Moshpit's 6AT Ultramarine FR-S: "FRanceS"

[Moshpit37]

Picked up my baby Frances from Wolfchase Scion in Cordova, TN yesterday. I'd been talking to all my local dealerships in the Little Rock, AR area for some time, even took a Raven 6AT for a test drive at North Point Toyota in NLR a few weeks ago (a car which it turns out was wrecked by the dealer I'd been working with that day only a couple days later )

What I wanted was an Argento 6AT with the standard stereo... I plan on doing a custom stereo job in the car and really didn't feel like paying for BeSpoke if I didn't have to- would rather put that money into something better, you know? So I started calling the dealerships in the Memphis, TN area on Friday, and lo-and-behold, Wolfchase had 2 6AT with standard radio on the lot, unclaimed. They weren't Argento, but Ultramarine had always been a close second choice for me, and they had one, along with a Whiteout which they had listed for roughly $800 more than the Ultramarine... we'll get to that story soon.

I made a couple more phone calls to my local dealers just to be sure they hadn't gotten any new cars in the last day or two and they all told me their next allotments wouldn't be in for at least a week, and they ALL would have BeSpoke. That's when I decided I was going to Memphis. At that point it was too late in the evening Friday to head to Tennessee, so I called the dealer, told him I'd be in in the morning, then went about preparing my end of the deal (insurance, double-checking my financing, etc...) Needless to say, I had a hard time getting to sleep.

I woke up a good hour before my alarm, got ready and went to pick up my friend who wanted to go with me. He's a big-time old-school Toyota guy and general car nut, way more so than myself. Then we hit the road to Memphis.

It took a little longer than I had anticipated with traffic and such, and we got to the dealership about an hour after they opened. Met the guy I'd been talking to on the phone and went to examine the cars. We'd seen the Ultramarine one when we pulled in, and then the Whiteout pulled around from behind the building from getting a fresh wash. Immediately we were drawn to the custom black stripe stretching from the fender vent to the back window. From a distance it looked just great.




But as we got closer we realized what a crap job the guy had done, and pointed it out to the dealer. He wasn't pleased. Needless to say I was not going to spend an extra $800 for shitty graphics and some window tint.







So my attention returned to the Ultramarine. My baby.










I wanted her. I needed her. I wasn't going home without her. The stereo head unit hadn't even been installed yet, so they brought it in to get that taken care of while we drew up the paperwork. Unfortunately, being a Saturday, everybody and their mother brought their cars in for oil changes, so we had the paperwork done long before the stereo finally got installed. Took a break to get some Qdoba for lunch while we waited, got back and waited some more, then finally, finally, the dealer comes out and asks if I'm ready to roll. "Hell YES!"

We go do the "delivery ceremony" and he shows me around the car, sync up my iPhone to the stereo, do a final walk around, and then it's time to take my baby home!





The drive home definitely could have been better. The traffic sucked, I'm still getting used to the feel of the seats (they're telling me I could stand to lose a few pounds... lol), and 40 W from Memphis to Little Rock isn't exactly the most exciting of roads. Oh, and keeping it under 4 grand to break in the motor isn't a whole lot of fun either, but I'm determined to keep this car for a long time, so I'm going to do it right. I forgot to take a picture of the odometer when we left the lot, but it read 12. Yup, only 12 miles on her when I bought it. I went from a car with over 70,000 miles to a car that hadn't gone 70,000 FEET!!! But while we were stopped on the freeway for construction, I remembered to take a couple pics:




We got back to my friends house at what photogs like to call the "golden hour" so I took these:







Then my friend says, "I can't stand it anymore, here, I've got a present for you" and goes and gets me this:


It's only 2 months old, been used a couple times in his drag car, but he got orders to Japan and wanted to see it go to a good home. I'm happy to oblige!

First day, first Mod! Looks so much better than the stock battery, don't you think?


I ended up chopping up the red positive connection cover when I got home to fit with the new battery so it's still covered.

