Update: I have been hanging around Steve Rupp too much. D!ck has been really patient though. I have at least two shelves full of crap, and to my knowledge, he hasn't sold any of it on ebay yet (despite his claims)

Not only have I developed a penchant for managing to acquire new parts, but I've also developed a bit of a knack for
needing new parts as well. Last year at the Costa Mesa Good Guys show, I couldn't believe that Steve had managed to wear out the 1-2 synchro in his T56 Magnum, I thought those things were bullet proof. In any case, he ended up swapping in a new one, and shelving the old one to save for Track Rat, after a rebuild. Never to be outdone though, I wore out the synchro in my Viper spec T56, and by "wore out" I mean I utterly obliterated it. Sometimes we can do nothing more than laugh about the stupid things we do, and this is one of those times. Steve probably wore his T56 out competing at Optima, or some grand event. I was driving a couple of friends around, they wanted to the car to go fast, so fast it went, all the way through second gear, and then... not quite into third, but definitely into first. The engined revved well north of 7000 rpm. I pictured valves flying ever which way, and general destruction of everything mechanical in the drivetrain. Turns out the engine survived, (we'll find out this coming weekend at the Cal Speedway), but my 1-2 synchro was gone. Back to the shop the car went. We pulled the trans and wouldn't you know, the output was wiggling around too. Scary. Anyway, in went a new T56 Magnum, with a nice usable overdrive gear (.62 puts me at 2000 rpm at 60 mph, and 2400 at 80). My clutch had also taken some abuse, so an upgrade was in order. Steve called over to Centerforce and got me a great deal on a new twin disk. Thanks Steve!
Thanks to D!ck the car is all back together now, and I'm ready to try and break something at the Hotchkis sponsored autocross at the NMRA event this weekend.
Oh, and before I forget, the car is wearing some new Anvil parts. Mike @ Musclerods rear spoiler turned out killer!
Hope to see you local guys this weekend,
Matt