I've done two things that I thought I'd never do in the past couple months. One was buying an iPad, the other... buying a Nissan Sentra.
Both, however... have been surprisingly incredible.
I come originally from the muddy world of Subaru (no, not NASIOC... I hate NASIOC) and rally, having owned quite a few. I still have one, a 2000 Outback - lifted on rally coilovers and probably the most bizzarely angry station wagon anyone has ever met. Affectionately named Ludwig.
Unfortunately, as Subarus do at times, Ludwig ate his headgaskets on a trip home to Tennessee from college. Likely my fault for not having the heads redecked last time I had the engine apart.
I knew that was stupid. Even better was the fact that I had to be back in Kansas to start a new job in two days. Long, really boring story short, I found myself at CarMax in Memphis, TN about 10 minutes before they closed. I needed some sort of econobox."I need to see a list of everything on the lot with a manual transmission."
"We have 13 cars with manuals on the lot."
Civic, Civic, Civic, Corolla, Sentra, Sentra, Mazda3, Mazda3, Focus, Sentra SE-R SpecV, Mazda3...
Obviously I needed to see what all this SE-R SpecV shenanigans was all about. The longer the name the cooler the car, right? Like the Subaru Impreza WRX STI Spec.C Type RA-R.
Anyway....I found myself test driving it. The gearbox was that of a proper Datsun. All clanky and such. It handled well. It was quiet. Stiff, but compliant. It would do the job. Signed papers the next morning.
It wasn't until I picked it up that I noticed the interior. This tells you how exhausted I was in shopping for a car. I was delighted at all the fancy red-stitched trimmings... reminded me of the Forester STI interior I had in another Subaru. They washed it, then brought it around, and off I went. The drive home was when I finally realized that this car was going to be more than just a way to get to work. It was going to actually be... fun.
It needed a name. And a gender. I at first thought she was a boy... of the anime-superhero cartoonish variety. But later, decided otherwise, and she was named Sora (Japanese for "sky"), which just so happened to fit in to our rally team's naming scheme. Didn't plan it that way, but hey, cool. She's a classy little lady for the most part, a bit full of herself at times, and every once in a while, mad b**** crazy. I like cars with crazy personalities. My Outback is like an angry, old, self-conflicted composer, and thus his name fits. Sora is the sky princess, and her personality fits. I probably sound a little crazy here, but that's likely because I am.
And thus, I drive a Nissan Sentra named Sora, and I love her. No mods as of yet. I plan on winter tires first, then a set of 17x7.5 Rota SVN's in bronze... shod in summer performance rubber next spring. After that, coilovers?
As you can tell from the confused nature of this post, I'm new to the Nissan scene. Tint. Oh yes, I need tint.Enough of my rambling. This is a forum. You want pictures. Pictures are awesome. So lets have them.
Might as well throw one in of my muddy buddy as well. He gets jealous of the new girl.
