BUDGET RACE CAR

Author: Justin Dunn

STORY 3: My Current Plans for Mitzi

I bought Mitzi originally as a Daily Driver. In 2012 when the motor locked up, I really wanted to get back to daily driving it. At the time I was also driving the 1990 Nissan 240sx I bought as a stunt car. So, I was in no immediate hurry to get her running. I wanted to do it right. Mitzi was always a fun car but never the fastest. I barely ever lost a race but I really wasn’t challenging actually fast cars.

All my plans changed when the 240sx got totaled. I was driving to school and a lady pulled right out in front of me. With the insurance money I knew it was time to get myself a tool and something reliable. I needed something to go pick up Suzie and now to haul around Mitzi. I decided it was time to buy my first Truck. So, I bought Silvia the Silverado.

That was the moment that Mitzi was no longer a priority and just a desire. In 2013, I bought my first house. I put Mitzi on the side of the house with the plans to do a full budget build and video the process. It wasn’t until 2017 I was able to start working on her. I pulled her out from the weeds and made a video about it.

I started recording everything I did with her. I got the engine out and send the block out. I was very excited to get her running again. I made big plans to get the engine done and the car running so I could take it the track and do a quarter mile pass. I have never been able to take a car to the drag strip before. I know it wouldn’t be perfect but that to me was the best part.

It was around this time that Cleetus McFarland started doing the Cleetus N’ Cars. I went to the first event in April of 2017 and knew it was the perfect place to debut the car. It would be the perfect kickoff to my YouTube Channel. Cleetus as an event scheduled for November 12, 2017. That was my deadline.

I would go to Scotties Racing Technology to check on the engine block weekly. Every week he would tell me it would be two more weeks. After about 6 months. I was able to start on the build. I was able to get the engine back together with stock parts. I kept working on it and videoing the process.

Over the progression of the rebuild my attention to recording the process would dwindle. It was so difficult to keep the Canon Camera on and recording. If it wasn’t the fact that the camera just stops recording it would be a full memory card or dead battery. Over time I was able to get a 256GB SD card and then a wall outlet power connection to eliminate half the shut downs.

It was a race against time. Once November hit, I was working on it every chance I could. The week right before the event I was able to get the engine full together. I only had 50 to 60 things left to do. I got the engine and transmission in the car the night before. I was so close. Vincent S also believed I could get it done intime and came over and stayed with till 2am putting the turbo together and a bunch of odds and ends.

The next day I work up and worked on the engine some more. The event started in just a few hours and was still 2 hours away. So, I loaded everything up. I had the idea that I would be able to work on it at the event and get it running. Once I finally got on the road it was clear. I was stressed. I figured the only thing I could do now is practice trailering this car and all my tools to see what it is like.

I got to the event and just enjoy it. I didn’t try to finish the car. Even if I got it running, I would still need to break the engine in and make sure it was all working before I take it down the track. I recorded burnouts and the fun of the evening. I was a little let down with myself.

I got home and unloaded everything. I put the car back in the garage. I started going over the footage and realized I have about 5 to 10 possible videos out of it. All of my hard drives were maxed out. I was just barely able to transfer the files up to this point. So, I decided I would work on the videos some before going back on the build.

I worked on the videos pretty hard for in 2018. I got the first video done and published on Christmas eve of 2018. It got pretty good attention from my perspective. It got 2,000 views in about 200 days. I was impressed. In 2019, Life started to take a toll. I was working a new job and driving a lot. Responsibilities in life started to add up.

I was starting to have issues working on the videos. It would be months before I could get any real work done on the videos. When I was working on the videos I was struggling with random delays. My computer was slow. I was also struggling with hard drives and storing all the data. It was really stressing me out not getting anything done.

With videos you plan to make for a large audience of viewer. You are going to make mistakes. You have to make the video and review it. Then fix the mistakes. Then make it more exciting here and there. Till one day you find the right formula and way to tell the story. It wasn’t until 2020 till I was able to finish more videos. I knew I would need to post them regularly to keep up the traffic to the channel. So, I waited then I got multiple videos close to being done to upload them.

In March of 2020, I decided I needed a place to work on the videos more regularly. So, I bought the canvas for a Livable Mobile Studio, a retired School Bus! It was at this moment I had way more responsibilities than time in the day. With the hopes of finishing the Bus to then work on the videos I focused all my attention on tearing the bus down to build it.

At that point I had a few videos to finish for Mitzi and now have videos to make for France the Freightliner Bus. Keep in mind I’m also married. I’m also driving 400 miles a week and counting. At the end of 2020 I bought a property and more time taken away and more video footage adding up. At the property I had no space cleared for Mitzi so it was still stored at my Dad’s house.

It wasn’t until we started renting a house till I got out the later videos. By then the video quality was minimal. I decided to re-do the voice overs and try to tell the story better. Since then, I have bought Nadia, a 1991 Toyota Supra Non-Turbo Automatic, and Betty a 2020 BMW M340i Turbo Automatic. So, I no longer need a classic or fast car.

I do still need a beater… Or a better titled as a Track car. I want Mitzi to be a car that I trailer to a location and drive hard. Something I don’t need to be street legal. Something I can drive as hard as possible and not fear ruining. With that said, I miss driving it on the street. I miss having a manual car I can take corners in and chirp tires.

I need to not get ahead of myself. I need to just focus on what is obtainable. That would be getting Mitzi running again and go from there. Soon after that get the 16g turbo putting out more boost. Which would mean finally tuning the Black Box 1998 Ecu with ECUFlash. I got everything I needed to tune it in 2012 and the engine locked up.

I am a tech guy. Some may say a geek or nerd. To me it comes naturally. I love everything technology and that can mean digital or mechanical analog. Life is all about working smarter not harder. I have wanted to tune engine computers since I knew what fuel injection was. Really, I have wanted to tune Carburetors since I knew what a car was.

To answer the question, what are my plans for Mitzi is a loaded answer. I still have too many irons in the fire to do anything on her right away. As she sits the problems magnify and the next real new video of her will probably be a “Abandon Vehicle” video. I first need to focus my energy on getting more revenue into my business that doesn’t require me to drive 500miles and 15+ hours a week.

I will keep posting more information on my progress and I will need to post the latest video I have added voice overs and music to. I plan to post it in the first week of 2025. Then post the videos about the Supra. All while posting videos about the bus progress. I have learned a lot about video editing and storying telling over the past few years. This is only the beginning of my progress on my cars.