Topic: RIP Sputnik Stanza Wagon.
Some of you might remember it as a slow-poke white box that blocked your way on the track all the time, but stayed out there save a dropped exhaust pipe every now and again, two years ago.
Some of you might remember it as a rocket-fast yellow ball of awesome that blew past you... once, before breaking down AGAIN, damnit, and going back for repairs, early last year.
Some of you might even remember it as a single-gear, no-starter #404 that kept turning laps at New Hampshire despite all odds, and ALMOST succeeding at being fast AND reliable.
The car served us well but is now too dangerous to be allowed near the race track, and will serve as a warning to everyone - don't cut pieces you don't have replacements for, and don't learn to weld on anything faster than a bone-stock Cimmaron. It could maybe possibly be brought back to life but the combination of a monster engine, oversteer-prone craptastic rear suspension, and front subframe rusting in half means that the best fate for that car is to donate its go-fast bits to something safer, and, dare I say it, even more ridiculous. Watch this space for Stanza's revenge.
Celebration, I mean, um, services will be held this Wednesday evening at my temp Sputnik HQ in MD, after which the car will be promptly cut up into separate pieces with a sawzall/angle grinder. Anyone in the area who wishes to come help with disposal, say goodbye to the poor wagon, and get loaded on mojitos, is welcome to do so - drop me a line.
Hats off to the rust-spewing, axle-chewing, exhaust-dropping, 10-layers-of-paint Stanza Wagon. To steal a quote from NSF's Bob re: K-car, "I'll miss it... Like a hemorrhoid on my ass, I'll miss it".