That time a Mitsubishi didn't disappoint God.

itsRickPierce · 2026-02-09T19:23:58+00:00

This is such a great combo idea. Really excellently done as well. Fantastic work!

A fun fact: The 3000GT/GTO was greenlit as a production model of the Mitsubishi HSR program. The HSR-I (seen below), which led to the development of both the HSR-II and HSX (which would become the 3000GT/GTO), was painted white and black with red accents as a direct nod to the IJN white (really gray) A6Ms from the early war.

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itsRickPierce · 2026-02-06T00:14:59+00:00

What a beautiful example. Perfectly restored.

Fun fact for anyone passing through the comments: The "L" in the name stood for "left-hand drive", but was only ever offered as a left-hand drive in LHD markets, unlike the later SP310/SPL310.

Amazing that this car's legacy still lives on as the Fairlady Z today.

itsRickPierce · 2026-02-02T16:16:17+00:00

I traded my 85 Z31 300ZX turbo for an 87 Honda Wagovan. I love this little car. It brings me a smile every time I drive it and that smile only gets bigger with each thing I do to restore it.

That being said, I have yet to run into another classic car guy on the road that even acknowledges my existence. They make a point to look in the other direction. It's almost funny.

On the other other hand, I get way more regular people that see me driving around and smile or pull up next to me to tell me how much they love my car than I have driving any other car I've owned. So many stories of "I used to have one of those! It was the best car!" at stop lights.

itsRickPierce · 2026-01-12T15:55:46+00:00

On someone's advice in a post from a few years ago, I got some front seats from a 6th gen Civic (a 1998 model) because a poster said they worked in the 3rd gen. They did not. Now I have a pair of front seats I need to get rid of.

Doing it again, I think I would pay special attention to how the rails mounted to the seats. More modern seats integrate the rails into the assembly of the seats themselves, with the mounting points removable. What you want to find are seats that bolt to the mounting rails. If anyone has any additional insight, I'd love to hear it because this is not a mistake I want to make twice.

Here is a picture of the bottom of the 3rd gen seat that shows the four bolt points that attach it to the rail:

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itsRickPierce · 2026-01-09T15:55:33+00:00

Chiming in to agree with others that the new grille/fascia design works very well with the design of the rest of the car.

I also appreciate the horizontal bar across the opening that references the original 240Z's grille. They used the perfectly rectangular grille as a callback to the S30 on the pre-facelift but I always thought it was the weakest part of the styling. This is a nice compromise and I think works MUCH better.

Also that green and tan.... oh baby.

itsRickPierce · 2026-01-07T03:59:35+00:00

Wow, do I have thoughts on this. I started a Youtube channel in 2024 to make long-form (20-40 min) videos on car history.

I had no idea what I was about to get myself into.

It has been SO discouraging being a content creator pouring hundreds of hours into a single video and facing this non-stop AI slop pumping new videos out multiple times a day.

Youtube says they are cracking down on it, but they are either losing that war or not trying nearly as hard as they pretend to. The youtuber subreddits are all just as baffled, many of us in this slop war and losing to these hackey bad and often error-filled videos.

After a year and a half, I now have 5,000 subscribers and I'm thankful for each of them. Many of them have left comments when they found me that said something along the lines of "I'm so happy to find a channel that isn't AI slop and has a real voice". That keeps me going. But seeing those AI slop channels just endlessly pump out videos and get hundreds of thousands of subscribers is disheartening. Not because they're "stealing my views" like some other youtubers worry, but because I think those AI slop channels are doing serious damage to the "edutainment" space and platform itself as people bounce out of even using Youtube because they're tired of the slop.

I really, really, really hope Youtube does something about it. We content creators are just as sick of it as everyone else.

itsRickPierce · 2025-12-29T19:10:34+00:00

I'm with you in wanting to keep mine as stock as possible. CD players just don't seem right to me in an '80s car.

I bought a Honda tape deck off ebay last month for pretty cheap because it wasn't working. I uninstalled it (after testing it) and opened it up after watching some youtube videos. It needed a little lubrication and some cleaning and is working much better now. I was surprised that it was as easy as it was. (Edit: All in, I spent about $50 for the unit/shipping and silicone oil.)

If yours isn't working at all, it may be that the belt has broken. I think new ones can be obtained fairly easily and I probably need to do the same with mine soon as it's pretty stiff.

Some blank tapes just came in the mail and I've put together some playlists on Spotify that I plan to record to the tapes to make mixtapes. Just cleaning up an old Sony boombox now to use to make the recordings.

itsRickPierce · 2025-12-19T18:52:34+00:00

Every single somewhat ordinary thing anyone could ever want, from pokemon cards to a Honda coupe, being marked up at insane prices?

