reupholstery or, more likely, vinyl paint.

The carpet is perma-stained too so I don't know what I'm going to end up doing with that but it will be fixed. Trust.

The way I see it, actually, these haters actually have ammo right now. So I plan on taking it away. I can understand the dislike of a bad build, but if it's built good and is just different, you have no leg to stand on except your opinion.

This whole project is actually going to be pretty extensive now that I think about it. Everybody knows it's all about the details so give me some time. I'm also feeling a bit mentally exhausted so for maybe the next week, you might see less articles. I'll be fine.

I finally figured out where I can run wire through the firewall so that will fix the ugly wiring issue for my fog lights. Not just that but all of the lighting in the car will be installed properly. The first was a test, really, and for me to learn.

Secondary interior light - with this on, you can see inside the car through almost-illegal tint.

I plan on getting a unit with multiple buttons that will allow me to have switches for multiple accessories. One of those might be an electric fan, actually. Seems like Lexus left enough space for one more fan in front of the AC condenser. Isn't it a little weird how there's just one on the left? Anyway, it gets hot here in Florida so it won't hurt.

A lot of what I have to do is actually cleaning. Under the engine bay, in crevices, those areas where the doors close that have paint but you never wash because they're inside the car. I need to get rid of a bunch of junk in my trunk.

I truly believe these simple things will completely bring out the beauty of the car. There's literally four (4) different shades of white on the car. That's no good!

I painted the bumper area to see if I can do a good job and sure enough, it's a huge difference. Look at the hood that I didn't touch.

And then there's the exhaust. Listen people, I might do a muffler delete myself. You don't need to weld anything. What you need is a quality clamp with an actual gasket to hook two pipes of the same size together. I've been researching this and this seems like a pretty good way to go especially because the mufflers on an LS400 are bolted on.

Yes, you take a bolt or two off and you can take the mufflers off. If I proceed with this, and I probably will because I need some more sound, I'll clamp on some pipe and you can buy tips that bolt on as well.

I don't want a very loud rumble right now but there is currently almost zero so instead of waiting months until it makes sense for me to spend a few hundred on an exhaust, I can do this now for $40.

Might change front emblem in the future.

These clamps, as I mentioned, have a special gasket so when you attach two pipes together, it doesn't leave a small leak. It's really not a bad idea and I don't see why more people don't do this. I am NOT getting paid but if I was you, I would like to know where to buy it, and that is Harbor Freight. They also have a tool that can expand a pipe but only about 1/16th according to a video I watched. However, it may help you if you want to slip it on instead. I believe both of these items are under $20 each and you can buy a basic grinder (a saw to cut metal - I'm sure somebody isn't sure of what that is) for $15. You don't need it unless you're cutting your exhaust.

There's a third way to do it and that involves cutting the mufflers off instead of unbolting them. There's pros and cons as there is to everything. The pro is that if you cut the pipe right behind the muffler, you will have retained two feet or so of pipe that would have come off if you were to unbolt it.

In this case you need to consider one thing. It's not of great importance but I felt I should mention it. If you unbolt the mufflers, the pipe in that place actually points downward just a little bit. This means if you left it like that, the gasses will escape facing down into the road.

I mean yes, they would immediately be gone anyway because you're driving but in some cases, exhaust gasses can damage components like rubber boots. Don't worry about the heat. I did speak to someone who said he drove his LS400 like that for a year with no problems.

Longer pipes add sound, if you didn't know. Personally, I don't want exhaust gasses under my car either. I'd rather they shoot out the back or sides. That's why it's a good idea to add some pipe if you remove the muffler. And if you don't cut it, it will be harder to clamp on pipe because the connector bends down like I mentioned.

If you can weld, then no problem. You probably skipped that anyway. But really consider if you want to do the clamp exhaust. If you're planning on ever getting a professional one but not for a while, I don't see why not. They'll cut it off and throw it away anyway.

I didn't mean to make half of this article about the exhaust but I was surprised that almost nobody does this. I got the idea from a professional shop that mainly works on exhaust systems. I would say that's a legit source.

LED unit for secondary interior lighting. It will be installed somewhere else, obviously.

Thanks for reading. I will inevitably post a tutorial on some of this stuff. If you have questions, suggestions, or even constructive criticism then go ahead and leave a comment. Hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving for those of us in the US.

- Rokas Kirvelis

Carporn: LS400 Edition

You should've seen this article from a mile away. Today I realized it's been a while since we looked at some porn and you gotta love the big booty on those LS400s.

