Stang70Fastback

What's funny is that most people assume (rightfully) that we only say good things about our cars because we own them. It's only when someone actually spends some time in it that they realize what we're on about. The second generation has a lot going for it. The styling is nice, yet not overstated. That means a car that doesn't necessarily look crazy futuristic, but also won't look crazy dated in the future. Our cars still look fine. They definitely don't look quite as old as other cars from the same years. The vehicles themselves are well put together. On that there is no arguing. You can ask any mechanic, any tow operator... anyone who would have any sort of intelligent, informed opinion and they will agree. There is no arguing that they are reliable. A good example of that would be how much value they hold. My shitty Civic-owning friend refused to believe my car was worth more than 1500 on KBB. He was shocked to see it listed for 4k in excellent shape. Lastly, they actually are very well appointed. It's not that all the panels fit perfectly, or that the entire interior is lined in Alcantra. However, the fit and finish isn't any worse than more modern GM vehicles (a horrible benchmark, I know.) In addition, they have quite a few features that will surprise people. When people first get in my car, half the time the first thing they say is, "Oh, leather. Nice! And two moonroofs!" to which I reply, "Yup! And heated seats, and heated mirrors, and heated wipers..." And perhaps that's what I like most about these cars. They are understated. Inconspicuous. People might not think much about them. They aren't showy or obnoxious. People don't know they are nice cars. I kind of like that.

Still running strong. Still have that 1-2 lurch, and the 2-3 delay, but since it's been like that for like 50k it's nothing I'm concerned about. It'll blow up eventually. It has to. It's actually worrisome that it's still the original tranny because I know it could go at any time, lol.

This is outdated now (I'm at 253k), but it's close: I've recently started going through the vehicle history and putting all the maintenance records into a spreadsheet. So I'm thinking I might extend this chart the other direction based on service records before I actually started keeping track of the milage. Gotta go back to Subaru and a few other places and ask for a complete history of everything they have. http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/388089_2449386117313_1331760350_32429568_418992589_n.jpg

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

I can't help but think that a Tribeca bar would be overkill for these cars. Unless you want a perfectly flat racing car... My 22mm RalliTek bar on the middle setting has eliminated a SIGNIFICANT portion of the body roll on my car... and mine is a high-riding Outback with 150,000 miles on the struts... so I can only imagine that a regular legacy could get pretty close to flat with that bar.

Seriously. When she gets around to selling it, let me know. Lol, tell her it's unsafe to drive around in a 12 year old car.

For what it's worth, while it's not good, and you risk damaging the block/warping heads/etc... it's not NECESSARILY going to do much damage as long as you're careful. How do I know this? Because our headgaskets went at 170k miles and the car was used for at least a year after this happened. The temperature gauge was regularly pinned and the car basically went through hell. Make no mistake, we planned to just replace the entire engine when we could, but when we finally brought it to the shop, everything was checked out, the heads were shipped out and nothing was warped or damaged. Now at 240k and running fine! That being said, this is NOT what you should do, lol, but if the car overheats a few times, it's no reason to believe that the whole engine is trashed. Hell, the first time it overheated the temp gauge was pinned for god knows how long.

---------> You can tell I've got a better phone, lol. http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4147/5006832142_12feea2951_z.jpg

<---- + 10,000

For what it's worth, I've been using a standard laptop drive mounted directly to the case, which is only insulated by sitting on 1/2" strips of weatherstripping under the passenger seat, and I've had no issues so far. And it's gotten down to way below freezing, and up to over 100 degrees. Though when it's really cold out I generally wait a few minutes until my car gets a bit warmer before I start up the computer, but I'm pretty sure all the components in the case are still almost as cold... ...so I've been lucky so far - no issues at all yet.

Ahhh sorry. Yea - the phone does take 30 fps video, but every time I upload it to YouTube, it gets all jittery.

Lolwut?

Here's mine! I made this quick video for another forum that had no idea what Centrafuse was, so if you want to, skip to the 2-minute mark to see how I made the screen fold into the dash. Sorry for the uber-nerdiness of the video and the constant "uhhhs." I kind of did it on the fly without really planning anything. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlV6VyBW05c]YouTube - Carputer Setup[/ame]

1998 Subaru Legacy Outback Limited with 211,000 miles, and still goin' strong! (ish)

I would be very interested, though in all honesty, it's not something I can afford atm. But I definitely would love to have that system too!

