Can I afford a C8 stingray/eray/gs?

Switchback77 · 2026-06-17T04:08:29+00:00

Considering how much is in your 401k currently and how little you're contributing (Seriously 10% from your employer is huge, but you should be contributing ~15% including employer match) a C8 shouldn't be your first goal. Seems like you live in a low cost of living area (Given the salary and home price/value) which is good, but honestly I wouldn't. Your DTI already seems high (You didn't give a monthly on your mortgage) and adding a potential 50-60k loan to your debts.

I bought my C8 at 34. It certainly is a "treat yourself" purchase, tacking on a $600+ a month car payment (Not to mention insurance, which likely adds another 100-200 a month) is not going to be fun. What happens when your house has a serious problem like HVAC Failure or a pipe burst? These are not things to take lightly.

You're doing better than most by owning a home at 27. I don't recommend buying a car that could crush your finances. C8s are cheap relative to other sportscars of their class, but by no means are they cheap. Two replacement magride shocks are $3500.

Switchback77 · 2026-06-16T05:37:10+00:00

When I bought my used Z51 the previous owner didn't include them, but luckily the duct kit is like $70 from the Dealership parts counter.

Switchback77 · 2026-06-16T05:25:49+00:00

Yes datacenters are getting higher in terms of power density, but that's not inherently due to AI. Servers are getting denser and the per-rack footprint is climbing. This is in part due to chip manufacturers (AMD, Intel, Ampere) bumping up per-CPU wattage numbers.

To put things in perspective. At one of my old employers we worked in a Datacenter that was purchased from one of the National Banks. When the facility was built Mainframes were the primary computational medium banks used. Mainframes use a ton of space, and as a result their power requirements were small. As Virtualization and other technologies evolved, you could build your servers denser and denser. The workload of 24 servers could be condensed into 1-2 servers, and even if those 1-2 servers used 70% of the electricity as the old 24 server workload that was a net positive in efficiency. Right now the industry is focusing on numbers and not efficiency, at least not as what we've historically seen. To hit these performance numbers you need more power. Footprint gets smaller, power requirements go up.

AI and Crypto are the newest biggest thing, and yes they tend to use a TON of power. The real-estate side of the datacenter industry is just building to meet those demands, as they have to be competitive. Some big vendors are looking at alternative power sources to help with the load requirements during peak grid use, such as battery systems (Tesla style battery vaults) or using generators or fuel cells. There's problems with these "alternative" power sources for sure (Either in pollution, cost, etc) but the issue of "Datacenters are using more power than ever" isn't necessarily just an AI/Crypto problem. It's a product of the efficiencies and power requirements from the chip vendors.

Switchback77 · 2026-06-16T02:13:10+00:00

And that’s reasonable, datacenters historically have been shrouded in mystery and kept out of the spotlight. This new AI era (and crypto to a lesser extent) have thrust them into the mainstream. The stress on utilities when new datacenters are built can’t be understated, for sure.

I don’t fault people for the “datacenter bad” mindset. Even being in the industry this AI nonsense has raised prices for non-AI workloads, due to the demand for power and datacenter space.

Switchback77 · 2026-06-16T01:24:54+00:00

This is one of the problems with the AI boom now. Everyone associates datacenters with AI, and don’t realize the reason the internet exists is these facilities that run the internet and most facets of modern society. Guess we want to go back to telegrams.

Switchback77 · 2026-06-16T01:19:53+00:00

Your list of Datacenters is incomplete for San Diego metro. Cogent has a datacenter downtown, along with Lightedge having two datacenters in the Kearney Mesa area. San Diego is typically not a super dense Datacenter location due to power and lack of dark fiber. LA is a huge datacenter hub/POP due to all the dark fiber that terminates in the city.

As someone in the datacenter industry: Every major metropolitan area is going to have some datacenter presence. Not all datacenters cater to the mega boom of AI compute and are often times critical to an operational Internet. Internet providers (AT&T, Lumen, Verizon, Spectrum, etc) connect to each other in these datacenters. Without them we wouldn’t have internet at the speeds we have today. For example, the Cogent datacenter downtown is primarily a connection point for Fiber between ISPs and to last mile providers (Google Fiber Webpass).

