colonius , please report your trip and send us a postcard,
Good luck on the upgrades, at your first chance hit the RCC, smooze the nice lady and show her how insane you are, maybe she will take pity on the "insane" and try and help with some of the upgrades,
Or maybe she knows another nice lady at your next stop who can help.
looking forward to your report, post a link on this thread when you start
have fun
Rally