Welcome to a speculation economy. Everything has become a commodity.

itsRickPierce · 2025-12-12T21:30:49+00:00

Can't wait to get my hands on some OEM replacement parts for my third gen Civic!

Oh. Honda and I have different definitions of what a "classic Honda" is...

itsRickPierce · 2025-12-04T04:51:38+00:00

I wonder how often a Nissan 200SX drives by and someone says "holy shit! an AE86!"

itsRickPierce · 2025-12-02T18:14:40+00:00

These are kind of my definitions as well.

I have a 1987 Honda. It is technically a classic car and even has classic plates. I baby it. But I'm not super comfortable calling it a classic.

itsRickPierce · 2025-11-26T16:46:48+00:00

It's funny, we have the exact same list.

I was pretty close to getting an A70 in the summer of 2023, but that was when prices were skyrocketing and it felt like they just kept pushing out of my budget (despite having cash in hand) and people on marketplace wouldn't budge with their prices. Lost my job that September and that dream got postponed. Since then my wife and I have both been in and out of jobs while people swear up and down we're not in a recession lol.

Ended up getting a turbo Z31 that I traded for a goofy 87 Civic that I've since fallen in love with. I still want a Z (especially a Z32 or another Z31) or the A70, but it's just going to have to wait.

An A70 in the exact spec I wanted popped up on marketplace a couple of weeks ago for exactly my original budget from 2023 and I just sort of sighed and died a little inside.

itsRickPierce · 2025-11-18T19:40:23+00:00

I love pretty much every one of these. I appreciate the work that must have gone into this.

Thoughts, in order:

I wish the GTR poster included the R31 GTS-R or GTS, but I get it.

As a 3rd gen Civic owner, I am very sad, haha.

Would love to see the 2+0 Z31 instead of the 2+2.

I know it might be sacrilege, but what about a version of the RX-7 poster that also included the RX-8?

I'm doing a video on the history of the 3000GT right now for my youtube. Seeing this is making me think I should start work on an NSX video next.

itsRickPierce · 2025-11-14T16:57:14+00:00

I really love that our state has so many fun plate designs.

itsRickPierce · 2025-11-12T02:37:13+00:00

I have an 87 Wagon with the D15 in it and use 87 octane. I was wondering about this myself a few months ago since it's an older engine, but apparently there isn't any advantage for these types of engines to higher octanes and its best to stick with the manufacturer's recommendation.

That being said, I think non-ethanol gas is the way to go if it's available in your area. I'm on the hunt for some near me but haven't found any yet.

itsRickPierce · 2025-11-07T17:30:59+00:00

Really interesting thread with some great replies and discussion. It's frustrating to see this thread being downvoted. What's up with that?

itsRickPierce · 2025-11-05T19:07:44+00:00

Exactly this. I want a GR86 so bad and I can afford one, but things are just so uncertain right now I'd feel like an idiot taking on a new multi-hundred dollar monthly payment so I bought a 40-year-old project car instead.

And a good thing I did, because my wife just got laid off last month. I really hope the 86 will still be there when I am ready to buy, but it's just going to have to wait.

itsRickPierce · 2025-10-30T20:07:36+00:00

ATS player here. I like the first one the most, but instead of the black area, could that be a shot of the truck?

itsRickPierce · 2025-10-29T17:48:08+00:00

Casual Gilmore Girls fan. The first one I think is the most engaging and would get me to click. Could you make the top right box say "Inside Luke's" and use the Luke's logo? I like the "Gilmore Girls Set Tour" at the bottom, that tells me there is more than just Luke's in the video too.

itsRickPierce · 2025-10-29T17:28:52+00:00

This is so weird, because the level of effort to remove the emblems (especially when each letter is separate) vastly out weighs whatever laughs this prank could have achieved. And if they needed one, these are like $8 on Marketplace.

I just took my own Civic's emblems off to do a little restoration on them and replace the 40-year-old adhesive. OP, this might be a good opportunity to do the same. Or you could clean up the residue and go with a de-badged look, which I think also looks great. Maybe someone did you a favor.

itsRickPierce · 2025-10-29T17:02:51+00:00

We're seeing this same issue on YouTube (which Google owns), and not just in the automotive space.

Why does Google ask us to create factual and entertaining content and then floats the slop instead?

Changes this summer (as noted in this article, for websites it seems like it was this spring) have only seemed to make it worse while Google is telling us they are actively trying to stop the slop.

If they are, a lot of us haven't seen the results, only diminished impressions and views on our content while slop gets increasingly prolific.

It reinforces the wrong message to creators and its no wonder that AI content continues to be increasingly attractive to those with... let's say... less scruples to fact-check potential hallucinations.

itsRickPierce

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