Catalytic converter theft.. and glow head elements

HalfaDave wrote:Hi sosam117,
I am talking about a very rare  3cyl Suzuki, one of these:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Cultus
Legal on the road, somehow had either a turbo or super charger on it.  1liter engine I think.
Drove there, with race tires in the back, drove home with best time.
A Swiss sewing machine on steroids, compared to any thing else. Twice the rpm...
The else,
Was automotive heaven for me.
Rules? No loose objects in the car, wear a helmet, had to have legal plates.
$10 for a run at a one minute track run.
The line up to do a run, was increadible.(name a car!)
Unfair for the big block engines with only two  short straights, but they were there and awesome.
(a 74 Corvette tied the later ones)
Brake cooling was an issue. Before getting in line again.
A very well organized  event.
Everyone had fun.
I helped picking the pylons up after a great race day,
Guess how much rubber that tires leave in a hard corner.
In one day,
Dave

OK Dave,

My little 1987 Sprint was the predecessor to GM and Suzuki making a deal to make the GEO Metro and Sprint.
Originally GM imported the Suzuki Sprint. It had no name badges anywhere on the car (hood, doors, hatch)

The GEO cars had on the hood an elliptical "globe" and on the front fenders the car's name.
Now with the GEO Sprint it had a decal along the side that read "TURBO"

The GEO Metro was the high milage car like my original Sprint was.

That GEO Sprint was a fast little car!
A friend of mine like my Sprint because it was, as he put it, a nice little roller-skate (real maneuverable)
He was happy when the Turbo version came out and he went out and bought one.

And of course, about a year later or so, aftermarket manufacturers came out with hop up kits for it, and Eric bought almost all of them.
Eric had the car until I think the odometer rolled over and I think then he sold the car to a guy who wanted to race it.

Yep, I remember that "white" GEO Turbo "Sprint" car of Eric's well.
I drove it a few times with the hop up accessories and that thing was like driving a small go-cart (Fast and quick in everything!)

crankbndr wrote:You must be quite an accomplished rider! The 750 looks more my style the bottom three photos look scary to me. LOL

The 1979 GS750EN is my 1st bike.
I borrowed about $200 from my brother to be able to purchase the ComStar mag rims instead of the spoked tires.
I'm glad I was smart enough (lucky enough?) to get the mag rims and not the spokes.
Changing the tire is no big deal.
As when you change the tire on a spoked rim you have to make sure that the wheel runs true after wrestling the old tire off and installing the new tire on and then check to see the rim hasn't gotten twisted from changing the tires.
If it has, then you have to tweak the spokes to get the wheel/rim running true again.
If not done well enough, you could get a high-speed wobble from that wheel (front or back)

For the Walter Wolfe, I original purchased that bike for just over $10,000(including fees and fines.).
Had it shipped from Winsor Ontario Canada through to Detroit MI to my Suzuki dealer in Aurora.
Took me over 2 years to get a title for it, pay a fine and forfeiting my import bond for not passing EPA emissions tests.

Current selling price for that Walter Wolfe bike is going for more the $35,000 (only 100 made and mine is #32)
This is what some people call a "Gray Market" bike.

The other two bike I got into the USA easier as I had them come into the USA as "Road Race" motorcycles.
Of course, those two bikes don't have titles for running on the street.
The do have titles as "Racing Motorcycles" which look like funny looking sales receipts titles.
The RG500 Gamma as it came in from Canada cost me short of $8,000
The RGV250 cost the same as the older RG500 of lust less than $8,000 as well. (higher import duties!)

By the way, the Suzuki dealership wanted nothing to do with my Gamma motorcycles as all three were considered "Gray Market" bikes and I could not get any help or parts from them or from Suzuki of USA.
I had to get all of my parts from the Winsor dealer in Canada.

This all before the internet.

Now with the internet it has been much easier to get the correct parts for my 2-stroke bikes.

Before the internet:
When I tried to get the parts from Winsor and made sure to get the correct parts I usually had to drive there cross the bridge and drive to the Windor Suzuki dealership and order the parts.

Trying to order the parts over the phone was a hassle and hope the correct part arrives?
I have a big binder on each 2-stroke bike along with a microfiche of the bike for the correct parts and numbers.

One last thing,
I have been lucky enough to not have any crashes on my beautiful GS750EN.
But I have had my share of crashes when I was racing. Collarbone-twice, dislocated leg-once, many head concussions, broken hip, and the last is where my face shield cracked and got a good gash from it in the forehead above my eye.

Most of the earlier crashes was when I was racing in the Kawasaki GPZ550 class that Kawasaki set up to sell more of their 550 bikes.
It was similar idea to the 4-wheel version of the IROC Camaro racing. Everyone on the same bike, the bike setup the same, just the lights, turn signals and other "stuff" to make it street legal was taken off and the nuts and bolt were wired up for safety (not to come loose). It was called as a quick name: Kawasaki's "Box Stock Production" race.
And you had to use the stock muffler system.

The winner was the guy that was a better rider/racer.
My helmet of choice is a "Bell" helmet with the SNELL approval on it!

Yep!
No vehicle is immune -- not ever the beloved Wenner Mobile.
The cost I heard on the news was over $10,000 because it had to be a custom fitted.

Hey gkamyysz,

What about the "Kia Gang" car stealers here in Chicago? That's what the media has named them.
The three hoodlums (under the age of 14) have stolen more than 20 Kia vehicles (total) and all have been crashed, and the last one they stole killed a Reverend (black) who also was a retired mechanic with six kids.

The Reverend's car was flipped 4 times when the Kia gang hit it at a high speed (no cops chasing -- city stopped high speed pursuit for safety reasons -- law suits).

Now for the good news, the Kia Gang was released from police custody in less than 24 hours later to their parent/parents.
Chicago's States Attorney (Kim Fox) has not yet filed charges against the three "killers" yet?

Bad news, a wife and six kids don't have a father (a community no longer has their Reverend) and that family has lost important income, and probably they Kia Gang will be out next week, probably stealing another car?

In Kane County and Will County (Illinois) they had a work detail for "Bad Boys" who did a crime.
All I remember is that they got rid of the work details because somehow it was illegal and taking work away from legal citizens?

What they did was fill in potholes, shovel gravel on gravel roads, pick up trash along the highway.
"Road" type work.

Problem these days is with those lenient justices, they do no justice. When justice is carried out properly and swiftly, it adds a calming effect on society, nips things in the bud.

But, their pandering to the criminals and not bringing this to a halt, which should have been halted the very first time, not the umpteenth time, allowed much injustice to be done as a result.

Short of them killing a driver, my condolences to the family, which is vehicular homicide at its least, another consideration was the loss in time by the individual whose property they stole.

A time ago, it was considered that by destroying the vehicle shortened the owner's life, because it took a certain period of time for a person to be able to earn enough to afford it to include the fees and usury paid. It is as though someone took that person's life and say, hacked off a year to a couple years off the person's life.

The crime sprees we hear of now were unheard of 100 or 200 years ago. Nowadays the focus is on mercy to the criminal versus the victim, unfortunately.

In those jurisdictions, there is a good likelihood that the homeowner will be incarcerated or penalized for protecting his family's life and properties. This is why I am glad we no longer live in Southern California. It was woke 40 years ago.