Glasspacks = Loud

Ariel backed me out of the driveway and onto public streets yesterday. Her dad wanted to give her the privilege of the first drive. My tranny was still acting up, so she carefully drove me up and down the street and then back into the driveway. The whole time her dad was trying to get her to "step on it." He told her that, at five miles per hour, he would never know if I'd shift out of Low. Once we were back in front of the garage, they checked my tranny fluid level and her dad had to add about three pints to fill me up.

Then came the fun. Her dad took me out with Ariel's sister Victoria along for the ride. He really "stepped on it," and I responded with decent throttle response, positive shifts, and a whole lot of LOUD. With dual glasspacks mufflers (I use the term muffler loosely) there's not a lot between the explosions in my cylinders and the outside world. At idle, my blat, blat, blat is subdued, yet promises more. At higher RPMs, I deliver on that promise. Sounding like a race car, I've got a nice, nasty roar. Ariel likes it and so does her dad, but he's concerned that on the highway all my passengers are going to need earplugs. He's got my original single stock muffler exhaust system, so he's considering toning down my roar. How sad. Maybe there will be some compromise we can all agree on.

While out driving last night, Ariel's dad heard a little clunking from my front end. When he lubes my front suspension, he'll check for looseness. I hope that he doesn't find anything significantly wrong. Hopefully it's just something simple like a worn Pitman bushing.