Ramone Celestino...

Is my car's name. Yes, it is kind of over the top. Remember, though, my last car was Arturo Bastard. I enjoy picking out names that are ridiculous (although Arturo Bastard was picked for a very specific reason). Once I get pictures of this car posted, you will realize that the name is not nearly as flamboyant as the car itself...

I bought this car for pretty cheap. It was a mechanic's lien. The guy blew the transmission (and almost everything surrounding it)street racing. He was in the military and I guess he got shipped out before the work was done, and he never came back for it. They held on to it for a long time, and tried to get in touch with him, to no avail. They did $3500 worth of work on this car and sold it for $2000.

The good news: It has 85k miles on it. It is a '00. It has a new transmission. It has spiffy aftermarket brakes. It has a fairly new exhaust system. It has a reuseable air filter that is barely broken in. It is in beautiful condition inside and out except a couple of things.

The bad news: It has been sitting at this shop for years, only being driven to the curb outside the shop with a for sale sign in the window, hoping someone would take it off their hands. It has been baking in the NM sun. The dash is shot all to hell. There is a mysterious hole in the left taillight. It's filthy with shop dust (read oily dust) in every freakin' crevice!

( Adventures in car repair/upgrade ahead )