Midwest Wisemen?

[FORMONTOYA]

Aww, come-on now...I cut my teeth on gold chains, sporting a mullet and driving an F-body.

 

[twicks69]

I would have to agree that's it's mostly dude to the fact of having the Normal, IL plant nearby which most likely influenced all the gear heads around the Midwest to get into DSMs thus developing the majority of the knowledgeable and experienced DSM gurus in the midwest!

tada ..

I think it is more related to the fact that AWD is nice in snow, and its turbo-charged with good style and CHEAP. The mechanics thing just happened when all the DSM owners broke their stuff and couldn't pay to fix it, they started wrenching and turned into these professional mechanics that you all know and see today.

Heck, I bought my DSM originally as a WINTER car so I could drive my Mazda RX-7 in the summer. . I ended up having to sell the RX-7 to pay for transmissions in my Eclipse....

There is just something about driving a DSM AWD with snow tires and turbo with cool air that makes me smile and know that I am enjoying winter to the fullest! That snow crap is good for nothing else than having fun driving in it. I purposely took a 4-hour "spirited" drive in a complete white-out blizzard just because it was perfect weather for my GVR4 with Hakkapellitta RSi's to be tested. I had a shiteating grin the entire time as it was the most fun I had the entire year!

Heck, if it wasn't for my DSM breaking so much, costing me my RX-7, I would have sticked to Rotaries and Toyotas because they were fun and reliable. But because of it breaking so much, it has given me the opportunity to learn so much about this stuff and throw all of my money into it instead of a more realistic, positive-return investment.

Still, I can remember the first ride I had in an AWD-turbo 4-banger (modified 1989 Isuzu Impulse AWD Turbo, powered by Lotus), and my first AWD GVR4 (modified 1991 GVR4 on Hakkapelliitta Q's) ridealong -- they were FUN!!! I had never felt the thrust of a car like when doing an AWD launch. From there on, I wanted to drive my very own AWD turbo vehicle. Now I do! When it isn't broken.

 

[delta448]

Not that our wisemen aren't deserving of their titles, they certainly are, but maybe the reason there's so many in the midwest is because they don't have other distractions to pull them away from this site as much as some. Not that I'm so much different, other than being a non-wise-man. I'm seriously and quite hopelessly addicted to this site, much more than most. But the site is the main point, to be a wiseman here you really have to prove yourself to be both knowledgable and helpful to other members.

There are however some very knowledgable members on this site that have either no reputation or very little. Nate S. (red91gst) comes to mind...

It probably doesn't hurt that a lot of them know each other out there in the real world too. When you learn from someone who knows their stuff, you tend to learn it better. Also, a couple of smart fellows who become friends can help each other learn way faster and more extensively than one smart fellow can on his own.

I wish I had a mentor like that...

 

[99gst_racer]

Should we make a "Wiseman" Map to see overall regional concentrations? Fun, but will likely prove the Midwest with the highest density.

Neat idea. Give me a few minutes...

 

[99gst_racer]

Here's the map I came up with. I only included active Mods and Wisemen.
Naturally, Wisemen are in red and Moderators in green.

 

[twicks69]

Here's the map I came up with. I only included active Mods and Wisemen.
Naturally, Wisemen are in red and Moderators in green.

Sweetness! I like it!

Now, we can do it for the entire site... -- really, I am just kidding. But there is a way to do it though. using ClustrMaps added onto the main site, it will show the location of the people tagging the site by their IP's, but I don't know if it is possible for "members" vs. everyone that comes to the site.

<a href="http://www4.clustrmaps.com/counter/maps.php?url=http://www.dsmtuners.com" id="clustrMapsLink"><img src="http://www4.clustrmaps.com/counter/index2.php?url=http://www.dsmtuners.com" style="border:0px;" alt="Locations of visitors to this page" title="Locations of visitors to this page" id="clustrMapsImg" onerror="this.onerror=null; this.src='http://www2.clustrmaps.com/images/clustrmaps-back-soon.jpg'; document.getElementById('clustrMapsLink').href='http://www2.clustrmaps.com';" />
</a>

 

[FORMONTOYA]

For some reason I thought there would be more active mods and wise-asses than what's showing up.

 

[Boost92awd]

^^^ I was thinking the same thing.

 

[99gst_racer]

For some reason I thought there would be more active mods and wise-asses than what's showing up.

There's only about 4-5 un-active Moderators, but almost 30 un-active Wisemen, and a few Canadians that didn't land on the map as well.

Maybe a Wiseman clean-up is in order....?

 

[Locke]

The high number of midwestern Wiseman and Mod's may be due to emissions laws and tests, which are lax, allowing us more freedom to do things. Where I live, there is no testing or inspection at all, and I believe it is similar for most (if not all) of Michigan as well.

Here's the map I came up with. I only included active Mods and Wisemen.
Naturally, Wisemen are in red and Moderators in green.

Nice job, very interesting.

 

[Zmann42087]

The high number of midwestern Wiseman and Mod's may be due to emissions laws and tests, which are lax, allowing us more freedom to do things. Where I live, there is no testing or inspection at all, and I believe it is similar for most (if not all) of Michigan as well.

Don't know if thats a reason, but at the very least its a nice perk. No emissions check in my area either although I do believe there is some testing up in Chicago.

Midwest FTW!!

 

[Boost92awd]

Yeah I'v never had to take emissions. Some countys in wisconsin do and some dont. But even if you do live in a county that you need to take emissions you can say its stored in a county that dosent need to take emissions. They just passed a law for us that any OBD I car does not have to take emissions.

 

[FORMONTOYA]

Yea, I guess testing does help me out, or lack of. Even though Houston has the "sniffer" test (OBD2), where I take mine to, the rollers are on an inclined ramp type of thing and the Eclipse is too low to get up on it. So all they have ever done is OBD hookups and visuals, but not the "sniffer" test. I've always passed.

And now I feel lonely being the only dot down south.

 

[steve]

I don't think emissions testing has anything to do with it. We've had testing the whole time I've owned the GSX up until they exempted the OBD I cars in the past couple of years. Value and performance had a lot more to do with it all the way back to day one when the cars were introduced.

We always had a strong community in the Midwest and the Philly area in the East. I think if you map all the people active or not you'll see the clusters that the moderators and wisemen are drawn from.

 

[GsXdSmKingGsX]

Here's the map I came up with. I only included active Mods and Wisemen.
Naturally, Wisemen are in red and Moderators in green.

Who is the one in Minnesota?

 

[99gst_racer]

Who is the one in Minnesota?

View Profile: luv2rallye - DSMtuners.com

 

[Lofty]

Lol wow this is an awesomely old thread.
Ps, I found out where the dresser plant is.. I go by it every day to go to work, and I believe I've seen a 1g in someones driveway over there. Maybe.

 

[MrBoxx]

You know where all the wisemen are? Michigan. Thats one thing I've noticed over the years.. it seems like all the wise guys are in and around motor city. dave99GST, project_tsi, blackGSX2g, 99GST_racer, and the list goes on...

I always get left out. Originally from Michigan, then I moved to Milwaukee, in the region where there are a million Wisemen and Mods, then back to Michigan, the unofficial capitol of Wisemen and Mods.

Total number of Site Leaders I've met in person: 2.

 

[Zmann42087]

I always get left out. Originally from Michigan, then I moved to Milwaukee, in the region where there are a million Wisemen and Mods, then back to Michigan, the unofficial capitol of Wisemen and Mods.

Total number of Site Leaders I've met in person: 2.

Hey, I said the list goes on!

Seriously though, I thought I was forgetting somebody. Sorry, Boxx.