This Lexus is a bit special to me. It's owned by Mike Jones who you can find on Instagram. I'm purely talking about aesthetics here and not only is his car at the top for me but it's completely drift ready and he competes in it!

I could only find old photos - check out his Instagram - @mikejones.jz

That's why his car is the top pick for me. It's unique, it looks great, oozes style, and performs! Plus I think this car runs a 2JZ instead of the normal 1UZFE so that's a bit special. I've talked to him online, he's a great guy, and hopefully he will have time one day to answer some questions for a feature on his car.

I'm stealing some of his ideas, sorry. At night, this man can turn on purple LEDs that come out of the grill, inside, and everywhere else in the car. No actual light source is visible - it eminates from the car.

I think lights can go very wrong or very right and he nailed it like nothing I've seen. Speaking of lights in weird places...

When I saw this car, I thought to myself "Those weird ideas I had for my car that I wasn't sure of, well, this guy did it and it looks bomb!" Just from what I remember without posting the picture yet, he has lights coming from behind his grill, headlight covers, and strangely, a light on his roof. That one, I thought about throwing in the back Bosuzoku style.

Tip: If you want a Bosuzoku-style siren for the back of your car, they sell them as emergency lights at Walmart. They plug into a cigarette lighter of which there is two in the back.

The siren comes orange but I believe the top literally just unscrews. All you have to do is be creative and make something in your color to replace the top and you're golden. If you can't unscrew it... Cut it off. It's plastic. You can also tint it black, just don't leave it orange!

I tried and for the life of me, I couldn't find an example on a real Japanese bosuzoku car with one of these. Sorry!

I know what you're thinking - this is an LS400 only article. Well it is. That's a $4,000 body kit.

And it really makes the car look great in yellow.

Jokes aside, this is truly a special piece of work. I found it by chance while looking at wide-body LS400s. The only thing I don't understand is why the decal on the side looks like the BMW M division logo. I guess it's just close.

I can easily let it go because I don't know who it was that managed to improve on the LS400's lines but I want to shake his hand. If you look, it has functional vents to cool the brakes and tires. It looks like it has good aerodynamics and the quality is top notch.

The body kit also makes the LS400 look like a totally different car. The design is way ahead of its time if it came out sometime in the 1990s. It makes the car look ten years newer.

What do we have here? A beautiful VIP build, of course. This article wouldn't be complete without one.

This is the style that got me into these cars and though my tastes have changed, it will always be possibly the top style if you could say that. Which I'm not saying you can. I personally have shied away from these cars but I understand what it takes to build and run one. And they always look amazing.

Hope you enjoyed this LS400 edition of Carporn.

I have a mini update as far as my personal vehicle. I noticed that lights make a big impact on the look and style of a car so I've been focusing on that. Soon I will post one of those and an article should come when I receive the other product in the mail. I appreciate you all! Here's a little peek. Mind you I have a very dark tint on my cars but at night, with the touch of a button...

Don't mind the half-asleep person pressing the button for me.

The interior lights up yellow. Bright enough to clearly see everything in the car. (That's my excuse to buy curtains!)

- Rokas Kirvelis

Instagram: rokask1

Future Plans for Driving for Broke - $5k Show Car?!

I want to make an announcement today but first I want to say a couple things. The car and this website especially led me down this road where it's becoming a career. I think I have $10 now from the ads on here! Jokes aside, this is a fledgling website and I write for free anyway. I enjoy it. Writing that is - not being broke. But if I wasn't... there would be no DFB!

That's one of the nicest Celsiors I've seen. (Opinion!)

I wanted to announce that I am writing a book that should be out. I didn't leave anything out of that sentence. My manager said I should tell you guys we have no idea. No but really, if all goes according to plan, there might be a book as early as July of 2019 or something like that.

Did you guys expect something like that?
I've excelled in language reading and writing from first grade. Taking my GED because I dropped out of school, I got a 12.9 on both English portions (one reading, one writing). What that means is that I was at least college level at that point (the score doesn't go higher) and I wrote a book by the time I was 18 years old. When I started writing it, that became my goal. To finish before I turned 19, that is.

Where is the book? I have it in electronic form. I self published and sold some. But why did I stop? Because I had certain problems at that age. The book was a completely referenced scientific book called On Accessible Narcotics. Basically, it was about 40 different things that are widely available, get you high, and a lot of these things are sold in supermarkets for other uses. I compiled the data over a long time.

But one day it hit me. I don't want to be responsible for anybody becoming addicted to drugs. I have to share this so you know my background as a writer and I will send you a pdf if you don't believe me. Just email me at norgin@gmail.com and I will send you the electronic copy. It's about 140 pages. Check if out if you want and delete it!

My writer's block after that stuck with me for 7 years or so. So that's what's going on with me. What's up with the book? It's going to be kind of like this website as far as the content except it's going to be a system to have you able to build a show car for $5,000 or less. This is my goal and I know my strength. I can hit that mark. If me and my associates don't all agree that the book is perfect, it won't come out until we all agree it's ready.

There's another side to the book. I don't like low quality garbage. If I buy a technical book meaning it's not like a fiction novel, every page should be packed with info. Well not only will it have all of the info you need but the book is being written in a way to teach YOU to work on cars. And not just a mechanic.

We will be going through how to do everything yourself so you can put your time into learning anything from upholstery to painting cars cheap but at a professional level to flipping cars. What that mean is that you can either start your own business or work for somebody. You should always try to have two sources of income (at least) so for example, you can hold down that job while doing side work like welding.

It's China, just leave them alone... *sigh*

On a personal note, I wish I would have taken welding at a technical school. It's okay because I will learn by myself when I can afford a MIG welder. They're cheap but other things are in the way right now. Just being able to do my own exhaust - which I would do today if I had a welder! For a muffler delete or a straight pipe, you will pay S250-400 minimum and for the higher price for the latter. With a S130 MIG welder, $12 grinder, and probably $40-60 worth of pipes, you can make your own exhaust in a day and keep the tools.

I used all of my intuition for this and honestly, I thought I would never ask. However, this car thing has become my whole life. I'm also putting everything I have into it. My wife agrees so she works all the time to keep us afloat. It's time. Now that I'm writing this book and have been trying to get disability for months, and especially for my wife, I ask, if you could, donate S1. S5. $0.25. If you enjoy this website at all, please help keep it going.

PayPal: chariotcarsfl@gmail.com

Patreon; Will set up soon.

Any significant donation (to me, $15 is significant) will land you a free book when it comes out!

Wait, what are you using this money for? I see your beady little eyes...
First of all, I don't have beady little eyes. This money is going to be used strictly for the website. What does that entail? I have to pay to get it to the top of Google and maybe use some for advertising. Right now the amount of people that come here daily seems to be on a slow increase. We would like a higher base of people to contribute to this increase.

One of the possibilities is having the website designed in a way where I don't have to run it like a blog. Although that is not very big issue right now. Truly, I would like to start including not only better quality photos but video as well. I would personally contribute out of my bread budget. I would like to buy a nice camera which you can get at a paw shop for $89.99 easily.

We (there's people in the background) would be able to create much better scenes. As a reader, instead of pictures, you would be able to hear the engine, get walk-around videos, and all that. This is for feature cars and the site build (Lexi II!).

Whether you donate or not, I appreciate that you even read this far. Thank you for visiting the website. Listen, we are all human. Humans sometimes get themselves into situations where they need help. Like I said, I wasn't going to do anything like this but something is telling me to ask for help. I need help but please don't send me YOUR last $10. We will succeed and bring some great content to you. In the meantime, drive safe!

PS: Today my phone broke. Yeah, on top of everything else, so I'm trying to get a new one tonight.

How to Not Build a Show Truck

 (Disclaimer: If you are easily offended at jokes, do not read. Also read the title very carefully. This is a piece on how to not build a truck. Get it?)

I was fueling myself, my wife, and my car at the gas station when I noticed a very nice Toyota show truck. I mean this thing is beautiful and built right. Today I'm going to show you how to not build one.

So here it is. This is a Toyota truck and if you didn't know, just by looking at it, neither could you tell the brand nor could you see the door handles. No really, there's no door handles so I don't know how you get in at all.

Let me just say that even with my meager understanding of building cars from the ground up (or cars at all for that matter), even I can tell you the engine bay is absolutely perfectly set up. The design looks like they never planned to have a hood on, ever. Beautiful. (I love Florida's vehicle laws.)

This truck has a whole lot going on simply because of the graphics but it's pure hot-rod and fits very well. Whoever did it, did a great job. Apparently the owner re-did it. Hmm.

Look at the suspension on this thing. To be honest, I have no idea what it is, and the owner couldn't tell me either...?

The owner who we'll call Joe said he re-did the truck and would just not tell me what the heck rear suspension that was. You could tell he loved his truck but something was out of place.

If you built that, wouldn't you be ranting and raving about how you had to adapt this and create that from scratch? All Ol' Joe could say was "It's been in magazines."

