Okay......Lets talk about my 1989 Thunderbird Super Coupe.
This was my second SC out of three actually. I just remembered my 1990 also. My first was a beat to death 1988 that actually really ran decent. My third was a 1990 that was beat to death as well and I only had it for a couple of months. My 1989 though was cherry. Bone stock, Auto, Red, with black leather interior, with full options when I purchased it.
I had seen it for sale in a driveway about a month before I went to boot camp. I went and talked to the owner and he wanted $2300 for it. I had zero idea where I was going to end up, so I didn't purchase it. I finished boot camp and while on leave, I went back and low and behold it was still for sale. He even knocked $300 off. I bought it. I hung out for a couple of days in So Cal with my family, and then went straight to Phoenix. During my drive through the night, I came across an older Turbo Supra. We played the cat and mouse game for about 30 miles at triple digits. It was really fun, until my Overdrive stopped working....opps. Damn it. 1st -3rd gears were good. Ended up gingerly driving into Phoenix to the trans shop my mother owned at the time (same shop that replaced my SHO trans). They yanked the Ford AOD and had it rebuilt the next day while adding a shift kit and upgrades. I had smoked the OB band in the trans. Lesson learned.
Over the next 4 months I went crazy with mods while I trained at the school of infantry. We weren't allowed to have vehicles while we were still in school. I promptly disregarded that "suggestion". There was a do-it-yourself garage on base so I started modding the SC. I installed the larger Eaton M90 hat, pullied the car down, added the double stack intercooler, shortie headers, and full Magnaflow exhaust. It was quick for what it was, but the best bang for the buck was when I had 3.73's installed in the 8.8 IRS. That really waked the car up. I took it to the track and it went 13.4 right at 100 mph. Stock they made 210hp/315tq, and I would venture to say that car make 290ish hp/400ish tq when I was done. It had traction problems lol.
We graduated SOI and got orders to our units in the Fleet Marine Force. I was assigned to Kilo Company 3/5, so I would be staying aboard Camp Pendleton. I checked in had my orders cut, and was leaving for the sandbox within 48 hours. I had to get my will and power of attorney ready. Got those and raced home which was about a 2.5 hour drive to my grandparents to say bye and that give them the documents. I stayed a couple of hours and on my way back down to base, I stopped for a couple of hours in Azusa to say goodbye to a couple more friends. Another Marine had gone with me and we were still in our cammies because we had left work. I left Azusa and took the 57 south towards the 5 south. Along the way I came across three others cars....
One was a brand new paper plate 03 Cobra, another Supra, and what looked to be 2001 Z06 Vette. We all link up and proceed to roll the 57 south at mid triple digits all the way from Anaheim to the 5 south transition through, Tustin, Irvine, Mission Viejo, and then the marine layer/fog rolled in coming into San Juan Capistrano. I was the slowest, but I was holding my own. It was getting hard to see so I broke off, and set the cruise at 55 and watched them disappear. Somehow my buddy slept through most of this. After about a minute of cruising, I see some headlights behind me. 1 set, 2 set, 3 set, then boom gum ball machine. I knew I was effed. I woke my buddy up and said, bad news, and proceeded to pull off the freeway.
Five CHP, full felony stop, guns drawn. Like over the loud speaker, roll down the windows, turn the vehicle off, take the keys out and drop them outside the vehicle, open the door from the outside with both hands, get out of the vehicle, facing away from us, walk backs towards us, then lay flat on your stomach and put your hands behind your back. We were then cuffed and talked too. One CHP was a complete jerk (he had the right to be) all the rest were awesome. Once they figured out (our cammies) we were active duty Marines they uncuffed us and treated us really well. The shift supervisor showed up, and I explained the situation. We both had our orders, and we were shipping out within 36 hours now and he was amazing.
I should have gone to jail. PERIOD. Even though there was very little traffic at 3 am, I was knowingly and willing breaking the law and endangering others. The supervisor sent the other officers away and pulled the one that was a jerk over the side with me (since he witnessed the whole thing) and we talked. The Shift Supervisor was a Gulf War Veteran and he knew if I was arrested, I could get in even more trouble (UCMJ) of missing a movement during war time. After a very stern talking too (which didn't work because I am clearly an idiot, I will explain in a later story how I was arrested and spent 3 days in county within 36 hours of buying my RC51) they let me off with 99 in the 65. I didn't have a speedo past 130 mph IIRC so I had no idea how fast I was going. The jerk officer had me on radar because he said I was the slowest at 151 mph. I was actually kinda disappointed because I thought it would have been faster.
They let us go, and we went to Iraq. After spending a month in Baghdad, we settled south in Ad Diwaniyah. I was able to call my grandmother about a month later. She said, "You have a ticket from the CHP for a 99 in 65? Care to explain young man?" I said, "Nope, how much is it?" She said, "496 dollars". I told her to pay it.
I came back from my first deployment, had more fun with the car, and then ended up selling it one of my Marine buddies. I ended up buying my 93 SHO with the money I saved deployed, and then I got all my money taken from me from the SHO. So...yeah.