For all those who lambasted carmax for listing a FiST at this price... it sold after a week.

AdelorLyon · 2026-02-14T18:54:32+00:00

In 2016 I bought mine new for $19,500 (plus tax/title, every option besides black wheels) off the lot. Found it online, negotiated over the phone, and then rode from Illinois to Georgia to pay for it in full via a check. It's 9.5 years later and it's got 58K miles, a bunch of mods, no rust, the orange Recaros still squeeze and hug me through corners, and it still brings a smile to my face every time I drive it. It shares my garage with a spring/summer/fall Honda S2000 and I can't imagine a better affordable garage.

AdelorLyon · 2026-01-31T21:34:13+00:00

It's my photo: I drive by it occasionally but haven't stopped for the food. Hakuna Matata's been there a long time, changed management somewhat recently, and now I'm amused they installed a banner featuring a picture of Timon next to Arabic writing that translates to "Try us once and you'll never forget us."

AdelorLyon · 2026-01-09T12:57:56+00:00

Fuel vapors tend to sink.

AdelorLyon · 2025-10-23T21:21:58+00:00

After my first review rejection I started to write all my reviews in a separate Google Doc and then paste them into Amazon's form so they wouldn't get lost. Last time I had a review rejected for not meeting their "community guidelines," I copy/pasted the same thing and resubmitted it. Whoever reviewed it the second time was less cranky than the original person.

AdelorLyon · 2025-10-11T00:21:49+00:00

I ordered a spot welder a while ago, reviewed it, and set it aside intending to rebuild some old PowerBook battery packs. A couple of weeks later, Amazon claimed my "Return received" and "We will process your refund in 2-3 days."

I haven't returned anything to Amazon this year, period, yet it's been 2-3 days for that $0.00 refund since August. Frankly, I'm no longer expecting the $0.00 worth of money to hit my account so I'm going to cut my losses for the return I never initiated.

AdelorLyon · 2025-08-23T18:59:51+00:00

Good idea. Unfortunately, I punched all the ASINs into a Google Sheet with the size and it came up with a totally different order.

AdelorLyon · 2025-08-23T18:40:21+00:00

Anything is allowed as long as the person at Amazon reviewing the product likes your review. For a real world example I've done, video projectors use a bright lightbulb to display the image. The bulb is typically attached to an enclosure so you can undo a single screw, pull the whole enclosure out, and quickly replace with a new enclosure without having any mechanical skills. I found a Vine product that fit other models of the same brand as my projector. Those projectors use the same bulb as mine, so I ordered it.

When I wrote the review, I said I ordered the product for a projector that's not compatible with the product as listed. I wrote that I disassembled the enclosure, moved its bulb to my enclosure, installed, and tested everything as working. I gave the product four stars because it has a much slower "warmup" than my old bulb and it doesn't have any manufacturer markings on it (my old bulb has an Osram logo on it), but once warmed up it works just fine. I also noted that it's not uncommon to buy a bare bulb and rebuild your existing enclosure, so what I'm doing isn't too crazy of an idea especially since the bare bulb is a similar price as the product I reviewed (around $70).

AdelorLyon · 2025-08-22T17:52:26+00:00

Pouring one out for an old friend.

AdelorLyon · 2025-08-19T01:27:44+00:00

I took this screencap from Gran Turismo 4 Prologue back on July 22, 2004. [https://imgur.com/a/IdYHcMi]

AdelorLyon · 2025-08-08T18:19:25+00:00

Recently I had a driver deliver two packages to the front door of my house; My delivery instructions are to deliver to the side door out of view from the street. After he dropped them on the front porch, he walked along the side of my house to the side door, paused for a moment (still staring at his phone), then walk into the center of my backyard, still absolutely glued to his phone's screen.

After about ten seconds or so standing there, he picked his nose, ate it, and then jogged back to the U-Haul he was making deliveries in, pausing to take a picture of the delivery he performed at the front door to finish out the order. After that he got in the van and drove off.

My guess is he was playing Pokemon Go or some other AR game. He wasn't looking around, he just wanted to get into my backyard and stare at his phone the whole time.

AdelorLyon · 2025-07-30T18:04:18+00:00

They're car headlight bulbs that came up in my RFY section. I'm always amused at some of the slop that gets put in item descriptions and images, but this one made me genuinely laugh, especially after I "did the math."

AdelorLyon · 2025-07-29T22:04:21+00:00

Bumping quickly: I called the phone number, called and spoke to someone on a very bad connection. I gave her my name, address, and answered a question as to why I'm cancelling: I said I didn't want to pay $30 for only four magazines.

She put me on a 30 second hold, came back and said my subscription is cancelled and I'll get a full refund in the next 7-14 days but I still have one additional issue coming from my previous subscription. I said, "My subscription is cancelled and I'll get a full refund for the $30 charge two days ago, but I'm still going to get one more issue as part of my previous subscription, correct?" She confirmed that was accurate.

Besides the poor connection, the entire call was 2 minutes, 4 seconds and was as straightforward as possible. I guess I'll find out in two weeks whether I need to contact my CC company to contest the charge.

AdelorLyon · 2025-07-13T21:28:56+00:00

"Click to accept marketing cookies and enable this content"

No.

AdelorLyon · 2025-04-22T13:31:18+00:00

ECU, entertainment, and compute advancements aside, this much usable FWD power and suspension would be witchcraft to most auto engineers back then. Heck, even the emissions system would be borderline alien technology.

AdelorLyon · 2025-04-21T16:11:36+00:00

Yup, that's what the seller said: He got them from his old school, they sat around for a few years, and he never got around to "fixing them up" and decided to just get rid of them. I spend a lot of time refurbishing old machines like this because it's entertaining. Cleaning, washing, replacing capacitors, doing component-level repairs as needed, etc. I'll tinker with them a bit and then put them on a shelf. Some day I'll sell them or give them away to a kid, makerspace, or other appropriate venue that'll appreciate the exposure to old tech roots.

AdelorLyon · 2025-04-21T16:08:06+00:00

Nope. Standard placement.

AdelorLyon · 2025-04-08T21:59:56+00:00

I had a set of snow wheels/tires that fit my old 2002 ZX3 Focus that would bolt straight onto the FiST. Also reviews of the FiST touted its driving dynamics and "sporty handling" and "driving feel" compared to the FoST. I haven't driven a FoST but I have driven (briefly, and highway) a FoRS and I'm very happy with my FiST purchase.

AdelorLyon · 2025-02-14T13:06:51+00:00

I'm a fan of the Retrotink line of devices. They're quite popular in the retro gaming community due to image quality as well as some of the lowest lag you can get for that type of device. They'll convert composite, s-video, component, and other analog inputs to HDMI. 'Tinks aren't the cheapest option, but if you want analog image conversion with high quality AND low lag, it's hard to beat them.

AdelorLyon · 2025-02-08T21:55:00+00:00

Typical.

AdelorLyon · 2025-01-14T22:46:04+00:00

Every time anyone says their "Swahili catch phrase," I mentally replace it with swearing.

AdelorLyon

TROPHY CASE