February 2006 Vibe of the Month
Winner: Lancer (2003 Vibe)

By: Nick Simkins
Posted 02.13.2006 20:00 EDT

Page: [1]

We're pleased to introduce Lancer's 2003 Vibe to you as the February 2006 Vibe of the Month. Lancer's full write-up is below. You can also view additional photos of his Vibe. Once again for this month, Chris (Lancer) has written his own blurb for the article including his Vibe's modifications and some other interesting information.

Quoted from Lancer:

"I bought my Vibe back in March of '02. At the time I was told that mine was the first of 5 that were sold in Wisconsin. I was looking at buying a Vibe after my brother-in-law suggested it to me. I liked the looks and the fact that it was a Toyota product, and the wife and I were expecting a baby that was due the first week of April '02.

My previous car was a Geo Storm GSi. I loved that little car! Small and zoomy and it handled great! But not the right choice for starting a family. On the way to work one day the engine blew and dumped oil all over the highway. The Geo was toast with a hole in the engine block. So there I was without a vehicle with a baby due any day. Since I couldn't make it to work that day I spent it online looking for my Vibe. Turns out there was one 15min. away, so I called the wife to pick me up and go check it out. It looked really nice in the show room, all new and shiney! We talked to the salesman and told him to give me a good offer and to check my credit. I came up with $10k to put down (had to sell some stock) and 3 days later I was signing the papers to buy my first NEW car WITHOUT even a test drive!

Only a month later my wife started having contractions. We waited until they got to 2 min. apart before we decided it was time to go in. On the way to the hospital (13 min. away) her water broke. All over the front passenger seat. I wasn't upset at all and even now there's still a stain from it. It puts a smile on my face every time I see it and think that we almost had the baby in the Vibe. It's one of those stains you don't mind having. Needless to say, we got to the hospital JUST in time. My wife was only in labor for maybe 20 minutes.

After my daughter was home, I took off a month to help out and get used to being a family. That's when I found GenVibe.com and the car hasn't been the same since. First thing I got were a set of Enkei RS5 wheels with Nitto 555 tires. They looked sweet on the new Vibe. Then I started getting into little races and doing ok with most of them. I was getting hooked on the need for more performance and read how people were installing CAI in their Vibe GT's and saying how nice it sounded and added performance. And how all the Vibe base people were complaining that the Injen intake for the matrix XR wouldn't fit in our cars. So I ordered one being confident that I could make it work. That was the first write-up I did on this site. Unfortunatly for some reason, the pictures of that install were erased from my cardomain site? Everything else was still there. Once I got the CAI installed and drove it around I was hooked on the whole modding thing. I read what others have done and decided what would be best for me saved a little money and went shopping.

After the CAI came the opportunity to get some Eibach sportline springs from another member for a price I couldn't pass up. I had the help of my dad and brother installing the springs. I remember it was 90 degrees out and we're out in the heat putting new springs in the Vibe. Despite the heat, it was a good bonding experiance.

After the drop I found out that an S2000 antenna will fit my car so I picked one up at the local Toyota dealer for $15. Then I started some research for a sporty sounding and performing exhaust. I decided on a Borla axle back. I love the sound of it!

Well, then came the 20% tint all around. Then I asked the wife for $200 so I could get the Unichip. That was the best money, I think, for the performance that it's given my Vibe. I tried out Unorthodox's crank pulley and AEM's alternator pully. I loved how they performed and sounded, too. Then I got a DC Sports ceramic header for a Celica GT. Had to modify that to make it work right. When RK Sport came out with their carbon fiber roof rack covers I had to have them. I've always hated the roof rack and thought that those shoud be an option. I also got the top spoiler off of e-bay, painted to match my car for a very good price! My brother-in-law helped me install those. It was a fun but long night.

Last year I was seriously looking at getting a turbo. But with the fall-out of 2 companies that were making kits and a third was just too expensive for me I decided on going nitrous. Then I saw a TRD supercharger kit for sale on e-bay. I put in my bid for $1550 and sorta forgot about it since I wasn't expecting to get it for so low a price. So I went and did more research on different nitrous systems. I was all set at getting a ZEX kit with everything when I just happen to check my e-mail and saw that I won the supercharger! Lucky thing I had just enough saved for it.

It took me almost a month to work out the bugs with the s/c and using the Unichip. Mostly due to having to ship everthing back and forth, and that always took a week of down time for the Vibe. But it was well worth it. The Vibe runs Very strong now.

The latest endevor has been the exhaust mid-pipe. I burned up the catalytic converter racing and beating a Mustang GT a few weeks ago. All the contents of the first cat clogged the second cat so I had my mechanic gut out the first one and remove the second cat. Then I got 2 1/2" pipe straight to the stock resonator and to the Borla axle back. Got it back and found it was way too loud for me so I had him stick a straight through muffler just before the resonator. It's still loud but I should be able to get used to it. The S/C loves the new unrestricted airflow comming in and now out of the engine. The power now is just unbelievable!

This year I will be getting the new Carbon Fiber hood from JSP. Painting the cladding to match the body (silver). And adding the GM front bumper extentions. I'm in the process of refinishing my wheels since the wife likes to park too close the the curb! And they need new rubber. I maybe getting an anti-swaybar and some headrest monitors for the X-Box for the kids.

You'll definately be seeing me at the track a lot this year.

The Vibe XTREEM is ready."

Stay tuned for the future VOTM winners! Check out the Vibe of the Month Forum to find out how you may be our next winner and to discuss past, current, and future winners.

Previous winners can be found here.

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