When in doubt, take the drive to buy the parts

To build a car, you need parts [citation needed]. And typically, car parts are expensive. It’s a great feeling to visit your brand of choice’s website, after saving up for what feels like forever, click ‘Add to Cart’ and then ‘Checkout’. A few days/weeks/months later (depending on where the parts are coming from) boxes show up at your door and then you can continue building.

Another way to buy car parts is via online marketplaces (e.g. Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, OfferUp, etc.). There are many benefits and downsides to buying parts this way. On the positive side, you can usually find some great deals or find parts that don’t exist anywhere else. On the flip side, buying parts from people IRL can be a nightmare because people can be unreliable, creepy, or just plain crazy [citation needed]. Add on the fact that you may have to take time out of your own schedule to travel and collect the parts.

This is the situation I found myself in in June of 2025. I was browsing Facebook Marketplace for Corolla parts when I came upon a listing with the following image:

I could see several suspension components from Techno Toy Tuning and I knew I’d be able to take advantage of these to improve the handling dynamics of bluesdrive monster and Juliet, especially since they are both lowered. From the image I could also tell that these suspension components were previously used on a rally car, based on the extended spring lengths and massive brakes. Although the listing was dated 25 weeks ago I felt I had nothing to lose by reaching out to the seller.

Now, allow me to go on a brief tangent about buying stuff online, specifically Facebook Marketplace. The ability to shoot off a message to a seller with “...is this still available?”, with no thought, consideration, and most importantly intention is a plague.

I implore you, if you honestly want to buy something from someone and don’t want to waste people’s time or be seen as a “tire kicker”, don’t use this feature! At least don’t use it with the default text. Take a minute, hell, take 30 seconds to change the text to something that shows intent and real interest. Personally, when I’m reaching out I at least like to include the person’s name in my message to show that I’ve actually read the ad and that I’m a human being [citation needed] who is interested in transacting with another human being. Something like “Hi Jim, I saw you’re selling blah blah blah…I’m interested in it and want to confirm it’s still for sale?” I could go on and on but I’ll finish on the idea that building cars is a community, if you want to be included and respected in the community, do more than the bare minimum. I promise it will yield good results. /rant

This brings me back to the current story. After exchanging messages, settling on a price, and organizing a time to meet, the seller gave me his address. I knew it would take me about 1.5 hours of driving to get to the seller’s location but that’s not too bad and I knew the drive would be more scenic compared to bumper to bumper traffic on an interstate. However, what the 1.5 hour drive time did open the door to is doubt. I had promised the seller that I’d meet him but now I was having doubts about the whole thing. Am I overpaying? Are the parts going to be usable? Are these parts really worth it?

In the end I decided the answers to these questions were no, hopefully, and yes and the only thing I had to lose was some time and gas. At worst, I’d come back with no car parts, the same amount of money in my wallet that I’d left with, and I’d have spent some time on a nice drive listening to music and podcasts. However, little did I know, I’d actually wind up with not just the car parts that I originally intended to buy, but even more parts from the ad, the discovery of an amazing workshop, and most importantly another connection to the car community.

About 2 hours north of NYC, in a workshop that was once a horse dressage arena, I found myself walking into the workshop of McKenna Motorsport. A gentleman named Colin was selling the AE86 parts to fund the build of his own 86 rally car. Now, I chose not to be too forward and take intruding pictures in someone else space who I just met so I only have a few photos from this initial visit. But, thankfully Colin was happy to spend time chatting and showed me around. There were several rally cars built by M-Sport as well as this BMW M3 Rally car driven by famous Irish racing driver Austin MacHale.

Finally, tucked in the corner there was an S15 drift car being rebuilt. Shout out to my friends in Clubloose.

I have every intention of coming back . Hopefully in nicer weather and next time I'll bring my son and be sure to take more photographs.