And then it hit me. He bought the truck. I also suddenly understood why he wouldn't offer up any information at all about the thing and mentioned giving me a ride in it.

He wanted money.

It's a very nice truck and congratulations to the person or people that built it. Joe, however, I don't understand. Did you buy it just to make money from it? It's so weird! There's easier ways to make money...

Anyway, I don't suppose he would take a cut of my $10/year business from the ads on this site for the juicy details so I didn't bother asking. It just looks cool. I think it's bagged but I don't know... Joe wouldn't tell me!

Glory! Me taking pictures drew a scene.

Congrats Joe, you got a feature. This was How to Not Build a Show Truck and I am...

- Rokas Kirvelis

3 Cheap Competitive Rallycross Cars

I'm sure some of you want to get into rallycross but you may feel that the cost is too much. Rallycross is also harsher on cars than autocross because the racing happens on dirt which oftentimes has some sweet jumps too. It's true that it can be pricey.

Fear not because you can buy one of these 3 cars for $500-1500. I'm going to go over them in no particular order and you can decide what you want to go for. Let's do this.

I'm probably going to be doing these for autocross and other events aswell so stay tuned.

You're gonna need a lot of these. Except dirt tires, not asphalt. It's not as much as drifting. By the way, I still need bigger rims (hint hint). 

Before we start, I want to bring up a point that may help you save money. When you have a car purely for racing at these events, you don't necessarily need to register it. However you do have to register it, pay insurance, and all that good stuff if you don't have a trailer and a vehicle to pull it with. (Unless you live next to a track.)

If you have a truck and room to put a trailer, then that's your other option. You don't need a fancy one, either. Get one with no roof, nothing, just bare bones. Just enough to be able to get your car on there. Aside from saving you some money, towing your race car will save some wear and tear on the car, too. You can buy a trailer like this for $500.

People, my dear readers, today I am going off the dome as the kids say so my specs will not be completely accurate. I'm doing this because I have experience with all of these cars and the article will flow better like this.

I know nobody expected a Neon on this list unless they were into rallycross themselves. What I'm about to say is obvious. Front wheel drive and all wheel drive cars do best on dirt because they are able to grab the most traction. Especially if they are all wheel drive which I'm referring to as AWD from now on.

Now go look on Craigslist and see what the cheapest running Neon is going for. Let me just tell you. If you just wait, you can get the one with the better DOHC engine for $5-700. The one my pops bought was $500 and it won a couple rallycross events stock (podium finish).

Also, get the two-door one. And like I said, look for one with the better motor. I believe it's 2.2l compared to the SOHC version which is 2.0l? I could easily be wrong. But get that one even if you do have to spend $1-1500. That's fair for a running car that will compete with cars you wouldn't believe.

It tears Mini Coopers apart but those aren't really rally cars. What gets me is that my pops was doing 2-3 seconds slower than a modified Subaru WRX STi which is actually impressive when you consider the cars we're discussing. This was on a 50 second track, by the way. If it was twice as long, pops would have been twice as far behind but I have to give credit where credit is due and my dad is a really good driver. So was the other guy except it was an STi versus a 1996 Dodge Neon.

(Pops, even though he's a d!ck, was killing Mini Coopers in autocross with a 1989 BMW 325iX. Autocross so this is on tarmac. The body roll was so bad owing to the high rally suspension setup that the commentator was making jokes.)

Back to the Plymouth Neon. I mean Dodge.

It performs well because it's lightweight. It's front wheel drive so if you know what you're doing, you can cut a turn slowing down more doing so but conserving inertia and taking off out of the corner.

Let's talk about weight for a second since I brought it up. Since this is strictly a project car - one to have fun in - you can and should do whatever you want or need to it. I wouldn't take out the back seat of my daily driver to save weight but I would take it right out of the rally car!

It's amazing how much weight there is just sitting in every car, not being used at ALL if you're just racing. To give you an idea, we got about 5-600lbs of stuff just out of the back of a first gen Eclipse. Yeah, that's a small car, and this was just from the back! We didn't touch the front seats or anything although we did remove the door panels.

You guys really should thank me for these tips, like the one I'm about to give you. Sell the parts you took out that are good. That $500 will be $0.

You probably guessed by the picture above that the next car I recommend is a regular Mitsubishi Lancer. Actually, if you can find a WRX STi for under $3,000, grab that instead. I know some have sold that cheap but bring a mechanic in a case like that.