It is a very sweet front end. While 2.0 RC1 has a LOT of bugs, the majority of these will be fixed in RC2, which is due out in a matter of days. Then it should be much more stable... theoretically.

Stock XP Tablet Edition. Takes no more than 30 seconds to boot from hibernation. All you need to do! Even a cold boot is usually no more than a minute... but it's ALWAYS in hibernation, so you don't have to worry about tweaking the OS that much unless you're looking for 10 second boot times. TBH though, this is fine because I flip the switch as I get in the car, and by the time I get my seat-belt on, and the car started and out the driveway it's practically booted.

Hmmmm... that's a good point. I've still got a few inches to spare with this one. If so, there's also the M200 which is thinner but doesn't have a PCI slot.

I would have gone for that, but I needed the PCI slot. Looks like a much better solution. The M300, in person, looks like something from the early 90s - in terms of the build/plastic. Not like that's at all relevant under the seat though...

I'm probably not using the best solution. It's an M300 from http://www.mini-box.com. I chose it because I didn't feel like building my own, and it came with a riser card and slot for my PCI sound card... and it wasn't TOO expensive. I'm sure there's better options though. http://www.mini-box.com/M300-Enclosure-w-Bootable-CF-Reader_2?sc=8&category=87 Anyway, I find that with the front seat put not even all the way back, it's VERY hard to wedge your feet in enough to actually even touch the case. Wiring (and I've NEVER wired anything in a car before, so this was a first) is really easy. I just came in (for the power) from the firewall above the gas pedal, and just ran the wire under the center console and then down the side next to the seat to underneath. Very straightforward - though, again, maybe not the best option.

Well, I've got a Jetway board with a VIA 1.2 Ghz processor... and it's fine for music and stuff. I'm not sure how it would handle video. It does TERRIBLY with Quicktime but works fine with Windows Media Player. Other than that, ANYTHING will be more than fast enough, obviously. I went the fanless route in terms of the mobo (though there's still a teeny weeny fan on the case) and it doesn't ever seem to get too hot even on warm days. Haven't been able to try it out in the summer yet so this'll be the test. It's nice and quiet, though I'm sure any Mini-ITX will be quiet anyway - the fans are so small. I put mine under the passenger seat because I didn't want to sacrifice any space. Dunno how the new Legacys are but in the older ones it's very convenient because it's easy to access, and you can very simply run wires up under the center console from there. Plus it gives the computer space to not get too hot in and allows you to cool it off via the A/C if it's been sitting in a hot car all day. EDIT: Ooohhhh F1anatic... too fast for me

Well maybe we can help! What are you having trouble deciding on?

The only issues I had with 1.47 was: 1. PhoCo would crash every time Centrafuse was started (didn't matter, cause I didn't have phone set up anyway...) 2. OBD-II reader seems to not want to reconnect to ELM scanner if you turn your car off at some point without exiting Centrafuse. 1.47 was very stable... I think. I don't think you should have any issue. I THINK you can just install over 1.2... but I'm not positive. Never used the WiFi manager as I only got a WiFi card AFTER I upgraded to 2.0.

I have it up and running. I honestly don't recommend you install it until 2.0 RC2 comes out (which should be within the next few weeks.) This version is very buggy and most of the bugs will be fixed with RC2. Also, it's picky about which bluetooth dongles it works with. I still couldn't get the phone working because it wasn't compatible with my dongle, and there was a bug that wouldn't let me even enter the setup. It's a great step forward - lots of cool features - but I'd just wait for RC2... there's too many issues with RC1 as of now. Also, I posted this before I found this thread so I'll just post it here too: Alright, so, hopefully by the end of summer I'll be in possession of a younger '99 Outback which means it will be modding time. I have VERY LITTLE (read: none) experience with these types of things, so at this point I just want to know what your thoughts are on my plan. I want to re-organize the dash so as to be able to fit a 7" touch-screen for a car-pc into the mix. My plan (photo shows this) is to relocate the HVAC controls to under the cigarette lighter/ashtray, and shift the radio head-unit down about an inch. That will make enough room for me to be able to fit my screen above the radio. No more cupholders From what I know of the car, this seems to not be a VERY difficult thing to do other than actually making it look good. I know that the HVAC controls are just one set of wires that I could splice and elongate. I also know that the HVAC control box is not that long, so it should fit where I want it I think. The radio mounts would just have to be adjusted down an inch (maybe with metal strips or something... idk.) Other than that, it would just be a matter of making it look good. What do you guys think? Any suggestions? Is this a bad idea?