The life & times of an ascMcLaren

[Sandy]

Our fictional ascMcLaren was originally bought by a male, about age 33. He drove the car April to October and then stored it. Within 4 years, with his wife of 5 years a baby has been born. "Mom" wants a Dodge Minivan and the McLaren just isn't practical, & Dad NEEDS a BMW so his standing at work will not be tarnished, and people will admire him,even tho he really wanted a 303 horsepower Pontiac Grand Prix GXP. So...The McLaren hits the local Sunday paper, and he gets calls from 7 guys who are on the way over to "take a look" ~
The oldest one is 19. All need Mom's approval and Dad's $$$ help to buy and all get a thumbs down from an ultra conservative Mom.
Eventually the non wanted, soon to be homeless ascMcLaren hits hell's-hole for used cars: e-bay. Some brisk bidding brings a sale of 45% less than owner had hoped for.
Our make-believe ascMcLaren fades away, for about 2 years.
2-years later, our dearly beloved, near perfect ascMcLaren reappears on e-bay, again for sale as college tuition has come-a-begging.
So......
Here she be, on e-bay. She's only added 5,533 miles on herself - but...
Her front air dam is 1/2 missing, and what remains is busted.
Her original wheels are gone, along with tires. She's on 20" tires & rims and they stick out 8 inches w-i-d-e-r than the car's body. The tires are wearing 50 pounds of brushed on Maple Syrup-like "shine" ~
The top is cut, and wears mystic tape to cover the cut, that was made to steal the aftermarket CryCo Stereo - and there is now No radio in the car, but....have no fear, the Jensen AccuSound 10" speakers ARE left behind, in their 10 inch cut ins located in the door panel, that has been cut to accommodate them.
Somehow the tailamp covers from ascMcLaren have vanished, and nobody knows a thing about them, and there are holes in the two compartments behind the front seats with unknown wires that seemingly go nowhere located inside! There is a large section of padded dash that has been cut out to house cool looking additional gauges, such as temperature of the tailpipes and water temperature of the windshield washer solution and other such information, pertenant to the driver, but, they are not working as his friend was supposed to come over & hook 'em up, and he went into the Army. The Air conditioning don't work, but "it probably just needs freon" 'cause it was working before" and of course, the steering wheel has been changed to a 3 spoke with rainbow colors wrapped in vinyl covering.
Side Ground Effects? "Oh, 'ya I think they are in the basement. I'll have to take a look. One got busted, when this kid at school got pissey faced when he tought I was after his girl, and kicked it, so, I took the other one off. Last time I saw them, they were in the garage under Dad's wheelbarrow.

Such is the life of an ascMcLaren......

[shelbyscarab]

I know Sandy, thats the way it goes so many times unfortunately.

Our cars (well not yours) are going for so little money that ol' billy bob from hicksville that wants a racer but likes the look of an ASC can pick one up dirt cheap and ruin it even worse if not totalling it. TOO accessible.

I remember coming upon a silver '86 ASC vert with the full ground effects back in '94 when I was dating a girl in an area I'd never been to. It was for sale at "Ed's Car Lot", you know the type. The only things about it were that it had the 'hood' rim/wheel combo and it had been "stereoized" by some hack. I tried to buy it, but didn't have the funds I do now. so, no sale.....wonder what happened to it.

[svo413]

Wow, that really sums it up. I know when I was 18, I would have bought every stick on gaget and put it on my car. Fortunately, my spending money was gone after filling the gas tank and doing minor repairs.

These days. I prefer the stock look and maybe some not so obvious mods. I was beginning to think I didn't have the creative eye to envision the outcome to be something I liked after the mods. Maybe I gained some common sense instead.

I think I was lucky. From what I can tell, the first or second owner was a female in her 30s to 40s and sold it about the time she got divorced. The next owner was an older gent about 75-80 and I bought it from him. I think he was tring to sell it for as many years as he enjoyed it. Funny thing is, he was considering doing some wild mods to it but decided to sell it instead. I got one complete car that was well used and failrly well maintained. It's still a work in progress but looks and drives nice.

[mandra]

Geez Sandy that car sounds pretty nice.

Try my white one the 1 of 9 86 was used as a autocross car and somewhere lost its stipes and gained a Iron Maidon sticker in place.

The engine may have had an oil change at some point back in the 80's

Somewhere the interior was completely ripped out. But someone found some blue rear panels and some grey parts. I have a red seat belt and a blue one. So now the car is all American with the red/white/blue theme.

Headlight/Tailight covers? None here
Ground effects? Zippo

Oh and someone liked the white color so much they painted everything with what looks like Krylon white on the car including the headlight trim the rear wing the moldings the windshield molding and yes even the wipers.

Soon after I got the car I replaced all unboltable white "additions" and replaced them with good stock parts. The car thanked me by emptying its trans fluid all over my driveway.

I changed the plugs the other day. When I went to twist the boot to take it off the first plug the plug turned with the boot. I then proceeded to remove every plug by hand. How thoughtful of the last "Mechanic" to make it so easy for me. The wires laying right on the headers made sure I replaced those too.

I think the car you describe was treated better

[Sandy]

Well.....'ya know, I didn't wanna OVER do it!

[BRYAN ROGERS]

C"mon......

