Speed Hero

Lately that title has been a bit of a joke. Doing my best James Bond, I laid down quite the smoke screen the other night coming home from the track. Never let friends borrow your car, or perhaps you can, but I shouldn’t. My name is Quinn Howling, and I’m a Japanese car addict. I’m 26 years old and have owned 18 Corollas in only the last 5 years. Corolla’s really aren’t the only Japanese cars I’ve owned, but there my true heart.

This is my and my ladies mugs, during the build of my 4ag/4ac hybrid

This is really an introduction post, as I’ve been invited to come Join the E7 club blog. I’m not sure why I was asked, but I guess my Current E7 needs to be documented. I haven’t really been posting much on my blog about the Banana wagon, and avoiding talking about it on the forums altogether. A bit more about me? Err, well, It began North, born in the North West Territories. I don’t remember them as I spent almost my entire life living in Ontario, Canada, not California. This past February I made the pilgrimage in a free ’91 Tercel type-S to the west coast in order to get closer to the heart of JCC love.

'Dat Ass', or more commonly known as 'Pull me Over'

My car history? Varied, strong but misguided at best. Growing up from a family of mechanics, I strangely enough never got to participate, living far away from “Howling Garage”, our family garage being over 100 years old. I never got to wrench or participate, and by the time I was old enough to join in, it was gone. So here I am, living on the side of a mountain, even further away, about to start a new Howlings Garage of my own. Importing parts and cars from Japan, as well as continuing my horrible abuse of Japanese tin.

Abuse? I’m from the school of use it or lose it. Track cars is what I love and restoration projects with a focus on performance bother me, as it’s still all show and no go. Sure the car can go fast, but will it ever/often? There’s things about me, and my lifestyle that upsets and offends some people, and for most others confuses them. I live with nearly no money at all, for the most part it has to do with mental illness, but it’s grown into a way of life. You can see it in my projects and it will frustrate you, but there’s nothing, and I mean nothing, like going to a track and hearing what praise for your driving, when you’ve built it all with your own hands. Scrounging nuts like a squirrel, packing them away in a shed and waiting for all the right pieces to build something fa…..fun with almost no money at all.

Only good picture from the side, sadly before it's current 'Rake'

My current ride is an ’82 Corolla wagon; a $50 Cali car with a blown 3tc and no transmission. With some elbow grease, the standard, yet loving, help from buddies, has become one hell of an ugly 4a equipped death trap. Oh, and it’s not what you think, it’s a 4ac. LOL A full manual rack, steering column, subframe conversion from a Zenki SR5, with a 4ac that recently blew it self to pieces. Welded diff, race seats, power knuckles, spaced steering rack, and some sweet 185 r13’s gets the rear spinning, if not temporarily. Each part of the car has a story and origin, I don’t like spending money on parts, well because I don’t have any, but also, because buying parts doesn’t buy you life experience. When collecting things for free, you need to be creative, social and active. These transactions have left me with great experiences and memories.

Rake, for the leaves.

My wagon isn’t to special when you whip out the specs sheet, 60hp, decent fuel economy, and somewhat light. Yet when I get on the track, I have a blast, and sometimes outperform those who’ve got piles of debt and associated stress.

Just like all my previous cars, this wagon has ‘procedures’ to make it run right, jam it in gear past the grinding syncros, hold the ignition on the proper angle to make sure the switch makes connections, and run the manually controlled fan when your not on the highway. This is the reason there are some big changes in the works, aka, never let people drive your car. With a recently blown headgasket, it’s time to drop my 13b into the wagon. So I hope you’ll stay tuned for the progress of my E7 wagon. And thank you for taking the time to read my introduction. I’ll be sharing any E7 stuff I come across.

Here’s some links to get caught up with me from my Speed Hero Blog!

The Beginnings

All my Corolla’s so far?

The Continues

Filming: Warren (Not UK)

~ by discoquinn on October 2, 2010.