The Arrival
Woohoo! Finally, KITT made it to Florida! And it never even rained on it, either. The truck driver was incredibly nice and we chatted for a minute before he took off. It was a blazing hot afternoon, at least ninety degrees, but the Formula’s engine never heated up past the temperatures I’d been used to seeing on its dial. I took the car home right away and immediately got a barcode sticker that will let it pass freely in and out of our gated community.
“Whew” moment #1: My wife actually thought the sound of the car was okay! I had been worried she would run away screaming the minute I fired it up. As she said herself, she’s picky about irritating noises, but the car didn’t bother her at all. I did notice that the lopey rumble of the 350 TPI is much more refined after the car’s been warmed up and driven a bit. Which I should have expected—I guess I’ve been spoiled by new cars for too long.
The truck driver pointed out something interesting to me when he dropped the car off. In addition to the exhaust tips banging against the rear valance, there’s another exhaust oddity present. Apparently the exhaust line that runs up and over the rear axle is actually laying on the axle itself. Wow. This car’s exhaust system sure is a piece of work, isn’t it? I should have taken a picture while I was under there looking at it, but I had a lot on my mind—which should be obvious, if you happened to read the previous post re: the friggin’ insurance company. Anyway, the exhaust is already on my list of “things to do/fix/replace,” so it’s no great worry to me.
Also on the list: Have a look at the driver’s seat recliner. Seems like it won’t stay locked at the first one or two stops; there’s probably a toothed gear-like piece in there that needs replacement.
Ahhh…well, now I have to figure out this whole insurance mess. That should be a trip. I’m going to send an e-mail to my agent tonight and pretty much tell her that unless she calls me tomorrow and straightens out this whole circus, I’m cancelling my policy for all of my vehicles and taking my business elsewhere. I hadn’t even realized this, but I recently had it pointed out to me that the price I was quoted today to insure the Formula is MORE THAN I’M PAYING TO INSURE MY ‘98 TRANS AM. With the SAME COMPANY. Furthermore, it’s more than my wife pays for her Vibe, more than my dad pays for his Trans Am, and more than my mom pays for her ‘03 Grand Am GT1. What in God’s name is going on here? This is a fourteen year old car with 224,000 miles on the clock that’s gonna get driven maybe eight miles a week! Anyway, you can rest assured that I’ll keep you all informed of my progress right here on the Oddball Update, whether you want to be or not!
In the meantime, I’ve got a “metric fuckton” of work to do. That one-week-deadline project that ramrodded me on Friday isn’t getting any prettier, especially since I could barely concentrate today, and had to leave work early to pick up KITT. I’m planning to work on it a bit tonight, but believe it or not, I’ve got some other work to do for the office, totally unrelated to that project, that followed me home as well! Jesus H!
Well, I think I’ll chill out by jumping in KITT and going for a cruise…around the block. laughs I can’t really leave my neighborhood without insurance on the car, so I’ll have to settle for the 1-mile circle around the community. Maybe I’ll take my minidisc recorder along and lay down the car’s first sound effects sequence. After which I’ll come back and eat dinner. It sure feels weird to have the sun go down so early. It’s only 5:45 and it’s almost dark out there. Screwed up. I think Daylight Savings Time should be abolished.
Of course, since my wife is working late tonight, the “dinner theatre entertainment” is going to be Knight Rider. What else, right?
Categorized as Cars/Knight Project