You know the 10" woofers go much better when hacked into the plastic rear wall that seperates the top compartent from the drivers compartement.

[03Mach1]

Ok guys this is all starting to make me a little sick. Can't stand it when people don't take care of their cars. Coming from a guy who loves to keep things stock and as original as possible, I would rescue every mclaren on ebay if only my wife would approve.

Bryan your killing me with the subs.....

[negusm]

My doors and door panels were hacked 5 ways from sunday for speakers.

Tweeters hacked into the door at the top center and a 6 incher hacked in at the lower front and covered with SHAG carpetting. Ugh.

-Mike

[BRYAN ROGERS]

Was is PORNO RED shag

I used to be in the car audio biz for 7 years.

I've seen some really bad stuff in my day.

[BRYAN ROGERS]

I just noticed something interesting.....

I'm strippping the paint off of my top cover and I took a pic. I didn't notice this until I went to post the pic, but under the applique that should be there someone scratched the F word into the paint........

I know the bozo who had the car before me didn't have the applique off when he had the crappy paint job (which I am currrently removing) applied becuase there was overspray on the applique.

This must've been from one of the workers at ASC. It's upside down in the pic.

[03Mach1]

Sweet I see the f-word there. must have been an angry worker who just got chastised for using liquid nails to apply the applique

[BRYAN ROGERS]

When I worked @ Saleen in '97 someone had used the letter dies to punch the F word and the appropriate follow up of YOU into one of the floor tiles.

We used the letter dies to stamp the rear axle with the new gear ratio.

I was unlucky enough to find it so of course they blamed me. I was thinking "F YOU" the whole time as they made me pull up the tile and replace it.

I wonder if the "artist" ever considered that someone would be viewing his "creative genius" 19 years later.......

Oh well, I'll be re-installing the newly re-covered applique before it's all done so no biggie.

[87ASC]

Our fictional ascMcLaren was originally bought by a male, about age 33. He drove the car April to October and then stored it. Within 4 years, with his wife of 5 years a baby has been born. "Mom" wants a Dodge Minivan and the McLaren just isn't practical, & Dad NEEDS a BMW so his standing at work will not be tarnished, and people will admire him,even tho he really wanted a 303 horsepower Pontiac Grand Prix GXP. So...The McLaren hits the local Sunday paper, and he gets calls from 7 guys who are on the way over to "take a look" ~
The oldest one is 19. All need Mom's approval and Dad's $$$ help to buy and all get a thumbs down from an ultra conservative Mom.
Eventually the non wanted, soon to be homeless ascMcLaren hits hell's-hole for used cars: e-bay. Some brisk bidding brings a sale of 45% less than owner had hoped for.
Our make-believe ascMcLaren fades away, for about 2 years.
2-years later, our dearly beloved, near perfect ascMcLaren reappears on e-bay, again for sale as college tuition has come-a-begging.
So......
Here she be, on e-bay. She's only added 5,533 miles on herself - but...
Her front air dam is 1/2 missing, and what remains is busted.
Her original wheels are gone, along with tires. She's on 20" tires & rims and they stick out 8 inches w-i-d-e-r than the car's body. The tires are wearing 50 pounds of brushed on Maple Syrup-like "shine" ~
The top is cut, and wears mystic tape to cover the cut, that was made to steal the aftermarket CryCo Stereo - and there is now No radio in the car, but....have no fear, the Jensen AccuSound 10" speakers ARE left behind, in their 10 inch cut ins located in the door panel, that has been cut to accommodate them.
Somehow the tailamp covers from ascMcLaren have vanished, and nobody knows a thing about them, and there are holes in the two compartments behind the front seats with unknown wires that seemingly go nowhere located inside! There is a large section of padded dash that has been cut out to house cool looking additional gauges, such as temperature of the tailpipes and water temperature of the windshield washer solution and other such information, pertenant to the driver, but, they are not working as his friend was supposed to come over & hook 'em up, and he went into the Army. The Air conditioning don't work, but "it probably just needs freon" 'cause it was working before" and of course, the steering wheel has been changed to a 3 spoke with rainbow colors wrapped in vinyl covering.
Side Ground Effects? "Oh, 'ya I think they are in the basement. I'll have to take a look. One got busted, when this kid at school got pissey faced when he tought I was after his girl, and kicked it, so, I took the other one off. Last time I saw them, they were in the garage under Dad's wheelbarrow.

Such is the life of an ascMcLaren......

That's why I am restoring mine .
Donovan.

[ponydude]

Makes me feel really good about mine.

[Sandy]

I cannot repeat in print the "What" that you all are gonna want to know after reading this.

Years ago I was on a site devoted to car I liked. It was a 1977 Pontiac CanAm -if any of you recall. If not, Google Pontiac Can AM
and it will take you to one or more of their pictorial sites.

Regardless, the cars were made up by the accepted "Father of the GTO" and an advertising
Guru. These cars had a ubique aftermarket rear spoiler, that was installed at the conversion center, prior to
shipment to the dealer. A guy was restoring one (they are highly collectible - today) and had to remove his rear spoiler. Underneath, PAINTED
freehand was a really horrible S E N T E N C E, that was Anti Racial and Anti Religious.
It was carefully printed on the white car's paint, using a fat tipped black magic marker, and the glue was then smeared around the
perimeter of the sentence. Pretty discusting.