Stock: 390 CCA


Optima Red Top: 800 CCA!!!



So now she sits under the car port (can't wait to get a house with a garage now!) waiting for morning when I can take her to church.

[Jordo!]

Did you replace the air filter too? Your air box is open.

[Moshpit37]

No, we were just looking at it. I closed it back up after I took the picture.

[Moshpit37]

This car is so much fun!!! Day 2 with Frances was a good day. Took her to church, showed her off a little to some of the guys there. Most of them had no idea what it was but they thought she looked cool. Now, in Arkansas they've got a weird thing where most of the freeways have "access roads" on either side which are one-way roads that run parallel to the freeway with on- and off-ramps to either get onto or off of the freeways and get to the businesses on the sides, usually with a speed limit of 40-45 mph. Well, to get from one side/direction to the other they usually just have intersections with over/underpasses to get across the freeway, but in North Little Rock there is one in particular that is a big elevated horseshoe-shaped one lane bridge which has a "suggested" speed limit of 15 mph, as opposed to the 40 on either side. I didn't even have to slow down at all, hardly even felt a thing as I sped around the curve! Frances was like, "hey, that was cool, but you should have gone faster."

In the afternoon I decided to go for a little Sunday drive with my friend and he pointed out some of his favorite twisty roads in the local area. The first road we got on we saw a motorcycle in the distance, red sport bike from what we could see at that time, and I kept a good pace and eventually caught up to him a few miles down the road. (I'm still doing the recommended break-in of keeping it under 4,000 RPM, as I'm only at about 300 miles now, otherwise I would have caught up a bit quicker.) We both took a right onto the next twisty road and the bike pulled off and let me go while giving the car a good stare and approving nod. My buddy noticed that it was a Ducati 999! At the next intersection the Ducati took a right as we took a left... Honestly we didn't even realize the bike had been behind us, we thought he was turning around when we passed him by. We were having so much fun in the FR-S we didn't see him sneak up behind us. A couple more stretches of twisties and then we headed back to the house for dinner. I've never, ever, never had this much fun driving a car. Can't wait 'til I hit 1k and finally get to open her up!

[Moshpit37]

Put some more miles on today. Went to the window tint shop that did such a good job my friend's car and set up an appointment for later this week. Then I filled up the gas tank and checked the fuel mileage. 31.7 mpg!!! My old HHR was only averaging 22.9. Even factoring in the price difference between regular unleaded and premium, at current gas prices I've got an increase of 2.3 miles per dollar spent!

After that I picked up some new car wash supplies and took her home for a bath before work. Work was stressful, as we had some nasty weather roll in with 3/4" hail predicted. Thankfully the hail held off and all I got were rain spots on my fresh wash job.

[Moshpit37]

[Moshpit37]

The 3 Ws: Wash, wax, and work. Spent the morning washing and getting a coat of wax on her before I had to go to work for the night.

[Moshpit37]

My friend and I took our cars up a really fun, twisty road to a mountain-top church in the Ozarks yesterday.








And these were taken when we first met up.

[maxdriver]

Don't know what it is, but I'm not crazy about ultramarine when I see the photos online. Having said that, I checked one out in person last week and it is fantastic.....

[Moshpit37]

Originally Posted by maxdriver

Don't know what it is, but I'm not crazy about ultramarine when I see the photos online. Having said that, I checked one out in person last week and it is fantastic.....

I know what you mean! I was leaning heavily towards the Argento before I got mine. Once I saw it in person all doubts were gone.

[maxdriver]

Originally Posted by Moshpit37

I know what you mean! I was leaning heavily towards the Argento before I got mine. Once I saw it in person all doubts were gone.

Your pictures are very good....again though, in person the color is stunning - enjoy!

[Moshpit37]

Today I managed to get the rear deck panel out to get the third brake light out of the way for the window tint guy. Getting that done tomorrow morning. More pics then!

[russv]

You took the name I wanted-Frances. Oh well, I'll think of another.

[Moshpit37]

Couple of HD wallpapers here: