Me too! Pins and needles here.

No kidding, doesn't that hotel have a computer you can use Dax? :) I just wonder what kind of sporks they tried to stick you with.

Hey... Ako iyan!

OK...so I'm back. What a freaking nighmare/adventure/Twilight Zone.

The flight was great up to BUF, MAN it's cold up there! There was snow on the ground when we landed, but none on the roads. Erik arrived with the car a little after 12PM...it was so TINY pulling up! We did the deed - transferred ownership, he cleaned it out, and handed over the keys.

I got used to the RHD thing pretty quick. Still trying to get used to the blinker and windshield wipers being reversed (look for wipers to go on when making a left hand turn). I think it's more strange feeling being a passenger in an RHD car. The engine noise is phenomenal...it's really hard to keep your foot out of the throttle. She likes high revs - the power band is up there. Cruising on the highway at around 70mph is 6,000 RPM's, but the car loves it.

Anyhow, we made it out of NY and into PA. About halfway through PA, the roads started to be covered with snow/ice/slush. Snow started falling by the time we hit OH. I was all over the place in the car...white knuckle driving to the max. Traction was only a thing of desire, and I got about 30 degrees or more sideways a few times. I decided to call it quits in Bedford Heights, OH, a little below Cleveland. We refueled and slid down the drive to the hotel behind the gas station. This was about 4PM.

In my fury about having to stop, I began unpacking the car - the largest storage space is where the folding top stores in it's down position - the trunk can hold about 1.5 shoe boxes. In my rage I yanked the duffel bag off the back shelf - it hung on a seat and ended up splitting the rear window from top to bottom. The window is VERY hazy, so I was going to polish it, but I'm just going to replace it now, hopefully tomorrow. Anyhow, I had to go buy some duct tape at the gas station and tape the window up to prevent snow from accumulating in the car. Good thing we pulled off when we did, because later we found out there was a 25 car pileup in the direction we were headed.

We checked in and asked for a non-smoking room - they put us in a smoking room. When we got in the room, the heater and TV were on - we were thinking "nice." About an hour later, a man comes into our room - he has a key and informs us this is his room. WTF? The guys at the front desk screwed up. They put us in another smoking room. This one had a nice little pile of snow in the corner by the window. We just stayed there for the night.

Next morning (Wednesday) we changed rooms again to a room that was non-smoking. The toilet constantly ran and leaked in this one, but we just ignored it. We were hoping to be on the road by noon, but the snow just kept coming. They broke the record for 24 hour snow fall - we got about 16" where I was. The drifts around the beat were about 36" tall. We broke down and bought the room for another night. I spent all day Wed helping people shovel snow and push cars. What else was I going to do to pass the time?

Finally yesterday, we got up and on the road at 7:30AM. The hardest part was getting out of the parking lot and up the uphill driveway. It took 4 attempts. Once we were on the road, things were groovy, and the roads were actually dry once we got below Columbus, OH. It was a long drive, but we made it home at 9:30PM last night. I didn't keep track of mileage on the trip because I was so focused on getting home. I think I averaged about 41 MPG though. Before going home, I stopped at a hand wash carwash and blasted all the salt/grime/crap off the car. It looks great (with the exception of the back window).

Tomorrow I'm hopefully fixing the rear window, mounting new tires, and giving it a good cleaning. Pictures and reports to follow.

*EDIT*

Oh yeah - got pulled over by a TN trooper because the temporary tag is on the front windshield and he couldn't see it. He was pissed, but let me go because I had all my ducks in order. *whew!*

Wow! What an adventure. Glad you and the Beat made it back with minimal damage. Can't wait to see the pic's. Was it hard getting used to RHD? It could make it interesting jumping between cars.

Good to hear you made it back without too many problems.

Like everyone else I am looking forward to some pictures of the car.

Woohoo! So happy to hear you didn't have to abandon the Beat in a snowbank until spring. One day you'll look back and laugh...

It wasn't too bad actually. I still hit the windshield wipers when making a left turn sometimes. What's even stranger than driving RHD is riding shotgun RHD - you just feel strange sitting on the left doing nothing.

UFO - they're calling for partly cloudy with a high of 49F tomorrow - hopefully I can get her cleaned, new tires mounted/balanced, MAYBE a new rear window, and take lots of good pictures.

Metro - someday maybe I will - for now I'm still scared to death.

I agree about riding on the left side as a passenger. Weird. Have you "fallen" into that passenger seat yet?

I lived in the RHD Cayman Islands for 3 months and I didn't realize until then that i had a habit of putting my right hand on the wheel when getting in a LHD car.

So in those RHD cars, as a passenger I found myself unconsciously reaching for that wheel expecting it to be there as I got in... and then more or less falling into the seat when my hand found nothing. :D

Nope, that hasn't happened to me yet. :)

The wife gets one side of the garage, and the Beat gets the other. I park the Beater behind the Beat, so taking the Beat to work requires moving the LHD Civic then hopping into the RHD Beat, then moving the LHD Civic back into position, then taking the RHD Beat to work. Whew!

I am glad to hear you made it home alive :)
Now, I am eagerly waiting for some mpg figures.
How big is the gas tank on that thing?

Great to hear you made it back OK. Can't wait to see the pics.

DaX -

Really scary story. What an initiation. I can't stand terror-driving like that, it wears me out.

After that, everything else should be downhill coasting for you :) .

CarloSW2

DaX
Is the Beat SG or MID compatible? If you already covered that in this thread sorry for the repeat.

Haven't covered it yet. I'm pretty sure the Beat is OBD-1, meaning it isn't SG compatible. I can more than likely hook up an MID though. Most Honda vehicles made before 1992 were OBD-0, but I believe that in Japan they were always one year model ahead - ie, you can find 1991 JDM EG Civics. Either way, the MID is compatible with OBD-0 and OBD-1 vehicles. My car has an electronic speedometer, not cable driven.

Aww man, you don't have to wory about FE too much in that tiny thing do you? At least not till you've had a chance to enjoy it as designed. I've seen single occupant SUV's burn more gas trying to park straight than you could burn in an hour if you TRIED.

I haven't posted a gaslog yet BECAUSE I have been driving it as intended for the past few days. :D I'm going to try to drive FE conscious on this tank I'm on now and we'll see how it does.

This last tank consisted of mostly highway driving (read, 5K - 6K RPM's) and some spirited driving. I got 37 MPG and change.

I would like to see numbers posted on what a Beat gets with agressive driving, otherwise it's going to feel like you are cencering your gaslog, and it's not like it's really any work to figure out your mileage, you just take the numbers that you wrote down, convert Km to miles, and you are done.

I would like to see more pics of the car. A video with spirited driving. And a review in the car review section.

All things I can work on. I downloaded more pictures today on my home computer...I'll upload them tonight.

Fair enough Ryland, I'll put it in the gaslog. :)

Here's more pictures:

https://photos-722.ak.facebook.com/ip...26722_5651.jpg
New tires - Bridgestone Potenza RE92's.

https://photos-723.ak.facebook.com/ip...26723_6323.jpg
There will be no shopping in this car for my wife - this is all the trunk space you get.

https://photos-724.ak.facebook.com/ip...26724_6779.jpg
Sort of an engine bay shot - you can see the air box anyhow...

https://photos-725.ak.facebook.com/ip...26725_7224.jpg
Under the rear bumper...

https://photos-726.ak.facebook.com/ip...26726_7705.jpg
Side graphic.

https://photos-727.ak.facebook.com/ip...26727_8110.jpg

https://photos-728.ak.facebook.com/ip...26728_8636.jpg
Pulled the airbox to expose the ITB's

https://photos-729.ak.facebook.com/ip...26729_8990.jpg
Itty bitty ITB's!

lol at that "trunk space". But I guess you don't need any trunk space with a car like that.

Uh oh:
https://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Other...spagenameZWDVW

It looks like you can fit about 3 gallons of milk in the trunk.

Nice! It has fog lights and the 120W stereo upgrades! Low mileage and it looks really clean. It looks like the top may have the same shrinkage problem mine does, and there are no pictures of the rear window, which means it probably needs attention, but you can polish them out with Meguiar's.

You should buuuuuuyyyyyyyyyy iiiiiiiiiiiitttt! :D

More Beat photos by my friend (sorry, can't host original size photos, they look better larger though!):

https://photos-209.ak.facebook.com/ip...30209_8741.jpg

https://photos-210.ak.facebook.com/ip...30210_9808.jpg

https://photos-211.ak.facebook.com/ip...630211_872.jpg

https://photos-212.ak.facebook.com/ip...30212_1930.jpg

https://photos-213.ak.facebook.com/ip...30213_2980.jpg

https://photos-226.ak.facebook.com/ip...30226_8942.jpg

https://photos-227.ak.facebook.com/ip...30227_9994.jpg

https://photos-228.ak.facebook.com/ip...30228_1049.jpg

https://photos-229.ak.facebook.com/ip...30229_2098.jpg

https://photos-230.ak.facebook.com/ip...30230_3169.jpg

Believe me I'm very tempted, but I've got to face reality, I have way to many things going on right now. If I buy a beat, my S600 will never get finished. Maybe in a year or two I will give it some serious consideration. I was thinking S2K as my next car purchase, but a Beat is seeming cooler now.

congrats DaX, looks great! is that rear window zipped in or stitched? i replaced the one on my dads bmw, but it zipped in. the stitched in ones are tough, i guess you'd have to pay someone.

Out of curiosity was this re-painted at some point? Looks like inside the rear fenders there is some overspray or is that just painted metal that is dirty from road grime?

If you don't mind telling. What was the total cost to purchase besides the actual price of the car. I'm curious about the fees, titling, etc.

Painted metal that is dirty. I have yet to go through the car and clean all the salt off really good. There are some spots where there has been touch-up paint used.

All fees/titling/etc were included in the sale price of the vehicle ($7,500). I did give him an additional $15 for the 10 day temporary tag so I could drive it home. If you're talking total cost including our unexpected two day layover in Ohio, well then, add a few hundred dollars onto that price. :)

I was just curious about titling fees etc. Thanks

Are you able to get a video clip of it? I would like to know what it sounds like.

I'll try to do that today. Uh, may not be much to look at, because I'll have to drive and can't hold the camera, haha.

You asked for it, you got it. Please excuse the jerkiness - it's hard to drive and film (steadily, at least) at the same time. :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRh-QtoPG0I

Aaagh! The suspense is killing me!

I know, I keep checking to see if the video has loaded yet and get the message.

"The video you have requested is not available.

If you have recently uploaded this video, you may need to wait a few minutes for the video to process."

It's working now...:)

Awesome awesome awesome.

My 3 banger sure doesn't sound like that (and not just because I never rev it above 3k rpm :D)

That looks like a blast to drive and sounds amazing.