With the Lancer, you have the option of a $1000 regular one which still does great in local rallycross or the STi, of which the older models have dropped pretty low in price. Whenever you're purchasing a hot item like an STi, make sure it wasn't abused too much because sometimes they have been. There are exceptions but if the owner is under 20, well, you know what you did with your cars at that age! I'm guilty.

I'm gonna focus on the normal Lancer real quick. It's pretty light (especially if you strip it), has front wheel drive, and is very nimble like I mentioned in my review of the car. It's great for rallycross, pure and simple. It has just enough power to be able to put it down on dirt without spinning the wheels like crazy instead.

Before I move on to my favorite, there's also the Ralliart edition. Maybe look into older models of those. They came with more horsepower and possibly AWD (with a name like that, it has to be AWD).

This is my favorite one on the list. Out of the three, if you compare them to horses, this is that black horse that no one can tame but if you do, it's the fastest one. How's that for an intro?!

Twice in my life, I have found turbo first generation Eclipses for $500 each. The first one was a GSX while the other was a GS. The former was the family rally car and we never bought that GS although I think that was a mistake to not do so ($500 for a no-check-engine-light-turbo car?!).

Around this time, sadly (in retrospect) I was messing around while pops was working on that car. I should have stayed around and learned. This is the message I try to pass on to younger people.

This is why I made that horse metaphor. According to pops, sometimes the car just didn't want to run right and it could be extremely frustrating at times figuring out a problem. However, he said when it ran right, it was right. And it was.

Yes, I got to drive it and yes, that was the fastest car I have been in to this day. Well no, correction - the fastest I've driven. My father would switch between 8 psi for normal driving and 16 psi for racing. This is where we were at, a race. You may have read the sad ending to this story in another article but let me say.

I don't know if it was because the car was gutted or what but it would turn on a dime, the boost came on fast and strong, and is one of my family's favorite cars.

For the price I stated and even more, a first generation Mitsubishi Eclipse GS or GSX is a wonderful car and I would recommend it to anybody. The car was also sold as an Eagle Talon and Plymouth Laser so check Craigslist for those. Most people will only search for a Mitsubishi Eclipse - good for us.

I don't have to tell you guys what to look for in a car when buying it. You know. Just don't forget to check the suspension because that's important for rally. If there's a problem, it'll get worse quick.

Any of these cars can be bought for $1,000. Any of you can save that much, I don't care how long it takes. Go get you a turbo car!

- Rokas Kirvelis

Review: 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer ES

These cars are actually available for under $3,000 now and I think that's a steal for a low mileage Lancer. The regular Lancer is one of the most comfortable and also reliable economy cars that I have driven. Looking for a daily driver? This may be it.

Look for one that has around 150k miles on the odometer. My advice is to spend more on a car that has been maintained well. You might have two Lancers that look similar with similar miles but one costs a thousand less. It could be because of the history of the car.

Of course, you want to see if it's been in any major crashes. If not, try to find out as much as you can about how it has been dealt with. You could be choosing between a car whose owner changed the oil... Sometimes... Versus one whose owner not only did scheduled maintenance but fixed other stuff too.

I think it's important that you get a good one because once you do, you will appreciate how nice of an economy car this is.

I have to say, the Lancer was pretty cheap brand new (around $16,000?) but it was a great car and some of them still are. I say some of them because, sadly, a lot of them have just been trashed.

I got to drive this car shortly after meeting my wife. My license had been suspended for two years (not cool!) so when I got it back, I became the driver because she didn't really like to drive. My first impression of the car was that it was extremely nice.

It was almost as smooth as a luxury car on the road, has good pick-up, and gets pretty good mileage in the city. In my experience, about 26 mpg city. The interior is also very ergonomic. It's not quite a Saab 900 SE but the buttons are in the right place, visibility is good, and driving the car is kinda fun.

For $16,000 sticker? Yep, nailed it.

It's fun because while it's not fast, it's 'quick' so it's fun switching between lanes. It does real good hopping in front of people in tight spaces. Even though it's a four-door, it's small and nimble. That's probably why it was picked to be the Evo.

I don't know if the oil meter wasn't working or if the car didn't have a warning at all but more than one time it was driven with like no oil. Yes, there was some, but checking the dipstick revealed that it was bone dry meaning the oil couldn't even get to it to leave traces after driving!

I know that the car drove like this for probably a good month if you put the two incidents together. It didn't even complain. It's very reliable. I mean, my wife's car just hit 110k miles and there hasn't been a problem until we parked it for a year...

The Mitsubishi Lancer is a great economy car and a great sports car in the Evolution form. It's one of my top picks for an economy car. Take it easy!