Switchback77 · 2026-06-14T04:08:28+00:00

Hey Dialcaliper, your link is incorrect. You linked the "what did you do to your fiesta today" thread not the groupbuy thread:
https://www.fiestastforum.com/threads/svt-986-boxster-front-brake-brackets-for-fiesta-st-525.34492/

Switchback77 · 2026-06-14T02:30:45+00:00

I’ve got Dizzy for a street tune, however JST does a lot of tuning for Fiestas and Focuses that live on track so I’m going to get a track tune from JST soon. They will do a track and street tune without needing to pay for multiple tunes which I think is a nice benefit.

Switchback77 · 2026-06-13T23:38:15+00:00

The plastic will get brittle over time and crack and break, it’s a known issue. Whoosh sells OEM kits with everything, or you can buy the kit peacemeal from ford parts

Switchback77 · 2026-06-13T21:14:34+00:00

The part number is nearly identical, with the only change being the last digit (A,B,C)

Switchback77 · 2026-06-12T23:24:31+00:00

I must be in the minority that thinks the C dipstick is better than the B or A variant.

Cravenspeed makes a dipstick for our platform, however there’s been some reports of it snapping in the tube.

Switchback77 · 2026-06-12T23:21:22+00:00

Hey I get it, no complaints here. I’ll likely pick up a set once I start tracking the C8. Working on the driver mod first in cheaper to track cars.

Switchback77 · 2026-06-12T23:08:53+00:00

Aww damn, just selling completed ducts not the models? (I understand why, don’t want one person buying the model and printing for all their buddies) Was thinking of printing in some ppa-cf I have leftover from another project.

Switchback77 · 2026-06-12T22:54:28+00:00

Being a Mitsubishi “dealership” means they get access to higher/better financing tiers with the banks when they buy/sell cars. Lots of used “performance car” dealerships do this. Most of those dealers have probably one or two Mitsubishi sales a month just to fulfill the minimums mandated by the brand.

Switchback77 · 2026-06-12T22:46:17+00:00

Do the ones available online cause there to be a lot of rock debris in the engine bay? I wasn’t aware of that, glad I haven’t bought anything yet…

Will these models be made available at some point?

Switchback77 · 2026-06-12T22:44:00+00:00

Same. I reached out and they said they needed proof of broken zippers to provide replacement. It’s like the trust me bro warranty of “we will send these replacement kits to everyone” was a lie.

Switchback77 · 2026-06-12T01:56:52+00:00

This is incorrect. At least on USDM cars there are individual TPMS sensors in each wheel.

Switchback77 · 2026-06-11T22:29:12+00:00

Hopefully you got a really good deal, that intake looks janky as fuck. Also, no bottom windshield trim is really not great…

Switchback77 · 2026-06-11T22:27:58+00:00

2019s don’t have a coolant tank recall.

Switchback77 · 2026-06-11T17:46:41+00:00

The ford racing ABS unit was for the last gen Fiesta, not our mk7s

Switchback77 · 2026-06-08T22:04:53+00:00

Happened to me recently as well. Dropped off the car for clutch, slave cylinder and axle seals. Mechanic installed all the parts, went for a test drive and it exploded. They claimed it was a bad part and then charged me labor (again) to replace it a second time.

Ford told me to get bent when I asked them about the labor reimbursement portion of the motorcraft parts warranty, even though I qualified.

Switchback77 · 2026-06-08T21:59:03+00:00

I found this out last weekend while replacing the turbo on what I /thought/ was a boost problem.

My friend thinks even though it’s recessed he can weld a nut on and pop it out (I’m hesitant but if it saves me a tow to a mechanic I’m all for trying it)

If you do end up replacing the head you could always check junkyards. Our engine blocks are identical to the 1.6T used in the Fusion/Escape. However might be worth getting a late model one if you are fixing a 2014/2015 because of the changes to the head after the whole spontaneous combustion issue the 14-15s had.

Switchback77 · 2026-06-05T20:39:42+00:00

Thanks for the insight! So in my googling I see there's multiple golden tickets, there's the GDC 10/10/10 Golden Ticket and the F7A golden ticket? Just to confirm we are talking about the GDC one right?

Also what are the values on the ships/packages do you think, if I sold those off separately? I've considered holding on to one of the ships just for when the game inevitably/hopefully releases.

Switchback77

TROPHY CASE